Third Circuit Says Data Breach Plaintiffs Lack Standing Absent Misuse of Data — Reilly v. Ceridian
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Reilly v. Ceridian Corp, 11-1738 (3rd Cir. Dec. 12, 2011) Ceridian is a payroll processing firm. Reilly and Pluemacher were employees of a law firm that was a Ceridian customer. In December 2009, Ceridian suffered a…
Egregious/Overreaching Ex Parte Orders for Rightsowners Keep Coming — Deckers and Richemont
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani, with comments from Eric] Deckers v. Liyanghua, 11-cv-07970 (N.D. Ill.; Dec. 15, 2011) (report and recommendation) Deckers proceeds against a slew of domain names in Illinois. The case was originally sealed, but in granting a preliminary…
An Update on PhoneDog v. Kravitz, the Employee Twitter Account Case
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] PhoneDog v. Kravitz, No. C 11-03474 MEJ (N.D. Cal.) (Amended Complaint) (Motion to Dismiss) (PhoneDog Opposition) (Kravitz’s Reply) In November, the court allowed PhoneDog’s claims against Kravitz for conversion and trade secrets to proceed. (“Courts Says…
Mass Ct: ZIP Code is Personal Identification Info Under Credit Card Statute But Plaintiff Must Still Allege Harm — Tyler v. Michaels Stores
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Tyler v. Michaels Stores, Inc., 2012 WL 32208 (D. Mass.; Jan. 6, 2012) Last year, the California Supreme Court held that a ZIP Code is personal identification information for purposes of a statute which restricted the…
Trademark Owner Can’t Hold GoDaddy Liable for Domain Name Forwarding — Berhad v. GoDaddy
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Berhad v. GoDaddy, C 09-5939 PJH (N.D. Cal.; Jan. 3, 2012) Plaintiff, Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas), a government owned entity, owns the Petronas Towers in Malaysia. It’s trying to enforce its trademark rights against two domain…
Another Set of Parties Duel Over Social Media Contacts — Eagle v. Sawabeh
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Eagle v. Morgan, 11-4303 (E.D. Pa.; Dec. 22, 2011) Background: Dr. Linda Eagle, who holds a Ph.D. in communication and psychology, teamed up with Clifford Brody and founded Edcomm. They were later joined by Davi Shapp….
Old School Spam Plaintiff Rebuffed in the Ninth Circuit
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Gordon v. BMG Columbia House, 10-35180 (9th Cir. Nov. 28, 2011) Gordon v. Inviva, 10-35283 (9th Cir. Nov. 28, 2011) Gordon v. Commonwealth Mktg. Group, 10-35030 (9th Cir. Nov. 28, 2011) James Gordon has generated more…
Hyundai Gets a Pass from the FTC on Endorsement Issues, in Part Due to Its Social Media Policy
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with updated comments from Eric] In re Hyundai Motor America, FTC File No. 112-3110 (Nov. 16, 2011) [.pdf] We’ve posted on the FTC endorsement guidelines, which broadly require disclosure of relationships, and incentives provided to those…
Does the House Judiciary Committee Debating SOPA Know What’s Going On In the Courts?–Philip Morris v. Jiang
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani, with comments from Eric] Philip Morris USA, Inc. v. Jiang, 11-cv-24049 (S.D. Fla.) (TRO entered on Nov. 16, 2011) (Prelim. Injunction Entered on Dec. 12, 2011) This is yet another case where a court orders broad…
If You Dislike SOPA, You’ll Dislike This Case Too–True Religion v. Xiaokang Lei
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani, with comments from Eric] True Religion v. Xiaokang Lei (S.D.N.Y.) (TRO; Nov. 18, 2011) (Prelim. Injunction; Dec. 2, 2011). The initial complaint. We recently blogged about a case where Chanel obtained surprisingly broad remedies against domain…