Another Trademark Owner Apparently Gives Up Lawsuit Against Google–Parts Geek v. US Auto Parts

By Eric Goldman Parts Geek LLC v. U.S. Auto Parts Network, Inc., 5:10-cv-01713-JF (N.D. Cal. voluntary dismissal May 5, 2010) In April, Google successfully transferred the Parts Geek keyword advertising lawsuit from New Jersey to its home court in Northern…

Contributory Copyright Infringement Claim May Need Direct Infringer as a Defendant to Succeed–Miller v. Facebook

By Eric Goldman Miller v. Facebook, Inc., 2010 WL 2198204 (N.D. Cal. May 28, 2010) This is my third time blogging about this case (Jan. 2010 post; April 2010 post). The facts as alleged by the plaintiff have always been…

Life May Be “Rad,” But This Trademark Lawsuit Isn’t–Williams v. CafePress.com

By Eric Goldman Williams v. Life’s Rad, 2010 U.S.Dist. LEXIS 46763 (N.D. Cal. May 12, 2010) This lawsuit bummed me out. The trademark at issue–the surfing-inspired “Life’s Rad”–is supposed to lift people up, but it’s hard to maintain a sunny…

FTC Busts Check-Issuing Website for Unfair Practices–FTC v. Qchex

By Eric Goldman Federal Trade Commission v. Neovi, Inc., 09-55093 (9th Cir. May 14, 2010) Qchex allowed registered users to create and send checks via a website. Initially, users could submit bank account information and payee information, and Qchex would…

LimeWire Smacked Down for Inducing Copyright Infringement–Arista Records v. Lime Group

By Eric Goldman Arista Records LLC v. Lime Group LLC, 2010 WL 1914816 (S.D.N.Y. May 11, 2010) This is one of the rare cases where the news reports mostly got it right. Plain and simple, the record labels won a…

Internet Access Provider & Blocklist Publishers Denied 230(c)(2) Immunity for Anti-Spam Efforts

By Eric Goldman Smith v. Trusted Universal Standards in Electronic Transactions, Inc., 2010 WL 1799456 (D.N.J. May 4, 2010) It’s usually a drag to read opinions in pro se lawsuits. Most of the time, the litigant gets flattened mercilessly. Occasionally,…

Brazil’s Proposed Internet Regulation–an Update (That’s Actually Good News) (Guest Blog Post)

by Guest Blogger Marcel Leonardi Some fantastic news: in response to the waves of criticism toward the proposed notice and takedown regime that might have curbed online speech in Brazil – see my prior blog post – the Brazilian Ministry…

Troubling Ruling About 47 USC 230 and Moderators–Cornelius v. DeLuca

By Eric Goldman Cornelius v. DeLuca, 2010 WL 1709928 (D. Idaho April 26, 2010) I blogged about this case last year. In that post, I described the situation: DeLuca runs bodybuilding.com, a fitness website and online retailer. The plaintiffs sell…

Proposed Internet Regulation in Brazil Might Curb Online Speech (Guest Blog Post)

by Guest Blogger Marcel Leonardi [Marcel Leonardi is an attorney in São Paulo, Brazil, and Professor of Law at FGV-SP. He was a Google Policy Fellow in 2009, working with the international team at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He has…

Website Gets 230 Immunity Despite Claim of Site Content Accuracy–Milo v. Martin

By Eric Goldman Milo v. Martin, 2010 WL 1708895 (Tex. App. Ct. April 29, 2010) This case involves allegedly defamatory “guestbook” messages posted by unknown users to a website entitled “The Watchdog.” Framed like that, the precedent says the website…