Amazon’s Merchandising of Its Search Results Doesn’t Violate Trademark Law (Forbes Cross-Post)
By Eric Goldman Multi Time Machine, Inc. v. Amazon.com, 2013 WL 638888 (C.D. Cal. Feb. 20, 2013). The complaint. No retailer does a better job of cross-selling to its customers than Amazon.com ($AMZN). Amazon is quite effective at exposing customers to…
California Supreme Court: Retail Privacy Statute Doesn’t Apply to Download Transactions – Apple v Superior Court (Krescent)
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with comments from Eric] Apple v. Superior Court ex rel Krescent, S199384 (Cal. Sup. Ct. Feb. 4, 2013) In a divided ruling, the California Supreme Court held that California’s privacy statute restricting retailers from collecting personal…
Top Ten Internet Law Developments of 2012 (Forbes Cross-Post)
By Eric Goldman I’m pleased to share my list of top 10 developments of 2012: #10: The Push Towards Anti-Class Action Arbitration Clauses. In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion that businesses may be able to adopt mandatory…
Google’s Privacy Policy Integration Initially Defeats Legal Challenge — In re Google Privacy Policy Litigation
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with comments from Eric] In re Google, Inc. Privacy Policy Litigation, C 12-01382 PSG (N.D. Cal.; Dec. 28, 2012) In a decision that should be closely watched by the Instagram plaintiffs who are complaining about Instagram’s…
Court Dismisses Class Action Against Apple Over Its App Developers’ Information Collection Practices – Pirozzi v. Apple
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with comments from Eric] Pirozzi v. Apple, 2012 WL 6652453 (N.D. Cal.; Dec. 20, 2012) This is one of several putative class actions over the information collection practices of apps. I previously covered how the lawsuit…
Lawsuit Against Instagram Over Terms of Service Changes Looks Flimsy — Funes v. Instagram
[Venkat Balasubramani with a comment by Eric] Funes v. Instagram, 12-6482 (N.D. Cal. complaint filed Dec. 21, 2012) Eric and I posted about Instagram’s recent TOS rev. Neither of us were particularly enthusiastic about the changes. (See Facebook’s Proposed Amended…
Minors’ Suit Over Facebook Credits Survives in Part – I.B. v. Facebook
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with comments by Eric] I.B. v. Facebook, C 12 1894 CW (N.D. Cal. Oct. 25, 2012) Eric posted before about a Facebook sponsored stories lawsuit that was brought on behalf of minors. There, Facebook was confronted…
Useful Article on the First Sale Doctrine in Trademark Law (Guest Blog Post)
By Guest Blogger Yvette Joy Liebesman [Eric’s Note: We’ve repeatedly blogged on first sale/exhaustion principles on the blog, usually lamenting how easily circumscribed they are (see, e.g,. the posts about Mary Kay v. Weber and the Beltronics case) and the…
Court Says Plaintiff Lacks Standing to Pursue Failure-to-Purge Claim Under the VPPA – Sterk v. Best Buy
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Sterk v. Best Buy, 11 C 1894 (N.D. Ill. Oct. 17, 2012) The VPPA has spawned a lot of litigation over the past couple of years. One hot button area has been the applicability of the…
Lawsuit Over “Google Tags” Dismissed–Frezza v. Google
By Eric Goldman Frezza v. Google, 2012 WL 5877587 (N.D. Cal. Nov. 20, 2012) In Feb. 2010, Google introduced Google Tags, an advertising option in Google Places. Google Tags is now dead, but Google’s still dealing with the aftermath. To…