Q1 2016 Quick Links, Part 1 (Trademarks and Domain Names)
* Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences v. GoDaddy.com, Inc., 2015 WL 5311085 (C.D. Cal. Sept. 10, 2015). A major win for GoDaddy—and domain name parking programs generally—against a long-running cybersquatting suit by the Motion Picture Academy. This ruling…
Does Two-Factor Authentication Violate the TCPA?–Duguid v. Facebook
Plaintiff sued Facebook alleging TCPA claims on behalf of a putative class. Facebook sends text messages when someone logs in to their account via a new or unrecognized device. Plaintiff was a non-Facebook user who received these messages. Unfortunately, despite…
Big Win For Free Speech Online In Backpage Lawsuit (Forbes Cross-Post)
Regulators and plaintiffs have been trying to eradicate online prostitution ads for a decade. These efforts have been partially hampered by 47 U.S.C. 230 (Section 230), a law Congress enacted in 1996 to protect websites from liability for third party…
PGA Can Turn Caddies Into ‘Human Billboards’–Hicks v. PGA Tour
As I’ve written before, marketers are in a never-ending quest to find and exploit new ways to capture consumer attention. With the rise of DVR ad-avoidance technologies, marketers keep finding more unskippable broadcast TV ad exposures like product placements. And…
Google Defeats Lawsuit Over Duplicate Content Penalty–D’Agostino v. Appliances Buy Phone
D’Agostino provided web development services to the Appliances Buy Phone (ABP) website. He wanted to sharpen his SEO skills, so he agreed in 2009 with the ABP owners to create a mirror version of ABP, called Appliances4Sale (AFS) as a…
Buyer Wins Dispute Over Earnout For Purchased Websites
This is an earnout dispute arising out of Internet Brands’ purchase of the “doityourself.com” website. The website was launched in 1995. By 2006, it averaged 1,770,000 unique monthly visitors and earned almost $1 million in revenues. In December 2006, Internet…
Why The Subway ‘Footlong’ Lawsuits Fell Short (Forbes Cross-Post)
You may recall the lawsuit against Subway Restaurants for selling “12 inch” and “footlong” sandwiches that were allegedly less than 12 inches long. The case attracted lots of media attention and consumer sniggers because of Subway’s ubiquity (and the endless…
Court Beats Down Another Competitive Keyword Advertising Lawsuit–Beast Sports v. BPI
If you’ve been keeping up with the blog over the past several years, you already know that competitive keyword advertising lawsuits consistently lose in court. So in that sense, today’s blog post isn’t telling you anything new. Yet, it’s still…
Hacky Sacker’s Publicity Rights Claim Against Energy Drink Tossed–Martin v. 5-Hour Energy Drink
Johannes (Ted) Martin was (and is currently) the world record holder for “most consecutive kicks (no knees)” of a hackysack. A five hour energy drink made an advertisement depicting an unknown actor claiming he performed several superhuman tasks, including breaking…
2H 2015 Quick Links, Part 7 (Marketing, Advertising, E-Commerce)
Marketing/Advertising * Jezebel: The Big Bad World of Products Celebrities Promote on Instagram. Related blog post. * NY Times: Cool Influencers With Big Followings Get Picky About Their Endorsements * NY Times: Since signing with Brooks on Jan. 1, 2014,…