Two Tough Section 230 Rulings From Last Week–General Steel v. Chumley & Xcentric v. Smith
Last week, we saw two Section 230 losses. Initially I was troubled by this confluence, but after digesting these opinions, I’m pretty certain they both involve unusual facts that limit any real damage to Section 230’s immunity. However, as usual…
Keyword Ad Lawsuit Isn’t Covered By California’s Anti-SLAPP Law
The plaintiff, Los Angeles Yellow Cab, and defendants compete in the taxi industry. The defendants bought keyword ads at the search engines, such as the following triggered by the search “Yellow Cab Los Angeles”: Yellow Cab Los Angeles—Call 800–521–8294 or…
Angie’s List Must Defend Fraud Charges Over Pay-to-Play Review Manipulation (Forbes Cross-Post)
U.S. law is clear that consumer review websites aren’t liable for their users’ reviews. However, plaintiffs are increasingly challenging how review websites publicly describe their review databases. A recent court ruling against Angie’s List highlights how plaintiffs are tendentiously parsing…
Trade School’s Domain Name Lawsuit Drops Like a (Granite) Rock
I don’t often blog cases where New Hampshire figures so prominently, so this is a shoutout to all of my New Hampshirian/New Hampshirite friends! The litigants are competitor schools that train tradespeople such as plumbers and gas fitters. Granite State…
What’s Worse Than Cleaning Up A Meth Lab? A Trademark Injunction Against Using “Meth Lab Cleanup” In Metatags
Opinions like this make me really crank-y. The litigants compete in the meth lab cleanup business. The plaintiff has registered trademarks for “Meth Lab Cleanup LLC.” Right away, we already know that weaponizing highly descriptive terms like that can cause…
Confusion From Competitive Keyword Advertising? Fuhgeddaboudit
[Note: I wrote this post over the weekend, before the atrocious MTM v. Amazon case. I think virtually all of this post remains current despite that ruling. I’ll blog the MTM case separately.] I’ve been chronicling the futility of competitive…
Q2 2015 Quick Links, Part 1 (IP, Marketing and More)
Copyright * The dominant media storyline about the Mayweather-Pacquiao boxing match was the fight’s widespread illicit availability on the livestreaming apps Periscope and Meerkat. But this should have been the dominant storyline instead: An estimated 4.4 million viewers paid a…
Competitive Keyword Advertising Permitted As Nominative Use–ElitePay Global v. CardPaymentOptions
I know, it’s getting repetitive blogging about competitive keyword advertising cases failing in court. But trademark owners keep bringing them, so I’ll keep blogging them. The Ruling The trademark owner does business as ElitePay Global. It provides “merchant payment solutions…
Google And Yahoo Defeat Last Remaining Lawsuit Over Competitive Keyword Advertising (Forbes Cross-Post)
Keyword advertising using competitors’ trademarks is now so well-accepted, it may be hard to remember that the practice used to generate serious debate among lawyers and ethicists. In particular, the search engines drew substantial legal fire from trademark owners for…
Sixth Circuit Says Informational Fax Isn’t an “Ad”–Sandusky v. Medco
Medco is a “pharmacy benefit manager” (an intermediary between employers/health plan sponsors and drug companies). It sent two faxes to Sandusky Wellness Center, a health care provider, advising that many Sandusky patients had adopted Medco’s formulary, and encouraging Sandusky to…