Nov.-Dec. 2010 Quick Links, Part 5
By Eric Goldman Taxes * Amazon.com, LLC v New York State Dept. of Taxation & Fin., 2010 NY Slip Op 07823 (N.Y. App. Div. Nov. 4, 2010). A NY appellate court rejected Overstock’s/Amazon’s facial challenges to “affiliates tax” but revived…
Google Files Unredacted Brief in Rosetta Stone v. Google Appeal
By Eric Goldman After some prodding by Paul Levy of Public Citizen, Google has filed an unredacted version of its response brief in the Rosetta Stone v. Google appeal. As Paul explains in his blog post, the newly disclosed information…
Nov.-Dec. 2010 Quick Links, Part 1 (Trademarks and Advertising Edition)
By Eric Goldman I have a big backlog of Quick Links from the last 2 months. I’ll post them over the next few days. I also have a backlog of other blog posts I need to write, especially my reassessment…
Hotels Benefit When Distributors Reference the Hotel’s Trademark in Keyword Ad Copy
By Eric Goldman Lesley Chiou of Occidental College and Catherine Tucker of MIT have posted an empirical study, How Does the Use of Trademarks by Third-Party Sellers Affect Online Search? The study tries to model what happens when distributors use…
Advertising & Marketing Law Syllabus for Spring 2011
By Eric Goldman Next semester, I am teaching Advertising & Marketing Law for the first time. My syllabus. This is a brand-new course built from the ground up. As teaching materials, I will be using an early draft of a…
Junk Fax Claim Fails Due to “Established Business Relationship” Exception — Cardinal Partners v. Fernandez Discipline
[Post by Venkat] Cardinal Partners, Ltd. v. Fernandez Discipline, LLC, Case No. L-10-1180 (Ohio Ct. App.; Nov. 19, 2010) Background: Toledo chiropractor Dr. William J. Houttekier II shared a fax number with Cardinal Partners (they both apparently had the same…
Wildcarding Subdomains Is OK; Reverse Domain Name Hijacking Isn’t–Goforit v. Digimedia
By Eric Goldman Goforit Entertainment LLC v. Digimedia.com LP, 2010 WL 4602549 (N.D. Tex. Oct. 25, 2010). See the related personal jurisdiction ruling from 2007 featuring a completely different but still ridiculously large and expensive cast of lawyers. This is…
Amazon Isn’t Liable for Rogue Affiliate’s Keyword Ad Buys–Sellify v. Amazon
By Eric Goldman Sellify Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc., 2010 WL 4455830 (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 4, 2010). The initial complaint. Christopher Maki runs Sellify, which in turn runs a website/eBay store called OneQuality.com. An Amazon affiliate, “Cutting Edge Designs,” purchased the keywords…
Ad Networks Can’t Get 47 USC 230 Defense on Motion to Dismiss–Swift v. Zynga
By Eric Goldman Swift v. Zynga Game Network, Inc., 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 117355 (N.D. Cal. Nov. 3, 2010). Wendy Davis’ story on the complaint filing. I have repeatedly observed that the Ninth Circuit’s Roommates.com en banc decision has not…
Plaintiff-Side Briefs in Rosetta Stone v. Google Appeal
By Eric Goldman Rosetta Stone and five amici groups have filed their briefs in the Fourth Circuit appeal in Rosetta Stone v. Google. The filings: Rosetta Stone’s opening appellate brief. It appears Rosetta Stone has new appellate counsel: Terrence Ross…