Utah HB 450 Dies in Utah Senate Without a Vote
By Eric Goldman After barely passing the Utah House, Utah HB 450–Utah’s third ill-fated attempt to regulate keyword advertising–died quietly last night when the Utah Senate failed to act on it before the Utah Legislature adjourned for the year. My…
Utah House Barely Passes HB 450 (Maybe)–UPDATED
By Eric Goldman The Utah legislature is continuing its embarrassing third attempt to regulate keyword advertising. Today, after making a ticky-tack amendment, the Utah House passed HB 450 and sent the bill to the Senate. However, the House was sharply…
Utah Trying to Regulate Keyword Advertising….Again!? Utah HB 450
By Eric Goldman When I first heard that the Utah legislature is considering yet another law to regulate keyword advertising, I thought: Are you kidding me? After all, Utah has pursued these regulations twice with disastrous results. The first time,…
McGeveran on Facebook Beacon and Social Media Marketing
By Eric Goldman Bill McGeveran, a law professor at University of Minnesota, has posted Disclosure, Endorsement, and Identity in Social Marketing to SSRN. The paper walks through Facebook Beacon and marketers’ other efforts to take advantage of online word of…
Guerrilla Marketing Under False Pretenses Might Be Passing Off–Heartland v. Forest River
By Eric Goldman Heartland Recreational Vehicles, LLC v. Forest River, Inc., 2009 WL 418079 (N.D. Ind. Feb. 18, 2009). The Justia page. When deciding whether it should bring a lawsuit, a potential plaintiff needs to consider not only their likelihood…
TradeComet Sues Google for Antitrust Violations
By Eric Goldman TradeComet.com LLC v. Google, Inc., 09 CIV 1400 (SDNY complaint filed Feb. 17, 2009). The Justia page. TradeComet, which operates the SourceTool.com website, has sued Google for a variety of antitrust violations. As is typically the case…
Affiliate Liability Talk Notes from SMX West
By Eric Goldman Last week, I spoke for 10 minutes (actually, I took 12) at SMX West on the topic of advertiser liability for affiliates’ actions. My talk notes: General Principles Issue: when are advertisers liable for their affiliates’ behavior?…
Yahoo’s Sale of Competitive Keyword Ads Isn’t False Designation of Origin–Heartbrand Beef v. Lobel’s
By Eric Goldman Heartbrand Beef, Inc. v. Lobel’s of New York, LLC, 2009 WL 311087 (S.D.Tex. Feb. 5, 2009). The Justia page. Heartbrand sells Akaushi beef, a special and very expensive Japanese variety of beef. Heartbrand brought an enforcement action…
2008 Cyberlaw Year-in-Review
By Eric Goldman It’s a sign of my schedule that I’m just now getting to this, and this post will be more pithy than I initially conceived. This post recaps some of the Cyberlaw highlights from last year. Frankly, the…
Publisher Promising “Visitors” Owes “Visitors,” Not “Unique Visitors”–WebMD v. RDA
By Eric Goldman WebMD, LLC v. RDA Intern., Inc., 2009 WL 175036 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Jan. 6, 2009) It’s been a while since I’ve blogged about a lawsuit between an Internet publisher and advertiser, so you may enjoy this one….