Product Placement and the Apprentice TV Show
By Eric Goldman I’ve always been confused by the fuss over product placements. I know people generally don’t like advertisements, and I also know that people want to be told when something is an “advertisement.” But product placement occurs in…
Latest Junk Fax Lawsuit–Adler v. Vision Lab Telecommunications
By Eric Goldman Adler v. Vision Lab Telecommunications, Inc., 2005 WL 2621984 (D.D.C. Oct. 17, 2005). I’ve set up a Westlaw alert to notify me of new TCPA cases and I’m pretty shocked by the volume of cases being reported…
Galster on Infomediaries and Bonded Sender Programs
By Eric Goldman In late March, I posted a blog post entitled “Infomediaries–Where Are They?” In that post, I explained why infomediaries have the potential to improve social welfare compared to our existing marketing system, but I noted that no…
Presentation on Coasean Analysis of Marketing
By Eric Goldman I’m giving a talk on my next major paper (tentatively titled “A Coasean Analysis of Marketing”…a title that will likely change yet again), at the Midwestern Law & Economics Association meeting in Chicago. A preview of my…
Women and Law School
By Mark McKenna If I told you that a famous professor from a well-known law school was arguing on his/her blog that law schools should consider discounting their tuition by 1% for each year a graduate stayed in the work…
Cellphone Spam Violates TCPA–Joffe v. Acacia Mortgage
Joffe v. Acacia Mortgage Corp., No. 1 CA-CV 02-0701 (Ariz. Ct. App. Sept. 20, 2005). When is an email a telephone call? The Arizona Court of Appeals says that an email is a telephone call when the receiver gets a…
The FCC Proclaims Itself the UDRP for 800 Numbers
By Eric Goldman From Kevin Poulson’s Wired story: An entrepreneur registers 800-RED-CROS[S]. He claims to have done so because it has the same number as 800-RED-ARMS, and he was running a business by that name at the time. When he…
More on Rappers and Car Dealers
By Mark McKenna In the name of not being left out of the interesting discussion about Snoop Dogg’s trademark lawsuit against Gary Barbera (not to be confused with Hannah Barbara, of Flintstones fame), I thought I would put in my…
Rappers, Car Dealers and Trademarks — John Weighs In
By John Ottaviani Eric and I have been debating the claims in the 50 Cent and Snoop Dogg cases, and whether there can be trademark like protection for “speech patterns.” Not surprisingly, as one who likes “non-traditional” trademarks, I am…
Rappers, Car Dealer Ads, and Expansive Interpretations of Trademark Law
By Eric Goldman Broadus v. Gary Barbera Enterprises, Inc. (E.D. Pa. complaint filed Aug. 2005). Ten days ago I blogged about the rapper 50 Cent’s lawsuit against the Gary Barbera dealership for running a car ad that showed a picture…