Stay at Home Mom K’s Johnny Damon’s Right of Publicity Claim
By John Ottaviani Last week, ESPN.com reported yet another unsuccessful and ridiculous attempt to use trademark law to stifle negative commentary. According to the article, Ann Sylvia, a Massachusetts mother of two children, has operated an on-line store on eBay…
Ebates Sued for Trespass to Chattels–Sotelo v. Ebates
By Eric Goldman Sotelo v. Ebates Shopping.com, No. 06C-2531 (N.D. Ill. complaint filed May 5, 2006) The Collins Law Firm has filed a third class action lawsuit over adware, this time targeting Ebate’s Moe Money Maker client software. The complaint…
Your License, Registration and DNA, Please?
Congress Passes, President Signs, Press ignores…
As broader nationwide DNA database becomes law, states rush to fill database with expanded collection laws of their own.
Web Term Paper Lawsuit Settles
By Eric Goldman In September, I blogged about Macellari v. Carroll. In that case, a student sued a website that allegedly offered her term paper for sale. The case has settled under a confidentiality cloak (registration required). However, a defendant…
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…
Second Anti-Adware Class Action Filed–Simios v. 180Solutions
By Eric Goldman Simios v. 180Solutions, Inc., No. 05C 5235 (N.D. Ill. complaint filed Sept. 13, 2005). This complaint isn’t “new” news; Suzi blogged about it 10 days ago. This is the second anti-spyware class action lawsuit initiated by David…
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…
Student Sues Term Paper Website (and its Host)
Macellari v. Carroll, no. 4:05-CV-04161-JPG (S.D. Ill. complaint filed Aug. 31, 2005). Blue Macellari, a student at Duke and Johns Hopkins, has sued a term paper vendor (Rusty Carroll/R2C2, Inc.) operating three websites (doingmyhomework.com, freeforessays.com and freefortermpapers.com) for copyright infringement,…