Ex-Employee Converted Social Media/Website Passwords by Keeping Them From Her Employer–Ardis Health v. Nankivell
[Post by Venkat, with comments from Eric] Ardis Health, LLC, Curb Your Cravings, LLC and USA Herbals, LLC v. Ashleigh Nankivell, 2011 WL 4965172 (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 19, 2011) Nenkivell worked for CYC as a “video and social media producer.” Her…
Keyword Metatags are Back…Will Judicial Freakouts Continue?
By Eric Goldman Keyword metatags are back, and I couldn’t be less thrilled. Few Internet technologies have so thoroughly baffled judges as keyword metatags. From a technologists’ perspective, keyword metatags were a 1990s experiment by public search engines at improving…
Lawsuit Against Google Over Invalid Clicks and Special Partner Advertising Dismissed — Woods v. Google
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with comments from Eric] Woods v. Google, 5:10-cv-1263-JF (N.D. Cal.; Aug 10, 2011) This is an advertiser vs. Google lawsuit where the plaintiff argued on behalf of a putative class that (1) he was improperly charged…
Google Defeats Class Certification in Keyword Ad Lawsuit–FPX v. Google
By Eric Goldman FPX, LLC v. Google, Inc., 2011 WL 4783376 (E.D. Tex. Sept. 29, 2011) Google obtained a major victory in one of the most serious pending lawsuits against it challenging its AdWords keyword advertising program. Putative class action…
Facebook’s Trademark Suit Against Teachbook Survives Motion to Dismiss
by Eric Goldman Facebook, Inc. v. Teachbook.com LLC, 2011 WL 4449686 (N.D. Ill. Sept. 26, 2011). Facebook has been helping many lawyers send their kids to private school with an expensive enforcement campaign to control the prefix “face” and suffix…
Bad SEO Advice May Support Negligence Claim–D’Agostino v. Appliances Buy Phone
By Eric Goldman D’Agostino v. Appliances Buy Phone, Inc., 2011 WL 4345674 (D.N.J. Sept. 15, 2011). One iteration of the complaint. This is a confusing dispute, so I’m just going to focus on a few aspects. Based on the court’s…
Google Gets a Good Win in the MyTriggers Lawsuit
By Eric Goldman BFS Finance v. My Triggers Co., 09CV-14836 (Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, Aug. 31, 2011) This lawsuit started all so innocently. It was just a routine collections matter against MyTriggers, an AdWords advertiser, for a few…
Pillow Pets Knockoff Enjoined from Keyword Advertising–CJ Products v Snuggly Plushez
By Eric Goldman CJ Products LLC v. Snuggly Plushez LLC, 2011 WL 3667750 (E.D.N.Y. Aug. 22, 2011) Pillow Pets are cuddly and soft, but if you make knockoff versions of them, be prepared to meet the sharp end of their…
Bev Stayart Racks Up Two More Losses–Stayart v. Yahoo and Stayart v. Google
By Eric Goldman Stayart v. Yahoo, Inc., 2011 WL 3625242 (E.D. Wis. Aug. 17, 2011) Stayart v. Google Inc., 2:10-cv-00336-LA (E.D. Wis. Aug. 17, 2011) Persistence is a virtue, but sometimes, enough is enough. You probably remember Bev Stayart as…
Google Gets Default Injunction Against AdWord Gamers–Google v. Jackman
By Eric Goldman Google v. Jackman, 2011 WL 3267907 (N.D. Cal. July 28, 2011) This is a default ruling, so the facts are based on Google’s allegations. The defendants ran AdWords campaigns for online pharmacies that sold anabolic steroids. This…