Another Trademark Owner Apparently Gives Up Lawsuit Against Google–Parts Geek v. US Auto Parts
By Eric Goldman Parts Geek LLC v. U.S. Auto Parts Network, Inc., 5:10-cv-01713-JF (N.D. Cal. voluntary dismissal May 5, 2010) In April, Google successfully transferred the Parts Geek keyword advertising lawsuit from New Jersey to its home court in Northern…
Google Sued for Click Fraud for the First Time in Years–123 Lock and Key v. Google
By Eric Goldman 123 Lock and Key LLC v. Google, Inc. (Wash. Superior Ct. complaint filed May 21, 2010) After Google and Yahoo settled their click fraud lawsuits in 2006, click fraud litigation has been fairly rare. There is a…
How Much Does 1-800 Contacts Hate Competitive Keyword Advertising? $1.1M Worth!?
By Eric Goldman Rader Fishman & Grauer PLLC v. 1-800 Contacts, Inc., 2:10-cv-00191-TS-DN (redacted complaint filed March 30, 2010; answer and counterclaim filed March 25, 2010; counterclaim answer filed April 19, 2010) 1-800 Contacts has been a repeated guest star…
A Jury Verdict That Competitive Keyword Advertising Isn’t Trademark Infringement–College Network v. Moore
By Eric Goldman College Network, Inc. v. Moore Educational Publishers, Inc., 2010 WL 1923763 (5th Cir. May 12, 2010). The jury verdict form from January 2009. The district court’s final judgment from June 2009. In December, I blogged about the…
Geographic Trademark Leads to Interesting (& Tortured) Injunction–Skydive Arizona v. Quattrocchi
By Eric Goldman Skydive Arizona, Inc. v. Quattrocchi, 2010 WL 1743189 (D. Ariz. April 29, 2010). A jury found that the defendants had committed trademark infringement, false advertising and cybersquatting and awarded $2.5M in damages, which the judge doubled. Unfortunately,…
Beverly Stayart Strikes Again! This Time, Stayart Sues Google
By Eric Goldman Stayart v. Google, Inc., 2:10-cv-00336-LA (E.D. Wis. complaint filed April 20, 2010) I’ve previously blogged about Beverly Stayart (a/k/a Bev Stayart) and her mockable lawsuit against Yahoo. She has repeatedly declared that she is the only Beverly…
Google Successfully Transfers Another AdWords Case to California–Parts Geek v. US Auto Parts
By Eric Goldman Parts Geek, LLC v. U.S. Auto Parts Network, Inc., 2010 WL 1381005 (D.N.J. April 1, 2010) Google has successfully transferred another trademark lawsuit over AdWords to its home court in California based on the mandatory venue clause…
March 2010 Quick Links
By Eric Goldman Internet Exceptionalism * Stern v. Sony Corp., CV 09-7710 PA (C.D. Cal. Feb. 8 2010) “to the extent Plaintiff is suing Sony as a manufacturer of video games, and the provider of online services, Sony is not…
Google Gets Favorable ECJ Opinion, But Will It Prove to Be a Hollow Victory?
By Eric Goldman The European Court of Justice issued its long-anticipated decision in the three Google AdWords cases (C-236/08, C-237-08 and C-238/08) referred to it by the French Cour de Cassation. The ruling only answers the questions posed to it…
Search Engine Legal Developments to Watch in 2010
By Eric Goldman I recently spoke on a panel about search engines and the law at SMX West. I previewed four major trends in search engine law to watch in 2010: 1) Competition issues. Antitrust/competition law has become a big…