Think Keyword Metatags Are Dead? They Are (Except in Court)--Reflex v. Luxy

Think Keyword Metatags Are Dead? They Are (Except in Court)–Reflex v. Luxy

Check your calendar. Yes, it’s 2021. But trademark plaintiffs and judges are still partying like it’s 1999. The plaintiff is Seeking Arrangements, one of my favorite websites to base my Internet Law exams on. The defendant is a competitor, Luxy….

Fifth Circuit Says Keyword Ads Could Contribute to Initial Interest Confusion (UGH)--Adler v. McNeil

Fifth Circuit Says Keyword Ads Could Contribute to Initial Interest Confusion (UGH)–Adler v. McNeil

Jim Adler runs a personal injury law firm that claims trademarks in JIM ADLER, THE HAMMER, TEXAS HAMMER, and EL MARTILLO TEJANO. The defendants run the Accident Injury Legal Center, which runs a lawyer referral service. It bids on the…

Google's Search Disambiguation Doesn't Create Initial Interest Confusion--Aliign v. lululemon

Google’s Search Disambiguation Doesn’t Create Initial Interest Confusion–Aliign v. lululemon

Aliign “is an event, lifestyle, and apparel company” allegedly with a first trademark use in 2011. Since 2014, they have sold a total of 7 units of apparel (5 of which were bought by the CEO’s friends). lululemon is the…

Conservative's Lawsuit Over Google Deindexing Fails--DJ Lincoln v. Google

Conservative’s Lawsuit Over Google Deindexing Fails–DJ Lincoln v. Google

This is yet another #MAGA lawsuit. The plaintiff claimed that Google deindexed conservatives in a biased way. This particular plaintiff chose perhaps the least likely path to advance that claim, emphasizing RICO claims. As we all know, it’s never civil…

1H 2021 Quick Links, Part 1 (IP)

Trademarks and Domain Names * Kid Car NY, LLC v. Kidmoto Techs. LLC, 2021 WL 466975 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 9, 2021):  “At the motion to dismiss stage, Kidmoto has plausibly alleged more than just the purchase of a competitor’s mark as…

Ohio Bans Competitive Keyword Advertising by Lawyers

Ohio Bans Competitive Keyword Advertising by Lawyers

No one: Absolutely no one: Ohio Board of Professional Conduct (in the third decade of the 21st century….): * * * I guess we’re doing this again. It’s 2021, long past the time consumers have come to understand competitive keyword…

Florida Hits a New Censorial Low in Internet Regulation (Comments on SB 7072)

Florida Hits a New Censorial Low in Internet Regulation (Comments on SB 7072)

This blog post reviews Florida’s Transparency in Technology Act, SB 7072. Like other recent efforts to censor the Internet (such as Trump’s anti-230 EO), this law is performative garbage. It was never a serious attempt at crafting good policy. Florida…

What Would Happen If Search Engines Had to Give Higher Visibility to Less Relevant Results?

What Would Happen If Search Engines Had to Give Higher Visibility to Less Relevant Results?

I’m reporting on a study by Bin Han, Chirag Shah, and Daniel Saelid called “Users’ Perception of Search Engine Biases and Satisfaction.” The authors showed two pages of Bing results to study participants. (An aside: Bing…really?) The first page was…

Selling Keyword Ads Isn’t Theft or Conversion–Edible IP v. Google

It’s been years since I’ve blogged a lawsuit against Google for selling trademarked keyword ads. About a decade ago, Google was dealing with about a dozen cases. Google won some of them and settled the rest, and everyone moved on….

Google Isn't Liable for Allegedly Problematic Search Results--Diez v. Google

Google Isn’t Liable for Allegedly Problematic Search Results–Diez v. Google

Diez claims to be a “naturist” (note: these facts are taken from Diez’s complaint). He conducted Google image searches for the keywords “family naturist females,” “family naturist girls,” “family nudist females,” and “family nudist girls.” [PLEASE DO NOT INDEPENDENTLY INVESTIGATE…