Employer Who Takes Over Employee’s Social Media Accounts May Commit Privacy Violation–Maremont v Susan Fredman Design
We’ve blogged about the dispute between Maremont and Susan Fredman Design Group before. Maremont was employed as SFDG’s social media consultant, and when she was injured in a severe accident, SFDG allegedly continued to access (1) a Twitter account registered…
More Intellectual Property Trivia Questions (The Outtakes)
Recently I posted our IP trivia quiz from WIPIP. To prepare those trivia questions, my colleagues (Tyler Ochoa and Brian Love) and I made a list of potential questions and then picked our favorites. In this post, I’m sharing the…
How Well Do You Know IP Trivia? Let’s Find Out
Last week, the High Tech Law Institute hosted WIPIP, a conference where IP professors and fellows present their academic works-in-progress for peer feedback. As part of the festivities, we had an IP trivia night–which I believe is the first IP…
Court Declines to Review LRO to [.delmonte], Saying gTLDs Aren’t ‘Domain Names’ for Cybersquatting Purposes
A Swiss Del Monte entity that had a license to use the “DEL MONTE” mark applies to operate the .delmonte generic top level domain (gTLD). Another Del Monte entity, based in Delaware, filed a “legal rights objection” (under WIPO-established procedures)…
Vague Takedown Notice Targeting Facebook Page Results in Possible Liability–CrossFit v. Alvies
Alvies ran a blog & community centered around CrossFit, a fitness program. CrossFit complainted about the name of the blog (crossfitmamas.blogspot.com). In addition to make demands to Alvies, a CrossFit paralegal talked to at least one reader, and decried Avlies’…
H2 2013 Quick Links, Part 1 (IP)
Copyright * Appellate briefs in the latest Second Circuit trip for YouTube v. Viacom. Prior blog post. * Fox Broadcasting Company, Inc. v. Dish Network L.L.C., 723 F.3d 1067 (9th Cir. 2013). Another case where remote DVR users made the copies, not…
Is It Software? Is It a Service? It Matters for Trademark Registration Purposes
A recent trademark decision from the airline leasing industry highlights the importance of thinking about whether a mark used in connection with software (1) is being used on a product (software), (2) is being used for “software as a service,” or…
Details About Amazon’s Confidential Settlement Terms For A Keyword Advertising Lawsuit (Forbes Cross-Post)
Most lawsuits settle; and most settlements are confidential. As a result, outsiders often don’t learn who “won” a settled lawsuit or the range of standard settlement terms. Fortunately, a dispute over the settlement agreement in a keyword advertising trademark lawsuit…
Florida Drops Ill-Conceived Proposal To Ban Competitive Keyword Advertising By Lawyers (Forbes Cross-Post)
In March, the Florida State Bar’s Standing Committee on Advertising proposed an ethics opinion (Proposed Advisory Opinion A-12-1). The opinion was designed to help Florida lawyers understand what they could ethically do with online marketing. It targeted a melange of…
Keyword Advertising Lawsuits Against Search Engines Mostly Tossed–Parts[.]com v. Google and Yahoo
I know of only two pending trademark lawsuits against search engines for selling trademarked keywords: Parts.com and Carla Ison. Ison’s lawsuit has been dismissed and is on appeal, where it will be crushed. This week, Parts.com’s lawsuits against Google and…