April-May 2011 Quick Links, Part 1 (Trademarks and Advertising Edition)
By Eric Goldman Trademark * Facebook has quite an active trademark docket. – Facebook, Inc. v. Teachbook.com, LLC, 2011 WL 1672464 (N.D.Cal. May 3, 2011). Facebook’s trademark suit against Teachbook was dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction. Facebook promptly refiled…
Keyword Advertising and Domain Name Law Slides
By Eric Goldman Today, I spoke to an audience of Chinese IP judges about keyword advertising and domain names in the United States. I put together some slides and written materials. These materials aren’t especially profound, especially for regular readers,…
Thoughts on the Lawsuit Over the @OMGFacts Twitter Account — Deck v. Spartz, Inc.
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Deck v. Spartz, Inc., 2:11-cv-01123-JAM-DAD (E.D. Ca.; Apr. 26, 2011) (Complaint) (Agreement) An Associated Press story reports on the lawsuit over the @OMGFacts Twitter account. (Here’s a link to the story with comments from Professor Goldman.)…
Quityerbitchin: Relative Search Results Placement Doesn’t Support Trademark Injunction–Bitchen Kitchen v. Bitchin’ Kitchen
By Eric Goldman Martha Elizabeth, Inc. v. Scripps Networks Interactive, LLC, 2011 WL 1750711 (W.D. Mich. May 9, 2011) It seems inconceivable to me that people would litigate over the term “Bitchin” almost 30 years after the Valley Girl song…
Ruminations on the Likelihood of Consumer Confusion Standard in Trademark Law
By Eric Goldman Last month, I attended the Third Trademark Scholars’ Roundtable in Bloomington, Indiana. See my prior blog posts about the first and second roundtables. See a photo of the participants. As usual, Rebecca acted as event chronicler. See…
Department of Commerce Releases Worthless Report on Trademark Bullying
By Eric Goldman Trademark Litigation Tactics and Federal Government Services to Protect Trademarks and Prevent Counterfeiting, April 2011. [For background, see my earlier blog post on trademark bullies. The term “bully” appears only 4 times in the report; as FN51…
March 2011 Quick Links, Part 2
By Eric Goldman Trademark * Apple is on the road to CrazyTown with its attempt to secure and protect trademark rights in “App Store.” Among the “highlights” this month: – it sued Amazon. Marty’s comments. The Justia page. – Microsoft…
Trademark Owner Gets Injunction Against Keyword Ad Campaign That Generated No Sales for the Advertiser
By Eric Goldman InternetShopsInc.com v. Six C Consulting, Inc., 2011 WL 1113445 (N.D. Ga. March 24, 2011) [I know the headline sounds like an April Fools joke, but no April Fools here…although, as I will show, this case definitely involved…
Groupon Hit With Two Lanham Act Lawsuits, and One Takes Google Along for the Ride
By Eric Goldman Groupion, LLC v. Groupon, Inc., 3:11-cv-00870-EMC (N.D. Cal. complaint filed Feb. 24, 2011) San Francisco Comprehensive Tours, LLC v. Groupon, Inc., CV-1300 (N.D. Cal. complaint filed March 17, 2011) __________ A company doesn’t reach a purported $6B…
Jury Awards Damages Against Web Designer/SEO/Host on Contributory Trademark Infringement Theory–Roger Cleveland v. Prince
By Eric Goldman Roger Cleveland Golf Co. v. Prince, 2:09-cv-02119-MBS (D.S.C. jury verdict March 10, 2011 and judgment March 14, 2011). See also the jury instructions. I blogged about this case back in December. That ruling was a puzzling head-scratcher…