September 2010 Quick Links, Part 1 (IP Edition)

By Eric Goldman Copyright * US v. ASCAP (2d Cir. Sept. 28, 2010): “the Internet Companies offer their customers the ability to download musical works over the Internet. It is undisputed that these downloads create copies of the musical works,…

Seventh Circuit Tosses Beverly Stayart’s False Endorsement Claims–Stayart v. Yahoo

By Eric Goldman Stayart v. Yahoo! Inc., 2010 WL 3785147 (7th Cir. Sept. 30, 2010). I have previously blogged about Beverly Stayart’s lawsuits against Yahoo and Google for apparently sploggy (and possibly cloaked) objectionable search results delivered when she searched…

Georgia Pacific’s Effort to Control Towel Dispenser Refills Fails in 8th Circuit–Georgia Pacific v. Myers Supply (Guest Blog Post)

Georgia Pacific Consumer Products LP v. Myers Supply, Inc., 2010 WL 3564834 (8th Cir. Sept. 15, 2010) By guest blogger Mark Bartholomew After a decision by the Fourth Circuit seemed to open the door for businesses to use contributory trademark…

Anti-Scraping Lawsuit Largely Gutted–Cvent v. Eventbrite

By Eric Goldman Cvent, Inc. v. Eventbrite, Inc., 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 96354 (E.D. Va. Sept. 14, 2010). Given the amount of scraping taking place every day all over the web, scraping lawsuits are surprisingly infrequent. In this ruling, a…

Google Gets Good Results in Three AdWords Trademark Cases (Jurin, Flowbee, Dazzlesmile)

By Eric Goldman Jurin v. Google, 2010 WL 3521955 (E.D. Cal. Sept. 8, 2010) Jurin is one of the multitudinous trademark owners objecting to Google’s AdWords program. Echoing a prior ruling, the court has rejected Jurin’s claims for false designation…

July-August 2010 Quick Links, Part 2

By Eric Goldman IP * As expected, Rosetta Stone appealed its trademark loss against Google. My previous blog post. * Reality Blurred successfully counternoticed to overcome CBS’s DMCA takedown notice for the Survivor contract/rule book. * Doctor’s Associates, Inc. v….

Griping Patient Goes Too Far Posting Fake Content in Doctor’s Name–Eppley v. Iacovelli

By Eric Goldman Dr. Barry Eppley v. Lucille Iacovelli, 2010 WL 3282574 (S.D. Ind. Aug. 17, 2010). The CMLP entry. The Internet is filled with commentary about this long-running saga if you want more information. Dr. Eppley is a plastic…

Selling Replacement Supplies Could Constitute Contributory Trademark Infringement–Georgia Pacific v. Von Drehle (Guest Blog Post)

by guest blogger Mark Bartholomew [Eric’s introduction: Mark is a law professor at the University of Buffalo. He has written several articles on secondary copyright and trademark infringement. See his SSRN page. We were swapping emails about this ruling, and…

July 2010 Quick Links, Part 1 (IP Edition)

By Eric Goldman Trademarks * Rebelution, LLC v. Perez, 2010 WL 3036217 (N.D. Cal. July 30, 2010). The plaintiff is a band named Rebelution. The defendant is a music performer named Pitbull who released an album “Pitbull Starring in Rebelution”…

Google Liberalizes Its European Trademark Policy

By Eric Goldman After the ECJ’s favorable opinion in the Google cases, I’ve been wondering if Google would liberalize its trademark policy in Europe. It took Google 4 months to parse the ECJ’s inscrutable opinion and make a call, but…