Minnesota Court Says Keyword Advertising is TM Use in Commerce–Hysitron v. MTS
By Eric Goldman Hysitron Inc. v. MTS Systems Corp., 2008 WL 3161969 (D. Minn. Aug. 1, 2008) In a brief and pedestrian opinion, another court outside the Second Circuit said that buying a trademarked keyword is “use in commerce” under…
Affiliate Liability Extravaganza
By Eric Goldman [Note: I recently published a version of this article at InformIT. Here’s the pre-edited version I sent them.] Introduction This article discusses marketers’ liability for the actions of their marketing affiliates (what I refer to as “affiliate…
July 2008 Quick Links, Part I (IP Edition)
By Eric Goldman Copyright * Granger v. Gill Abstract Corp., 2008 WL 2791264 (S.D.N.Y. July 18, 2008). A title company admitted infringing the defendant’s copyrighted “rate calculator” by posting it to the title company’s website. The plaintiff demanded actual damages…
Domainer Loses Cybersquatting Lawsuit–Verizon v. Navigation Catalyst
By Eric Goldman Verizon California, Inc. v. Navigation Catalyst Systems, Inc., 2008 WL 2651163 (C.D. Cal. June 30, 2008). The Justia page. A page with some of the early filings. [Sorry for the delay blogging this–it just showed up on…
American Airlines and Google Settle Keyword Advertising Lawsuit
By Eric Goldman American Airlines and Google have settled American Airlines’ trademark lawsuit over Google’s sale of keyword advertising. The settlement terms are confidential. See the unenlightening stipulation and the judge’s dismissal order. The Justia page. The Bloomberg News story….
GoDaddy Gets 230 Defense for Web Hosting–Kruska v. Perverted Justice Foundation
By Eric Goldman Kruska v. Perverted Justice Foundation Inc., 2008 WL 2705377 (D. Ariz. July 9, 2008). The CMLP page with lots of source material. GoDaddy allegedly hosted some third party websites that said some not-nice things about Kruska (calling…
Tiffany v. eBay District Court Opinion Analysis
By Eric Goldman Tiffany (NJ) Inc. v. eBay Inc., No 04 Civ. 4607 (RJS) (S.D.N.Y. July 14, 2008) It took most of the day, but I’ve finally read through the 66 page book in the Tiffany v. eBay case, and…
eBay Wins Huge Ruling in Tiffany Case
By Eric Goldman Tiffany (NJ) Inc. v. eBay Inc., No 04 Civ. 4607 (RJS) (SDNY July 14, 2008) In a 66 page ruling that I haven’t had time to digest, the judge appears to have completely accepted eBay’s arguments in…
Two Regressive Search Engine Advertising Rulings–Standard Process v. Total Health and Finance Express v. Nowcom
By Eric Goldman It’s not uncommon for courts to make judgments based on outdated understandings of precedent and technology, especially when dealing with dynamically evolving areas like Internet trademark law. Nevertheless, it can be a little dispiriting to read opinions…
June 2008 Quick Links
By Eric Goldman Trademarks/Domain Names * Utah Lighthouse Ministry v. Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, 2008 WL 22043807 (10th Cir. May 29, 2008). CMLP writeup. Nice 10th Circuit win for a gripe site against trademark infringement and cybersquatting. This…