Court Says Keyword Metatags Don’t Matter–Standard Process v. Banks
By Eric Goldman Standard Process, Inc. v. Banks, 2008 WL 1805374 (E.D. Wis. April 18, 2008) SEOs and SEMs have known for years that most search engines ignore or give minimal acknowledgement to keyword metatags. Lawyers, on the other hand,…
March 2008 Quick Links, Part II
By Eric Goldman Copyright * A lot of action on whether “making available” a file in a P2P share directory is copyright infringement, including Elektra v. Barker and London-Sire v. Doe. Patry summarizes the action. * Ticketmaster L.L.C. v. RMG…
“Trademark Use in Commerce” Revisited
By Eric Goldman You may recall my repeated discussion about the trademark use in commerce doctrine. A quick recap: the federal trademark infringement statute references the requirement that the defendant make a “use in commerce” of the plaintiff’s trademark. This…
Trademark Dilution Symposium Videos
By Eric Goldman It seems like only yesterday that the High Tech Law Institute sponsored the Trademark Dilution Symposium, but a quick look at the calendar reveals that it’s been over 6 months. Wow, how time flies! Even at this…
11th Circuit Freaks Out About Metatags–North American Medical v. Axiom
By Eric Goldman North American Medical Corp. v. Axiom Worldwide, Inc., 2008 WL 918411 (11th Cir. April 7, 2008) Oh man, what a bizarre and frustrating ruling from the 11th Circuit on metatags. The parties compete in the “spinal decompression”…
Rescuecom v. Google Second Circuit Oral Arguments
By Eric Goldman Yesterday the Second Circuit heard oral arguments in Rescuecom v. Google, and reports from the oral arguments are trickling out. James Grimmelmann provides a comprehensive report. Many thanks to James for taking the time to write this…
Rescuecom v. Google Pre-Oral Argument Details
By Eric Goldman We’re anxiously awaiting oral arguments in the Rescuecom v. Google case next week. In advance of that, the court cleaned up a couple of matters: 1) The court denied the amicus brief from Yahoo, AOL and eBay….
Google Site-Specific Search-Within-Search Tool–Why is Everyone So Worked Up About This?
By Eric Goldman On Monday, Bob Tedeschi at the NYT published an article entitled “A New Tool From Google Alarms Sites” about Google’s recently launched site-specific search-within-search box. When I first saw the feature, I really didn’t think about it…
Griper Selling Anti-Walmart Items Through CafePress Doesn’t Infringe or Dilute–Smith v. Wal-Mart
By Eric Goldman Smith v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 2008 WL 760196 (N.D. Ga. March 20, 2008) Charles Smith doesn’t like Walmart. Like many gripers, he has taken his cause to the web. Among other things, he set up two CafePress…
Adwords Ad Creates Initial Interest Confusion–Storus v. Aroa
By Eric Goldman Storus Corp. v. Aroa Marketing Inc., 2008 WL 449835 (N.D. Cal. Feb. 15, 2008). (Sorry for my delay blogging this one). A federal district court has held that displaying a competitor’s trademark in Adwords ad copy constitutes…