Keyword Law Talk at MLRC
By Eric Goldman Last week I spoke at the Legal Frontiers in Digital Media conference at Stanford, organized by the Media Law Resource Center. The topic was online advertising, and I was allotted 10 minutes to recap the state of…
Lifestyle Lift v. RealSelf Settles
By Eric Goldman In early March, I blogged on Lifestyle Lift’s trademark infringement lawsuit against RealSelf based on user criticisms of Lifestyle Lift. This lawsuit was noteworthy on at least two fronts. First, it was a prime example of a…
April 2008 Quick Links
By Eric Goldman Anti-Gaming * Even though Ticketmaster won its lawsuit, Minnesota overreacted to the Hannah Montana ticket crush by banning software to circumvent an online ticket allocation process. See Sec. 609.806. Check out the hyperbole in this press release!…
Injunction Requires Negative Keywords in Future Adwords Campaigns
By Eric Goldman Orion Bancorp Inc. v. Orion Residential Finance LLC, 2008 WL 816794 (M.D. Fla. March 25, 2008). It looks like courts/lawyers are finally getting savvier about broad matching (see my previous blogging on the legal understanding of broad…
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…