Yet Another NY Court Says Keyword Ads & Metatags Aren’t TM Use in Commerce–S&L Vitamins v. Australian Gold
By Eric Goldman S & L Vitamins, Inc. v. Australian Gold, Inc., 2:05-cv-1217 (E.D.N.Y. Sept. 30, 2007) If it wasn’t so painful for all involved, I would enjoy watching the legal contortions of companies whose outdated business models are being…
September 2007 Quick Links Part II
By Eric Goldman Contracts * Manasher v. NECC Telecom, No. 06-cv-10749 (E.D. Mich. Sept. 18, 2007). NECC included the following language on its invoices: “NECC’s Agreement ‘Disclosure and Liabilities’ can be found online at www.necc.us or you could request a…
September 2007 Quick Links Part I
By Eric Goldman Marketing * From the NYT: There are 200+ auto repair shops in the “Iron Triangle” area in New York, and apparently they compete fiercely with each other, shouting out price quotes as cars needing repairs drive by….
Brand Spillovers at TPRC
By Eric Goldman At TPRC, I presented my Brand Spillovers paper. My slides.
Utah Trademark Protection Act Update
By Eric Goldman Kate Kaye at ClickZ provides an update on the Utah Trademark Protection Act. According to Kate, there have been extensive and continuous backroom negotiations to produce a new statute (too bad this can’t take place with more…
Keyword Metatags Revisited
By Eric Goldman For years, I’ve been saying that keyword metatags are technologically irrelevant and therefore should be legally irrelevant. My conclusion was heavily based on the research of Danny Sullivan, a guru on this topic. Recently, Danny updated his…
August 2007 Quick Links, Part I
By Eric Goldman Search Engines * Google extended its ad serving technology to consider a user’s past search phrases in addition to their current search term. * Greg Linden: “Google is teasing too many lions.” * BusinessWeek: Some VCs are…
American Blinds-Google Lawsuit Settles
By Eric Goldman Google Inc. v. American Blinds & Wallpaper Factory Inc., 5:03-cv-05340-JF (N.D. Cal. settled August 31, 2007) After almost four years of litigation, the American Blinds lawsuit ended today with a stunning victory for Google. According to a…
Search Engine Strategies Copyright and Trademark Panel
By Eric Goldman Today I participated in the Copyright and Trademark panel at Search Engine Strategies in San Jose, along with Clarke Walton, Eve Chaurand-Fraser of Ask, Mary Berk of Microsoft and Debra Wilcox of Baker & Hostetler. As usual,…
American Airlines Sues Google Over Keyword Ads
American Airlines v. Google, 4:07-cv-00487 (N.D. Tex. complaint filed Aug. 16, 2007) [Warning: 4.4MB file] “American Airlines does not bring this lawsuit lightly.” (para. 6) Well, this is interesting. It’s not unusual for a trademark owner to sue Google for…