Trademark Dilution Revision Act of 2006
By Eric Goldman Last week, President Bush signed the Trademark Dilution Revision Act of 2006 into law. Ostensibly, this law was intended to overturn the Moseley case’s requirement that plaintiffs show “actual dilution” instead of a “likelihood of dilution.” However,…
Online Word of Mouth Presentation
By Eric Goldman Today I was in Pittsburgh presenting a work-in-progress talk called “Online Word of Mouth and Its Implications for Trademark Law.” My slides. Frank Pasquale’s and Rebecca Tushnet’s comments on the presentation.
Sept. 2006 Quick Links
By Eric Goldman Some stories that caught my eye in September: * Digg users are gaming the Digg algorithm. Greg Linden’s take. Naturally, Digg is fighting back by tweaking its algorithm to reduce the effect of gaming and preserve some…
Google Wins Keyword Lawsuit–Rescuecom v. Google
By Eric Goldman Rescuecom Corp. v. Google, Inc., No. 5:04-CV-1055 (N.D.N.Y. Sept. 28, 2006). You can find the ruling here (WARNING: 1.7MB file) Introduction and the 1-800 Contacts Precedent Last year, the Second Circuit issued a major ruling in the…
Outdated Metatags Don’t Infringe–Pop Warner v. NH Youth Football & Spirit Conference
By Eric Goldman Pop Warner Little Scholars, Inc. v. New Hampshire Youth Football & Spirit Conference, 2006 WL 2591480 (D. N.H. Sept. 11, 2006) Metatag lawsuits befuddle me for two reasons. First, and most importantly, KEYWORD METATAGS ARE IRRELEVANT from…
Internet Law Updates Talk
By Eric Goldman Yesterday I gave a talk called “Internet Law Updates” at an event sponsored by the California State Bar’s IP Section. My slides.
Adware, Spam and Some of My Other Favorite Topics
By Eric Goldman There has been a flurry of interesting legal developments in the last few days: * The plaintiffs voluntarily and unilaterally dismissed (with prejudice) Simios v. 180solutions, one of several putative class actions against adware vendors. See the…
Do Quotation Marks Matter? Yes (in the Ninth Circuit)–Picture It Sold v. iSOLD It
By Eric Goldman Picture It Sold, Inc. v. iSOLD It, LLC, 2006 WL 2467552 (9th Cir. Aug. 28, 2006) The plaintiff sued iSOLD for trademark infringement based on competitive keyword ad purchases, and it sought an injunction against continued keyword…
August 2006 Quick Links (Volume 2)
By Eric Goldman Some more things that caught my eye in the past month (see Volume 1): * Wikipedia’s entry on trademarks that have become generic. “Google” isn’t listed…yet—instead, it’s listed as a trademark “often used generically”. HT: Marty. My…
Trademark Coexistence Agreement Article
By Eric Goldman Marianna Moss (a friend/wife of my former colleague) has written an article entitled Trademark “Coexistence” Agreements: Legitimate Contracts or Tools of Consumer Deception?, 18 Loyola Consumer Law Review 197 (2005). To my knowledge, this is the first…