City of Heroes Lawsuits Settled
By Eric Goldman A complex but interesting legal fight between Marvel and NCSoft, about City of Heroes players generating characters that look like Marvel-owned characters, has come to an end. The press release announcing the settlement. Settlement terms were not…
New Metatag/SEO Lawsuit–Salu, Inc. v. Pitts
By Eric Goldman Salu, Inc. v. Pitts (E.D. Ca. complaint filed Nov. 17, 2005). Introduction Salu operates skinstore.com, a website that sells skin care products. (With that name, I was totally expecting to find a porn site, but the website…
Supreme Court Denies 1-800 Contacts Cert Petition
By Eric Goldman Today the US Supreme Court denied 1-800 Contacts’ petition for certiorari of the second circuit opinion in 1-800 Contacts v. WhenU. I’m not surprised by the denial, but the bigger question is–now what for 1-800 Contacts’ campaign…
Keyword Lawsuit Between Office Depot and Staples
By Eric Goldman Office Depot, Inc. v. Staples, Inc., No. 05-80901 (S.D. Fla. complaint filed Oct. 4, 2005 and answer/counterclaims filed Oct. 18, 2005). The WSJ picked up this story a few weeks ago, but I finally got my hands…
Rothman on Initial Interest Confusion
By Eric Goldman Jennifer Rothman, a new full-time law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, has published Initial Interest Confusion: Standing at the Crossroads of Trademark Law, 27 Cardozo L. Rev. 105 (2005). She uses the initial interest confusion…
WhenU Opposition to 1-800 Contact’s Certiorari Petition
By Eric Goldman WhenU has filed its opposition to 1-800 Contact’s petition for certiorari from the US Supreme Court. WhenU’s main argument: “1-800 mischaracterizes the decision below as holding that the “covert” use of a trademark can never support an…
California Anti-Phishing Law–Cal. B&P Code Sec. 22948
By Eric Goldman Going through my stack, I came across Cal. Business & Professions Code Sec. 22948-22948.3 (SB 355), California’s recently enacted anti-phishing law. In general, compared to other state anti-Internet behavior laws, this law is relatively targeted and unobjectionable….
Jacoby on Sponsorship Confusion
By Eric Goldman Sorry for the light blogging–between my travel/presentation schedule and the Jewish holidays, it has been hectic! Jacob Jacoby is a leading trademark survey expert/consultant–I imagine he’s been an expert in over 150 trademark cases. He recently posted…
A Sharp Stick in the Eye of Trademark Law?
By Mark McKenna Over at his interesting blog (which Mark Schultz plugged a little while back), Grant McCracken has a post discussing modern marketing practices in terms of their “roundness” or “sharpness.” He suggests that all marketing used to be…
1-800 Contacts Appeals 2nd Circuit WhenU Decision to the Supreme Court
By Eric Goldman 1-800 Contacts has appealed the 2nd Circuit decision in the WhenU case to the US Supreme Court. A copy of the petition (warning–5+ MB PDF file). As the brief states, the question presented is: “Does ‘use’ of…