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…

Stealing Mickey’s Mojo

Mark Schultz After a busy summer finishing a paper on copyright and social norms (thanks to Eric for the plug!) and dodging angry deer on SIU’s campus, I’ve returned for more guest blogging. Sooner or later, a blog on marketing…

You Don’t Know Jack

By Mark McKenna The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has a story about SparkNet’s attempts to enforce trademark rights in the name of a radio show format (SparkNet refers to the format of a mishmash of musical artists and styles as “Jack”). SparkNet…

My Famous Blog Post (R)

By Mark McKenna A couple of days ago I received an email from Restoration Hardware advertising its Famous Fall Lighting Sale(R). On top of my mild annoyance at yet another piece of spam, I couldn’t help but ask: “Are you…

City of Heroes Lawsuit–New Ruling on False DMCA Takedown Notices

By Eric Goldman Marvel Enterprises v. NCSoft Corp., CV 04-9253-RGK (C.D. Cal. Aug. 23, 2005). Given the interest in this case, I’m surprised that this ruling appears to have been overlooked (I found it through BNA [subscription required]). In late…

Branded products as ingredients

By Mark McKenna Brett Frischmann tells a story about trying to buy his son a cookie with M&M’s on it and having the person working at the cookie stand insist on calling the cookies “B&B” cookies, not M&M cookies. According…