2H 2017 & Q1 2018 Quick Links, Part 1: Copyright, Trademarks, Keyword Ads

…Institute v. Jackson, 3:14-CV-3572-B (N.D. Tex. Nov. 22, 2017): “The plaintiffs respond simply that framing is not copyright infringement. But the plaintiffs are incorrect; they publicly displayed Magnovo’s copyrighted works….

Catching Up on Section 230 Cases From the Past 18 Months

…immunity. Citing one of the Stayart cases, the court further says search engine autocomplete functions qualify for Section 230: suggested search terms auto-generated by a search engine do not remove…

Want To Scrub Google Search Results In The US? Tough–O’Kroley v. Fastcase

…Google Fails–Shah v. MyLife * Bev Stayart Racks Up Two More Losses–Stayart v. Yahoo and Stayart v. Google * Google Not Liable for Suggested Vanity Searches–Stayart v. Google * Yahoo’s…

Employer Who Takes Over Employee’s Social Media Accounts May Commit Privacy Violation–Maremont v Susan Fredman Design

…this interest is sufficient to create standing under the Lanham Act. (The court distinguishes two interesting Lanham Act standing cases that we’ve covered on the blog: Stayart and Nieman v….

H2 2013 Quick Links, Part 1 (IP)

…Latest trend for college football coaches: Trademarked names. * W.W. Williams Co. v. Google, Inc., 2013 WL 3812079 (S.D. Ohio Jul. 22, 2013). TRO orders Google to disable *all* Gmail…

It’s Legally Okay if Google Thinks Your Name and Erectile Dysfunction Drugs Have Something to Do With Each Other (Forbes Cross-Post)

…but they may influence the search engine’s suggestion algorithms anyway). As it turns out, this scenario isn’t hypothetical. Google suggested that searchers on “Bev Stayart” (a/k/a Beverly Stayart) search for…

Ex-Employer’s Hijacking of a LinkedIn Account Is a Publicity Rights Violation–Eagle v. Morgan

…ads and personal names (nor does it discuss the Stayart case). The Wisconsin case is slightly distinguishable since there the name was an invisible trigger (and deals with Wisconsin’s statute,…

Buying Keyword Ads on People’s Names Doesn’t Violate Their Publicity Rights–Habush v. Cannon (Forbes Cross-Post)

…advertising (most obviously, the repeat litigant Bev Stayart), but this case provides the cleanest opinion to squarely address a publicity rights challenge to keyword advertising. Three implications of this ruling:…

Section 230 Still Keeping the Pro Se Plaintiffs at Bay–Klayman v. Facebook, and More

…search ranking and/or AdWords mechanisms.”” Citing Stayart v. Yahoo, the court says Nieman doesn’t have standing because he lacks the requisite commercial interest in his name. * Unjust enrichment. “Defendants…

Breastfeeding Mom Can Sue Video Producer Despite Signing a Blanket Release–Sahoury v. Meredith

…vulnerable to the porn splicing no matter what. Finally, as we saw in the Bev Stayart cases, a person’s name can be splogged into web pages with adult content even…