Zuckerberg Avoids Personal Liability for Social Media “Addiction”–In re Social Media Addiction
…explore every possible issue and angle of liability, no matter how arcane or tangential. For example, the plaintiffs sought to hold Mark Zuckerberg individually liable for his contributions to the…
The Ninth Circuit’s Broad (and Wrong) Standards for Conversion–Taylor v. Google (Guest Blog Post)
…a bad thing. Many online legal domains blur the line between property and contract. We don’t need another. Mark Lemley observed this nearly twenty years ago, but if you allow…
Print-on-Demand Services Face More Legal Woes–Canvasfish v. Pixels
…infringing images and refer to them by the trademark DeYoung. Trademark Infringement. The court wades into the ever-fraught question of what constitutes trademark “use”: On one end are companies like…
Think You Understand Online Trespass to Chattels Law? Think Again–In re Meta Healthcare Pixels
…any other specific harm. If that’s true, this ruling will mark the end of the Internet as we know it, because every Internet packet exchange potentially causes the same “harm.”…
2023 Quick Links: Social Media
…awarded Facebook $683k in attorneys fees. Ouch. * CNN: Mark Zuckerberg personally rejected Meta’s proposals to improve teen mental health, court documents allege * WSJ: Facebook Wanted Out of Politics….
2023 Quick Links: IP, Keyword Ads
…based on user-caused copyright infringement. * Live Face on Web LLC v. Cremation Society of Illinois, No. 22-1641 (7th Cir. Aug. 11, 2023): Time and again we have declared that…
Hot Take on the Wavy Baby Decision (Guest Blog Post)
…it “uses another’s trademark as a trademark—… as a source identifier.” “Trading on the goodwill of the trademark” and using the trademark as a source indicator are two very different…
Evaluating the Constitutionality of Viewpoint-Neutral Trademark Registration Laws That Do Not Restrict Speech—Vidal v. Elster (Guest Blog Post)
…photographs, drawings, or paintings of people). If trademark applicants like Elster can register other people’s names or images as marks for clothing without their consent, the trademark registrant can invoke…
Facebook Faces Contributory Trademark Liability for Marketplace Listings–Car-Freshner v. Meta
…the design. Trademark Claims Car-Freshner submitted trademark takedown notices to Facebook and Instagram over four user-listed items. Allegedly, Facebook and Instagram refused the takedown demands because the trademark violations weren’t…
Section 230 Applies to Nextdoor Consumer Reviews–Duffer v. Nextdoor
…This ruling isn’t surprising at all, but I was surprised that a lawyer (Mark Ellis O’Brien of Lunenburg, MA) willing to bring this case in the face of the OBVIOUS…