2016 was a tough year in many respects (check out the #Fuck2016 hashtag), including a swarm of adverse Section 230 rulings. Even in paradigms where the immunity still functions reasonably well, such as user comments on message boards or online…
* Smith v. Alphabet Inc., 2016 WL 3660725 (S.D. Ala. May 23, 2016): “plaintiff’s citation to (and discussion of) § 230 of the CDA in no manner advances his arguments against the corporate defendants inasmuch as it is clear that…
Patents * Tim Holbrook on how slow FDA procedures contribute to de facto monopolies for off-patent drugs/devices * Washington Post: Patent lawsuits swell and watchdog says the government is to blame * Washington Post: Patent office workers bilked the government…
Teens and Twitter–what could go wrong? A tweetstorm broke out among Colorado high schoolers related to the Arapahoe High School shooting. R.D. joined the fray, tweeting A.C. (at his Twitter alias @iTweetYouShutUp) messages including: • “[i]f I see your bitch…
“Counterfeits” * Gucci v. Alibaba, Case 1:15-cv-03784-PKC (SDNY Aug. 4, 2016) (cites omitted): Plaintiffs have failed to plausibly allege that the Merchant Defendants engaged in anything but independent conduct, without coordination and for their own economic self-interest. Indeed, the Merchant…
Trademarks * Evoqua Water Technologies LLC v. M.W. Watermark LLC, 2016 WL 4727432 (W.D. Mich. Sept. 12, 2016) Paragraph 1 of the injunction prohibits the use of marks beginning with “J-,” except pursuant to a fair use. Watermark argues that…
Copyright * Goldstein v. Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, Inc., 2016 WL 4257457 (D. Md. Aug. 11, 2016) Unlike in Costar, Goldstein alleges that the Metro Photograph, on its face, contained a watermark indicating that it was copyrighted, which would support…
A venerable and classic Internet Law question: when a consumer uses a trademark as a search term, what are they looking for? If they are seeking the trademark owner–and only the trademark owner–then competitive keyword advertisers may encroach on the…
The City of Petersburg’s police department adopted a social media policy for police officers that included the following restrictions: Negative comments on the internal operations of the Bureau, or specific conduct of supervisors or peers that impacts the public’s perception…
Dunn posted a negative Ripoff Report about Williams. Williams asked Ripoff Report to remove it; he says Ripoff Report agreed to do so and then reneged. Williams sued Dunn for defamation and other claims and sued Ripoff Report for publication…