Court Rejects First Amendment Challenge Against Cyberharassment Charge

Defendant worked at the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. He pled guilty to bribery, mail fraud, and conspiracy related to his allocation of printing contracts at LLS. He was sentenced to five years. John Walter, then LLS’s CEO, apparently provided information…

Competitive Keyword Advertising Permitted As Nominative Use--ElitePay Global v. CardPaymentOptions

I know, it’s getting repetitive blogging about competitive keyword advertising cases failing in court. But trademark owners keep bringing them, so I’ll keep blogging them. The Ruling The trademark owner does business as ElitePay Global. It provides “merchant payment solutions…

Section 230(c)(2) Gets No Luv From the Courts--Song Fi v. Google

This is one of several pending cases where a video poster sues YouTube for allegedly wrongful takedown of the video. I find these cases fascinating because I always wonder how there’s enough money at issue to justify litigation. Unfortunately, I…

eBay Must Disclose User Identities In Response To 512(h) Subpoenas

Barry Rosen is a photographer (especially of dogs) and repeat copyright enforcer (see, e.g., our previous coverage of his litigation here and here). His lawsuit against eBay produced an interesting 512 safe harbor ruling earlier this year. Meanwhile, eBay and…

Google And Yahoo Defeat Last Remaining Lawsuit Over Competitive Keyword Advertising (Forbes Cross-Post)

Keyword advertising using competitors’ trademarks is now so well-accepted, it may be hard to remember that the practice used to generate serious debate among lawyers and ethicists. In particular, the search engines drew substantial legal fire from trademark owners for…

Sixth Circuit Says Informational Fax Isn't an "Ad"--Sandusky v. Medco

Medco is a “pharmacy benefit manager” (an intermediary between employers/health plan sponsors and drug companies). It sent two faxes to Sandusky Wellness Center, a health care provider, advising that many Sandusky patients had adopted Medco’s formulary, and encouraging Sandusky to…

Federal Criminal "True Threats" Require More Than Negligence--Elonis v. U.S.

The Supreme Court issued its long-awaited decision in Elonis (the so-called “Facebook threats” case) today. Elonis was convicted of posting rap lyrics that were allegedly threatening to his now ex-wife and to law enforcement officers. The trial court used a…

Washington Anti-SLAPP Statute Violates Right To Jury Trial--Davis v. Cox

The Washington State Supreme Court struck down the state’s anti-SLAPP statute on the basis that it violates a plaintiff’s right to a jury trial. This ruling comes on the heels of the District of Columbia Circuit’s holding that state anti-SLAPP…

Doing Online Reputation Management? Don't Do It This Way (Forbes Cross-Post)

Recently, I got two identical emails from info@infringex.com sending me a “Notice of Infringement of Defamation.” The notice informs me that a 2012 blog post–written by my perma-guest blogger, Venkat–makes public comments about the purported sender. It further says that…

Online Magazine Gets Section 230 Protection For Third Party Article--AdvanFort v. International Registries

If I didn’t practice Internet law, I might have chosen maritime law. Their disputes are often interesting. This particular case sounds like a movie plotline. AdvanFort provides armed guards to ships worried about piracy (the real kind…you know, on the…