By Eric Goldman Who doesn’t enjoy a good old-fashioned mud-slingin’ showdown? That’s exactly what we’ve got on our hands in the dueling summary judgment motions from Viacom and YouTube in the long-running copyright infringement case (see my initial post from…

[Post by Venkat] Lane v. Facebook (Case No. 09-3845 RS; March 17, 2010) [scribd link] Judge Seeborg yesterday issued an order approving the class settlement in Lane v. Facebook, the class action lawsuit arising out of Facebook’s Beacon program. Background:…

By Eric Goldman Last week, I presented my Regulating Reputational Systems talk to non-lawyers at the Jewish High Tech Community. My talk slides. I’ve been working on this topic now for about 18 months, and I’m finally getting closer to…

By Eric Goldman Stratton Faxon v. Google, Inc., NNH-CV-09-5031219S (Conn. Superior Ct. dismissed March 8, 2010) Stratton Faxon v. Google was always an oddball case in the constellation of trademark owner challenges to Google AdWords. First, the plaintiff–a law firm…

By Eric Goldman University of Colorado law professor Paul Ohm has written one of the most provocative privacy-related papers of the past few years, Broken Promises of Privacy: Responding to the Surprising Failure of Anonymization. Using examples such as the…

By Eric Goldman The Utah legislature has passed SB 51, the “Utah Bioprospecting Act,” which requires a government-issued license (which presumably will include a royalty cut for the state) before engaging in bioprospecting on government lands not owned by the…

By Eric Goldman TradeComet.com LLC v. Google, Inc., 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20154 (SDNY March 5, 2010) The judge has (finally) dismissed TradeComet’s antitrust lawsuit against Google based on the venue selection clause in Google’s AdWords contract. The result isn’t…

By Eric Goldman Doctor’s Associates, Inc. v. QIP Holders LLC, 2010 WL 669870 (D. Conn. Feb. 19, 2010). My prior post on this case. As a long-time vegetarian (over a quarter-century), I find America’s obsession with “more meat” competitions simultaneously…

By Eric Goldman Today, Rescuecom issued a press release declaring victory in its litigation against Google. But it’s an odd definition of “victory” given that Rescuecom has apparently voluntarily abandoned its 6 year litigation effort without any new concessions from…

[Post by Venkat] Kramer v. Bartok, Case No. 08-3841 (8th Cir. Feb. 19, 2010) (scribd link). The Eighth Circuit recently reversed an award of $236 million in damages against a spam defendant based on a theory of secondary liability. The…