Competitor’s Keyword Ad Purchase May Be Trademark Infringement–Edina Realty v. TheMLSonline

…precedent on point, such as the first Geico ruling (finding Google made a use in commerce by selling keywords) and the 1-800 Contacts 2nd circuit opinion (finding that WhenU didn’t…

Top Cyberspace IP Cases of 2005

1-800 Contacts, Inc. v. WhenU. Com, Inc., 414 F.3d 400 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 126 S.Ct. 749 (2005). The owner of a website and the mark “1-800 Contacts” sued a…

RipoffReport.com Loses 47 USC 230 Motion to Dismiss–Hy Cite v. badbusinessbureau.com

By Eric Goldman Hy Cite Corp. v. badbusinessbureau.com, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 38082 (D. Ariz. Dec. 27, 2005) This is the third 47 USC 230 ruling involving badbusinessbureau.com/RipoffReport.com. The first…

2005 Blog Year-in-Review

…Case–1-800 Contacts v. WhenU. This is one of my favorite posts of the year. 4. Grokster Supreme Court Ruling 5. Steinbuch v. Cutler Update–Cutler’s Motion to Dismiss. This one got…

Supreme Court Denies 1-800 Contacts Cert Petition

By Eric Goldman Today the US Supreme Court denied 1-800 Contacts’ petition for certiorari of the second circuit opinion in 1-800 Contacts v. WhenU. I’m not surprised by the denial,…

WhenU Opposition to 1-800 Contact’s Certiorari Petition

By Eric Goldman WhenU has filed its opposition to 1-800 Contact’s petition for certiorari from the US Supreme Court. WhenU’s main argument: “1-800 mischaracterizes the decision below as holding that…

1-800 Contacts Appeals 2nd Circuit WhenU Decision to the Supreme Court

…One final interesting point: there appears to be a change of counsel on 1-800 Contacts’ side. 1-800 Contacts’ lead counsel used to be Terence Ross of Gibson Dunn’s DC office;…

U.T. v. Longhornsingles.com Part 2 – state email filtering

By Ethan Ackerman White Buffalo v. U.Texas, Austin, No. 04-50362-CV0 (5th Circuit, August 2nd, 2005) This second post of a two-part posting continues looking at the 5th Circuit’s opinion in…

The FCC Proclaims Itself the UDRP for 800 Numbers

By Eric Goldman From Kevin Poulson’s Wired story: An entrepreneur registers 800-RED-CROS[S]. He claims to have done so because it has the same number as 800-RED-ARMS, and he was running…

Gripers 1, Initial Interest Confusion 0–Lamparello v. Falwell

…gripe sites (Bosley and Lamparello) and major win for adware vendors (1-800 Contacts). This trend suggests that the courts are correcting the silly doctrines that were an overreaction to the…