Raj Abhyanker’s Firm Ordered to Pay $90k+ for Ill-Advised Trademark Enforcement Lawsuit–LegalForce v. LawFirms
In one of Judge Alsup’s last rulings before he retired, after a bench trial he rejected LegalForce’s trademark claims over the LawFirms logo (the first logo was pre-litigation; the defendant…
WorldStarHipHop Gets Section 230 Dismissal–Eizenga v. MediaLab
The court describes the video in question (as alleged): an anonymous social media account and online “persona” known as Rain Drops Media (“Rain Drops”) published a defamatory video falsely suggesting…
Court Rejects Lawsuit Over Online Criticisms of a Dater–D’Ambrosio v. Meta
Abbigail Rajala posted a critical review of her dating experience with Nikko D’Ambrosio on the Chicago subboard of Facebook’s Spill the Tea group. According to the district court, D’Ambrosio “sued…
Blogger’s Photo Republication Isn’t Fair Use–Vedros v. Endless Mt. Labradors
This is a run-of-the-mill photographer copyright enforcement action. As a commission for an advertiser, Vedros created a photo that depicts “a dog placing its front paws on a scale with…
TOS Formation Fails, and So Does Section 230–Judge v. Academia
The named plaintiff is a professor. The defendant is a website, Academia, that helps professors share their works publicly. Academia heavily promotes its “Mentions” service that tracks a professor’s mentions…
Meta Defeats Two More Account Termination/Content Removal Lawsuits
…are inseparable from Defendant’s status or conduct as publisher and are barred by section 230(c)(1). [Eric’s note: the court doesn’t address the seemingly obvious problem that a statute can’t override…
SAD Scheme Defendant Gets Damages Payout from the Bond–Bright Head v. Schedule A Defendants
[This is a ruling from a month ago…I just learned about it.] The court starts out: “Plaintiff’s pursuit of a preliminary injunction in this “Schedule A” patent infringement suit fizzled…
Judge Shopping & Schedule A (Guest Blog Post)
By guest blogger Sarah Fackrell, Professor of Law at Chicago-Kent College of Law Plaintiffs are often allowed to choose their own forum. But they’re not supposed to be able to…
11th Circuit Rejects TOS Formation–Tejon v. Zeus
Prior blog post. This 11th Circuit decision involves the following screen: In a split opinion, a majority says this TOS formation failed: Zeus chose to bury the page containing that…
SAD Scheme Plaintiff Gets Default Win But Blows the Layup on Damages–Shenzen Huajie v. Shenzen Leyibei
This is a rare Seventh Circuit opinion on the SAD Scheme (it’s nonprecedential). The defense didn’t contest the appeal, but even without opposition, the rightsowner still whiffs. The court contextualizes…