Monthly Archives: July 2014

court says Lexmark doesn’t change trademark harm standard

Posted on July 28, 2014 by

Reynolds Consumer Prods. Inc. v. Handi-Foil Corp., No. 1:13–CV–214, 2014 WL 3615853 (E.D. Va. July 18, 2014) A jury found Handi-Foil liable for willful infringement of Reynolds’ unregistered trade dress, but in favor of Handi-Foil on all other accounts (including … Continue reading →

Posted in trademark | Leave a comment

Yelp statements about its filters not protected by anti-SLAPP law or CDA

Posted on July 25, 2014 by

Demetriades v. Yelp, Inc., 2014 WL 3661491, No. B247151 (Cal. Ct. App. July 24, 2014) Demetriades operates restaurants and sued Yelp under California’s UCL and FAL based on claims about the accuracy and efficacy of its “filter” of unreliable or … Continue reading →

Posted in 230, california, commercial speech, consumer protection, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post | Leave a comment

Transformative work of the day

Posted on July 25, 2014 by

Pando.com publishes an entire issue of Reason magazine that’s not available in Reason’s online archives “for reasons that will become obvious”–it’s an entire special issue devoted to WWII “revisionism” and Holocaust denial.  Talk to me about fair use factor three! … Continue reading →

Posted in copying, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post | Leave a comment

Reading list: social media flagging

Posted on July 25, 2014 by

Kate Crawford and Tarleton Gillespie, What is a flag for? Social media reporting tools and the vocabulary of complaint, 4 New Media Society (2014).  One of the points I most liked: [F]lags speak only in a narrow vocabulary of complaint. … Continue reading →

Posted in reading list | Leave a comment

FTC announces settlement with "official" ticket seller that wasn’t

Posted on July 24, 2014 by

Details at the FTC’s site.  I was interested in this because usually the FTC leaves alone cases in which a business victim is a likely plaintiff; it makes sense to use government resources to go after defendants who otherwise would … Continue reading →

Posted in ftc, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, trademark | Leave a comment

Trademark exceptionalism wins another round in Maryland

Posted on July 24, 2014 by

Hershey Co. v. Friends of Steve Hershey, 2014 WL 3571691, No. WDQ–14–1825 (D. Md. July 17, 2014) Thanks to prodding from Eric Goldman for me to blog about it, here’s a case where we learn that the only constraint on … Continue reading →

Posted in first amendment, trademark | Leave a comment

Pom doesn’t change preclusion analysis for medical devices

Posted on July 23, 2014 by

Catheter Connections, Inc. v. Ivera Medical Corp., 2014 WL 3536573, No. 2:14–CV–70 (D. Utah, July 17, 2014) The parties compete in the medical device market for infection-control devices.  At issue here are disinfectant caps incorporated into intravenous (IV) lines that … Continue reading →

Posted in fda, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, preemption | Leave a comment