Category Archives: secondary liability

11th Circuit recognizes contributory false advertising theory

Posted on August 12, 2015 by rtushnet

Duty Free Americas, Inc. v. Estee Lauder Companies, Inc., — F.3d —- (2015), 2015 WL 4709573, No. 14–11853 (11th Cir. Aug. 7, 2015)   Plaintiff DFA operates duty free stores in many international airports nationwide.  It sued Estée Lauder, arguing … Continue reading →

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ISHTIP at Penn, Part 5

Posted on July 23, 2015 by rtushnet

Session 3 | Marianne Dahlén (Uppsala University, Sweden), Moderator   Design and Copyright: An Open Question? Stina Teilmann-Lock (University of Southern Denmark) Commentator | Jessica Silbey (Northeastern University)   Openness in the law for fair followers?  Design in law in … Continue reading →

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Click click boom: affiliate marketing network liable for affiliates’ false advertising

Posted on April 10, 2015 by rtushnet

FTC v. LeanSpa, LLC, No. 11-CV-1715 (D. Conn. Mar. 5, 2015)   The FTC challenged the use of fake news (and no, they don’t mean The Daily Show) to sell LeanSpa’s weight-loss and colon-cleanse products online. LeanSpa sold its products … Continue reading →

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court declines to dismiss hashtag infringement claim

Posted on April 8, 2015 by rtushnet

Fraternity Collection, LLC v. Fargnoli, 2015 WL 1486375, No. 3:13–CV–664 (S.D. Miss. Mar. 31, 2015)   Fraternity Collection designs and sells shirt, including the “Pocket Shirt,” a custom article of clothing in which customers pick a particular style of shirt … Continue reading →

Posted in copyright, dastar, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, secondary liability, tortious interference, trademark | 1 Comment

Reading list: Campbell at 21/Sony at 31

Posted on March 26, 2015 by rtushnet

Jessica Litman, Campbell at 21/Sony at 31. As you’d expect, insightful and a pleasure to read. Extracts:   When copyright lawyers gather to discuss fair use these days, the most common refrain is its alarming expansion. This distress about fair … Continue reading →

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selling a book without authorization doesn’t violate Lanham Act

Posted on September 29, 2014 by rtushnet

Smith v. BarnesandNoble.com, LLC, No. 1:12-cv-04374, 2014 BL 263099 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 23, 2014) Smith wrote a book, Hardscrabble. He contracted with Smashwords, an online ebook distributor, to sell his book. Smashwords distributed Smith’s book to its retail partners, including B&N, … Continue reading →

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serial infringement may justify liability under Tiffany v. eBay

Posted on September 26, 2014 by rtushnet

Mori Lee, LLC v. Sears Holdings Corp., 2014 WL 4680739, No. 13cv3656 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 8, 2014) Mori Lee, a dressmaker, sued Sears for trademark infringement and unfair competition.  In 2010, Sears opened an online marketplace at Sears.com where third-party merchants … Continue reading →

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Oh No They Didn’t infringe: Livejournal gets DMCA safe harbor

Posted on September 24, 2014 by rtushnet

Eric Goldman on Mavrix Photographs LLC v. LiveJournal, Inc., No. 8:13-cv-00517-CJC-JPR (C.D. Cal. Sept. 19, 2014): plaintiff refuses to send DMCA notices to host website, sues instead.  As Eric says, this is a great case for a fee-shift, since (1) … Continue reading →

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SCIPR, patents (Limelight/Medtronic)

Posted on September 12, 2014 by rtushnet

(Ed. note: as is clear from my notes, I have a somewhat Gingerly approach to patent law. My apologies for any inaccuracies.) Limelight Networks v. Akamai Technologies (Induced infringement when defendants have not directly infringed.) Medtronic v. Mirowski Family Ventures, … Continue reading →

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Dodged a virus and copyright liability: Court rules unused copy isn’t infringing

Posted on August 11, 2014 by rtushnet

Design Data Corp. v. Unigate Enterprise, Inc., 2014 WL 3868076, No. 12–cv–04131 (N.D. Cal. Aug. 6, 2014) The court found that defendants couldn’t be liable for copyright infringement when the only copying they ever did consisted of downloading, but not … Continue reading →

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