Category Archives: Uncategorized

I can’t believe it’s not (vegan) butter: First Amendment invalidates standard of identity for butter as applied to vegan product

Posted on September 8, 2020 by rtushnet

Miyoko’s Kitchen v. Ross, No. 20-cv-00893-RS (N.D. Cal. Aug. 21, 2020) Eric Goldman’s far more anti-regulatory take is here. The California Department of Food and Agriculture told Miyoko’s not to call its “vegan butter” product “butter” (it challenged certain other … Continue reading →

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T-shirts as noncommercial speech (and an issue-spotter fact pattern)

Posted on September 8, 2020 by rtushnet

Cornette v. Graver, 2020 WL 4059589, No. 19-cv-219 (W.D. Pa. Jul. 20, 2020) Cornette is a professional wrestling commentator and “personality” who sued defendants for infringing his trademark rights and right of publicity by selling disparaging t-shirts bearing his name … Continue reading →

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inhaler marketing is partly deceptive; P not required to resurvey revised material

Posted on September 8, 2020 by rtushnet

GlaxoSmithKline LLC v. Boehringer Ingelheim Pharms., Inc., 2020 WL 5258317, No. 19-5321 (E.D. Pa. Sept. 3, 2020) GSK partially succeeded and partially failed to preliminarily enjoin some of BI’s marketing in this case involving claims about different inhalers. Of broader … Continue reading →

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another advertiser’s Google click fraud suit is revived

Posted on September 8, 2020 by rtushnet

Singh v. Google LLC, 2020 WL 5202081, — Fed.Appx. —-, 2020 WL 5202081 (9th Cir. Sept. 1, 2020) The court of appeals reverses the dismissal of Singh’s California FAL/UCL claims against Google for allegedly charging for fraudulent clicks despite its … Continue reading →

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Tiffany’s blues: Costco gets a trial on sales of “Tiffany” rings with Tiffany setting

Posted on August 21, 2020 by rtushnet

Tiffany & Co. v. Costco Wholesale Corp., Nos. 17-2798-cv, 19-338, 19-404, 2020 WL 4743020, — F.3d – (2d Cir. Aug. 17, 2020) The district court found that Costco’s sales of otherwise unbranded diamond engagement rings with the solitaire setting known … Continue reading →

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Harm story fails where deceived doctors’ choices wouldn’t have mattered

Posted on August 21, 2020 by rtushnet

Quidel Corp. v. Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc., No. 16-cv-3059-BAS-AGS, 2020 WL 4747724 (S.D. Cal. Aug. 17, 2020) Previously, the court ruled that alleged misrepresentations, even if false, didn’t affect testing labs’ choice of which of the parties’ tests to … Continue reading →

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Second Circuit finds conflict preemption of publicity rts for unauthorized music sample

Posted on August 21, 2020 by rtushnet

Jackson v. Roberts, No. 19-480 (2d Cir. Aug. 19, 2020) Judge Leval, kindly citing my work as well as that of other scholars, finds a right of publicity claim against a remix album preempted by the Copyright Act/Supremacy Clause through … Continue reading →

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IPSC Panel 15 – Trademark Law II

Posted on August 21, 2020 by rtushnet

Trademark Fame and Corpus Linguistics, Jake Linford, FSU College of Law and Kyra Nelson, Independent Dilution protects famous marks as if they were monosemous: having same source meaning no matter what goods/services applied to. Proposal: use data about TM use … Continue reading →

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suit against laser-bearing baseball hat (for hair regrowth) proceeds

Posted on August 18, 2020 by rtushnet

 Cooper v. Curallux LLC, 2020 WL 4732193, No. 20-cv-02455-PJH (N.D. Cal. Aug. 14, 2020) Curallux makes “baseball-style hats with lasers in them” and advertises them as hair regrowth products that are “without side effects” and “physician recommended.” Cooper brought the … Continue reading →

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using picture of competitor’s product as reverse passing off

Posted on August 18, 2020 by rtushnet

John Bean Tech. Corp. v. B GSE Gp., LLC, 2020 WL 4698984, No. 1:17-cv-142-RJS-DAO (D. Utah Aug. 13, 2020) Plaintiff JBT “is a major player in the aviation industry for ground support equipment,” used to maintain aircraft, including preconditioned air … Continue reading →

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