Category Archives: Uncategorized

Can the argument that third party users of a term are engaged in nominative fair use defeat a genericism claim?

Posted on April 2, 2018 by rtushnet

Illinois Tamale Co. v. El-Greg, Inc., 2018 WL 1534971, No. 16 C 5387 (N.D. Ill. Mar. 29, 2018) This case raises the interesting question of whether it’s possible to distinguish nominative fair uses from generic uses when looking at online … Continue reading →

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Timeshare company can sue anti-timeshare law firm under Florida unfair competition law

Posted on April 2, 2018 by rtushnet

Orange Lake Country Club, Inc. v. Castle Law Group, P.C., No: 17-cv-1044-Orl-31DCI, 2018 WL 1535719 (M.D. Fla. Mar. 29, 2018) Plaintiffs are entities involved in selling timeshares; defendants promise to help timeshare owners get out of their contracts. Defendants allegedly … Continue reading →

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Post-sale statements that prevent return of items can constitute advertising & promotion

Posted on April 2, 2018 by rtushnet

Boltex Manufacturing Co. v. Galperti, Inc., 2018 WL 1535199, No. H-17-1439 (S.D. Tex. Mar. 29, 2018) The parties compete in the market for carbon steel flanges.  Normalization is a heat treatment process that changes the physical composition of carbon steel … Continue reading →

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YouTube’s claims about allowing free speech are merely puffery, court holds

Posted on March 30, 2018 by rtushnet

Prager University v. Google LLC, No. 17-CV-06064, 2018 WL 1471939 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 26, 2018) Prager’s “mission” is to “provide conservative viewpoints and perspectives on public issues that it believes are often overlooked or ignored” by creating educational videos, though, … Continue reading →

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YouTube’s claims about allowing free speech are merely puffery, court holds

Posted on March 30, 2018 by rtushnet

Prager University v. Google LLC, No. 17-CV-06064, 2018 WL 1471939 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 26, 2018) Prager’s “mission” is to “provide conservative viewpoints and perspectives on public issues that it believes are often overlooked or ignored” by creating educational videos, though, … Continue reading →

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Open legal question doesn’t preclude fees award where manner of litigating is exceptional

Posted on March 30, 2018 by rtushnet

Tobinick v. Novella, 884 F.3d 1110 (11th Cir. 2018) The court of appeals held that the Octane Fitness standard for “exceptional cases” applied to Lanham Act cases, and that the District Court here didn’t abuse its discretion in awarding attorney’s … Continue reading →

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Walmart’s allegedly secret customer return blacklist could be misleading, unfair

Posted on March 30, 2018 by rtushnet

Maestas v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., No. 16-cv-02597-KJM-KJN, 2018 WL 1518762 (E.D. Cal. Mar. 28, 2018) Maestas allegedly bought a car battery from Wal-Mart that purportedly came with a replacement and refund warranty. When the battery malfunctioned and he tried to … Continue reading →

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reasonable consumers might not know just how big Apple iOS 8 is

Posted on March 30, 2018 by rtushnet

Orshan v. Apple Inc. 2018 WL 1510202, No. 14-cv-05659-EJD (N.D. Cal. Mar. 27, 2018) The plaintiffs bought iPhones and iPads with 16 GB capacity running earlier versions of iOS, which they later upgraded to iOS 8, which used anywhere from … Continue reading →

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reading list: parody takedowns on Google

Posted on March 29, 2018 by rtushnet

Erickson, K. & Kretschmer, M. (2018) ‘This Video is Unavailable’: Analyzing Copyright Takedown of User-Generated Content on YouTube. Journal of Intellectual Property, Information Technology and ECommerce Law (JIPITEC), 9(1). From the abstract: This research investigates factors that motivate takedown of … Continue reading →

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Supplement review guide not disguised advertising despite cozy relationship with one manufacturer

Posted on March 27, 2018 by rtushnet

Ariix, LLC v. Nutrisearch Corp., No. 17CV320, 2018 WL 1456928 (S.D. Cal. Mar. 23, 2018) Ariix competes with Usana Health Sciences in the nutritional supplement market.  NutriSearch publishes the NutriSearch Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements, “a guide to nutritional products … Continue reading →

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