Category Archives: Uncategorized

California claims against false use of “organic” not preempted

Posted on December 7, 2015 by rtushnet

Quesada v. Herb Thyme Farms, Inc., 2015 WL 7770635, No. S216305 (Cal. S.Ct. Dec. 3, 2015)   Labels matter to consumers, and misrepresentations on labels hurt consumers in their search for information and also disadvantage honest producers attempting to differentiate … Continue reading →

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is “this video has been removed for violating the ToS” commercial advertising?

Posted on December 7, 2015 by rtushnet

Darnaa, LLC v. Google, Inc., 2015 WL 7753406, No. 15-cv-03221 (N.D. Cal. Dec. 2, 2015)   Darnaa posted a music video, Cowgirl, to YouTube.  At one point, YouTube removed the video from its original location, later reposting it at a … Continue reading →

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Court mashes up Dastar and commercial speech doctrine to protect book from Lanham Act

Posted on December 7, 2015 by rtushnet

Keel v. Axelrod, No. 15-1507, 2015 WL 7733973 (E.D. Pa. Dec. 1, 2015)   Political operative David Axelrod wrote a book, Believer: My Forty Years in Politics. Frank Keel, a political and media consultant, sued under state and federal law … Continue reading →

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Reading list: commercializing fanworks in the US and Japan

Posted on December 3, 2015 by rtushnet

Nele Noppe, Mechanisms of control in online fanwork sales: A comparison of Kindle Worlds and Dlsite.com, 12 Participations 218, 231 (2015) (citations and footnote omitted):   This research also suggests that while the establishment of Kindle Worlds may have been … Continue reading →

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EU public consultation on intermediary liability

Posted on December 3, 2015 by rtushnet

EU Delegation to the US, Public Workshop on the Digital Single Market Strategy, Consultation on Online Platforms, Cloud & Data, Liability of Intermediaries, Collaborative Economy   2003 Directive: recital says that there’s no prohibition for member states to come up … Continue reading →

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Amicus brief in visual meme case

Posted on December 2, 2015 by rtushnet

While I’m at it, Chris Sprigman and I filed a brief on behalf of IP professors in a case against Fox News for republishing a 9/11 meme on a Fox Facebook page, with commentary on the order of “Never Forget”–the … Continue reading →

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Amicus brief in karaoke case: Dastar revisited

Posted on December 2, 2015 by rtushnet

Mark McKenna (and I) filed an amicus brief on behalf of IP professors in another karaoke case, dealing with alleged infringement that consisted of displaying karaoke lyrics using unauthorized copies of the karaoke tracks, based on alleged trade dress in the audiovisual … Continue reading →

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Metaphor likening plaintiff to peeping Tom is opinion, not fact

Posted on December 1, 2015 by rtushnet

Right Field Rooftops, LLC v. Chicago Cubs Baseball Club, LLC, — F.Supp.3d —-, 2015 WL 5731736, No. 15 C 551 (N.D. Ill. Sept. 30, 2015)   The Rooftops allowed patrons to view live Cubs games from their location near Wrigley … Continue reading →

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Verisign fails to enjoin XYZ’s statements about .xyz versus .com domains

Posted on November 30, 2015 by rtushnet

Verisign, Inc., v. XYZ.com, LLC, 2015 WL 7430016, No. 14-cv-01749 (E.D. Va. Nov. 20, 2015)   Verisign is the industry leader in domain name registration, with over 120 million registrations in the <.com> and <.net> space. XYZ entered the market … Continue reading →

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informal representations to competitor’s customers can violate Lanham Act

Posted on November 30, 2015 by rtushnet

Display Works, LLC v. Pinnacle Exhibits, Inc., No. WMN-15-2284, 2015 WL 7454084 (D. Md. Nov. 24, 2015)   The parties entered into a nondisclosure agreement in connection with a potential acquisition by Pinnacle.  Pinnacle agreed that it would, among other … Continue reading →

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