By Jeffrey Pietsch
eBay let out a sigh of relief last month when a New York Federal Court ruled that eBay’s efforts to remove sellers of counterfeit goods was sufficient to combat the sale of fake Tiffany & Co. products. In fact, the court held that trademark holders, such as Tiffany & Co., are the ones responsible for policing the online market place for counterfeit products, not online “swap meets” such as eBay.Continue Reading Tiffany v. eBay: eBay Not Responsible for Counterfeit Goods
By: Dale C. Campbell and Serena Crouch, Third Year Law Student at McGeorge School of Law
Internet users and privacy advocates across the nation fear they are losing the continuing battle to protect internet privacy rights. A court decision in a lawsuit between Viacom and YouTube.com is the most recent battlefield regarding data likely to provide the video viewing habits of millions around the world.
In March 2007, Viacom sued YouTube and Google, Inc. in the United States District Court, Southern District of New York, seeking at least $1 billion in damages for alleged copyright infringement. Viacom claims that YouTube built its business by willfully offering Viacom’s copyright protected material such as episodes of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and the cartoon “SpongeBob SquarePants.” Viacom claims that neither YouTube nor its users are licensed to upload its material in the manner it is being used.Continue Reading Viacom V. Youtube: Are Our Internet Privacy Rights Really In Danger?
By Dale C. Campbell
Search engine websites sell keywords as a component of their advertising programs. By purchasing an advertising keyword, a business’s advertisement will appear next to the search results whenever a person enters the advertising keyword as a search term. Trademark questions arise whenever a competitor purchases an advertisement keyword that is confusingly similar to the protected mark of another competitor, thereby causing its advertisement to pop up next to the search results.Continue Reading Internet Search Adwords: Are Your Trademarks Protected?
Google may soon be facing an expensive and damaging class action lawsuit. A federal court ruled last month that Google can be sued for its role in serving ads on websites that use domain names that violate trademark and cybersquatting laws. This case is significant because Google is not the owner or user of the infringing domain names. Google is simply providing advertising services to these domain names. Google, seeking dismissal of the case, argued along these lines. The court, however, held that Google may be liable for cybersquatting.Continue Reading Google Loses Initial Cybersquatting Battle
Lawyers can’t turn around without being bombarded with CLE brochures announcing yet another e-discovery workshop. Electronic discovery is a new medium for storing information, but the time-tested rules concerning an attorney’s ethical duty to the court and opposing counsel in connection with discovery have not changed. On January 7, 2008, Magistrate Judge Barbara L. Major on the United States District Court, Southern District of California, issued an order granting sanctions against Qualcomm Incorporated and several of its attorneys in connection with discovery abuses. (See Qualcomm Incorporated v. Broadcom Corporation, U.S.D.C., S.D. Cal. Case No. 05-CV-1958-B (BLM). The Qualcomm decision commands the attention of all corporate counsel and litigators involved in the discovery process. As stated by Magistrate Judge Major, the decision “provide[s] a roadmap to assist counsel and corporate clients in complying with their ethical and discovery obligations and conducting the requisite ‘reasonable inquiry.’”Continue Reading E-DISCOVERY: ETHICAL RULES REMAIN UNCHANGED
