Written by Geri Haight Six months after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed the district court’s dismissal of Rosetta Stone’s trademark infringement lawsuit against Google, the parties issued a joint statement today announcing that they have settled their legal dispute. The parties stated: “Rosetta Stone Inc. and Google have agreed to dismiss the… Continue Reading
Tag Archives: Google
Google Search Results Will Reflect Repeated Copyright Infringement
Posted in Copyright, Copyright Infringement, Digital Millenium Copyright Act, Legislation, PIPAWritten by Susan Neuberger Weller On Friday, August 10, 2012, Google announced that it was changing its search algorithms so that websites with high numbers of valid copyright infringement removal notices would appear much lower in the search results. This announcement was greeted with strong approval by many online copyright content owners who have for… Continue Reading
Copyright Owners Using DMCA To Take Down URLs
Posted in Copyright, Copyright Infringement, Digital Millenium Copyright Act, Notice and Takedown, PIPA, SOPAWritten by Susan Neuberger Weller At a conference held June 18 at Stanford University Law School – The 9th Annual Stanford Ecommerce Best Practices Conference – it was reported that copyright holders are increasingly using the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s (“DMCA”) notice and takedown procedures to address copyright infringement on websites.
The List of gTLD Applicants: A Breakdown
Posted in Domain Name, gTLD Issue, TrademarkWritten by Geri Haight The list of gTLD applications and applicants, disclosed by ICANN yesterday, is a fascinating read. It provides an insight into how the Internet will be transformed (or, depending on your point of view, confused) in the coming years as new domain name extensions are introduced to consumers. But, at the outset, what… Continue Reading
Has Someone Applied to Register Your .BRAND? Find Out On June 13th
Posted in Domain Name, gTLD Issue, Trademark, Trademark InfringementWritten by Geri Haight Last year, the Internet Committee for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization responsible for the coordination of the global Internet domain name system, announced a plan to bring sweeping changes to the Internet’s generic top level domain (gTLD) structure. Internet users are familiar with gTLDs, if not by name. gTLDs… Continue Reading
Is It Proper To Say You Google On GOOGLE®?
Posted in Domain Name, Genericide, Litigation, Trademark, Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution PolicyWritten by Susan Weller Do you “google?” That is the essence of the question before the Federal District Court in Arizona in a Complaint filed on May 21, 2012 by David Elliott against Internet search engine giant Google, Inc. In Elliot v Google, Inc., CV-12-1072-PHX-MHB, Elliot claims that Google’s once distinctive mark GOOGLE® has become… Continue Reading
ICANN’s Trademark Clearinghouse: An Update
Posted in Domain Name, gTLD Issue, TrademarkWritten by Geri Haight As part of its plan to dramatically expand the Internet’s infrastructure beyond .com (and other pre-existing generic top level domains (gTLDs)), ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, promised brand owners that a variety of additional trademark protection mechanisms would be put in place. One such mechanism is the Trademark Clearinghouse.
Fourth Circuit Resurrects Rosetta Stone’s Challenge to Google’s AdWords Program
Posted in Dilution, Google Adwords, Litigation, Trademark InfringementOn Monday, the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed the district court’s decision ending Rosetta Stone’s trademark infringement case against Google. Rosetta Stone’s complaint, filed in 2009, alleged that Google infringed Rosetta Stone’s trademark rights by selling its trademarks as keywords to third-party competitors without Rosetta Stone’s permission. Under Google’s AdWords program, Google offers advertisers the ability… Continue Reading
Who Owns a Company’s Twitter Account (and Musings on Social Media and Trademarks)?
Posted in Litigation, Social Media, TrademarkOur colleagues at Mintz Levin’s Employment Matters blog recently posted an interesting piece about a dispute regarding ownership of a Twitter account. The dispute arose from an employer/employee relationship, but serves as an important reminder about protecting your brand on social media sites. As alleged in the complaint (PhoneDog LLC v. Kravitz), PhoneDog operates a website that offers cellphone news and reviews and it hired… Continue Reading
SOPA/PIPA Protest: Internet Blackout (at least Partially and Temporarily)
Posted in Copyright, Legislation, PIPA, SOPAIn response to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) pending in Congress, several online resources have decided to make their resources unavailable for a 24 hour period. Wikipedia, Google, Mozilla, Reddit and others have either literally gone black today or have been converted into protest pages decrying censorship and… Continue Reading
Google AdWords Litigation Update – Trademark Holders Denied Class Certification in U.S. Lawsuits
Posted in Google Adwords, Litigation, Remedies, Trademark, Trademark InfringementWritten by Jamison Arterton In the latest Google AdWords decision, a U.S. Federal District Court judge in Texas refused to certify two classes of advertisers who filed separate infringement suits against Google Inc. The complaints, filed in 2009, each claim that Google sold search terms that included registered trademarks to advertisers who were not affiliated… Continue Reading
Google Adwords Decision in Europe: Trademark Owners May Prevent Competitors From Using Trademarks As Keywords
Posted in Google Adwords, Litigation, Trademark, Trademark InfringementWritten by Geri Haight Remember last year when the European Union’s Court of Justice ruled that Google did not violate European Union law by selling trademarks as keywords and thereby permitting advertisers to purchase and use keywords corresponding to their competitor’s trademarks in Google ads? The decision let Google, as an intermediary, off the hook for trademark… Continue Reading
