A quick note to mark the passing of 2011 and the start of 2012. Thank you all for reading and commenting here (and on Twitter) on the stories that have been reported on these pages. I’m looking forward to posting much more in 2012. There has been plenty to contemplate in the last 12 months [...]
Archive for the ‘trademarks’ Category
Happy New Year!
December 31st, 2011 
Gareth Dickson 
Posted in copyright, data protection, North America, patents, privacy, social media, trademarks, UK and Europe, vront 
Tags: Authors Guild, Book Settlement, copyright, Google, Internet, second circuit, UK, US, YouTube 
No Comments »More #badIPnews
September 21st, 2011 Gareth Dickson With the increasing importance of intellectual property on companies’ balance sheets, and the rise in litigation between them, the law of averages dictates that we’ll be noticing more mistakes in articles discussing the nature of IP and its territorial limits. You know the sort of thing I mean: bloggers who note how someone is patenting [...]
Posted in copyright, North America, patents, privacy, social media, trademarks, UK and Europe No Comments »
Google Increases Ad Prominence For Sellers Using Third Party Trademarks
September 6th, 2011 Gareth Dickson Brand owners are likely to be unimpressed by Google’s latest update to its AdWords program, which gives purchasers of third party trademarks increased prominence for their ads. The change, which is already in operation, means “organic” search results will be pushed further out of view by sponsored ads, whose format now looks like some categories [...]
Posted in North America, social media, trademarks, vront Tags: AdWords, Google, Internet, trade marks, trademarks No Comments »LA Court – Madonna’s Not The Only Material Girl
September 2nd, 2011 Gareth Dickson Women’s Wear Daily today reports on a matter that was covered on this blawg last August (Madonna’s Macy’s Material Met By Mark Lawsuit), namely an attempt by an LA company to put a stop to Madonna and Macy’s ‘Material Girl’ clothing line. The Plaintiff, L.A. Triumph, Inc, argues that it has the prior rights to the [...]
New York Becomes Latest Court To Rule Against Use of Trademarks in AdWords
August 27th, 2011 Gareth Dickson A District Court in New York has become the latest to find that using a competitor’s trademark in Google’s AdWords program can be trademark infringement. District Judge Roslynn R. Mauskopf found that the Defendants’ selection of “PILLOW PETS” and similar marks as a trigger for Google Ads is likely an infringement of the Plaintiff’s registered trademarks [...]
Posted in North America, social media, trademarks, vront Tags: AdWords, copyright, false advertising, Google, Internet, New York, second circuit, trade marks, trademarks, US No Comments »
Judge-Led Charge Against American Fashion Designers Continues
August 11th, 2011 Gareth Dickson Fashion designers, as a class, should gain only limited IP protection, according to Judge Victor Marrero of the Southern District of New York. Giving judgment in Christian Louboutin SA et al v. Yves Saint Laurent America, Inc et al., 1:11-cv-2381 (NYSD August 10, 2011), Judge Marrero acknowledged that the world famous Louboutin house has acquired [...]
Posted in North America, trademarks, vront Tags: copyright, New York, second circuit, trade marks, trademarks, US No Comments »
New Microsoft ad strategy more aggressive than Google’s?
August 5th, 2011 Gareth Dickson Microsoft has recently tested a new system of advertising whereby ads are not placed on top of the organic search results, nor to the side, nor on a colored background, but actually within the list of organic results. Is this a smart move? Will Microsoft find itself on the end of a (meritorious) lawsuit for [...]
Posted in North America, social media, trademarks, UK and Europe, vront Tags: AdSense, AdWords, ECJ, Europe, Google, Internet, trade marks, trademarks, UK, unfair business practices 1 Comment »
Google AdWords Takes A Hit: E-Commerce Safe Harbour MIA
July 31st, 2011 Gareth Dickson While the Wall Street Journal (initially, at any rate) declared outright victory for Google’s AdWords service after the Court of Justice of the European Union (“ECJ” or “CJEU”) ruled that the sale of keywords to advertisers did not constitute “use” of those keywords within the meaning of the Trade Marks Directive (89/104/EEC), most of us [...]
Posted in social media, trademarks, UK and Europe, vront Tags: AdWords, ECJ, Europe, false advertising, Google, Internet, trade marks, trademarks, unfair business practices 2 Comments »Happy World IP Day!
April 26th, 2011 Gareth Dickson I couldn’t let today pass without wishing you all a very happy World IP Day. This year, the focus of the day is “Designing the Future”, which you can read about here. You can also ‘Like’ World IP Day on Facebook here, and can read the IPKat’s salute here. No doubt the next year will be [...]
Posted in copyright, data protection, North America, patents, privacy, social media, trademarks, UK and Europe No Comments »
POTUS candidate abandon briefs and suit: reverts to being Naked
April 22nd, 2011 Gareth Dickson If I told you that Robert Burck had had a haircut, you probably wouldn’t know what I was talking about. But if I told you that while in Times Square last week I noticed that the Naked Cowboy is back performing with a new look, you might even remember the lawsuit he filed last year [...]