Tort Partners: Infringement & Defamation?
Do you know what torts often go together? Trademark infringement and defamation are often the unholy tort partners in intellectual property complaints. What happens is this: a company files a complaint against another company for trademark infringement, and then the defendant files a cross-complaint, alleging that they were defamed by the infringement claim and surrounding... Read More
Trademark Infringement via Meta Tags
I have served on more than one case where a defendant in a trademark infringement lawsuit used their competitor’s brand name(s) in their HTML Meta Tags as well as in other SEO-significant parts of webpages. I think marketers and website designers were more aware of this 10+ years ago, so here is an explanation for... Read More
“Black Hat” SEO in Counterfeiting & Trademark Infringement Cases
Sometimes attorneys will focus so much on the clear violations of trademark infringement and counterfeiting of products that they will ignore some of the subtle, hidden aspects of an infringement case. But, if you think about it, a counterfeiter that is selling their fraudulent products online is likely to be working hard to make their... Read More
Epic Win vs. Google in Australian Case
I was recently hired by an individual in Australia that sued Google to compel them to be more responsible for her online reputation as reflected in the search results. This was a real-life David-versus-Goliath fight where a single individual became unhappy after Google did not adequately remove listings from their name search results after the... Read More
That Time I Was Expert On The Largest Corrective Advertising Damages Award Case Ever: PODS v. U-Haul
Between 2013 to 2014, I served as an SEO Expert Witness for PODS Enterprises, Inc., as they sued U-Haul International, Inc. It was a fascinating case and, in many ways, astonishing, not least of all because PODS was awarded the largest corrective advertising damages award in history. The back story, as I understood it, was... Read More
Is Initial Interest Confusion A Viable Strategy In Trademark Infringement Cases?
I recently wrote an article on how Initial Interest Confusion (“IIC”) came up in a recent trademark infringement case (see: “Initial Interest Confusion rears its ugly head once more in trademark infringement case“). Quite a number of prominent legal wags are withering in their scorn towards the legal theory of Initial Interest Confusion. But, from... Read More
What Is Trademark Infringement?
Trademark Infringement is defined as the unauthorized use of a trademark (or a confusingly similar mark) or service mark on or in association with services or goods in a way that is likely to cause confusion, deception, or mistake about the source of the goods and/or services. In the United States, a mark may be... Read More
ALERT: Donuts Registrar Is Allowing Free DPML Overrides Now
The Donuts registrar company is allowing free Domains Protected Marks List (“DPML”) overrides currently, from May 22 to 31, 2016. As you may be aware, the DPML allowed mark holders to block their brand names from being registered as domain names or as portions of domain names at a fraction of the cost that would... Read More
Welcome to the Internet Trademark Infringement Blog!
Welcome to the Internet Trademark Infringement Blog. We plan to publish a series of blog posts involving aspects of internet trademark infringement and associated litigation on this blog over time. Online trade mark infringement can involve a number of unique factors that many attorneys are unaware of, and we hope to provide greater clarity and... Read More