August 27th 2009
What’s in the water in St. Charles County? You’ll recall that’s where Lori Drew was was indicted in a cyber bullying case related to the November 2006 suicide of teenager Megan Meier. The case, publicity and resulting legal responses have been a frequent topic here. Now, another grown-up is facing felony harassment charges for allegedly […]
August 24th 2009
Twitter’s laissez-faire approach to trademark enforcement may prove to be a liability after all. Numerous firms have set up services using the Twitter mark: Twitterific, Tiny Twitter, Twitterberry, MadTwitter, TwitterFone, Twitterholic, Twitter Karma, TwitterBuzz, Twitterdex, Twitterlocal, TwitterPoster, TwitterCounter. There’s no sign that Twitter has defended against such use. Even their API agreement fails to lay […]
August 20th 2009
Adam Thierer and Berin Szoka at the Tech Liberation Front have outlined a first draft defining what it is to be a cyber-libertarian: Cyber-libertarians believe true “Internet freedom” is freedom from state action; not freedom for the State to reorder our affairs to supposedly make certain people or groups better off or to improve some […]
August 15th 2009
Eric Goldman at the Technology & Marketing Law blog recounts a hysterically misguided ruling in Colorado, which holds a hospital liable for trademark and copyright infringement because they mention the ranking they received from a health quality website. You can’t copyright a number Imagine enjoining rock bands from saying Billboard ranked them #1, because that […]
August 14th 2009
We love and hate the Blackberries and iPhones that tether us to the world of work. I remember having just started my first lead-gen campaign, and receiving an auto-update of new business while riding a chair lift. Having grown up around farms, I’m comfortable with work and life having lots of overlap. That said, the […]
August 12th 2009
U.S. District Court Judge Leonard Davis has issued a permanent injunction that “prohibits Microsoft from selling or importing to the United States any Microsoft Word products that have the capability of opening .XML, .DOCX or DOCM files (XML files) containing custom XML.” View details. In May, a federal jury in Tyler, Texas, ruled that the […]
August 10th 2009
A 50-person law firm with a national practice in asbestos litigation found that the text of its Elder Law website was copied verbatim as the basis for a new site for a firm in another part of the state. The plaintiff firm, Brayton Purcell, filed suit claiming copyright infringement, false advertising, unfair competition and misappropriation. […]
August 9th 2009
The boundless enthusiasm for social media seems to be running into a need for commercial affirmation. I was struck that the most powerful theme on the formal agenda at Podcamp Boston 4 this weekend was measurement and making the business case for social media: How do we measure the impact of social media?–Marta Kagan. Can you […]
August 2nd 2009
Recently, Starbucks made news by announcing the opening of three coffee stores in Seattle that exhibit no corporate branding. Referred to as “15th Ave. Coffee & Tea,” the new properties feature Starbucks coffee and teas as well as beer, wine, and ice cream, but are devoid of the familiar green-and-black logo. The look and feel of the […]
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