April 1st 2010
Last month, the mayor of Topeka, Kansas, stunned the world by announcing that his city was changing its name to Google. Now Google has honored that gesture by changing its name name to Topeka for April Fools’ Day. This makes Bill Bunten the Mayor of Google and Eric Schmidt the CEO of Topeka, Inc. Of course, […]
April 1st 2010
Just yesterday CNET featured Twitter’s roll-out of its homepage, which has been redesigned for newbies. One of the new features is a built-in view of the Tweetstream of a popular keyword. When I logged in this morning, the featured word was “Moscow” — but all the Tweets it featured were pornographic images. This may have […]
March 26th 2010
My friend Steve Singer just emailed that Marketing Sherpa is quoting me on one of my favorite contrarian email tactics. Act like a person, not a marketer. Most people don’t send html emails full of images to their friends; it’s just not necessary. They already have a relationship with the recipient and something of value […]
March 25th 2010
New Haven law firm Stratton Faxon sued Google for selling competitor ads triggered by searches on their name. Specifically, they alleged that these ads interfered with the firm’s business relations with clients, were an unfair business practice under Connecticut state law, and resulted in unjust enrichment. Read the details on Lawyers and Settlements. Note the […]
March 20th 2010
This week, Greenpeace posted a gruesome anti-Nestlé commercial on YouTube complaining that Nestlé SA buys palm oil from companies that destroy the Indonesian rainforest to plant oil palms. The 60-second video depicts a bored office worker enjoying a Kit Kat, which, rather than being the popular chocolate-hazelnut ladyfinger-style confection, appears to be a chocolate-covered ape […]
March 10th 2010
Remember my 2010 prediction that brand holders should beware of clowns? I called it the Coulrophobia Epidemic of 2010. Logorama did it with trademarks, and won an Oscar. Girl Talk did it with music, gaining top rankings from Rolling Stone, Blender and Time magazine. And now Eric Faden uses the most copyrighted video anywhere, Disney® […]
March 3rd 2010
The Hitler Downfall meme is everywhere (we’ve already covered copyright issues of the Hitler Downfall video). This weekend, the New York Times even published a primer on making your own version of the scene, in which der Führer’s fury at the collapse of his plans can be translated into the latest pop-culture news. Bob Battle’s Virginia […]
March 2nd 2010
INTA, the International Trademark Association, is a group of nearly six thousand trademark professionals in 190 countries. They protect the world’s brands. They’re being Twitter-squatted. There’s no pretty way to say it. In 2007, someone apparently seized their name as a Twitter handle and posted one five letter word, “srrrr”. This looks like a case […]
February 26th 2010
Section 230 Isn’t for Bullies Online communities such as Yelp are usually protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. This online law protects publishers; without it, social media would likely never have been. It’s such a valuable protection that I think even lawyers in South Carolina deserve it. However, Section 230 has limits. […]
February 24th 2010
Do you remember conservative radio talk-show host Michael Savage? He sued a Muslim advocacy group for copyright infringement because it dared to quote what he said on the radio as part of an advertiser boycott. A U.S. District judge tossed the suit, and supported the doctrine of Fair Use, saying that anyone who listens to […]
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