Free for a Fee

[Post by Jake McGowan]

Branca v. Mann, CV 11-00584 (C.D. Cal. Aug. 10, 2012)

When a celebrity goes bankrupt or forgets to pay a bill for his/her physical-space storage locker, opportunists may swoop in and purchase the goods so they can try and turn a profit reselling them. But sometimes, these buyers get a little overzealous–they convince themselves that their interest in the tangible property gives them an interest in some of the celebrity’s underlying intellectual property rights. This leads to poorly designed pay-for-access websites with risqué names like “parisexposed.com.”

A district court in California heard one of these storage locker disputes in Branca v. Mann, where the defendants set up a pay-for-access website relating to the late Michael Jackson. The court lowered the boom on August 10th, granting summary judgment in favor of the plaintiffs for a long list of claims including copyright infringement, false designation of origin, misappropriation of likeness, cybersquatting, and so on.

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The content in this post was found at http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2012/09/buyers_of_micha.htm and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com. Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post.

[Post by Venkat Balasubramani]

Koch Industries, Inc. v. Does, 10CV1275DAK (D. Utah; May 9, 2011) [.pdf]

EFF, Public Citizen and other similar organizations have excellent resources for creators of parody and satire on the internet. A recent case (litigated by Public Citizen) illustrated a few pitfalls a plaintiff–who is seeking to shut down such non-commercial content–may face. A commercial motivation does not automatically doom a parody or satire defense, but the total absence of a commercial motive will neutralize a plaintiff’s claims.

Other coverage:

“Utah Court Strikes Blow for Free Speech, Dismisses Trademark and CFAA Claims Against Political Activists” (EFF)
“Court Protects Hoax Press Release” (Bill McGeveran)
“In Which We Lose Our Funding And Are Reduced To Eating Gravel” (Popehat)
“In Koch spoof case, judge favors First Amendment” (CitizenVox)

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The content in this post was found at http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2011/07/court_smacks_do_1.html and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com. Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post.

[Post by Venkat]

DSPT International v. Nahum, Case No. 08-5506 (9th Cir.; Oct. 27, 2010)

This case involves the familiar story of a company leaving the domain name registration in the hands of someone who performed web design services (in this case, the registration was left in the name of the web designer’s brother) and the registrant later refusing to turn over the domain name due to a dispute over unfulfilled obligations to the registrant.

UPDATE from Eric: A few analogous cases:

* Web Developer Didn’t “Convert” Website–Conwell v. Gray Loon
* Outdated Whois Information Might Lead to False Light Tort–Meyerkord v. Zipatoni
* Taking Intangible Electronic Files is Criminal Fraud–NM v. Kirby
* Cautionary Tale of Website Co-Ownership–Mikhlyn v. Bove
* Another Cautionary Tale of Joint Website Ownership–TEG v. Phelps

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The content in this post was found at http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2010/11/post_2.htm and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com. Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post.

[Post by Venkat Balasubramani]

Levi Strauss & Co v. Papikian Enterprises, C 10-05051 JSW (N.D. Cal.; Aug. 24, 2011) [pdf]

Facts: Levi Strauss owns trademarks for “Levi’s,” “501″ and other terms. It sells its products directly and to authorized retailers but does not sell through “distributors, wholesalers or jobbers.” Retailers are contractually restricted from reselling “first quality merchandise.” Papikian registered several domain names (501USA.com, 550jeans.com, 517jeans.com) through which he offered Levi Strauss products for sale. Levi Strauss grumbled about his use of various Levi Strauss trademarks and how Papikian sold goods to EU residents. The parties engaged in settlement discussions which were not fruitful, and ultimately Levi Strauss brought suit, alleging trademark and cybersquatting claims. Levi Strauss alleged that in response to some of Levi Strauss’s complaints, Papikian made some changes to his website, but at some point along the way, these changes reverted, and Papikian’s website “looked more professional, offered [Levi Strauss] products exclusively, and make more extensive use of [Levi Strauss] trademarks.”

Papikian brought a motion for summary judgment, which the court denies.

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The content in this post was found at http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2011/08/levi_strausss_t_1.htm and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com. Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post.

[Post by Venkat Balasubramani]

Berhad v. GoDaddy, C 09-5939 PJH (N.D. Cal.; Jan. 3, 2012)

Plaintiff, Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas), a government owned entity, owns the Petronas Towers in Malaysia. It’s trying to enforce its trademark rights against two domain names (petronastowers.net and petronastower.net). In mid-2010, it quickly obtained relief against both domain names, via in rem actions. These aren’t the disputes before the court. Prior to obtaining in rem relief against the domain names, Petronas urged GoDaddy to disable the website and domain names (the domain names were registered to GoDaddy and GoDaddy provided forwarding services, which pointed the domain names to porn sites). GoDaddy demurred, stating that as the registrar, it could not adjudicate Petronas’s cybersquatting claim and since it did not host the underlying sites, it couldn’t process Petronas’s trademark infringement claim. Petronas is trying to hold GoDaddy liable for not ‘disabling’ the domain name and website at Petronas’s urging. It asserted claims for cybersquatting and contributory cybersquatting against GoDaddy. Its hook for trying to hold GoDaddy liable? GoDaddy “used” the domain names by providing forwarding services for its customers.

Cybersquatting claim:

Contributory Cybersquatting:

Cancellation of Petronas’s Mark:

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The content in this post was found at http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2012/01/trademark_owner_1.htm and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com. Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post.