Justia Internet Law Opinion Summaries

In May 2008, Couture applied to register the service mark PLAYDOM under Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. 1051(a), submitting a “[s]creen capture of [a] website offering Entertainment Services in commerce.” His website, www.playdominc.com, then included only a single page, stating: “[w]elcome to PlaydomInc.com. We are proud to offer writing and production services for motion picture film, television, and new media. Please feel free to contact us if you are interested: playdominc@gmail.com,” with the notice: “Website Under Construction.” No services under the mark were provided until 2010. The PLAYDOM mark was registered by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in January 2009. On February 9, 2009, Playdom, Inc. applied to register the identical mark. The registered mark was cited as a ground for rejecting the application. Playdom, Inc. sought to cancel the registration of Couture’s mark as void ab initio because Couturehad not used the mark in commerce as of the date of the application. The Board granted cancellation, stating that Couture “had not rendered his services as of the filing date of his application” because he had “merely posted a website advertising his readiness, willingness and ability to render said services.” The Federal Circuit affirmed. View "Couture v. Playdom, Inc." on Justia Law

Soverain Software sued Victoria’s Secret and Avon for infringement of its patents relating to virtual shopping carts and to using a hypertext statement so that users can access information about past orders. The district court found that defendants infringed certain claims and that those claims were not invalid. After the district court’s judgment, the Federal Circuit, in 2013, decided Soverain Software LLC v. Newegg Inc., finding certain of the claims invalid as obvious The Federal Circuit then reversed as to Victoria’s Secret and Avon, holding that issue preclusion applies as a result of the Newegg case, and that the asserted claims here are therefore invalid. View "Soverain Software, LLC v. Victoria's Secret Direct Brand Mgmt., LLC" on Justia Law

Beyond Systems, an internet service provider, filed suit against Kraft and Connexus seeking damages under California's and Maryland's anti-spam statutes based upon several hundred e-mails which it alleges were unlawful spam. As a preliminary matter, the court concluded that Beyond Systems had Article III standing by claiming a harm: receiving spam e-mail. On the merits, the court agreed with the district court that Beyond Systems is barred from recovery because it consented to the harm underpinning its anti-spam claims. In this case, Beyond Systems created fake e-mail addresses, solely for the purpose of gathering spam; it embedded these addresses in websites so that they were undiscoverable except to computer programs that serve no other function than to find e-mail accounts to spam; it increased its e-mail storage capacity to retain a huge volume of spam; and it intentionally participated in routing spam e-mail between California and Maryland to increase its exposure to spam and thereby allow it to sue under both states' laws. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment of the district court. View "Beyond Systems v. Kraft Foods" on Justia Law

Yoder hosts auctions for used construction equipment. Its largest annual auction is in Florida. Efacts, owned by Garafola, provides auctioneers with online bidding platforms. In 2003, Yoder began accepting live Internet bids during the Florida auction. Efacts provided services. Efacts received and maintained confidential customer information relating to Yoder’s auctions. In 2008 the companies had a falling out. Yoder terminated the contract and hired RTB, another online bidding services company. On February 7-9, 2010, Efacts accessed the RTB bidding platform without authorization, using an RTB administrative username and password. Garafola was aware of the username and password combination from Efacts’ prior relationship with Yoder and submitted winning bids with a combined price of $41,000 for which it did not pay. On February 10- 11, an Efacts employee gained unauthorized access to the RTB platform, posing as a Yoder customer, and placed 18 winning bids with a combined price of $1,212,074 which were not paid. The Sixth Circuit affirmed judgment in favor of Yoder, rejecting claims based on denial of spoliation sanctions; denial of hearsay objections to documents produced by internet service providers; denial of summary judgment on Computer Fraud and Abuse Act claim; and imposition of sanctions under FRCP 37. View "Yoder & Frey Auctioneers, Inc v. EquipmentFacts, LLC" on Justia Law

This case arose when plaintiff filed a defamation action against defendants based on statements that they made in an online petition and press release. The district court dismissed the action. The court reserved decision and certified the following questions to the Nevada Supreme Court: (1) Does a hyperlink to source material about judicial proceedings in an online petition suffice for purposes of applying the common law fair report privilege? and (2) Did Nevada’s anti-strategic litigation against public participation (“anti-SLAPP”) statute, Nev. Rev. Stat. §§ 41.653-41.670, as that statute was in effect prior to the most recent amendments in 2013, cover speech that seeks to influence an election but that is not addressed to a government agency? View "Adelson v. Harris" on Justia Law

DDR’s patents are directed to generating a web page that combines visual elements of a “host” website with content of a third-party merchant. Prior art allowed third-party merchants to “lure the [host website’s] visitor traffic away” from the host website; visitors would be taken to the merchant’s website upon clicking the merchant’s advertisement. The patents disclose that, on activation of a third-party hyperlink on a host website, instead of taking visitors to the merchant’s website, the system generates and directs them to a page that displays product information from the merchant, but retains the host website’s “look and feel.” DDR sued NLG, a travel agency that sells cruises online in partnership with travel websites and cruise lines, asserting infringement by providing a system for cruise-oriented (host) websites that allows visitors to book cruises on cruise lines (merchants). In reexamination of the patents based on prior art, the PTO confirmed the patents’ validity. The parties stipulated to construction of terms, including “look and feel” and “visually perceptible elements.” The district court found the patents not invalid and infringed. The Federal Circuit affirmed except with respect to the 572 patent, which it found to be anticipated as a matter of law. View "DDR Holdings, LLC v. Hotels.Com, L.P." on Justia Law

Interoperability, enabling electronic devices to charge and connect to the wireless Internet anywhere, requires compliance with technical standards. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) publishes the prevailing wireless internet standard. Creating such standards involves collaboration; the chosen standard may include technology developed by different parties, which may be covered by patents. Because the standard requires that devices utilize specific technology, compliant devices necessarily infringe certain claims in “standard essential patents” (SEPs), which can inhibit widespread adoption of a standard. IEEE asks SEP owners to pledge that they will grant licenses to an unrestricted number of applicants on “reasonable and nondiscriminatory” (RAND) terms. Ericsson’s patents are SEPs for IEEE’s standard. Ericsson promised IEEE it would offer licenses at a RAND rate. The accused infringers produce devices incorporating Intel’s wireless chips. Dell claimed that it has a license based on its prior agreement with Ericsson’s subsidiary. In Ericsson’s infringement suit, the court rejected that claim and found that D-Link infringed three Ericsson patents; held that the 625 patent was valid over a prior art; found that Intel violated its obligation to negotiate a royalty rate in good faith; and awarded Ericsson $10 million (15 cents per infringing device). The Federal Circuit affirmed two infringement findings, but reversed as to another; affirmed that the 625 patent was not invalid; and vacated the damages and ongoing royalty awards. View "Ericsson, Inc. v. D-Link Sys., Inc." on Justia Law

Williamson's patent describes methods and systems for “distributed learning” that utilize industry standard computer hardware and software linked by a network to provide a virtual classroom). The system includes a presenter computer that controls information that appears on the audience member’s computer screen, audience member computers that display the presentation and can communicate with the presenter and other audience members, and a distributed learning server that implements a “virtual classroom” over a network, such as the Internet.. Williamson accused defendants of infringement based on their alleged manufacture, sale, use, and importation of systems and methods of online collaboration. The district court construed “graphical display representative of a classroom” and “first graphical display comprising . . . a classroom region” as requiring “a pictorial map illustrating an at least partially virtual space in which participants can interact, and that identifies the presenter(s) and the audience member(s) by their locations on the map.” The court concluded that the limitation, “distributed learning control module,” was a means-plus-function term under 35 U.S.C. 112(6) and that the specification failed to disclose necessary algorithms for performing all claimed functions, so that claims were invalid as indefinite. The Federal Circuit vacated, finding the constructions erroneous. View "Williamson v. Citrix Online, LLC" on Justia Law

Navalimpianti, suing its former officers and employees (including Negro) in Florida, sought to obtain copies of e-mail messages stored by Google in California. Navalimpianti caused a subpoena to be served on Google, which Negro moved to quash. The California trial court ordered Google to produce the e-mails, based on its conclusion that Negro had consented, or was deemed to have consented, to their production. The court of appeal held that, at the time it was entered the order constituted an abuse of discretion. Since then, however, Negro has been ordered by a Florida court to give his express consent to disclosure, and he has complied with that order by e-mailing Google; the express consent takes the contemplated production outside of the Stored Communications Act, 18 U.S.C. 2702 and permits Google to make the requested disclosure. View "Negro v. Superior Ct." on Justia Law

Plaintiff, an aspiring model, filed a failure to warn suit against Internet Brands, the company who owns the website modelmayhem.com. Plaintiff had posted information about herself on the website and two rapists used the website to lure her to a fake audition where they drugged her, raped her, and recorded her for a pornographic video. The district court dismissed plaintiff's action because her claim was barred by the Communications Decency Act (CDA), 47 U.S.C. 230(c). The court held that section 230(c)(1) precludes liability that treats a website as the publisher or speaker of information users provide on the website. This section protects websites from liability for material posted on the website from someone else. In this case, plaintiff does not seek to hold Internet Brands liable as a "publisher or speaker" of content someone posted on modelmayhem.com, or for Internet Brands' failure to remove content on the website. Plaintiff also does not claim to have been lured by any posting that Internet Brands failed to remove. Instead, plaintiff attempts to hold Internet Brands liable for failing to warn her about how third parties targeted and lured victims through the website. The duty to warn allegedly imposed by California law would not require Internet Brands to remove any user content or otherwise affect how it publishes such content. Therefore, the CDA does not bar plaintiff's failure to warn claim and the CDA was not a valid basis to dismiss the complaint. Accordingly, the court reversed and remanded. View "Doe v. Internet Brands, Inc." on Justia Law