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Ruling Against Contextual Ads Helps to Codify Trademark Use in Commerce
Contextual advertising ' advertising placed where it will be seen by consumers looking for competitors' products ' is everywhere:
- Supermarket coupons strategically placed near shelves stocking competitive products;
- Yellow-pages ads published next to rivals' listings; and
- One company's billboards appearing near a competitor's store.
Contextual advertising is particularly significant on the Internet because the ability to display advertisements or Web-site links when consumers search for particular terms gives advertisers a powerful tool for targeting consumers, and provides a critical source of revenue for Internet search engines.
While contextual advertising is well accepted in bricks-and-mortar businesses and in traditional publications, it is controversial on the Internet. Courts have not worked out whether (and if so, how) an advertiser may use a competitor's trademark to trigger banner ads or sponsored links displayed along with search results. A recent U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit decision, Rescuecom Corp. v. Google Inc., 562 F.3d 123 (2d Cir. 2009), confirms a trend favoring trademark holders at the expense of maximally effective contextual advertising. Rescuecom held that Google's practice of selling trademarked terms as keywords to trigger advertising accompanying search results is a “use in commerce” of the trademarks ' a necessary element of a claim under the Lanham Act (“the Act”) ' even though the trademarks themselves do not appear in the advertising consumers see.
Bankruptcy Sales: Finding a Diamond In the Rough
There is no efficient market for the sale of bankruptcy assets. Inefficient markets yield a transactional drag, potentially dampening the ability of debtors and trustees to maximize value for creditors. This article identifies ways in which investors may more easily discover bankruptcy asset sales.
Judge Rules Shaquille O'Neal Will Face Securities Lawsuit for Promotion, Sale of NFTs
A federal district court in Miami, FL, has ruled that former National Basketball Association star Shaquille O'Neal will have to face a lawsuit over his promotion of unregistered securities in the form of cryptocurrency tokens and that he was a "seller" of these unregistered securities.
Why So Many Great Lawyers Stink at Business Development and What Law Firms Are Doing About It
Why is it that those who are best skilled at advocating for others are ill-equipped at advocating for their own skills and what to do about it?
Blockchain Domains: New Developments for Brand Owners
Blockchain domain names offer decentralized alternatives to traditional DNS-based domain names, promising enhanced security, privacy and censorship resistance. However, these benefits come with significant challenges, particularly for brand owners seeking to protect their trademarks in these new digital spaces.
'Insurable Interest' and the Scope of First-Party Coverage
This article reviews the fundamental underpinnings of the concept of insurable interest, and certain recent cases that have grappled with the scope of insurable interest and have articulated a more meaningful application of the concept to claims under first-party property policies.