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March 3, 2008 First Amendment

Court lifts injunction off of Wikileaks

Court Lifts Injunction Against Web Site Accused of Posting Confidential Banking Documents

Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd v. Wikileaks, 535 F.Supp.2d 980, 2008 WL 554721 (N.D.Cal. February 29, 2008)

Switzerland-based Bank Julius Baer sued the Web site Wikileaks.org and the registrar of the domain name, and sought an injunction against the publication on the site of allegedly forged and confidential records of Bank Julius Baer customers. The court initially entered a permanent injunction agreed to between Julius Baer and the registrar, which called for a lockdown of the domain name’s registration. The court also, at first, entered a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the Web site, restraining the “display, use or dissemination of the property identified by [Bank Julius Baer] as private, personal banking information of its clients.”

In the days following the entry of injunctive relief, numerous parties seeking to be amicus curiae provided the court with additional information concerning the matter. This additional information led the court to reconsider the entry of the permanent injunction and the TRO. In an order dated February 29, 2008, the court dissolved both orders and denied Julius Baer’s motion for entry of a preliminary injunction.

Among the factors guiding the decision were the First Amendment and the efficacy of any injunction concerning the allegedly confidential banking information. The court noted the important free speech issues implicated, including the right to receive information as “a necessary predicate to . . . meaningful exercise” of free speech. It expressed concern that the previous publication of confidential information meant that “the cat is out of the bag,” and thus an injunction would be ineffective in protecting the privacy rights of the bank’s clients.

Further, the court found that the injunction in place was not the least restrictive means to achieve the plaintiff’s goals, and thus should be dissolved. On this point, the court suggested that a constitutionally-permissible injunction would call for limited redaction of information, while permitting the non-confidential parts of the documents to be displayed online.

February 20, 2008 Trademarks

Alienware goes after “free” computer offer

Alienware Corporation v. Online Gift Rewards, No. 08-1560, S.D.N.Y. (Filed February 14, 2008).

High-performance computer manufacturer Alienware has filed suit against an online marketer alleging trademark infringement, dilution, and other theories of unfair competition. Alienware claims that the defendant has “disseminated mass unsolicited electronic solicitations” and posted Web pages offering “free” Alienware laptops, when in reality, one has to perform some “onerous” tasks to get them.

According to Alienware, after accepting the offer, users must purchase a specified amount of goods from various other sites. And this obligation is not clearly communicated, but is “presented to the consumer, if at all, only after he or she expends significant time and effort in responding to inquiries and navigating the multiple prompts.”

One may be tempted to speculate that the defendant in this case could raise some kind of defense based on fair use of the trademark. (How could you let people know what you’re offering unless you tell them; and giving away actual Alienware computers also seems like it could be protected under the first sale doctrine.)

And Alienware may have anticipated this defense, by alleging that it’s only “Alienware” serving as the source identifier for the offer, and “[t]here is no other recognizable or identifiable indication of source.” The defendant is an entity called “Online Gift Rewards.” Alienware claims that the designation is “likely to be perceived as a generic description of the offering rather than a source indicator.”

[Download the complaint]

February 18, 2008 Computer Crime

MySpace friend request results in criminal charges

People v. Fernino, — N.Y.S.2d —-, 2008 WL 382348 (N.Y.City Crim.Ct. February 13, 2008)

An order of protection, issued by a New York family court, required that defendant Fernino have no contact with a certain Delgrosso. After Fernino added Delgrosso as a “friend” on MySpace, she was charged with contempt of court for allegedly violating the order of protection.

Fernino moved to dismiss the criminal complaint against her, arguing that even if the allegations were true, the purported “contact” through “friending” Degrosso would not support a conviction on the charges. The court denied the motion to dismiss.

Finding that adding Delgrosso as a friend in the social networking context was prohibited “contact,” the court cited to People v. Kochanowski, 186 Misc.2d 441, 442 (App Term, 2nd Dept 2000) and People v. Johnson, 208 A.D.2d 1051 (3rd Dept 1994). In Kochanowski, the appellate court affirmed the harassment conviction of a defendant who participated in building a bogus Web site containing, among other things, alluring pictures of his ex-girlfriend. In Johnson, the court held that the defendant committed aggravated harassment by responding to a personal ad in the victim’s name, causing the person placing the ad to contact the victim.

In this case, the court observed that even though Delgrosso could have simply denied the friend request, it was still a form of contact. It found that the form of communication was no different from the defendant having a third party say to Delgrosso, “Your former friend wants to communicate with you. Are you interested?”

It should also be noted that the court cited approvingly to Wikipedia for a description of MySpace and to Alexa for information about MySpace’s popularity.

Mark Fass of the New York Law Journal has more on this case here. The MyCrimeSpace blog has its take on the case here.  Also found on MyCrimeSpace is this article from last year about a poor chap in the UK who was found to have violated a restraining order for friending his ex-wife on Facebook.

February 15, 2008 Uncategorized

New guide to open source issues

[Update: Thanks, Dad, for alerting me to the typo. It’s a relief to know I’ll always have at least one reader!] 

The Software Freedom Law Center, one of the leading influencers in the free and open source software movement, has released what appears to be a helpful guide on understanding the legal issues associated with the use and development of open source software. As anyone involved with open source (whether on the legal side or the technical side) knows, these kinds of issues are erudite at best, and incomprehensible at worst. Having a comprehensive review in one place provides a helpful tool. Thanks to my friend Alex Newson for pointing out this publication.

February 2, 2008 Trademarks

Sponsored listing trademark action survives motion to dismiss

T.D.I. Intern., Inc. v. Golf Preservations, Inc., (Slip Op.) 2008 WL 294531 (E.D.Ky. January 31, 2008)

Plaintiffs T.D.I. International and XGD Systems sued their former employee Samson Bailey and his company Golf Preservations for, among other things, violation of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. §1051 et seq. Plaintiffs alleged that defendants’ purchase of plaintiffs’ trademarks to trigger competitive advertising on Google and Yahoo was trademark infringement and unfair competition.

Defendants moved pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) to dismiss the complaint, but the court denied the motion. It found that under the Twombly standard, plaintiffs had alleged facts sufficient to state a claim to relief that was plausible on its face.

Predictably, defendants had argued that the purchase of plaintiffs’ marks as keywords did not constitute a “use” of the marks as provided in the Lanham Act at 15 U.S.C. § 1127. They relied heavily on Interactive Products Corp. v. a2z Mobile Office Solutions, Inc., 326 F.3d 687, 695 (6th Cir.2003) (a case involving the appearance of a mark in the post-domain path of a URL), and 1-800 Contacts, Inc. v. When U.com, Inc., 414 F.3d 400 (2d Cir.2005) (involving pop-up advertisements triggered by page content and user activities).

Plaintiffs relied on a number of cases to argue that the purchase of keywords was a use as defined in the Lanham Act, and also (correctly) asserted that the scenario of buying keywords to trigger advertising is notably different from use in a post-domain URL (as in Interactive Products) and unseen triggering of pop-up advertisements (as in 1-800 Contacts). Given the split of authority and the corresponding “uncertain state of the law on the specific issue presented in [the] case,” the Court sided with plaintiffs and found that defendants’ arguments were not sufficient to warrant dismissal.

February 1, 2008 Contracts, Litigation

Network Solutions’s forum selection clause enforced


Doe v. Network Solutions, LLC, No. 07-5115, 2008 WL 191419 (N.D. Cal. January 22, 2008)

Plaintiff Doe alleged violations of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and similar California statutes when he discovered that personal and financial information about him had allegedly been obtained from a webmail account he established with Network Solutions. Citing to the forum selection clause in the click-wrap agreement Doe had entered into several times, Network Solutions moved to dismiss the action under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(3) for improper venue.

The court granted the motion to dismiss, finding that the claims brought by plaintiff were within the scope of the clause, and that enforcement would not be unreasonable. The matter was dismissed without prejudice to refile in the Eastern District of Virginia.

The forum selection clause provided, in relevant part, that it governed “any disputes between [customer] and Network Solutions under, arising out of, or related in any way to this Agreement. . . .” In holding that the claims fell within the scope of the clause, the court observed that although there were no claims for breach of contract, the claims arose out of plaintiff’s status as a customer and related to the services, thus implicating the contractual relationship. Moreover, the language “under, arising out of, or related in any way to [the] agreement” led the court to conclude that the clause was to be construed broadly.

In determining that enforcement of the clause would not be unreasonable, the court rejected plaintiff’s argument that it would contravene public policy, as the choice of law provision (naming Virginia) would preclude recovery under various California statutes. The court noted that California law had not expressed any policy against enforcement of a forum selection clause in the context of the claims asserted, and that a clause providing a forum which permits different or less favorable remedies is not, alone, a basis for invalidating the clause.

January 31, 2008 Uncategorized

Seeking a speaker for 2/19 event. Is it you?

Update: It’s going to be Dave Donoghue, who authors the very informative Chicago IP Litigation Blog. If you’re not already reading Dave’s blog, you should be. He does a bangup job of tracking intellectual property decisions coming out of the federal courts here in Chicago. At the 2/19 meeting, Dave will use his perspective gained from paying close attention to the local dockets to speak on the topic of “Northern District of Illinois Cyberlaw Trends”. If you’re in the area, or will be on Februray 19, please consider attending this noon-time event at the Chicago Bar Association building 321 S. Plymouth.

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I’m the vice-chair of the Chicago Bar Association’s Cyberlaw and Data Privacy Committee, and we have a meeting coming up at noon on Tuesday, February 19, 2008. Problem is, our speaker prospects are falling through.

 If you can be in Chicago on 2/19 and would like to address a group of about 20-30 technology savvy attorneys on a topic of interest to you about law and technology, drop me a line [internetcases -at- gmail dot com]. I need to know ASAP, so please respond by the end of the day tomorrow (Friday, 2/1/08).

 CLE credit is of course available. Illinois rules allow you to get up to six hours credit for preparation time for each hour you talk.

January 30, 2008 Cybersquatting, Trademarks

Finding ATLAS COPCO and ATLAS CASPIAN confusingly similar, court awards in rem ACPA relief to unopposed plaintiff

Atlas Copco AB v. Atlascopcoiran.com, No. 07-1208, 2008 WL 149128 (E.D. Va. January 8, 2008)

Unable to hail the overseas registrants of domain names, including atlascaspian.com and atlascopcoiran.com into a U.S. court, plaintiff Atlas Copco AB sought in rem relief against the domain names under 15 U.S.C. §1125(d)(2)(a). After the defendants failed to answer the complaint, Atlas Copco moved for summary judgment, relying on the allegations of its verified complaint.

The court granted the motion and ordered the domain names transferred.

In finding that the defendants had engaged in cyberpiracy, the court looked at the “dominant or salient portions of the marks” at issue – the plaintiff’s mark and the marks comprising the offending domain names.

For you trademark experts out there, query whether you might characterize the following analysis as a bit of a stretch:

The dominant portion of each of the Defendant Domain Names is “ATLAS COPCO” or “ATLAS.” These “dominant” terms are paired with the generic terms “CASPIAN” and “IRAN,” which are generic geographic terms that do not distinguish the Defendant Domain Names from the ATLAS COPCO trademark. An internet user might reasonably assume that the geographic term “CASPIAN” and “IRAN” were added to the ATLAS COPCO trademark by the Plaintiffs to identify its geographic location.

It looks like another motivation for the court’s finding was some of the subterfuge on the sites at the offending domain names. Turns out some of them pointed to “copycat” websites bearing “Atlas Caspian” logos confusingly similar to the plaintiff’s trademark, and linked to phishing sites bearing the actual Atlas Copco mark.

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