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A Blog Symposium, Hosted by Truth on the Market

A Blog Symposium, Hosted by Truth on the Market

Take a book: Innovation for the 21st Century, Harnessing the Power of Intellectual Property and Antitrust Law, by Michael A. Carrier.  Invite several IP and antitrust luminaries to comment on the book.  The result: a  “Blog Symposium” on the book organized by Truth on the Market.  The Symposium is described as follows:

The format will be as follows.Today we’ll have posts from Crane, Manne, Weiser, and Wright on aspects of Innovation for the 21st Century which focus on competition policy.Tomorrow, Professors Frischmann, Kieff, and Crouch will focus on the intellectual property related proposals.Professor Carrier will have the opportunity to respond to the posts Tuesday evening or Wednesday.And of course, we hope that both participants and our normal group of high quality commentators will find some time to mix it up in the comments.The participants have been given broad leeway to discuss general themes in Carrier’s work or hone in on specific policy proposals.

With the formalities out of the way, you can expect the first of Monday’s posts to start in the early morning and then we’ll add throughout the day with posts from Crane, Manne, and Wright.

The bloggers, with links to their bios are:  Dan Crane (University of Chicago/ Cardozo), Geoff Manne (TOTM/LECG), Phil Weiser (Colorado), Dennis Crouch (Patently-O/Missouri), Brett Frischmann (Cornell/ Loyola), F. Scott Kieff (Wash U./ Hoover/ and on his way to GW), the author and the moderator, Josh Wright (George Mason).

Keep in mind that it wasn’t too long ago that the question “whether law profs could blog” without sacrificing all academic credibility and being pelted with rotten eggs by their more conservative colleagues was up in the air.

Click here to read the first entry and proceed from there.

Hearts on Fire v. Blue Nile: Judge Gertner Rules That Keyword to Trigger Search Engine Ads Is a "Use" Under Lanham Act

The issue here, presented in the context of a motion to dismiss, is whether adoption of a trademark as a search engine keyword constitutes a “use” under the Lanham Act.  The Lanham Act requires “use in commerce” as a condition of infringement, and as Judge Gertner points out, various courts have taken different positions on whether purchase of a trademarked keyword to trigger a sponsored link on a search engine is a “use” of the trademark.  Judge Gertner surveyed the field and noted that most of the courts that have considered this issue have found that utilizing a trademark in this manner does constitute “use” under the Act, and she sided with what she considers to be the majority view (the significant exception being the Second Circuit’s decision in 1-800 Contacts v. WhenU).

Hearts of Fire v. Blue Nile

For earlier postings on this issue click here and here.