Cyberlaw

eBay & French Court Decision

In June 2008, the Paris Commercial Court had ordered eBay to pay damages of 38.6 million Euros to the luxury group LVMH, ruling that the auction sales platform, as a broker, was liable under ordinary law as result of the sale of infringing products on its platform. On 13 May 2009, the Paris Civil Court ruled the opposite in favor of eBay. In this case, L'Oréal claimed eBay should not benefit from the hosting provider protective status under French law, as its activities went beyond a mere technical hosting service. eBay argued, however, it merely hosted items put up for sale by users of its auction sales platform, and therefore had no general monitoring obligation.
In its judgment of 13 May 2009, the Court ruled that eBay's activity consisting in storing the listings prepared by vendors and making them available online was a hosting activity, benefiting from the hosting provider protective status. Yet, the Court suggested that the parties had recourse to judicial mediation, in order to cooperate and agree on measures to be implemented to put an end to the sale of counterfeit products on the auction sales platform. With regard to eBay's advertising activities, the Court considered that the platform could not benefit from the hosting provider protective status, since its role was no longer passive, and such activities were not essential to the hosting activity. The Court nevertheless held eBay not liable, since L'Oréal did not clearly establish the alleged infringement.
Paris Civil Court, 13 May 2009
Source: T LAW ALERT - No. 2009/03 - GIDE LOYRETTE NOUEL A.A.R.P.I.

Google Squared

Google has a new search interface, Google Squared.

Have a look at these search results:

Australian Law Firms

Rollercoasters

Google Wave - the next big thing from Google

Google is planning on launching Google Wave.
Here is a video about Google Wave. (It is long and probably takes about 20 mins to get a decent feel.) Google Wave is the next big thing from Google -- to merge IM, email, Facebook etc. It is said to be Google's counter attack to Microsoft's www.bing.com (launched this week, in case you missed Microsoft's $100M launch campaign) but it is really not a search tool but a communication tool.

A commentary is here: http://www.itwire.com/content/view/25413/1141/

Here is a back story about it: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/went-walkabout-brought-back-google-wave.html

Lars Rasmussen is speaking later this month in Brisbane, and next month in Sydney & Melbourne. He invented Google Maps, and now Google Wave. He lives in Sydney.

http://www.warren.usyd.edu.au/events/2009ILFlyer.pdf

2009 Innovation Lecture - Dr Lars Rasmussen, Google

30 June 2009 Brisbane – Customs House

Business Method Patents

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/02/business/02bizcourt.html?_r=2&hpw

"WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to decide what sorts of business methods might be patented, an issue with the potential to reshape significant parts of the economy. “This is the most important patent case in 50 years, in particular because there is so much damage and so much good the court could do,” said John F. Duffy, a law professor at George Washington University who submitted a brief in the appeals court in support of neither side."

Google News

One topic for tonight's class will be Google News, and the impact of the IceTV copyright decision on Google. For IceTV, see below.

Have a look at the following:

Stanford IP Litigation Clearinghouse

This is an interesting website: http://lexmachina.stanford.edu/

On December 8, 2008, the Law, Science & Technology Program at Stanford Law School, together with several commercial and philanthropic partners, launched the Stanford Intellectual Property Litigation Clearinghouse (IPLC). A free online database, the site is being released to the public in phases, with the patent portion currently offering real-time comprehensive data regarding patent infringement litigation in the United States. Non-patent matters, including copyright, trademark, trade secret and antitrust currently offer only intermittent data while "pending additional fundraising."

Internet Law Bookstore

I created an Internet Law Bookstore using Amazon technology. It took only 5 minutes to set up. Have a look at http://astore.amazon.com/weclosedit. This shows how easy it is to set up an e-commerce website these days.

Recent US Copyright Case

"CBS's Internet unit won the right to use National Football League players' names and statistics for free in fantasy sports leagues it sponsors after a judge ruled the information is in the public domain. The ruling is the latest setback for professional sports leagues and players unions looking to control the fantasy market. "

Similar result to IceTV in Australia?

IceTV Judgment - copyright and electronic program guides

See Story in SMH.

Judgment on Austlii

Penguin Jurisdiction Case

Penguin IP Suit V. Web Site Can't Fly In NY: Judge
A federal judge has tossed a copyright case brought by Penguin Group USA Inc. against a Web site that posted Upton Sinclair's "Oil!" and several other Penguin works online, citing a lack of personal jurisdiction in New York.