E-Commerce Law

Injunction is No Great Leap for Court in “Skydive Arizona” Case

On April 29, 2010, the United States District Court for the District of Arizona granted, in part, Plaintiff’s request  to enjoin the Defendants' use of certain trademarks and domain names related to skydiving in Arizona.  Skydive Arizona, Inc. v. Quattrocchi, 2010 WL 1743189 (D. Ariz. April 29, 2010)

Plaintiff operates a skydiving business in Arizona (“Skydive Arizona”) with numerous jump centers in the state.  Defendants operate a website that offers information on skydiving and skydiving gift certificates that are redeemable at participating skydiving centers across the country, but does not operate any actual skydiving centers.  In fact, the Defendants operated various websites implying that Defendants owned skydiving centers in numerous cities in Arizona, where none existed. 

E-Commerce Law Briefs: Week of May 10, 2010

Facebook has unveiled some of the details of EdgeRank, the algorithm the popular social media site uses to display relevant content in user's News Feeds.  To avoid overwhelming a user, Facebook's News Feed displays only a subset of stories generated by that user's Facebook friends.  At the highest level, the EdgeRank formula is pretty simply.  Each item that appears in a News Feed is considered an "Object."  Whenever another user interacts with an Object you generated, that interacting user creates an "Edge."  Each Edge has three components which are important to Facebook's algorithm:  (1) affinity - a score which measures the relationship between the viewing user and the Object's creator, determined by how frequently the two users Facebook message each other and check each other's profiles; (2) importance - the weight given to each type of edge, such that a comment is more important than a "Like," for instance; and (3) age - the older an Edge is, the less important it becomes.  The higher an Object's EdgeRank is, the more likely your Object is to appear in a particular user's News Feed.

Foursquare has reached one million users.

Each weekend, E-Commerce Law Briefs provides a brief summary and commentary on recent legal news affecting e-commerce businesses.

“Read and Understood” But Not “Agreed” – A Forum Selection Clause and Changing Venue for the Convenience of the Parties

On April 27, 2010, the United States District Court of the Eastern District of Washington granted a Motion for Change of Venue to transfer a case to the Eastern District of Virginia, after finding that a forum selection clause was never “agreed” to by the party to be bound.  K.S., by her guardian at litem, Isserlis v. Ambassador Programs, Inc., 2010 WL 1704719 (E.D. WA April 27, 2010).

E-Commerce Law Briefs: Week of May 3, 2010

"Doctors at a California children's hospital have found the first evidence that using an electronic system to communicate their orders may save lives."

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