The social networking saga appears to have finally come to an end in a decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirming the decision to enforce the Settlement Agreement between Facebook and the Winklevosses. The Facebook, Inc. v. Pacific Northwest Software, Inc., 2011WL 1843509 (C.A.9 (Cal.)). The tone of the decision was one of vexation towards the Winklevosses for the protracted litigation, despite the agreement to release all claims against Facebook. If you have watched the movie, "The Social Network," you know the genesis of the battle between Mark Zuckerberg and the Winklevosses. Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss and Divya Narendra (the Winklevosses) claimed that Mark Zuckerberg poached the idea for Facebook from them. The Winklevosses sued Facebook and Zuckerberg in Massachusetts and Facebook countersued them and their competing social network site, ConnectU, in California. The District Court in California ultimately ordered the ConnectU, Facebook and the Winklevosses to mediate their dispute.
In Faconnable USA Corporation v. John Does 1-10, 2011 WL 2015515 (D. Colo. May 24, 2011), the United States District Court for the District of Colorado rejected a ISP's motion to quash a subpoena issued to discover the identity of anonymous editors of Wikipedia. Plaintiff alleges that the anonymous editors violated the Lanham Act and comitted trade libel and commercial disparaging by falsely posting that plaintiff is a support of Hezbollah, a Shiite Islamist militia and political party which has been designated as a terrorist organization.
Wayne Chang, a former partner in ConnectU, Facebook's social networking rival, brought suit against his former ConnectU partners (the "Winklevoss Defendants") and their attorneys over a settlement reached with Facebook in a separate litigation. Chang v. Winklevoss, No. 09-5397-BLS1, 2011 WL 1758963 (Super. Ct. Mass. May 3, 2011). After the defendants filed motions to dismiss, the Superior Court of Massachusetts held that Chang lacked standing to assert claims against the attorneys, but found that Chang's complaint sufficiently alleged subject matter jurisdiction and state law claims.
Teachbook, a social and professional networking Web site dedicated to teachers, successfully moved to dismiss Facebook's trademark infringement claims by arguing that it was not subject to personal jurisdiction in California. Facebook, Inc. v. Teachbook.com, LLC, No. CV 10-03654 RMW, 2011 WL 1672464 (N.D. Cal. May 3, 2011). The District Court for the Northern District of California held that although Facebook presented sufficient evidence to show that Teachbook intentionally adopted a "confusingly similar trademark," it did not purposefully avail itself of doing business in California because it did not register users in that state.
In Facebook's seven count complaint against Defendant MaxBounty Inc. for its allegedly fraudulent advertising scheme aimed at Facebook users, the social networking giant defeated MaxBounty's motion to dismiss Facebook's claim under the CAN-SPAM Act by successfully arguing that the fake advertising pages posted by MaxBounty on the social networking site constituted "electronic mail messages" under the Act. Facebook, Inc. v. MaxBounty, Inc., No. CV-10-4712-JF, 2011 WL 1120046 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 28, 2011). The District Court for the Northern District of California held that Facebook sufficiently pled its claim under 15 U.S.C. § 7701 ("CAN-SPAM Act"), thereby adopting Congress' broad interpretation of the term "electronic mail message."
Tomorrow, I'll be appearing live on Episode 105 of This Week in Law. The show streams at http://live.twit.tv/ from 2:00 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. ET and will be produced as a podcast thereafter.
I'll be tweeting during the live stream of the show (keep an eye on hashtags #TWiL and #TWiL105), so please make plans to watch and follow me on Twitter (@JonathanFrieden).
Pragmatus AV, LLC a company in the business of owning and managing its patent portfolio, brought a patent infringement suit in the Eastern District of Virginia against Facebook, LinkedIn, Photobucket and YouTube. Pragmatus AV, LLC v. Facebook, Inc., et al., 2011 WL 320952 (E.D.Va. Jan. 27, 2011). Pragmatus brought suit alleging that defendants’ video uploading and linking technology directly and indirectly infringes three patents owned by Pragmatus. Defendants brought a joint motion for transfer of venue to the Northern District of California. On January 27, 2011, the Honorable Judge Brinkema in the Eastern District of Virginia (“EDVA”) granted Defendants’ Joint Motion for Transfer of Venue, holding that the claims could have been brought in the Northern District of California, and the interests of justice and convenience of the of the parties justify transfer to that forum. 28 U.S.C. §1404(a).
Facebook pictures of a Mother drinking and socializing were properly admitted into evidence according to the Court of Appeals of Kentucky in an appeal from a divorce and custody order. LaLonde v. LaLonde, No. 2009-CA-002279-MR, 2011 WL 832465 (Ky. Ct. App. Feb. 25, 2011). The Court held that the photos posted on the social networking site were properly authenticated by testimony of the Mother and thus, properly admitted into evidence.
