Copyright Law

CMLP Joins Amicus Brief in Support of BlockShopper.com

By CMLP Staff

Last Friday, the Citizen Media Law Project joined Public Citizen, EFF, and Public Knowledge in filing an amici curiae brief in support of BlockShopper.com's motion to dismiss Jones Day's bogus trademark claims against it.

The brief argues that Jones Day has failed to state a cause of action for trademark infringement because exhibits to the complaint clearly dispel any likelihood of confusion, because the First Amendment protects Blockshopper's noncommercial speech, and because using Jones Day's name to describe the activities of its associates is a nominative fair use. It also argues that Jones Day has failed to state a cause of action for trademark dilution because "Jones Day" is not a famous trademark and because statutory defenses for fair use, news reporting, and noncommercial speech bar the claim. See 15 U.S.C. § 1125(c)(3). 

Many thanks to Paul Alan Levy and Corynne McSherry for their hard work co-authoring this excellent brief.  We'll be monitoring the lawsuit in our database entry, Jones Day v. BlockShopper LLC.

Full post as published by Citizen Media Law Project on September 22, 2008 (boomark / email).