Intellectual Property Law

Don't link to So and So's website. They might just sue ya. Or, what Trademarks Are [and Are Not] For.

By Pamela Jones et al.

"A lawsuit no doubt may be used as a powerful instrument of coercion or retaliation."
~ Bill Johnson's Restaurants v. NLRB, 461 U.S. 731, 440 (1983).

"Most useful social and commercial discourse would be all but impossible if speakers were under threat of an infringement lawsuit every time they made reference to a person, company or product by using its trademark."
~ New Kids, 971 F.2d at 306-07.

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Jones Day is a very reputable and very large law firm. The firm has 2200 lawyers. So you can imagine how it feels to find out a huge firm like that wants to sue you. You've seen how easy it is for a determined bully firm to keep a legal bogo-ball in the air almost indefinitely without breaking a sweat; now imagine it happens to you, and you're not IBM or Novell. You are just a small startup. Jones Day has, indeed, sued real estate news site BlockShopper over a headline mentioning the firm and for linking to lawyer bios on Jones Day's website in articles revealing what homes a couple of Jones Day lawyers bought, alleging trademark infringement and dilution.

I know. But let's face it. Some folks haven't yet quite grokked this whole Internet pipes thing.

Those of you who hate trademark law will lap this up, of course, but that isn't my purpose. In fact, I haven't been able to find a single article about the case that doesn't view it as Jones Day misusing trademark law or at least stretching it beyond what is normal. Wait. I don't want to get sued. Let's just call the plaintiff the So and So firm, shall we?

Full post as published by Groklaw on September 29, 2008 (boomark / email).