Overlawyered » competition through litigation http://overlawyered.com Chronicling the high cost of our legal system Tue, 14 Feb 2012 18:22:52 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Free Google Maps unfair to paid competitors, France rules http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/free-google-maps-unfair-to-paid-competitors-france-rules/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/free-google-maps-unfair-to-paid-competitors-france-rules/#comments Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:23:13 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=27343 At Cato at Liberty, I find that uncannily reminiscent of a famous Bastiat parody (& IEA).

More from Coyote: “left unsaid is how they would jack up their prices when at least two other companies (Bing, Mapquest) also provide mapping services online for free.” But note that the French case arose not from Google’s furnishing of its free map service to individual end customers, but from its furnishing of its map API to businesses that typically adapt it for use in their own sites; as commenters at BoingBoing and Reddit as well as news reports point out, Google has indeed introduced fees for its largest business users of this type (which has caused some of them to adapt by switching from Google’s API to OpenStreetMap, a free wiki-based map service).

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/free-google-maps-unfair-to-paid-competitors-france-rules/feed/ 3 Beet sugar interests sue over “corn sugar” coinage http://overlawyered.com/2011/05/beet-sugar-interests-sue-over-corn-sugar-coinage/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/05/beet-sugar-interests-sue-over-corn-sugar-coinage/#comments Tue, 03 May 2011 17:29:31 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=22830 Public-spirited litigants Western Sugar Cooperative, Michigan Sugar Company and C & H Sugar Company, Inc., have filed a lawsuit charging corn refiners with false advertising in their recent campaign to relabel high-fructose corn syrup as “corn sugar.” “The sugar producers seek an injunction to end the advertising campaign and also seek damages, including compensation for corrective advertising.” [PR Newswire]

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/05/beet-sugar-interests-sue-over-corn-sugar-coinage/feed/ 1 A case of sour cranberries? http://overlawyered.com/2010/08/a-case-of-sour-cranberries/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/08/a-case-of-sour-cranberries/#comments Fri, 13 Aug 2010 17:17:27 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=18904 Ocean Spray sues a competitor over its alleged involvement in a social media campaign. [Charlie Mead, AmLaw Daily]

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2010/08/a-case-of-sour-cranberries/feed/ 1 Suing critics, competitors not a winning business strategy http://overlawyered.com/2010/05/suing-critics-competitors-not-a-winning-business-strategy/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/05/suing-critics-competitors-not-a-winning-business-strategy/#comments Wed, 05 May 2010 05:06:37 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=17233 Or at least it wasn’t for one video firm [Paul Alan Levy, Consumer Law and Policy]

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2010/05/suing-critics-competitors-not-a-winning-business-strategy/feed/ 0 “Anyone with money can sue anyone [with] less money and put them out of business” http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/anyone-with-money-can-sue-anyone-with-less-money-and-put-them-out-of-business/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/anyone-with-money-can-sue-anyone-with-less-money-and-put-them-out-of-business/#comments Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:17:37 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=16329 “It doesn’t matter whether you have a case or not.” Reflections on legal friction between competing websites that assist in bringing reporters together with sources [Alain Raynaud, FairSoftware, via Pete Warden]

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/anyone-with-money-can-sue-anyone-with-less-money-and-put-them-out-of-business/feed/ 2 Competition through litigation (ad division) http://overlawyered.com/2009/11/competition-through-litigation-ad-division/ http://overlawyered.com/2009/11/competition-through-litigation-ad-division/#comments Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:18:05 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=14869 The New York Times doesn’t have statistics, but its reporter thinks Lanham Act litigation (filed by companies against their competitors over allegedly misleading advertising) is on the rise these days.

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2009/11/competition-through-litigation-ad-division/feed/ 0 Book pricing antitrust petition http://overlawyered.com/2009/10/book-pricing-antitrust-petition/ http://overlawyered.com/2009/10/book-pricing-antitrust-petition/#comments Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:40:33 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=14426 “The American Booksellers Association loves people who buy books. It loves them so much that it wants to protect them from wicked retailers who sell popular titles at affordable prices.” [Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe] More: Mark Perry.

Related: antitrust laws mostly “used today by one group of competitors to try to hamstring another competitor in their business” [Coyote on IBM mainframe investigation]

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2009/10/book-pricing-antitrust-petition/feed/ 1 Amphibious-tour operators in S.F. battle over “quacking devices” http://overlawyered.com/2009/06/amphibious-tour-operators-in-sf-battle-over-quacking-devices/ http://overlawyered.com/2009/06/amphibious-tour-operators-in-sf-battle-over-quacking-devices/#comments Wed, 03 Jun 2009 14:42:02 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=11526 Ride the Ducks says it has been inviting customers to toot on kazoos for a decade as part of its water-land tours in various cities. Now it is suing competitor Bay Quackers, which pioneered the duck tour concept in San Francisco (and was more recently joined there as a competitor by Ride the Ducks) for infringing its “sound mark”, an “auditory equivalent of a trademark”. [New York Times] [Corrected 2:30 p.m. after reader Kim S. pointed out that I hadn't correctly conveyed the details of which company operated where and when.]

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2009/06/amphibious-tour-operators-in-sf-battle-over-quacking-devices/feed/ 3 In which there are no real wieners http://overlawyered.com/2009/05/in-which-there-are-no-real-wieners/ http://overlawyered.com/2009/05/in-which-there-are-no-real-wieners/#comments Fri, 22 May 2009 15:29:37 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=11327 Sara Lee sues Kraft over its advertising claims regarding the taste of hot dogs.

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2009/05/in-which-there-are-no-real-wieners/feed/ 3 May 14 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2009/05/may-14-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2009/05/may-14-roundup/#comments Thu, 14 May 2009 13:51:42 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=11155
  • Yielding to pressure from state AGs, Craigslist will close “erotic services” section and replace with more highly moderated “adult services”; New York’s Cuomo is furious the site took unilateral action “in the middle of the night” rather than negotiating with him [NY Times, Hartford Courant, office of Connecticut AG (and longtime Overlawyered bete noire) Richard Blumenthal, Citizen Media Law, Above the Law] More: Ambrogi.
  • Or they could absorb it and move on: “Bounty sues Brawny in paper towel tilt” [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]
  • Was granting patents relating to diagnostic analysis of human genes a mistake? Should courts undo it? Via constitutional law? Three different questions there [Ars Technica, Doc Gurley/San Francisco Chronicle]
  • Canadian Human Rights Commission wants new ban on discrimination based on “social condition” (with concomitant penalties for hurtful speech premised on such condition) [Ken at Popehat]
  • Luxury-goods makers’ suits against eBay over sale of counterfeits may be petering out [Frankel, American Lawyer]
  • Today must be exotic-dancer-litigation day at Overlawyered: Trademark Trial and Appeal Board denies trademark protection for “Cuffs and Collar Mark” of Chippendales male exotic dancers [TTA Blog via Lowering the Bar, Ron Coleman, opinion in PDF]
  • Allegations fail to stick: “Judge drops class-action suit on Teflon cookware” [AP/Des Moines Register, WSJ, American Lawyer; earlier here and here]
  • Asbestos litigation ramps up against Detroit automakers after bankruptcy of many earlier defendants [five years ago on Overlawyered; up-to-the-minute report from Kirk Hartley]
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