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Earlier this month, the District Attorney for Bronx County, New York, withdrew a subpoena seeking the identities of anonymous posters on political blog Room Eight. The posters had criticized local politicians and Bronx Republican Party officials in blog posts and comments. District Attorney Robert T. Johnson also freed Room Eight operators Gur Tsabar and Ben Smith from the subpoena's demand that they not reveal the subpoena's existence to anyone - including the anonymous posters. (See our Legal Threats Database entry regarding the subpoena for more background.)

While the D.A.'s withdrawal of the subpoena and non-disclosure demand is great news for the anonymous posters, it is disappointing that the court didn't have a chance to issue a decision on Room Eight's motion to quash the subpoena. This would have been a great opportunity to establish precedent on a couple of important First Amendment issues of concern to citizen media.   read more »

I was sure that this was an April Fool's joke. But alas, it's true. Deutsche Telekom, the parent company of T-Mobile, sent Engadget a letter a few weeks ago, requesting that the popular tech blog stop using the color magenta in the logo for its Engadget Mobile news blog. Here are the two logos side-by-side (courtesy of Engadget):   read more »

Last Thursday, a federal court in Georgia handed down a big win for free speech when it ruled that Wal-Mart could not use trademark law to stop a critic from disseminating his virulently anti-Wal-Mart views over the Internet. From Public Citizen's press release:

In rejecting the company’s claim of trademark infringement, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta found that Charles Smith’s parody Web sites (www.walocaust.com and www.walqaeda.com) and related novelty merchandise were protected speech and that a reasonable person would not confuse their use with Wal-Mart’s legitimate trademarks. The court also rejected Wal-Mart’s claim that it has trademark rights in the “smiley-face” that Smith used in one of his parodies.

Public Citizen and the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia Foundation defended Smith after Wal-Mart sued the Conyers, Ga. man in 2006, claiming he infringed on its trademark by creating parody logos and Web sites built around the “Walocaust” and “Wal-Qaeda” concepts,including the image of an eagle clutching a yellow smiley face, similar to the one Wal-Mart uses in advertising. Smith also put the design on T-shirts, bumper stickers and other items that he sold on CafePress.com.   read more »

The curtain appears to be closing on a what has been a humorous episode in the annals of "cyberlaw." Ron Coleman and Eric Goldman report that Eric Menhart has amended his application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, which previously sought to trademark the term "CyberLaw" in connection with legal services. Menhart is no longer seeking ownership of the (almost certainly generic) term "Cyberlaw" itself, opting instead for registration of his firm's stylized logo:

(The CMLP and this website are in no way affiliated with the CyberLaw firm. You can find the CyberLaw firm's website here. We are using the mark for purposes of news reporting and criticism.)

Limited in this way, Menhart's application is no longer quite so ridiculous and no longer poses a threat to lawyers and scholars specializing in Internet law (not that it was ever much of a credible threat). Not content to swallow his pride and acknowledge his mistake, Menhart went out with this final swipe in a statement to the Baltimore Sun:   read more »