Search Engine Law.net

Argentina courts have ordered leading search companies to limit access to results for well known celebrities

La noticia publicada en la web de telecinco es interesante porque da cuenta del fallo dictado por un juez español ordenando remover contenidos infractores, mas una narración de los fundamentos de la demanda.

This is a brief comment to the decision rendered in Veraz Equifax v. Open Discovery (Globinfo) the first Adwords case in Argentina.

Veraz contends that Globinfo is using the trademarked term “veraz” and “organizacion veraz” in sponsored links in www.google.com.ar. Veraz is the leading credit reporting agency in Argentina. Globinfo is an unknown seller of credit information who started recently to sell credit reporting using the Internet as a channel.

The judge issued the injunction on two basis: the law of trademarks and unfair competition law ordering the defendant to stop using plaintiff trademarks as sponsored links.
The decision (see copy in PDF format) has not been published yet because it is only an injunction; the main lawsuit is being prepared to be launched soon.

Globinfo filed a motion to protect their Adwords account information (plaintiff requested to Google all information related to the user of the infringed trademarks, including dates of use, payments of money, etc..…). Globinfo is arguing that the information is a trade secret and Google should not disclose it. The judge has rejected Globinfo pettion and allowed the request of information to proceed.

Deja vu of Thailand and Brazil for Youtube… A Turkish court ordered telecom authorities Tuesday to block access to the popular video-sharing website YouTube over videos that allegedly insulted the country’s leaders, a report said. The decision followed a complaint by a resident
in the eastern city of Sivas that the site hosted videos containing insults against Turkey’s founding father Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the army, the Anatolia news agency
reported.

Man sues after official at U.S. Commerce Department does Google search and finds info about prior employment spats and job losses.

Cnet News.com (Police blotter)

Decision in Mullins v. Dept. of Commerce

Agence France-Presse has settled its lawsuit against Google News and will allow the Internet search engine to post news and photos from AFP journalists. The deal announced last Friday settles the copyright infringement lawsuit that AFP filed in a U.S. court in March 2005 accusing Google of posting news summaries, headlines, and photos without permission.

More on this:

http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_5609015?nclick_check=1

A federal court in Pennsylvania has ruled that so long as a forum selection clause in an online contract’s terms is readily accessible and clear, requiring users to scroll down or print the contract to see it and other terms is acceptable, and will not absolve a party who clicks in the “I Agree” button without taking the time to view the whole agreement. The tribunal determined that Google’s AdWords Terms & Conditions (the U.S. version), a clickwrap contract, was completely enforceable.

Feldman v. Google Inc. decision.

List of cases related to clickwrap contracts

A federal court in Delaware has ruled that a search-based advertising service may refuse to carry ads that would make it an unwilling mouthpiece for speech it deems objectionable. Just as newspapers have the right to reject content that goes against their editorial discretion (see U.S. Sup. Ct. case in Miami Herlad v. Tornillo), so too do search engines, the federal judge concluded. The court granted motions by Google and MSN seeking to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a claim. The decision also mentions section 230 of the CDA as applicable to Google and MSN. Case is Langdon v. Google Inc.This right to editorial discretion may be questioned in Latin America because under section 14 of the American Convention of Human Rights the right to reply (or to rectify) information is constitutional. However, under this provision, a plaintiff may not be able to force a newspaper or a web site to carry certain ads.