Google Squared

Google has a new search interface, Google Squared.

Have a look at these search results:

Australian Law Firms

Rollercoasters

Google Wave - the next big thing from Google

Google is planning on launching Google Wave.
Here is a video about Google Wave. (It is long and probably takes about 20 mins to get a decent feel.) Google Wave is the next big thing from Google -- to merge IM, email, Facebook etc. It is said to be Google's counter attack to Microsoft's www.bing.com (launched this week, in case you missed Microsoft's $100M launch campaign) but it is really not a search tool but a communication tool.

A commentary is here: http://www.itwire.com/content/view/25413/1141/

Here is a back story about it: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/went-walkabout-brought-back-google-wave.html

Lars Rasmussen is speaking later this month in Brisbane, and next month in Sydney & Melbourne. He invented Google Maps, and now Google Wave. He lives in Sydney.

http://www.warren.usyd.edu.au/events/2009ILFlyer.pdf

2009 Innovation Lecture - Dr Lars Rasmussen, Google

30 June 2009 Brisbane – Customs House

Business Method Patents

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/02/business/02bizcourt.html?_r=2&hpw

"WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to decide what sorts of business methods might be patented, an issue with the potential to reshape significant parts of the economy. “This is the most important patent case in 50 years, in particular because there is so much damage and so much good the court could do,” said John F. Duffy, a law professor at George Washington University who submitted a brief in the appeals court in support of neither side."

Google News

One topic for tonight's class will be Google News, and the impact of the IceTV copyright decision on Google. For IceTV, see below.

Have a look at the following:

• Brussels decision
• Murdoch attacks Google
• Associated Press attacks Google
• NYTimes and Gatehouse

Stanford IP Litigation Clearinghouse

This is an interesting website: http://lexmachina.stanford.edu/


On December 8, 2008, the Law, Science & Technology Program at Stanford Law School, together with several commercial and philanthropic partners, launched the Stanford Intellectual Property Litigation Clearinghouse (IPLC). A free online database, the site is being released to the public in phases, with the patent portion currently offering real-time comprehensive data regarding patent infringement litigation in the United States. Non-patent matters, including copyright, trademark, trade secret and antitrust currently offer only intermittent data while "pending additional fundraising."

Internet Law Bookstore

I created an Internet Law Bookstore using Amazon technology. It took only 5 minutes to set up. Have a look at http://astore.amazon.com/weclosedit. This shows how easy it is to set up an e-commerce website these days.

Recent US Copyright Case

"CBS's Internet unit won the right to use National Football League players' names and statistics for free in fantasy sports leagues it sponsors after a judge ruled the information is in the public domain. The ruling is the latest setback for professional sports leagues and players unions looking to control the fantasy market. "

Similar result to IceTV in Australia?

IceTV Judgment - copyright and electronic program guides

See Story in SMH.

Judgment on Austlii

Penguin Jurisdiction Case

Penguin IP Suit V. Web Site Can't Fly In NY: Judge
A federal judge has tossed a copyright case brought by Penguin Group USA Inc. against a Web site that posted Upton Sinclair's "Oil!" and several other Penguin works online, citing a lack of personal jurisdiction in New York.

Recent Internet Reports

INTERNET
Internet Typology: The Mobile Difference: Wireless Connectivity Has Drawn Many Users More Deeply into Digital Life
Pew Internet & American Life Project, March 25, 2009
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1162/internet-typology-users-mobile-communication-devices
Freedom on the Net: A Global Assessment of Internet and Digital Media
Freedom House, April 1, 2009
http://www.freedomhouse.org/uploads/specialreports/NetFreedom2009/FreedomOnTheNet_FullReport.pdf
This publication includes country reports on Brazil, China, Cuba, Egypt, Estonia, Georgia, India, Iran, Kenya, Malaysia, Russia, South Africa, Tunisia, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
Internet Crime Report 2008
Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), March 2009
http://www.nw3c.org/downloads/2008_IC3_Annual%20Report_3_27_09_small.pdf
There is an FBI news release, March 30, 2009, at
http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel09/internet033009.htm

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Sinking the Copyright Pirates: Global Protection of Intellectual Property
Hearing before the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, April 6, 2009
http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/hearing_notice.asp?id=1065
For transcripts, please go to
http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/schedule.asp and scroll down.
The Office of U.S. Trade Representative Releases Summary of Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) Negotiations
News release, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), April 6, 2009
http://www.ustr.gov/Document_Library/Press_Releases/2009/April/The_Office_of_US_Trade_Representative_Releases_Summary_of_Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement_(ACTA)_Negotiations.html
The summary is at
http://www.ustr.gov/assets/Document_Library/Fact_Sheets/2009/asset_upload_file917_15546.pdf

Research Tool

When you are doing website research, you may wish to use this free tool to record and store the pages that you find interesting or useful.
See www.icyte.com (an Australian invention)

Domain Names

Carly Long, an expert in domain name litigation, will teach the first half of the class this Tuesday evening.

You may wish to have a look at the following:

FAQs

jackass.com

pig.com

RBCDainRauscher.com

sonypitcures.com

vanmorrison.com

Panel Views

See also, UDRP Commentaries

Letter to ICANN

Proposed Changes to the Patent Act

If you are interested in patents, then you may be interested in these proposed changes to the law in Australia. We will be looking at patents later in the semester.

Google and Trademarks

In a long-awaited opinion, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Google must face a trademark infringement lawsuit for selling keywords that trigger ads.

The three-judge panel reversed a lower court's dismissal of Rescuecom v. Google, 06-4881, in which computer-repair company Rescuecom had claimed that users could be confused by links to competitors' ads that appear alongside Google search results for the company's trademarked name.

See

Rescuecom Corp. v. Google Inc., 2009 WL 875447 (2d Cir. April 3, 2009)

Law.com

The Standard

Eric Goldman's Blog

Jurisdiction

The class on Tuesday will focus on jurisdiction issues.

If you want to do some extra background reading, a recent case concerning The Secret documentary and book has both Interent and jurisdictional issues. It is more important for copyright law, but is an interesting diversion for Cyberlaw.

Background: The Australian

Australian Trial Judge Decision
Full Court of Federal Court Decision

US Lawsuit
Note regarding US decision on jurisdiction
Motion Judgment

Dan Hollings Case.

Google/Louis Vuitton legal battle resumes

See The Guardian

Google today entered the latest stage in a four-year legal battle against luxury brand Louis Vuitton which accuses the US internet giant of selling trademark search terms relating to its products to rivals.

Google's lawyers are at the European Court of Justice today as part of a hearing relating to an appeal the search company lodged after LVMH won a case in France against Google in 2005.

Amazon and Copyright

See http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10196424-38.html

This week, an e-book Web site said Amazon.com invoked the 1998 law to prevent books from some non-Amazon sources from working on its Kindle reader.

Amazon sent a legal notice to MobileRead.com complaining that information relating to a computer utility written in the Python programming language "constitutes a violation" of the DMCA, according to a copy of the warning letter that the site posted. MobileRead.com is an e-book news and community site.

Google and NZ Copyright

Stepping into local New Zealand political debate for the first time, Google makes a submission on the draft ISP code of practice – and it doesn’t hold back, citing a rash of bogus copyright claims it has received in the US. In its opening salvo, the company says, "section 92A undermines the incredible social and economic benefits of the open and universally accessible internet, by providing for a remedy of account termination or disconnection that is disproportionate to the harm of copyright infringement online.”

Cybersquatting

Cybersquatting Cases Hit Record In 2008
WIPO has announced that companies and celebrities ranging from Arsenal football club to actress Scarlett Johansson filed a record number of "cybersquatting" cases in 2008 to stop others from profiting from their famous names, brands, and events. The most common business sector in which complaints arose was pharmaceuticals, due to Web sites offering sales of medicines with protected names.

10 March: Social Media Club Brisbane

Instead of the usual LWN117 class on Tuesday 10 March, you are encouraged to attend the March event of the Social Media Club Brisbane:

SMCB March is a panel discussion about legal issues related to the social media world. Joining us on the panel for the evening is:

• Peter Black, Lecturer, QUT Law School
• Professor Brian Fitzgerald, Professor of Intellectual Property and Innovation, QUT Law School
• John Swinson, Partner, Mallesons

After you've picked the lawyers' brains hang around for a few drinks downstairs at Lock n Load's Jazz Night. Feel free to arrive from 5.30pm, with the panel session starting at 6.00pm.

SMBC March is proudly supported by QUT Faculty of Law and Lock n Load Bistro.

• http://www.twitter.com/smcb
• http://www.law.qut.edu.au
• http://www.locknloadbistro.com.au

Lock n Load is at 142 Boundary St, West End QLD 4101. View Google Maps here.

Patents and Google

Google Patent Chief: Patent reform needed more than ever
Posted: 03 Mar 2009 11:29 AM PST

Editorial by Michelle Lee, Head of Patents and Patent Strategy at Google, See http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2009/03/patent-reform-needed-more-than-ever.html

NYTimes article about Google settlement

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/04/books/04google.html

The Law of Google

These are my notes for class for Tuesday, 3 March 2009. The class is "The law of Google".

1. The breadth of Google.

Search
www.google.com
www.google.com.au
www.google.co.uk
www.google.ca
www.google.de
www.google.com.br
www.google.com.bd
www.igoogle.com
News
Images
Blogs
Maps
Videos
Books
Scholarly Papers
Finance
Custom Search, example: Leading Australian Law Firms
Syndicated Search and example
Directory
Products
Google Base

Search tricks and tips
Internal search
Site Search
Site Map

Other Google Stuff
Toolbar
Google Accounts
Web History
Gmail
Photos: Picasa and Picasa Web
Chrome Browser
Blogger
Groups
Reader
Notebook
Calendar
Docs
Talk
YouTube

More information: Wikipedia
How Google Works
Google Sitemap

2. AdWords and AdSense: Google Advertising

A. Do these searches on Google, Australian Google and UK Google and compare results:

• Noosa
• Hilton
  
• Q1
• cheap accomodation queensland
  
• flowers paddington
• the tallest building in brisbane is
• DSL-G604T
• Sony
• Harvey World Travel
• Harvey World Travel Insurance
  

B. AdSense

Look at the Google Ads on these websites:

• NY Times
• Van Gogh Gallery
• Brisbane Apartments and Reviews
  
• Cyberlaw and Policy and example article
• This Blog (look top right --->
  

More information on Adsense

C. Google Trends and Google Analytics

D. AdWords

• create Ad
• select Keywords, budget and display location
• people then click on your Ad.
  

Terms: pay-per-click (PPC); cost-per-click (CPC); cost-per-impression (CPM); click through rate (CTR)

KeyWord Tool and Tool

More information: Google Learning Centre

E. Other types of Google advertising
Maps

F. Problems & Issues

(a) Pay Per Click Websites

Look at these websites:

• lawyers.com.au
• Red Balloons
• Brisbane.com
• boq.com
  

(What is legitimate? See RealSpanking and Jackass and UStream)

(b) Click Fraud
What percentage of click are fraudulent? See this story and here too.
Clickfraud is old news: Crack-down

(c) Trade Mark Issues
Google Procedure
ACCC Lawsuit: See here and here and here and here (Google filed its defence on 17 November 2008.)
RescueCom Lawsuit
French Lawsuit
Geico Lawsuit and settlement

More information
Google Business Solutions

3. Legal issues and lawsuits

Book Search Lawsuit and here
Caching & Copyright: see here and here and here

Also, see older posts in this blog, such as this post from 2006.

LNP candidate hits Labor's Dean Wells in the Googles

THE state election campaign is yet to officially begin, but a new battlefront has emerged in cyberspace in the fight to win over undecided voters.

Anyone googling Labor MP Dean Wells' name will first see a link to his Liberal National Party opponent's website on their screens.

The LNP's Murrumba candidate Peter Flannery is paying the online search engine for a sponsored link to appear at the top of the results page.

See Courier Mail

New Name - Cyberlaw and Policy

LWN117 has been renamed "Cyberlaw and Policy". It will be offered in Semester One, 2009.

http://www.courses.qut.edu.au/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Courses.woa/wa/selectUnitFromCourseDetails?courseID=7216&idunit=21718

Cutting Edge Websites

It is worth looking at these new websites:

www.rottenneighbor.com

www.frucall.com

www.streeteasy.com

www.hitchsters.com

www.delaycast.com

farecast.live.com

jott.com

Bmail

Australian Law Firm Search Engine

Click HERE for a specialist search engine of top Australian Law Firm websites.

The Secret Litigation

There is currently a copyright litigation regarding the DVD and best selling book, The Secret.

The Director, Drew Heriot, is suing Rhonda Byrne in Federal Court in Chicago. Byrne's Eastern European company, TS Productions, is suing Drew in Federal Court in Melbourne, Australia.

Although these cases do not directly concern the Internet, they raise interesting questions regarding jurisdiction and appropriate forum.

I am representing Drew Heriot.

See: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/26/arts/26secr.html
and
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24223394-5012694,00.html