Seattle University is presenting its Advertising Law Conference April 15.  Speakers from, among others,  Nike, Microsoft, Nintendo, Hasbro, Expedia, Perkins Coie and Graham Dunn, will discuss corporate speech, spam and ‘stealth advertising.’  I will be participating on a panel on targeted advertising.

Brochure here.

Amazon’s A9 search engine is rolling out a visual yellow pages, providing phoos of the busiensses listed.  This may have some effect in reducing consumer fraud, but also removes a primary advantage of the Internet, which is that nobody knows you’re a dog.

Interesting article by James Surowiecki in The New Yorker primarily about the Vioxx matter and tort law, but also contains an insight about the branding of pharmaceutical drugs and its unintended consequences. 

English translation of French decision regarding Google’s sale of MERIDIEN as keyword to competitors of Meridien Hotel chain.

The decision places importance on Google’s suggestion in its AdWords promotional materials, that the potential advertiser select a keyword more effective than the generic term for the advertised goods or services.

Not work friendly: Fifth Circuit case holding that defendant’s song ‘Back That Azz Up’ does not infringe copyright of plaintiff’s song ‘Back That Ass Up.’  Discussion of proper jury instructions in copyright case and of concept of probative similarity.

Postive Black Talk, Inc. v. Cash Money Records, 03-30625 (5th Cir Dec 17, 2004).

The Pew Internet & Americna Life Project has released a provocative report suggesting that the majority of U.S. Internet users cannot tell the different between paid and unpaid search results.

From the abstract:

Only 38% of users are aware of the distinction between paid or “sponsored” results and unpaid results. And only one in six say they can always tell which results are paid or sponsored and which are not. This finding is ironic, since nearly half of all users say they would stop using search engines if they thought engines were not being clear about how they presented paid results.

An important cavaet is that this appears to be a ‘self-reporting’  telephone survey.  Full Pew Report here.

Consumer Reports WebWatch report on best-practices for disclosure from November 2004 (and finding that search engines have much to improve on in this area), here.

Search Engine Watch coverage of the Pew Report here.

Geico v. Google discussion of how to conduct a survey to test likelihood of confusion in keyword ads here.

Not trademark law but worth reading:  Adam Smith, Esq. on The Billable Hour.

News.com article on Google’s loss in France to Hotels Meridien re sale of keywords.  Google indicates that it will appeal.  Text of decision in French here.