DM News.com on: “Will Paid Inclusion Be Banished?”, reporting moves by MSN and Ask Jeeves away from practice of entities paying for incusion in search engine results (as opposed to payment for advertisments alongside search engines results).
Background FTC paper on paid inclusion
Here is a press release announcing the auction of the domain name KERRYEDWARDS.COM. Bidding starts at $150,000. We are told that the current registrant is really named Kerry Edwards, which would be a complete defense to cyber-squatting with regard to his registration and use of the domain name.
Google has introduced a feature in its toolbar that appears to by-pass the ‘fill-in’ function in the address bar of Internet Explorer, and allows you to type in a name (no www. or TLD) and it takes you to where it guessed you wanted to go. You have to have downloaded Google toolbar, but you type the name into the browser address bar. Reminiscent of the late Real Names, you are taken directly to the page Google determine’s is most relevant to your search. If there is no clear winner, apparently, Google takes you to a page of search results.
Putting the feature through its paces, I received the following:
WHITE HOUSE – whitehouse.gov FORD – ford.com SCRIPTING – search results DELTA – delta.com LLOYDS – lloydstsb.com BUSH – search results TRADEMARK – uspto.gov TRADEMARK BLOG – me VIAGRA – search results SUN – search results APPLE – apple.com
SearchEngineWatch reports that IE already has this functionality, in the Tools>Internet Options>Advanced tab.
I was going to email Keith Teare (founder of Real Names) and ask him what he thought but this piece from his blog entitled “Google Ripped Off Real Names Idea!” seems to cover that.
The Register reports on a dispute between the licensees of the LOTR property and an email service at shiremail.com. The article’s discussion of the 1000+ year history of the word SHIRE is interesting, but it downplays a bit too much the fact that the proprietor of shiremail.com appeared at one time to operate under the name PLANET TOLKEIN.
The Political Economy of Intellectual Property Law, by Landes and Posner, thanks to Volokh for the link.
Somehow the urban myth circulated that there is a Code 431.322.12 of the Internet Privacy Act (which doesn’t exist). Website operators got it into their heads that if they cited Code 431.322.12, they could bar from their sites whomever they wanted, such as law enforcement officers or trademark attorneys.
In any event, I noted here a while ago, that if you were interested in policing your mark you could, for example, Google the term “431.322.12 BABY PHAT” or “431.322.12 JUICY”, and you will likely find somebody selling replica products of those marks.
Well, it still works. Pick a designer mark, give it a shot.
Zippy The Pinhead on fair use, via Copyfight.
Official Zippy site.
A press release having something to do with DotComGuy auctioning his name or something. Probably not worth your time if you’re busy.
One lawyer used a rival’s lawyer name as a keyword for a ‘sponsored link’. Dispute ensued. Via NY Lawyer.