Kevin Brasler of Washington Consumer Checkbook has an interesting column in last week’s Washington Post detailing the findings of a study of consistently deceptive advertising of ”big ticket items” that are supposedly on sale, even though the supposed regular price was never applicable during the ten month period of the study. The complete study is […]
Author Archives: Paul Levy
The New York Times carried a story this weekend about a disturbing lawsuit that will be argued in the California Court of Appeal later this month. Olivia de Havilland sued FX for running the docudrama “Feud,” a fictionalized account of the feud between Joan Crawford and Bette Davis; a character portraying deHavilland has a modest […]
by Paul Alan Levy The current controversy stirred by broad popular revulsion over the Superbowl ad run by Dodge Ram, which included a voice-over excerpted from a speech by Martin Luther King Jr., thus using it to sell a truck, ignores a dirty little secret all-to-well known among those of us who worry about the […]
by Paul Alan Levy In the past few days there have been a couple of significant developments in the area of ”fake litigation” directed at consumer commentary – the use of fraudulent litigation techniques to obtain judicial relief against consumer criticisms of businesses without giving fair notice to the critic, and often using methods calculated […]
The Times carries this report of the role played by identity theft in the problem of commercial bots on Twitter. The victims of the identity theft might well have right of publicity claims given the commercial purpose of the identity theft, and it strikes me that Twitter has potential exposure to those claims, considering that, […]
by Paul Alan Levy Consumer groups, bloggers and others would do well to look through the Berkman Center's new "Cyberlaw Guide to Protest Art," a handy guide to assessing copyright and other IP risks associated with using content that might provoke threats of infringement litigation.
by Paul Alan Levy Muhammad Ali's estate has sued Fox for running a promotion for its Superbowl broadcast that contrasted Ali''s greatness with the greatness of various football players. Originally filed in the Northern District of Illinois, the complaint alleged claims under both the Lanham Act and the Illinois right of publicity. It is hard […]
by Paul Alan Levy After the Freehold Animal Hospital botched the neutering of a consumer’s dog, requiring the consumer to pay thousands of dollars for corrective surgery by a different hospital, the animal hospital agreed to refund the cost of its services as well as covering the expense of the corrective surgery, but only if […]
by Paul Alan Levy Eugene Volokh has a short article this morning about the brief concurring opinion filed by an appellate judge in Breen v. Holmes , 2017 WL 6133325 (La. App. Dec. 7, 2017). The case concerned statements made on social media about a controversial decision by prosecutors not to pursue charges against someone […]
by Paul Alan Levy In a decision issued on Tuesday in Signature Management Team v. Doe, the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit implicitly adopted the majority rule followed in the state courts that have addressed the issue, holding that a plaintiff seeking to identify an anonymous defendant in order to pursue litigation over […]