Connecticut Business Litigation Blog : Connecticut Business Lawyer & Attorney : N. Kane Bennett : Raymond & Bennett Law Firm : Hartford, Middletown, Glastonbury

The smoking gun evidence in a trademark lawsuit filed in US District Court in Connecticut is allegedly metadata from a YouTube video.  Here is the lawsuit.  In the lawsuit , Tuscan Leveling, Inc. alleges that Roynette, Inc. stole its trademarked concept for a level tiling process.  According to the Complaint:

• Tuscan is an Iowa based business that markets and provides a "unique tile installation method." 
• Tuscan's tiling process is subject to a pending patent and trademark application and has identified the Tuscan Leveling System as its trademark.
• Roynette is a Connecticut  based business that markets and solicits over the Internet.  Roynette advertised the sale of a competing tile leveling system over the Internet through a YouTube video that was identical to the the Tuscan leveling system.
• The metadata from the YouTube video shows the Tuscan Leveling System trademark in "human readable form."   (Note: you can see the readable form in the attachment to the Complaint)
• The metadata would permit Internet consumers to search for Tuscan and end up finding the Roynette video and product.   Roynette puts the product it is selling by hyperlink directly adjacent to the Tuscan trademark.

The Complaint seeks damages, attorney's fees, and an injunction.   Roynette has not yet responded to the lawsuit.

Nothing unusual about a YouTube video surfacing as evidence, but this one may be a first, at least in Connecticut.  This case is unique because the evidence is not the video itself but the metadata with the video.  Metadata is typically described as data about data.   YouTube allows you to edit or add metadata to a video.  The metadata, descriptions, or titles for the videos can show up in response to search terms on search engines such as Google or even YouTube.  The allegation here is that Roynette used Tuscan's trademark name to attract consumers searching on the Internet for tile leveling. 

 In this case, it was not only consumers who found Roynette, but it seems they attracted Tuscan too. 

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• Ashby Jones of Wall Street Journal blog writes an intriguing post about the Google and Viacom lawsuit concerning Viacom's claims of copyright infringement against YouTube (Google subsidiary).  The post recites how Viacom employees were uploading copyrighted copies of their own videos to YouTube to help prove that YouTube was not promptly removing videos that infringe copyrights.  At stake: immunity under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  Google says its protected from suit under the Act because YouTube removes content upon request of a copyright holder.  Viacom says otherwise and points to some of its own videos that were not removed.  I do not know the particulars of the lawsuit, but if Viacom hopes to prevail, you would expect that they have more to proceed on than there own employee videos.
• PatentlyO, the nations leading patent law blog, has a humorous post indicating Starbucks may soon be subject to a false marketing claim if it keeps a patent number on its corrugated cardboard cups for much longer.  Professor Dennis Crouch looked up the patent  on the cup and its set to expire in a month.  Maybe Starbucks will settle out of court like the coffee house did with Kramer on Seinfeld for lifetime free coffee!  (if you are wondering, this happened in the Maestro episode)   
• Brendon Tavelli of The Privacy Law Blog writes about the Federal Trade Commissions settlement against LifeLock,Inc. for misrepresentation concerning its identity theft services and protections.  35 states joined in the settlement.  According the the settlement, LifeLock was not providing the comprehensive identify theft coverage it advertised.  Any consumer considering identify theft should do a very detailed investigation of the company and its services.  I wrote a post recently about data loss and noted that many victims are offered identity theft protection as part of the settlement.  Many times, the protection is not adequate. 
• Victoria Pynchon's Settle It Now Blog has a compelling post about her project to teach women to negotiate better in retail, relationships, employment, and the law.  I recently discovered this popular blog and now I am a regular reader.  Great insights, not only for women (although she says so a few times).
• John Buford of the North Carolina Business Litigation Report has a post about a business valuation case involving a closely held business.  At issue in the case was determining a value of an unproven technology.  The problem was setting a fair price to avoid a windfall for either side.  Although it is a North Carolina case, the concepts of valuing intellectual property, especially unproven technology, is more of a function of the science of appraisals than state law.  Some useful concepts are discussed including the appraiser's methodology that the court accepted.
• Mashable, a top 100 blog, discusses Twitter's birthday only 4 years ago.  Twitter hit 50 million tweets per day last month. Mashable is a great blog that has just about everything there is to do with social media and web 2.0.
• For more on social media: Nicole Black's Sui Generis - a New York Law Blog - discusses Nicole's new book, "Social Media for Lawyers: The Next Frontier."  The book is co-authored by Carolyn Elefant, who publishes the blog MyShingle.com an excellent resource for solos and small firm lawyers.  
•  Megan Erickson's Social Networking Blog also details the Classmates.com settlement.  I guess  I was not the only one getting those annoying emails claiming my classmates were looking for me. 
• Cannot do a business blog round up without mentioning the ScotusBlog and its post on Anna Nicole Smith's estate losing her long disputed claim for millions from her tycoon husband J. Howard Marshall.  The Post includes the decision and a summary story.  

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