CMLP Joins Amicus Brief in Support of BlockShopper.com [1]

Last Friday, the Citizen Media Law Project joined Public Citizen [2], EFF [3], and Public Knowledge [4] in filing an amici curiae brief [5] in support of BlockShopper.com [6]'s motion to dismiss [7] Jones Day [8]'s bogus trademark claims against it [9].

The brief argues that Jones Day has failed to state a cause of action for trademark infringement [10] because exhibits [11] to the complaint [12] clearly dispel any likelihood of confusion, because the First Amendment protects Blockshopper's noncommercial speech, and because using Jones Day's name to describe the activities of its associates is a nominative fair use [13]. It also argues that Jones Day has failed to state a cause of action for trademark dilution [10] because "Jones Day" is not a famous trademark and because statutory defenses for fair use, news reporting, and noncommercial speech bar the claim. See 15 U.S.C. § 1125(c)(3) [14]. 

Many thanks to Paul Alan Levy [15] and Corynne McSherry [16] for their hard work co-authoring this excellent brief.  We'll be monitoring the lawsuit in our database entry, Jones Day v. BlockShopper LLC [17].