In the wake of The New York Times Co.'s odd settlement of its dispute with Gatehouse Media over linking, another case has turned up in which links by a news site to another site was challenged–and settled almost as strangely.
Slate reports that BlockShopper, a small real estate site, got in trouble with law firm Jones Day for linking real estate transactions involving the firm's lawyers to bios on the Jones Day site. Seems pretty straightforward, but Jones Day claimed trademark violation and took BlockShopper to court.
BlockShopper has now chosen to settle, possibly to avoid further legal costs against the deep-pocketed law firm, and the settlement is Solomonic, at best. But in ripping the baby in half, the settlement fails to truly resolve the issue, just as the New York Times-Gatehouse settlement was murky. It may be that one of these cases has to play its way all the way through the legal system before we can be confident that linking on the Web is as permissible as many of us think it is.
Even if the GateHouse/Times case went to court, I'm not certain that it would have resolved the linking issue as you suggest.
Our complaint alleged breach of contract, copyright infringement, false advertising, trademark infringement, trademark dilution, unfair competition, and unfair business practices, not linking.
Greg Reibman
Editor in Chief Metro Unit
GateHouse Media New England
Posted by: Greg Reibman | February 13, 2009 at 09:48 AM