May It Please the Mozzers,
Those of you who get paid to build links aren't going to believe this one. One of the world's largest law firms, Jones Day, actually filed suit against a small e-commerce company, BlockShopper, for linking to it with the anchor text "Jones Day."
Yes. I'm telling you the truth.
The weird thing is BlockShopper's site wasn't defamatory, negative, or competing for services. Still, Jones Day decided to file a trademark infringement and dilution lawsuit. It just makes no sense.
BlockShopper reports on real estate purchases in several upscale neighborhoods around the country. It's a little privacy-invasive (not in a legal sense, but in a moral sense), but they report on the names and professions of people who buy new homes. Sometimes they provide photos of the purchasers. They also map the location of the new home and state how much the person paid for it. When describing where the person works, BlockShopper often links to the employer's site.
Apparently, all the trouble started when a couple of Jones Day lawyers bought some new homes in a swanky Chicago neighborhood. BlockShopper included their names, photos from the firm's website, links to the firm's website, and information about the prices and locations of the homes. If you're thinking that maybe Jones Day is upset about the semi-creepy privacy issues or the use of the firm photos, you'd be wrong; There are no copyright claims and no privacy claims in the Complaint [PDF].
Instead, Jones Day is suing over the use of its name as anchor text for a link to its website. It claims that its mark is being diluted and there is a likelihood of confusion. Yeah right. Can you imagine someone accidentally going to BlockShopper and thinking that it was a law firm site or affiliated with Jones Day just because it links to it? Have any of the managing partners ever used the internet before? Here's a hint to the folks at Jones Day: There are no tubes. There are only links. The more links to you, the better for you.
Good News: Some excellent and highly qualified attorneys from EFF, Public Citizen, Public Knowledge and the Citizen Media Law Project have stepped up to help BlockShopper fight this silly lawsuit. With some big guns willing to help, BlockShopper should be able get the case dismissed handily. Fair use is a defense to both trademark infringement and dilution. Linking to someone you are writing about is entirely lawful, so long as you aren't telling lies or confusing consumers. If it were illegal, there could be no world wide web.
Bad News: If Jones Day is planning on suing everyone who links to it using the anchor text "Jones Day," then it has several hundred more defendants to go. Let's hope this prestigious law firm stops embarrassing the legal profession and rethinks its losing strategy.
Happy Link Building.
Respectfully,
Sarah L. Bird
Further Reading:
Paul Levy's excellent post
The Plain Dealer's Coverage
Techdirt
TechlawJournal has a lot of links to case documents and detailed analysis
By: Sarah Bird
If linking to their site using the name of their company is trademark dilution, then would linking somewhere else with the name strenghthen their trademark?
If so, perhaps we could start a movement to use link the words "Jones Day" to something not quite as....errr.......law related?
Certainly they could not object.
Sheesh, one of the freakiest free backlink cases :) I sincerely don't understand the base of filing the lawsuite, but this is America!
Jack https://shop.it.ee
Careful there. They might sue you as well, especially if they think only they have rights to "Jones Day".
While I'm not a lawyer, and from what I've learned from experienced pros on this, I'm rather mystified how this seemingly humongous law firm thinks it has a trademark dilution claim against BlockShopper. I guess they don't have technology-savvy lawyers who are versed on these things?
If they don't like "Jones Day" as anchor text, then they need to also go and sue these other sites for linking to them with "Jones Day" as the anchor text (see the first result on each of these) ...
google.com/search?q=jones+day
search.yahoo.com/search?p=jones+day
searchme.com/#/0/&q=jones+day
search.live.com/results.aspx?q=jones+day
cuil.com/search?q=jones+day
ask.com/web?q=jones+day
Is this some great big linkbait joke, or an attempt to get into the "Hot Trends" list, or are they really that clueless?
I read the complaint, and it does mention the use of "Jones Day Marks" and content from the website being used illegally.
It says that Jones Day asked:
"...that the Defendants cease all use of the Jones Day Marks, cease linking to the Jones Day web site and cease use of Jones Day’s proprietary web site content."
So it's not just about the links...right?
Sarah, you said, "If you're thinking that maybe Jones Day is upset about the semi-creepy privacy issues or the use of the firm photos, you'd be wrong", but the complaint does mention the photos several times.
I doubt anyone would go to BlockShopper, see the Jones Day logo, and think that BlockShopper was affiliated with Jones Day, but someone of lower-than-average-intelligence might think that the Jones Day employees were condoning BlockShopper or allowing use of their photos, logo, etc.
I think Jones Day did have a legit intellectual property complaint about the photos and any content taken from their site; they messed it up by throwing in the links.
If this lawsuit keeps BlockShopper from using employee photos, bios, logos, and such from other sites, that would be a good thing, right?
Maybe we should all start linking to them using their brand name to see if they can sue 10/100/1,000 people...
Only the anchor text should be "Forest Gump must work here"
Now a days people or company dont want to be called by their names.
Maybe they sued beacuse they were not linking back with good keyword rich anchor text.
LOL. Most company would even pay someone to have a link to their website. But this lawfirm is even exerting effort, not to mention money, on this lawsuit. Can anyone really claim ownership on a keyword? Just asking.
This is insanity.
I can't believe that someone would complain about a backlink from a legit site.
After all the hoops we jump through to collect backlinks.
Ridiculous, with the economy bad, I guess even lawyers are getting hungry and looking for some easy money. Good thing it won't be too easy. I better remove mybacklinks to cnn and facebook, or I may have to bring in a legal team on retainer.
is the lawsuit just an excuse to hit Blockshopper for buggering them with other stuff? it's difficult to believe that the real drive for the lawsuit is the anchor text on that link
I forget how little some people know about these things. I should remember that when I'm trying to argue my SEO case for something.
Like others though, I have a feeling there's more to it than meets the eye.
That's crazy! I hope Jones Day's lawsuit is thrown out. It's free marketing for them and is not detrimental to them in any way.
Ahhh getting sued for linkbait, the oldest trick in the book. Nice job Sarah for Linking to Jones Day. Man you made my day :-). Thanks for keeping us informed. Talk about reputation destruction bonanza if they sued SEOmoz.
I wouldn't link to them if that's the case. ;D
Why am I suddenly so tempted to link to them on all of my websites? haha. Psychology is weird. ;-p
Wow. I suppose they were expecting to get paid by the suit...it's hard to imagine them taking on this frivolous a lawsuit for free. Wow.
I see what you did there. LOL. This is obviously a case of a company that is so worried about a bad online association that it manages to cast a large dark shadow over its brand because of bad publicity from being seen as a bully. A February 2009 post by the Digital Media Law Project does a great job of showing how the settlement Jones Day demanded - the use of a URL backlink instead of the firm's name - was idiotic and made Jones Day look like a trademark bully. Jones Day obviously enjoys censorship: Its Wikipedia page has been heavily edited and contains incorrect information about the outcome of the settlement. I would like to say Jones Day eventually realized how foolish such a lawsuit is in this day and age of backlinks given how many sites currently link to it using the law firm's name as title and/or anchor text. Sadly, as noted by EFF.org, Jones Day cooked up another equally ridiculous trademark lawsuit last June.
If anyone links to Jones Day, please make it a nofollow - after all, they do not want to be found through a search engine, so we should help them out.
I don't see how they could win. They are wasting time trying to sue someone who's trying to help.
Whatever the case, it's impossible to control every link to your site, and this case should be thrown out.
I think it was a genius linkbait piece... File a lawsuit against a company for a link to your website, and in return get a billizion links from everyone on the web raving about it! BRILLIANT!
This silly law firm must be on the hunt for new revenue. Imagine how this story could spread across the 'Net? Think of all those new "trademark diluters" to file suit against? It's as if they hit the jackpot.
But wait, did I hear their reputation hit the floor...and go through it?
Just the sound of how ignorance can take down what takes years to build up - all for a measly few dollars.
Copyright claims and deep linking are two known established methods in the courts to take down links. It's interesting to see they went with a Trademark infringement. Are they attempting to "trademark content", vis-a-vis their claim at the patent office?
Interesting.
Maybe they're just not that busy at the office and they needed something to do for the new guy to get some practice in.
This is probably one of those lawsuits that are done just to annoy the other party. They only want to have the other party to have the monetary burden of defending. Not sure if they considered Blockshopper would get EFF and others behind them. Unfortunately, our courts have to have the added burden of these frivolous suits.
seems like some people have a less comprehensive grasp on what the internet is all about. always thought most lawyers are good in "researching" their cases...
nuninu...
seems like some people have a less comprehensive grasp on what the internet is all about. always thought most lawyers are good in "researching" their cases...
nuninu...
Lawyers don't think they're funny, and nobody else thinks they're jokes.
--
Q: How many lawyers can you place on the point of a needle?
A: Ten, if you make them stand on their heads.
--
A man who had been caught embezzling millions from his employer went to a lawyer seeking defense. He didn’t want to go to jail. But his lawyer told him, "Don’t worry. You’ll never have to go to jail with all that money.” And the lawyer was right. When the man was sent to prison, he didn’t have a dime.
--
Two lawyers were out hunting when they came upon a couple of tracks. After close examination, the first lawyer declared them to be deer tracks. The second lawyer disagreed, insisting they must be elk tracks.They were still arguing when the train hit them.
On the way back from a laywers convention, the very last surviving example of an extremely rare vintage vehicle went over a cliff, killing the driver (a lawyer) and destroying the car.
When asked for his reaction to this news, the world's foremost and leading vintage car expert replied "That's a real big shame. There were three empty seats."
ahh.... totally missed this one...
Haha. "Don't you link to me!!!"
I can just imagine a few months later they ask "Why don't I show up in Google for 'Jones Day' any more?"
Knowledge/Understanding FAIL. :-/
If I read the complaint correctly, what Jones Day says is that :
BlockShopper published “articles” linking through to the Jones Day web site. and used "Jones Day’s proprietary web site content." I assume they're talking about the photos and the information used (and rephrased) for the bios.
By the sound of this, it seems to me someone should tell them about ZoomInfo and Spock and the rest of the "people search engines" really quick :)
But I don't think this entire thing is about backlinking.
Its not surprising at all. This type of thing is becoming more and more regular. I am waiting for the 'darwin awards' of web cases web site. Not that would be entertaining.
More money = Less Sense. Idiots.
This is absurd, I am sure there is more to this than just a backlink issue. They are just pissed that this company disclosed their private info. As I have lawyer friends filling a law suit for them is like building links for us, not a very difficult task. Nevertheless this is pretty weird case.
I don't know what to say...I suspect there is some other motive behind the lawsuit probably along the lines of what ArturSEO says. What a waste of the courts time.
Hm. I like this quote of Sarah's particularly: "Linking to someone you are writing about is entirely lawful, so long as you aren't telling lies or confusing consumers. If it were illegal, there could be no world wide web."
I'd recently written a YOUmoz post about someone who was hasseling me through the private messages here (and then even tried to sick his lawyers on me) because of a link to his site in a comment that hardly anyone even noticed anyway. Sure it didn't make his site look good, but I wasn't exaggerating or lying about anything.
The link was removed and I'm guessing that post won't make it either. I understand that SEOmoz is just coming into its own, releasing great new tools etc, and has to avoid controversy when it can. It seemed so clear to me, however, that I hadn't done anything wrong and it was kind of just funny to me the severe way in which this person was reacting.
Sarah's post has calmed my nerves, reassuring me that I hadn't done something too incredibly stupid, and I understand if SEOmoz doesn't want me to further discuss it on their site.
It saddens me to see silly lawsuits like this happening and for small firms to get bullied so easily. The phrase "Only in America" comes to mind but i'm sure this type of things happens elsewhere too.
Whats a poor mega law firm to do when its out of clients ;( Well seriously this isnt going to strengthen their position in the growing market of internet lawsuits.
Thank you Sarah for keeping an intellectual eye on things for us.
As always, you do a great job and service tracking the cases that could have an influence on our business.
Thanks again, and keep up the Fantastic work.
Sarah:
Your commentary is interesting and well reasoned. I am not an attorney but if I were, embarrassment for the profession would be in order. So many interesting legal issues are raised. I notice with respect your title and profile. At the very least, this suit makes a bad case for legal arrogance! Thanks for the links to further reading. You are fortunate to be able to utilize your training and knowledge to make a meaningful contribution and commentary to seo/sem.
Hmmm. I'd be afraid to write their name in this comment...does that make me a coward or a pragmatist? Fortunately when Googling "their" name, the SERPs pull up high positions for commentary about this very suit.
Definition of "a shame":
a limo full of attorneys goes off a cliff, and there are 2 seats empty,
now that is "a shame".
Second definition: ... ... being 111 minutes late . :-)
LOL. I have seen so many SEO tuition sessions and presentations over the years where the Jones Day website is frequently shown as an example as to how not to do things.
It seems to me that they have no clue as to how the internet works, not just in designing their own site, but many wider issues that almost any eight year old that has been on the web, for a week, could explain.
Maybe we just found a new candidate to link to with the words "miserable failure".
That's unbelievable. What do you suppose these guys had to hide that is making them so nervous about a "free" backlink? If they won this it would open an extremely large can of worms.
As I kept running across the words "Jones Day" I was thinking this reminds me of something else. I just realized it's the wordplay similarity, obviously not anything else but what it reminded me of was Jonestown.
I am impressed with this site.It's nice.I have similar thing i am dealing with.My aim is to share any type of information with all of you.If i have done any mistake please excuse me.
=============================================
JOHN ROBERT
BlackHatWorld
Update: edit to remove link
Yes, it's true..
=========
John
[url=https://www.blackhatworld.org]BlackHatWorld[/url]
Errrr, are you trying to spam sign your signature using bb code, lol
You do realise that you've liked to Jones Day's website with the link text "Jones Day"!?! Prepare to have your ass sued!