Henry T. Ford famously said about the Model T in 1909 that buyers could get a car in any color, as long as it was black. Whether it was because the paint dried faster or because it was cheap and durable doesn't matter at this point. (The whoosh sound Ford heard next was the sound of painted Chevy's flying past Ford in sales.) As a commercial strategy, in retrospect, it seems silly

And yet that is what the vast majority of ad networks are telling brand advertisers these days -- "you can have any kind of advertising you want, as long as it is the kind we sell" (mostly standard IAB banners)- or perhaps -- "you can appear on any websites you want, only we can't tell you which ones, exactly."

When I first started this job, back in the age of the dinosaurs, all I heard was COPPA this and COPPA that. And I was like, huh? Now the Children's Online Privacy Protection ACT (COPPA) has become second nature to me (selling ads to kids will do that to you). So, of course the FTC is considering changing it... more »

We all know what a trademark is. Drawings or symbols to indicate ownership have been around since the cave man days, so you'd think we'd have things settled by now. Sadly for the world, but happily for law geeks like me, that is not the case

Computer repair company, Rescuecom, recently abandoned its AdWords litigation against Google.

I am fascinated by the ongoing analysis of the March 2 integrated Farmville promotion for Microsoft's Bing search engine.

Over a 24-hour period, Farmville players were offered 3 units of Farm Cash if they became a "Fan" of Bing on Facebook. This promotion resulted in over 425,000 new fans; a fourfold jump. Bing's Facebook page now boasts 592,000 fans to Google's 531,000.

Hooray for Cartoon Network and their upcoming show, Adventure Time with Finn and Jake which airs Monday, April 5th. We just helped them launch their campaign for the show by creating a page that features videos of CN's latest cartoon as well as games.

Congrats to our friends at Disney Interactive on the launch of their DS and Wii game for Alice in Wonderland. The advertising campaign also launched on Betawave today, including a hot little number we like to call a Custom Marquee Video Unit with Animated Skin

UPDATE: We've changed the image to show the campaign on GirlsGoGames.com for concept. The unit was scheduled for just one day, so it's no longer running.

As the media planning cycle for 2010 kicks into high gear, I expect the arguments about performance between ad networks, portals, and "premium publishers" to heat up. Traditionally, each group owned a sizable slice of the overall digital advertising pie, but the 2009 prospect of being left with only crumbs resulted in an industry media blitz to demonstrate which approach was most effective... more »

Brief overview of the different types of intellectual property

These days, who has time to tell their copyrights from their trademarks and their trade secrets? Can you tell them apart? What the heck is a service mark anyway? Patents? Uh, I don't think so. I wouldn't want you to get caught with your trade dressing in a stitch, so I will occasionally provide a brief overview of the most common kinds of intellectual property. We kick it off with an oldie, but a goodie.

I'm not going to try to sell you anything on this blog. There will be no sunshine positive product reviews, no links to the latest gadget, product or device. I'm not going to promote so much as a specific brand of legal dictionary. This blog is purely for informational and reference purposes only. It's a blog (or "blawg" if you're a law geek, hardee har har) that covers developments in the law that affect web publishers and advertisers. That's it. No more, no less... more »