Hi everyone,

The Ninth Circuit issued today (Oct 21 2015) a new opinion in MTM v Amazon which supersedes the MTM v Amazon currently found in the casebook version 2.0 in Part II.B.5. The new opinion is attached.

You may recall that in its now-withdrawn original opinion the Ninth Circuit reversed and remanded the district court’s granting of summary judgment to Amazon. Judge Bea (joined by Judge Quist) found outstanding issues of fact that precluded summary judgment. Judge Silverman dissented.

In response to a petition for rehearing, it appears that Judge Quist switched his vote. In the new opinion, Judge Silverman (joined by Judge Quist) finds no likelihood of initial interest confusion. Judge Bea dissents at length.

I’m not sure if I’ll include an edited version of the new MTM v Amazon opinion in the next version of the casebook, but I will likely do so.

Thanks to Jake Linford for writing to me with news of the new opinion (which strangely did not make the papers here in Berlin, where I’m on sabbatical).

Thanks, Barton