CHORUS Deliverable 2.1: State of the Art on Multimedia Search Engines

Based on the information provided by European projects and national initiatives related to multimedia search as well as domains experts that participated in the CHORUS Think-thanks and workshops, this document reports on the state of the art related to multimedia content search from, a technical, and socio-economic perspective. The technical perspective includes an up to date view on content based indexing and retrieval technologies, multimedia search in the context of mobile devices and peer-to-peer networks, and an overview of current evaluation and benchmark inititiatives to measure the performance of multimedia search engines. From a socio-economic perspective we inventorize the impact and legal consequences of these technical advances and point out future directions of research

Hiding in Plain Sight: A Longitudinal Study of Combosquatting Abuse

Domain squatting is a common adversarial practice where attackers register domain names that are purposefully similar to popular domains. In this work, we study a specific type of domain squatting called "combosquatting," in which attackers register domains that combine a popular trademark with one or more phrases (e.g., betterfacebook[.]com, youtube-live[.]com). We perform the first large-scale, empirical study of combosquatting by analyzing more than 468 billion DNS records---collected from passive and active DNS data sources over almost six years. We find that almost 60% of abusive combosquatting domains live for more than 1,000 days, and even worse, we observe increased activity associated with combosquatting year over year. Moreover, we show that combosquatting is used to perform a spectrum of different types of abuse including phishing, social engineering, affiliate abuse, trademark abuse, and even advanced persistent threats. Our results suggest that combosquatting is a real problem that requires increased scrutiny by the security community.Comment: ACM CCS 1

Neuromarks

This Article predicts trademark law’s impending neural turn. A growing legal literature debates the proper role of neuroscientific evidence. Yet outside of criminal law, analysis of neuroscientific evidence in the courtroom has been lacking. This is a mistake given that most of the applied research into brain function focuses on building better brands, not studies of criminal defendants’ grey matter. Judges have long searched for a way to measure advertising’s psychological hold over consumers. Advertisers already use brain imaging to analyze a trademark’s ability to stimulate consumer attention, emotion, and memory. In the near future, businesses will offer a neural map unique to each well-known brand—a “neuromark ”—into evidence. With the neuromark at their disposal, courts could potentially abandon the crude proxies for consumer perception that guide modern trademark doctrine. The current tests for trademark distinctiveness, likelihood of confusion, and dilution will all change, but will these changes be good for trademark law? By itself, measurement of consumer perception does not reveal how courts resolving trademark disputes should account for that measurement. New insights into the functioning of the consuming mind make a searching interrogation of the rationales behind trademark law more imperative than ever

Neuromarks

This Article predicts trademark law’s impending neural turn. A growing legal literature debates the proper role of neuroscientific evidence. Yet outside of criminal law, analysis of neuroscientific evidence in the courtroom has been lacking. This is a mistake given that most of the applied research into brain function focuses on building better brands, not studies of criminal defendants’ grey matter. Judges have long searched for a way to measure advertising’s psychological hold over consumers. Advertisers already use brain imaging to analyze a trademark’s ability to stimulate consumer attention, emotion, and memory. In the near future, businesses will offer a neural map unique to each well-known brand—a “neuromark ”—into evidence. With the neuromark at their disposal, courts could potentially abandon the crude proxies for consumer perception that guide modern trademark doctrine. The current tests for trademark distinctiveness, likelihood of confusion, and dilution will all change, but will these changes be good for trademark law? By itself, measurement of consumer perception does not reveal how courts resolving trademark disputes should account for that measurement. New insights into the functioning of the consuming mind make a searching interrogation of the rationales behind trademark law more imperative than ever

Trademarks and Textual Data: A Broader Perspective on Innovation = Marques et données textuelles : Une perspective élargie sur l’innovation

Patente messen häufig technische Innovationen, während Handelsmarken Low-Tech und Dienstleistungen abdecken. In dieser Arbeit werden Textdaten von Marken untersucht, um verschiedene Rechte des geistigen Eigentums zu kombinieren. Textdaten ermöglichen zum Beispiel die Analyse großer Datenmengen, die Kombination verschiedener Quellen und datengestützte Erkenntnisse. Die Kombination von Handelsmarken und Patenten in den Bereichen Robotik (Hightech) und Schuhe (Lowtech) bietet eine breitere Abdeckung und Details zu Innovationen, die je nach Sektor variieren. Im Musikinstrumentensektor verdeutlichen Textdaten zu Marken, Patenten und Designs den laufenden technologischen Wandel. Patente beziehen sich auf Daten und Digitalisierungsthemen und werden von High-Tech-Firmen genutzt, während Handelsmarken die Signalverarbeitung und Videospiele von Spielfirmen abdecken. Designs fungieren als verbindendes Element. Eine Differenzierung zwischen Unternehmen und Tätigkeitsbereichen ist möglich. Zusammenfassend zeigt die These, dass die Integration von textuellen Markendaten die Innovationsabdeckung erweitert

Liability for Trademark Infringement in Web 2.0 Era: Analysis of Legal Conundrum in Google and Ebay Cases

Many online entrepreneurs do not realize that they may be held legally liable for keywords they select during their marketing campaigns, especially if they correspond to registered or famous trade marks. The present contribution highlights some of the most important aspects of the Google and eBay cases that illustrate this problem. The European Court of Justice has recently ruled that a search engine provider is not infringing trade marks as it does not use them in a legal sense. The advertiser, in turn, will usually be held primarily liable, although eBay dispute demonstrates there may be a room for manoeuvre for larger intermediaries. These legal developments are important, firstly because they promise to offer a greater protection to Web 2.0 business models based on user-generated content. Secondly, online business offering paid search services will be shielded from liability for storing infringing content provided that their activities remain technically neutral

E-Commerce: Legal Issues Of The Online Retailer In Virginia

The popularity and growth of online retailing, now in its tenth year, has shattered experts’ expectations. “Online sales in the United States grew twenty-four percent last year, to about $90 billion, and online retailing now accounts for nearly five percent of all retail sales.

Biasing Brands

The dominant search-costs model of trademark law posits that consumers choose products to satisfy their preferences by analytically mapping those preferences to product information that trademarks efficiently provide. This Article tests these descriptive claims against empirical and theoretical research in marketing and consumer psychology, particularly the concept of brand equity : the value to a firm or its customers of a brand and of the firm\u27s efforts to build and maintain that brand. Internally complex brand equity models, juxtaposed with empirical findings in related psychology and marketing research, challenge the descriptive accuracy of the search-costs model. In particular, branding efforts can influence consumer decision-making not only by informing and persuading consumers, but also by altering the way consumers evaluate product information and consumption experiences. In a word, branding can bias consumers. The phenomenon of brand bias suggests that the search-costs model is incomplete and that trademark protection can only reliably promote economic efficiency in a legal environment where complementary regulations, such as those prevalent in food and drug law, mitigate the opportunities for producers to extract rents by manipulating consumer psychology. The Article concludes by situating trademark law in this broader web of consumer protection law