The California single publication rule bars an individual's common law and California statutory right of publicity and Lanham Act false endorsement claims for the sale of merchandise on a Web site, a district court ruled. The court found that the individual's claims were based upon material that had been on the defendant's Web site since 2000, outside the statute of limitations period for either the right of publicity claims or Lanham Act claims. The court rejected the plaintiff's argument that the single publication rule did not apply because the Web site seller was engaged in a series of ongoing sales for commercial gain, resulting in a re-starting of the limitations period for each sale. The court commented that acceptance of the plaintiff's argument on this point would mean that the statute of limitations would never run while the Web site remained in existence with the subject items for sale, and that this was a result that this would be “the exact result the single publication rule seeks to avoid.”

Yeager v. Bowlin, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 718 (E.D. Cal. Jan. 6, 2010) Download PDF