Plaintiffs Are Still Litigating–and Losing–Website Framing Cases (S&S v. Promo Hunt)

The defendant offers a browser extension that displays popup windows over e-commerce sites showing price comparison information. Enterpreneurs have been trying to make this sort of functionality happen since the late 1990s. Maybe this browser extension will succeed where thousands have failed before. An online retailer objected to the popup window and sued. We saw a spate of lawsuits over third-party modifications to a web page, such as framing, 20-25 years ago, testing many legal theories. None of the lawsuits worked. In an effort to avoid that graveyard of litigation, the plaintiff tried the trespass to chattels doctrine. But….um…exactly how does a browser extension trespass any chattel controlled by the retailer? The retailer’s answer (I shit you not, I would not make up shit like this): superimposing the Price Comparison Tool over other content on the S&S Site trespasses on valuable digital real estate that S&S has expended time, resources, and effort to make aesthetically and…