BlockShopper.Com Buckles Under Lawyer's "Trademark" Lawsuit

Slate published an interesting piece yesterday about a legal skirmish between BlockShopper, the real estate gossip site with a big St. Louis presence, and the international corporate law firm, Jones Day, who got its undies in a bunch when BlockShopper reported on the home sale of one if its lawyers.

If you haven't been on BlockShopper lately -- here's the St. Louis version -- it's worth a browse. The site's founders, about whom I wrote a year and a half ago, dispatch teams of reporters to mine municipal offices for real estate data and then publish short pieces on home sales among bold-faced names.

Recently, for instance, the St. Louis BlockShopper reported on an Ameren UE exec picking up a four-bedroom in Creve Coeur and an ex-St. Louis Cardinal selling out in Wildwood.

The site basically takes data in what are already public records and makes it a whole lot more visible to average Joes like you and me.

As you might expect, this pisses off a lot of people. Like the lawyers at Jones Day, who sued. Check out the Slate piece for all the details. (The case got resolved this week.)