EFF and Public Citizen joined by Public Knowledge and Citizen Media Law Project have urged a federal judge in Chicago to dismiss a law firm's baseless trademark claims which were apparently aimed at quashing speech by an online news site.

The firm of Jones Day filed the lawsuit against the real estate news site Blockshopper.com alleging that using its trademark "Jones Day" to refer to the firm in a headline and linking to the Jones Day website could lead to confusion over the sponsorship of the site. In its amicus brief EFF and Public Citizen argue that these routine references to Jones Day are well-established fair uses of a trademark and clearly protected by the First Amendment.