KinderStart.com Suit Dismissed With Leave to Amend

KinderStart.com's suit against Google has been dismissed with leave to amend. See KinderStart.com v. Google, No. C 06-2057 JF (RS) (N.D. Cal. July 13, 2006). KinderStart.com ("KSC") filed suit against Google earlier this year alleging a variety of causes of action, specifically:
(1) Violation of Right to Free Speech under the U.S. Constitution and the California Constitution
(2) Attempted Monopolization under Section 2 of the Sherman Act
(3) Monopolization under Section 2 of the Sherman Act
(4) Violations of the Communications Act 47 U.S.C. §§ 201, et seq.
(5) Unfair Competition under California Business and Professional Code §§ 17200, et seq.
(6) Price Discrimination under California Business and Professional Code § 17045
(7) Breach of the Implied Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing
(8) Defamation and Libel, and
(9) Negligent Interference with Prospective Economic Advantage,
all arising from the March 2005 plummeting of KSC's Google ranking and KSC's concomitant AdSense revenue. KSC alleged that Google had illegally "blocked" its website, meaning that Google had intentionally caused KSC's website's Google ranking to fall.

On July 13, 2006, Judge Jeremy Fogel dismissed KSC's complaint with leave to amend except, apparently, as to the free speech counts. This is interesting because most observers, including me, felt that KSC was dead in the water ab initio given that Google's PageRank methodology is subjective and everyone knows it's subjective. Apparently Judge Fogel wants Google to be a little less subjective, if KSC can figure out how to plead this thing correctly.