A federal court has dismissed a putative class action against Avvo under the Illinois Right of Publicity Act, ruling that Avvo’s lawyer listings are comparable to the editorial content in Sports Illustrated and deserving of the same First Amendment protection. This is the second time in six weeks in which a right-of-publicity class action against Avvo has been dismissed.

Lawyer John Vrdolyak filed the lawsuit in the Northern District of Illinois, alleging that Avvo was using his identity for commercial purposes without his consent, in violation of Illinois law. It did this by listing his profile without his consent and by placing paid advertising on his profile page, including advertising by competing lawyers, he contended.

But in granting Avvo’s motion to dismiss, U.S. District Judge Robert W. Gettleman found that Avvo’s lawyer listings constituted non-commercial speech fully protected by the First Amendment. (The full decision is embedded below.)

[T]o hold otherwise would lead to the unintended result that any entity that publishes truthful newsworthy information about individuals such as teachers, directors and other professionals, such as a newspaper or yellow page directory, would risk civil liability simply because it generated revenue from advertisements placed by others in the same field.

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