LinkedIn Enjoined From Blocking Scraper–hiQ v. LinkedIn
hiQ Labs has scraped LinkedIn public profiles for several years. hiQ offers two products, entirely predicated on LinkedIn-scraped data: (1) a prediction to employers which employees were mostly likely to be recruited away, and (2) a summary of employee skills….
LinkedIn Connection Request Doesn’t Violate Non-Solicitation Clause—Bankers Life v. American Senior Benefits
This is another case considering when LinkedIn activity violates a non-solicitation clause. Bankers Life, a company that sells insurance and financial products, sued one of its ex-employees (and his new employer, ASB) alleging among other things that the ex-employee violated…
‘Blatant Sales Pitch’ on LinkedIn Likely Violates Non-solicitation Clause–Mobile Mini v. Vevea
This is a noncompete dispute. Defendant Vevea worked for Mobile Mini. She signed an agreement with Mobile Mini restricting her post-employment activities. Specifically, she agreed: not to work in the Portable Storage Business at a location within fifty miles of…
Politician Can’t Ban Constituent From Her Official Facebook Page–Davison v. Loudoun County Supervisors
This is a First Amendment social media case, where the plaintiff was banned for a 12 hour period from the defendant’s ostensibly official Facebook page. My prior blog post. Following a bench trial, the court finds in favor of plaintiff…
Appropriation Artist Can’t Win Fair Use Defense on Motion to Dismiss–Graham v. Prince
This is a lawsuit by plaintiff Donald Graham against well-known “appropriation artist” Richard Prince and his gallery for copyright infringement. As described by the court: Prince’s [work] is [an . . . ] inkjet print of a screenshot taken by…
Facebook Persistent Tracking Lawsuit Crashes Again
This is a lawsuit based on Facebook’s tracking of users while they are logged out. The code for a “like” button implemented by third parties apparently causes the browser of a consumer visiting the third party page to send a…
Amazon Doesn’t “Sell” Its Marketplace Goods–Milo & Gabby v. Amazon
Milo & Gabby is a small family business that designs and sells “animal-shaped” pillowcases. It discovered that knockoffs were listed for sale on Amazon’s website. The products were actually offered for sale by third party sellers, and all but one…
VPPA Still Doesn’t Protect App Downloaders–Perry v. CNN
Plaintiff sued CNN under the Video Privacy Protection Act, alleging that CNN wrongly disclosed plaintiff’s viewing records without plaintiff’s consent. The allegation is that plaintiff used the CNN app, which records viewing history, and CNN sent this information to Bango, a…
You Can’t Be Fired For a Facebook Post Calling Your Boss a “LOSER”–NLRB v. Pier Sixty
This is a Facebook firing case. The employee worked at Pier Sixty, which operated a catering company in New York. In early 2011, its employees became involved in a union organizing campaign, ultimately voting to unionize. Hernan Perez worked as…
Faulty Mobile Device User Interface Jeopardizes Uber’s Contract Formation–Metter v. Uber
This is a lawsuit against Uber alleging that it improperly assessed a cancellation fee without advising the rider in advance. Uber sought to compel arbitration. The court declines. The arbitration clause is contained in Uber’s terms of service, and the…