No “Contract By Tweet” for Plaintiff Who Pitches Movie Idea via Social Media
This is an idea theft case based on the idea behind “Creed” the movie, a spinoff of the famous Rocky movies. Jarrett Alexander alleged that he came up with the idea for Creed, drafted the screenplay, and put together a…
Catching Up on Ninth Circuit CFAA Jurisprudence (Internet Law Casebook Excerpt)
[Eric’s note: this is another excerpt from my Internet Law casebook. Venkat and I couldn’t blog last year’s chaotic and messy Ninth Circuit’s CFAA jurisprudence in real time. I nevertheless took one for the team and tried to make sense of the…
Non-Compete Applies To Facebook Page for Unlaunched Business–Joseph v. O’Laughlin
This is another case where the defendant allegedly solicits customers or employees over social media in the face of a restrictive covenant. We recently blogged a couple of cases involving solicitations over LinkedIn. This case involves solicitations over Facebook. O’Laughlin…
Browsewrap/Clickwrap Distinction Vexes Another Court–Nevarez v. Ticketmaster
We just blogged about online contract formation yesterday, but it’s worth revisiting the topic so quickly because this case demonstrates another crash-and-burn failure of the browsewrap-clickwrap dichotomy. How many times must the “wrap” categorization fail before judges recognize that it’s…
Uber’s Contract Upheld in Second Circuit–Meyer v. Uber
This is a lawsuit alleging price fixing against Uber and its former CEO Travis Kalanick. Uber (and Kalanick) moved to compel arbitration on the basis of the arbitration clause in Uber’s terms of service. The district court found that Uber’s…
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….
‘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…
Courts Keep Shredding Online Contract Formation Processes–McGhee v. NAB; Applebaum v. Lyft
A couple more online contract formation cases to enliven your Saturday: McGhee v. NAB This case involves mobile credit card processing services. The plaintiffs are merchants who think they were overcharged for card readers. The vendor invoked the arbitration clause…
1H 2017 Quick Links, Part 5 (Advertising, Contracts)
Advertising * David A. Hyman et al, Going Native: Can Consumers Recognize Native Advertising? Does It Matter?, 19 Yale J.L. & Tech. 77 (2017): “We tested sixteen examples of native advertising. For fifteen of the sixteen examples, fewer than 50% of…
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…