Frequency of Courts' References to Emojis and Emoticons Over Time

[This is another excerpt from my Emojis and the Law paper.] In preparing the article, I gathered a dataset of all cases I could find in Westlaw and Lexis containing the word “emoticon” or “emoji.” This dataset is subject to…

Ban on Sex Offenders Using Social Media Violates First Amendment--Packingham v. North Carolina

Yesterday, the Supreme Court struck down a North Carolina law that banned registered sex offenders from using social media sites. It’s a rare treat to get a Supreme Court opinion delving into Internet content regulations, and as a bonus, this…

Trademark Registrations for Emojis

[This is another excerpt from my Emojis and the Law paper.] The Trademark Office has registered emoji trademarks. On January 20, 2017, I conducted a search in the TESS database for “emoji” and identified 385 records. At that time, most…

I blogged about this case last year. (This case is also indexed in our compendium of nonconsensual pornography cases). In my prior post, I described the facts: Franco Caraccioli is a third-year law student in San Diego. For reasons not…

As I mentioned before, I helped organize a series of essays at The Atlantic addressing the question: “Is technology hurting our democracy, and can it help save it?” The series is now complete, so I thought it was worth revisiting…

Copyright Registrations for Emoticons and Emojis

[This is the first of a series of excerpts from my Emojis and the Law paper. Note that I’ve created a new blog category for “Emojis”–the first new category in years!] In my Emojis and the Law paper, I analyzed…

by guest blogger Marketa Trimble On May 18, 2017, the European Parliament adopted with amendments the EU Cross-Border Portability Regulation (Regulation (EU) of the European Parliament and of the Council on cross-border portability of online content services in the internal market)….

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…

How a Chipmunk Emoji Cost an Israeli Texter $2,200

by Gabriella Ziccarelli and Eric Goldman [Eric’s introduction: Gabriella is a star SCU Law alum and an associate at Blank Rome in DC. She is also a former Internet Law student of mine. As a teacher, it’s gratifying to have a former student…