[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Allied Concrete v. Lester, 2013 Va. LEXIS 8 (Jan. 10, 2013) This case generated some attention at the trial court phase, but for whatever reason I didn’t have a chance to blog it. Lester and his…
By Eric Goldman I’m pleased to share my list of top 10 developments of 2012: #10: The Push Towards Anti-Class Action Arbitration Clauses. In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion that businesses may be able to adopt mandatory…
By Eric Goldman 47 USC 230/Review Websites * Sulla v. Horowitz, 2012 WL 4758163 (D. Hawai’i Oct. 4, 2012): “§ 230 does not provide this court with exclusive jurisdiction over defamation claims arising from statements made via the internet….While a…
By Eric Goldman Privacy/Security * Knowing how the FTC is cracking down on privacy violations and deceptive persuasion techniques, it’s a little jarring to see how aggressive Obama’s campaign was on both fronts. NY Times (1, 2), WSJ and Time….
By Eric Goldman Copyright * Author’s Guild v. HathiTrust, 1:11-cv-06351-HB (SDNY Oct. 10, 2012). James Grimmelmann’s take. * Hillicon Valley: ‘Shell-shocked’ lawmakers shy away from online piracy in new Congress * Ars Technica: Voters boot three SOPA-sponsoring Hollywood allies from…
By Eric Goldman You may have heard–or even used–the phrase “soft IP.” I’m not a fan of it, and I think we should retire the term. The term “soft IP” is inherently ambiguous. Sometimes, people use “soft IP” to refer…
By Eric Goldman The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has ended its nearly two-year-old antitrust investigation of Google’s ($GOOG) search engine practices with minimal consequences to Google. You can see the details from the FTC’s announcement. With any company as…
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Kirch v. Embarq Management, No. 11-3275 (10th Cir. Dec. 28, 2012) This is an appeal from one of the many lawsuits against IAPs for implementing the ill-fated NebuAd “deep packet inspection” system. Here’s my post on…
By Colleen Chien and Eric Goldman Congress passed the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) (S.23), commonly referred to as “patent reform,” in September 2011. The AIA is widely acknowledged as the most important change to U.S. patent law since 1952. The AIA…
By Guest Blogger Marketa Trimble The U.S. Copyright Office recently extended the deadline by which the public may submit comments on issues related to orphan works until February 4, 2013. The Office is gathering suggestions for shaping future U.S. legislation…