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​The European Court of Justice paves the way for The Pirate Bay to be blocked across the European Union Posted on September 01, 2017
Copyright law has historically developed in response to technological innovation. For example, in the 1980s developments in digital recording equipment gave consumers the ability to make perfect reproductions of protected works.[1] In the European Economic Community (EEC), this new technology led to an increase in cross-border copyright infringement,[2] and in 1988, the Commission of the European Communities estimated that millions of dollars of earnings had been lost as a result of piracy in the area of sound recordings.[3] This led the European Union to work on unifying copyright law, and in 2001, the the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union passed the Copyright Directive.[4] The Copyright Directive harmonized copyright laws between member states of the European Union with the goal of...
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Digest Note
Algorithmic Due Process: Mistaken Accountability and Attribution in State v. Loomis Posted on August 31, 2017 Algorithms are eating the world.[1] Every industry, from education to health to finance to media, is embracing algorithmic trends,[2] and the justice system is no exception. Police departments are engaging algorithms to make communities safer.[3] States are using algorithms to replace outdated, discriminatory bail systems.[4] And parole boards are relying on algorithms to reduce recidivism risk.[5] On the whole, algorithms in the law are promising...
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Digest Notes
Federal Circuit Flash Digest – Cases in Brief Posted on August 26, 2017 The PTAB, on appeal, must restrict its reasoning to using materials addressed by the Examiner so to give parties proper notice. Honeywell Int’l Inc. v. Mexichem Amanco Holding S.A. De. C.V., No. 2016-1996 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 1, 2017). The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit overturned a Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) finding that a patent...
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Federal Circuit Flash Digest
Federal Circuit Flash Digest – Cases in Brief Posted on July 31, 2017 Patent Applicant Appealing a Patent and Trial Appeal Board Decision in District Court Must Pay All Expenses Including Attorney’s Fees Nantkwest, Inc. v. Matal, No. 2016-1794 (Fed. Cir. June 23, 2017). In Nantkwest, Inc. v. Matal, No. 2016-1794 (Fed. Cir. June 23, 2017), the Federal Circuit reversed the decision of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia which...
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Federal Circuit Flash Digest
Kroger v. Lidl: Kroger sues new entrant Lidl for trademark and service mark infringement of its private label brand “Private Selection” Posted on July 31, 2017 Complaint for Trademark Infringement, The Kroger Co. v. Lidl US, LLC, No. 3:17-cv-00480-JAG (E.D. Va. Jun. 30, 2017), complaint hosted by IPWatchdog Kroger, the nation’s largest grocery chain, is suing German discount grocery chain Lidl for trademark and service mark infringement over Lidl’s private label grocery brand, “Preferred Selection,” which Kroger claims is “confusingly similar” to Kroger’s private label brand...
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Trademark
Facebook v. United States: Facebook cites First Amendment in challenge to government non-disclosure order Posted on July 30, 2017 Notice to Potential Amici Curiae, Facebook, Inc. v. United States, Nos. 17-SS-388, 17-SS-389, No. 17-SS-390 (D.C. June 14, 2017), notice hosted by the American Civil Liberties Union On June 14, 2017, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals issued an order permitting Facebook to provide notice to parties that have an interest in serving as amici curiae in the social...
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First Amendment Jurisdiction D.C. Circuit Decisions
EPIC v. PACEI: President Trump’s Election Commission Asks States to Wait to Disclose Voter Data in Response to Flood of Lawsuits Posted on July 27, 2017 Complaint for Injunctive Relief, Electronic Privacy Information Center v. Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, No. 17-1320 (D.D.C. July 3, 2017), complaint hosted by EPIC.org  This week President Trump’s Advisory Commission on Election Integrity temporarily halted its efforts to collect sensitive voter information from states until a federal judge ruled on a complaint filed against the Commission by Electronic Privacy...
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Privacy Jurisdiction District Courts
Copyright Office Releases Report on DMCA 1201 Posted on July 16, 2017 17 U.S.C. § 1201 (1998); U.S. Copyright Off,, Rep. on Section 1201 of Title 17 (2017)  On June 22, 2017, the United States Copyright Office released the first comprehensive public report assessing 17 U.S.C. Section 1201, also known as the Anti-Circumvention Provision. The controversial legislation, which makes it illegal to circumvent any technological protection measure (“TPM”) that controls access to copyrighted...
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Copyright Digital Millennium Copyright Act
Twitter v. Sessions: Twitter’s First Amendment Lawsuit Against the Government Advances After Three Years in Court Posted on July 15, 2017 Order Denying Government’s Motion for Summary Judgment Without Prejudice; Granting Twitter’s Motion for Order Directing Defendants to Expedite Security Clearance, Case No. 14-cv-04480-YGR (N.D. Cal. 2017) order hosted by documentcloud.org  It has become a tradition for technology companies to disclose the number of government requests for account information and content removal in biannual Transparency Reports. In 2014, under executive agency...
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Privacy First Amendment
Google v. Equustek: The Supreme Court of Canada Orders Google to De-Index Globally Posted on July 12, 2017 Google Inc., v. Equustek Solutions Inc., [2017] 1 S.C.R. 34 (Can.) opinion hosted by lexum.com.  In a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court of Canada ordered Google to delist certain webpages from its search engine pending a patent infringement trial. Rather than limiting the order to Google’s Canadian site, the Court required Google to delist the webpages globally. In so holding...
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Patent First Amendment Jurisdiction
hiQ Labs v. LinkedIn: Is Scraping Public Data Protected Speech? Posted on July 11, 2017 hiQ Labs, Inc. v. LinkedIn Corporation, No. 3:17-cv-03301 (N.D. Cal. 2017), complaint hosted by Law.com  On May 23, 2017, LinkedIn’s Senior Litigation Counsel Mr. Abishek Bajoria sent talent management company hiQ Labs a cease and desist (C&D) letter which claimed that hiQ violated its User Agreement by scraping, copying, and sharing the profiles and information of LinkedIn users. The C&D...
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Copyright Digital Millennium Copyright Act Internet
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