Neal v. Fairfax County Police Department: Use of Automatic License Plate Reader Violates Data Privacy Law Posted on April 22, 2019 RE: Neal v. Fairfax County Police Department, et al., Case No. CL-2015-5902 On April 1, the Virginia circuit court held Fairfax County Police Department’s (“FCPD”) use of the Automatic License Plate Reader (“ALPR”) to be a violation of the state’s Government Data Collection and Dissemination Practices Act, Virginia Code § 2.2-3800 et seq (“Data Act”). The Court granted the plaintiff’s...
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Vampire Squids Cards Denied Trademark for Their Product, 'Crabs Adjust Humidity​' Posted on April 13, 2019 Cards Against Humanity, LLC v. Vampire Squid Cards, LLC, Opposition No. 91225576, hosted by United States Patent and Trademark Office The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“Board”) sustained an opposition by Cards Against Humanity (“CAH”) to a trademark application by Vampire Squid Cards (“VSC”) for their product, Crabs Adjust Humidity (“CrAH”). The opposition proceeding, in which the opposing party (CAH)...
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ChargePoint v. SemaConnect: A Charged Definition of Abstractness Posted on April 11, 2019 ChargePoint, Inc., v. SemaConnect, Inc., No. 18-1739, opinion hosted by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled last week in the case of ChargePoint v. SemaConnect, a legal action concerning the validity of several patents relating to charging stations for electrically powered vehicles. Writing for Law360, Ryan Davis...
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HUD Claims Facebook’s Advertising Practices Violate Federal Antidiscrimination Law Posted on April 10, 2019 US Department of Housing and Urban Development v. Facebook, complaint The majority of Facebook’s revenue comes from digital advertisements. With the sheer amount of information gleaned from a user’s online presence, preferences, and activities, Facebook gives advertisers the ability to select for specific characteristics of their intended audiences. As homes and real estate are among the many goods and services...
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Hikma v. Vanda: Hikma Pharmaceuticals Petitions for Supreme Court review of Pivotal Patent Ruling Posted on April 08, 2019 Hikma Pharmaceuticals USA Inc., et al. v. Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc., No. 18-817, opinion hosted by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. On April 13, 2018, the Federal Circuit Court affirmed the District Court of the District of Delaware’s decision to uphold Vanda Pharmaceuticals’s patent on a treatment method for schizophrenic patients. The treatment implements a range of dosages...
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In-N-Out Claims Trademark and Trade Dress Infringement over Puma's 'Drive Thru' Shoes Posted on April 04, 2019 Complaint, In-N-Out Burgers v. Puma North America, Inc. et al, No. 8:19-cv-00413 (C.D. Cal. Mar. 1, 2019), complaint hosted by heitnerlegal.com. On March 1, 2019, the popular California burger chain In-N-Out filed suit against Puma and Los Angeles-based fashion designer Mike Cherman for trademark and trade dress infringement over Puma’s new “Cali-0 Drive Thru” and “California Drive Thru” sneakers (collectively...
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Proposed Amendment to California Consumer Privacy Act Would Create Private Right of Action for All Violations of Act Posted on March 29, 2019 S.B. 561, 2019 Leg., Reg. Sess. (Cal. 2019) As businesses adjust to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), public outcry over data privacy is intensifying in the United States. A recently proposed amendment, S.B. 561, 2019 Leg., Reg. Sess. (Cal. 2019), to California’s already stringent data privacy law aspires to further upend the legal landscape. The California Consumer...
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House and Senate Democrats Introduce New Bill to Restore Net Neutrality Laws Posted on March 27, 2019 Save the Internet Act of 2019, H.R. 1, 116th Cong. (2019). On March 6, 2019, Democrats in the House and the Senate introduced the Save the Internet Act of 2019. The legislation would restore net neutrality rules that were repealed by the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) in December 2017. The three-page bill: repeals the FCC’s Restoring Internet Freedom Order (“RIF...
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Corker v. Costco: A Complaint Brewing Over Kona Coffee Posted on March 18, 2019 Corker et al v. Costco Wholesale Corporation et al, No. 2:19-cv-00290 (W.D. Wash. Feb. 27, 2019). Complaint hosted by Law360. On February 27, 2019, five individual Kona coffee growers from three Hawaii-based coffee farms filed a class action suit against Costco, Amazon, Walmart, and others in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. The Complaint is filed...
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