France.com, Inc. v. The French Republic: Fourth Circuit Holds France Immune From Trademark Infringement Claims Posted on April 11, 2021 France.com, Inc. v. The French Republic, No. 20-1016 (4th Cir. Mar. 25, 2021) On March 25, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that the French Republic was entitled to sovereign immunity against France.com, Inc.’s trademark infringement suit, reversing the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The Fourth Circuit first stated that sovereign immunity...
Continue reading

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service v. Sierra Club: Impact on the scope of the Freedom of Information Act Posted on April 05, 2021 United States Fish and Wildlife Service v. Sierra Club, Inc. The Supreme Court held on March 4 that the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) deliberative process privilege exemption protects federal agencies’ draft biological opinions prepared pursuant to the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”) that are “predecisional and deliberative,” from public eyes. In doing so, the court noted for the purpose of...
Continue reading

Tah v. Global Witness Publishing, Inc.: D.C. Circuit Dissent in Defamation Case Urges Overruling of NYT v. Sullivan Posted on April 04, 2021 Tah v. Global Witness Publishing, Inc., No. 19-7132 (D.C. Cir. Mar. 19, 2021). Complaint hosted by CourtListener. District Court opinion hosted by Justia. Last week, in Tah v. Global Witness Publishing, Inc., the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia affirmed the rulings of the District of Columbia District Court. The case arose from a report titled Catch me...
Continue reading

Alleged Neo-Nazis Lose First Amendment Challenge to Anti-Riot Act in Ninth Circuit Posted on April 04, 2021 United States v. Rundo, No. 19-50189 (9th Cir. 2021) The First Amendment does not bar the prosecution of three alleged neo-Nazis for violations of the federal Anti-Riot Act, according to a recent ruling from the Ninth Circuit. The three-judge panel reversed the district court’s ruling, which had struck down the 1968 statute as unconstitutionally overbroad. The indictments themselves emerged out...
Continue reading

What is the future of Reddit after meme stocks fever? Posted on April 04, 2021 In the investing world, it is common to hear the terms growth stocks and value stocks. Now, a third category is gaining popularity: meme stocks. Meme stocks generally (1) “trade more on hype than its underlying fundamentals” and (2) are “popular with millennial-aged retail traders.” In recent months, retail traders on Reddit forums were at the center of huge swings...
Continue reading

Taylor Swift’s Battle with a Fantasy Theme Park over her new album "Evermore" Posted on April 01, 2021 Evermore Park, a fantasy theme park built to immerse its customers in a “European hamlet of imagination”, opened its operations in Utah in 2018. Subsequently, in December 2020, Taylor Swift released an album titled Evermore. Although Swift’s album brought the artist success with sales of over 1 million copies during its first week of release and further established Swift as...
Continue reading

Waiving IP Rights to Address Global Vaccine Inequality Posted on March 29, 2021 In light of the glaring disparity in COVID-19 vaccine supply between rich and poor countries, India and South Africa introduced a controversial proposal to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in October 2020. Backed by many developing countries with few or no vaccine doses, the proposal asks the WTO to allow member countries to waive intellectual property rights related to COVID-1...
Continue reading

Eighth Circuit: State Law Forbidding Government Contractors from Boycotting Israel is Unconstitutional Posted on March 22, 2021 Arkansas Times LP v. Waldrip, No. 19-1378 (8th Cir. Feb. 12, 2021), opinion hosted by USCourts.gov. Anti-boycott laws are nothing new in the United States—roughly 27 states have already enacted restrictions that seek to minimize activities that boycott Israel. The content of the legislation varies by state, though the measures can include requiring government contractors to “certify” that they will...
Continue reading

Microsoft email hack affecting 30,000 still an active threat Posted on March 16, 2021 A hack of Microsoft (MS) Exchange email servers, used by government and business customers worldwide, is considered to still be an ongoing threat despite already affecting 250,000 organizations worldwide, including 30,000 in the U.S. alone. Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center believes that Hafnium, a hacking group based out of China and purportedly sponsored by the Chinese government, is responsible for the...
Continue reading

Virginia’s New Consumer Data Protection Act: Will Others Follow? Posted on March 16, 2021 Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act of 2021 (“VCDPA”) Va. Code Ann. § 52 The Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (“VCDPA”) was signed into law on March 2, 2021 and will go into effect on January 1, 2023. With California passing the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) in 2018, Virginia became the second state to enact comprehensive privacy legislation. State Senator...
Continue reading