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April 16, 2014
4th Circ. Backs Lavabit Contempt In Encryption Key Fight
The Fourth Circuit on Wednesday upheld a decision to sanction secure email provider Lavabit LLC for blocking the government from obtaining a private encryption key to access data believed to belong to Edward Snowden, ruling that the company hadn't properly contested the order to produce the key.
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April 16, 2014
5 Ways Banks Can Defend Against Cyberattacks
Regulators and customers are putting pressure on banks to increase their vigilance against cyberattacks even as they try to get a handle on the amount of damage caused by the recently revealed “Heartbleed” online security hack.
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April 16, 2014
Bose Asks Fed. Circ. To Take 2nd Look At Speaker IP Case
Bose Corp. asked the Federal Circuit Monday for an en banc rehearing of a decision made last month largely affirming a ruling that threw out its patent infringement case against SDI Technologies Inc., saying the panel relied on a "clearly incorrect" claim construction.
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April 16, 2014
Toshiba Loses ITC Bid For Invalidity In Digital Display IP Row
An administrative law judge for the U.S. International Trade Commission denied Toshiba Corp.’s bid to render invalid a patent for the digital display capabilities of DVD players, finding that the electronics seller hadn’t shown that the patent’s claims weren’t supported.
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April 16, 2014
Fractus, Samsung Strike Deal In $38M Antenna Patent Row
Fractus SA and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. told a Texas federal court Tuesday that they had settled a dispute over patents covering cellphone antenna technology that Fractus claimed Samsung had continued to infringe after being ordered to pay $38 million.
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April 16, 2014
FBI Set To Launch Facial Recognition Database, EFF Says
The FBI is on track to roll out a massive facial recognition database holding records on as much as one-third of the U.S. population by this summer, digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation revealed on Monday, amid a growing debate over what limits should be placed on the technology's governmental and commercial use.
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April 16, 2014
HP Audit Finds Mobile Tax Apps Lacking in Privacy, Security
Several mobile finance and tax preparation apps contain potential privacy violations, Hewlett-Packard Co. said on Wednesday, but the company will not disclose which apps are at risk to anyone who has not purchased its proprietary software.
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April 16, 2014
AT&T May Bail On Spectrum Auction If Restrictions Adopted
AT&T Inc. on Wednesday warned that it may not participate in the Federal Communications Commission's planned auction of low-frequency broadcast television spectrum if the agency adopts restrictions on the amount of spectrum it can purchase.
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April 16, 2014
OSI Zapped By Investor Suit Over Nude TSA Body Scanners
A disgruntled OSI Systems Inc. shareholder on Tuesday sued the security technology maker’s board of directors, accusing them of misconduct that cost OSI $60 million in Transportation Security Administration contracts and threatened its ability to do business with the federal government again.
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April 16, 2014
Deals Rumor Mill: Ahli, Michael Foods, SodaStream
Bahrain's largest lender is considering a $5 billion sale or merger with a rival bank that could be the largest banking transaction in the region for the past 20 years, while SodaStream is considering selling a minority stake to one of three major beverage companies.
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April 16, 2014
Colo. House Backs 'Advanced Industries' Tax Credit
The Colorado House of Representatives on Tuesday approved legislation that would create a new tax credit for individuals investing in aerospace, bioscience, information technology and energy startups within the state.
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April 16, 2014
Thompson Hine Adds Ex-Akin Gump Antitrust Pro In DC
Thompson Hine LLP has brought a former Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP antitrust partner experienced in mergers and acquisitions, consumer protection matters and class actions — including high-profile litigation over alleged e-book price-fixing — on board in its Washington, D.C., office, the firm said Wednesday.
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April 16, 2014
Judge Denies Womble Carlyle Fees From Star Dynamics
An Ohio federal judge on Monday denied a request by attorneys with Womble Carlyle Sandrige & Rice LLP for $155,725 in reimbursement for representing bankrupt defense contractor Star Dynamics Corp. in its ongoing Chapter 11 case.
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April 16, 2014
Home Depot Lacks Standing In LCD Price-Fixing Row: AUO
AU Optronics Corp. told a California federal judge on Tuesday that Home Depot USA Inc. cannot be allowed to join the ongoing multidistrict litigation alleging a price-fixing plot among liquid crystal display product makers because the company lacks antitrust standing and cannot show a threat of harm.
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April 15, 2014
AT&T Unit Sues Mich. Commissioners Over Network Ruling
AT&T's Michigan subsidiary sued the Michigan Public Service Commission on Tuesday in federal court, claiming certain parts of the commission's decision regarding Sprint Spectrum LP's use of its network violate federal law.
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April 15, 2014
In Rare Feat, 2 Patents Emerge Unscathed From AIA Reviews
In an apparent first for the new America Invents Act review proceedings, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Friday affirmed every claim of two motion control software patents owned by Roy-G-Biv Corp. after completing an inter partes review.
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April 15, 2014
Key IPhone Patents Invalid, Samsung Experts Tell Jury
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.’s patent experts shot holes Tuesday in Apple Inc.’s allegations that Samsung smartphones infringe five iPhone patents, telling a California federal jury that patents on the iPhone’s universal search, autocorrect and slide-to-unlock features are invalid because other companies invented them first.
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April 15, 2014
Apple E-Books Monitor Puts Exec Interviews On Wish List
After months of public sparring, Apple Inc. has finally begun cooperating with its court-imposed monitor in the e-books price-fixing litigation. But despite the improvement, monitor Michael Bromwich of Goodwin Procter LLP said Monday the company still has a long way to go.
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April 15, 2014
Leave Steve Jobs Out Of It, Apple Tells Judge In Poaching Suit
Apple Inc. and three other tech giants asked a California federal judge to exclude statements concerning Steve Jobs’ character from an upcoming class action trial over whether the companies agreed to suppress wages and not to poach each others’ employees, arguing that the statements are hearsay.
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April 15, 2014
Groups Urge Gov't To Link EU Ruling To NSA Spying, Big Data
A coalition of privacy groups is pushing the White House to respond to the European Union high court's recent invalidation of data retention mandates by ending the National Security Agency's bulk data collection efforts and incorporating the ruling into its upcoming report on “big data” use.
Expert Analysis
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Antitrust Guidance On Cybersecurity Reaffirms Old Approach
Though the antitrust agencies’ recent policy statement on cybersecurity information-sharing is consistent with prior guidance, it is significant. It is not likely that cybersecurity legislation will become law anytime soon, and this statement responds to industry’s concerns by clearly establishing that properly designed and executed cyberthreat information-sharing does not raise antitrust concerns, say Jamillia Padua Ferris and Paul Tiao of Hunton & Williams LLP.
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A New Dimension In IP Law: 3-D Printing
The new world of 3-D printing raises many new and old questions about how to use intellectual property as part of a business model. Utility patents, copyrights, design patents and trade dress offer relevant, adaptable protection options, and each has its own set of pros, cons and considerations, say Paige Stradley and George Lewis of Merchant & Gould.
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Baidu Ruling Reinforces Search Engine Immunity
The ruling by the Southern District of New York in Zhang v. Baidu strongly supports the principle that search engines and e-commerce sites are immune from legal claims based on how they retrieve, present and rank information and products. This result is particularly important because high rankings on Google, Amazon and other powerful search engines are critical for companies conducting e-commerce, says Joshua Fowkes of Arent Fox LLP.
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Reading Between The Whistleblower Headlines
The meteoric media rise of the “celebrity” whistleblower has shone a spotlight on the practice, with personalities such as Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden dividing public opinion on the ethics of spilling secrets. But organizations should pay close attention to the surge in this trend beyond the headlines. Remember, whistleblowers don’t need to be popular to be effective, and opinions on their motives and morality are entirely secondary to the critical issues they potentially uncover, says Shanti Atkins of Navex Global.
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Home Entertainment Market Offers Opportunity And Peril
The emergence of “smart” technology is opening new avenues for advertisers and media and entertainment companies to reach consumers at home and provide them with content and services in a new interactive, direct and personalized manner. But companies must be aware of the potential dangers in this space and take certain steps to ensure transparency in their data collection efforts, says F. Paul Pittman of Sedgwick LLP.
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Heartbleed Rains On The Legal Cloud Parade
While the actual breaches are unknown, Heartbleed has the potential to expose all of a lawyer's files stored or transmitted online. The bug raises professional responsibility questions and offers confirmation of the greatest anxieties that the legal industry has about online practice. In fact, the timing is poor for many legal tech providers, following a general industry warming to cloud offerings, says David Houlihan of Blue Hill Research Inc.
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'Internet Of Things' 101: Legal Concerns
The "Internet of Things" — a decentralized network of “smart” objects — is only just beginning to change the way people live and work in the U.S. and around the world. The possibilities seem infinite. But the challenges to legal and policy concerns may yet prove even more difficult than the hurdles of science and engineering that brought us here, say Philip Blum and Bryan Goff of Bingham McCutchen LLP.
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Some Sanity Amid Skyrocketing TCPA Litigation
Federal courts have recently brought some sanity to Telephone Consumer Protection Act litigation and, specifically, what constitutes an automatic telephone dialing system. Until the Federal Communications Commission weighs in, defendants facing TCPA class actions may cite the Gragg, Hunt and Dominguez decisions for support or seek a stay of proceedings, says John Papianou of Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads LLP.
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Keep Your Audience From Checking Email: 5 Legal Talk Tips
Why do the majority of speakers get polite claps at the end of their talks while a few select others receive rousing applause? Having given more than 375 presentations to legal groups, bar associations, Fortune 500 companies and corporate gatherings, I’ve learned a few things about what not to do. Remember, great speakers don’t tell “war stories.” They don’t even give examples from their own practice, says Michael Rubin of McGlinchey Stafford PLLC.
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A Solution To The Software Obviousness Problem
There are legitimate concerns in the software community that the patent system comprehends development practices in the traditional sciences better than it does in the software arts, particularly where obviousness is concerned. The “obvious to try” doctrine, which is often applied in traditional sciences, can help make the patent system work as well for software as it has for older sciences, says Robert Purvy, a technical adviser for patent litigation at Google Inc.