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March 7, 2014
Spy Court Rejects NSA Bid To Hold Call Data Past 5 Years
The U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court rejected on Friday the government’s bid to allow the National Security Agency to keep bulk telephone call records for more than five years to comply with evidence preservation rules in litigation against its data collection program, citing U.S. citizens' privacy interests.
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March 7, 2014
Verizon Fights Retiree Suit Over $7.4B Pension Transfer
Verizon Communications Inc. on Friday asked a Texas federal judge to dismiss again claims from a class of retirees who allege their savings were put at risk when the company transferred $7.4 billion in pension obligations to Prudential Insurance Co. of America.
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March 7, 2014
Rudolph Seeks High Court Eye On $8M Patent Damages Award
Rudolph Technologies Inc. asked the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday to examine a ruling that it must pay nearly $8 million in damages in a case over a semiconductor tester patent, saying that the Federal Circuit is "hopelessly confused" about how to review damages awards.
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March 7, 2014
Trial In $83M Google, IRS Tax Row Not Likely Until 2015
An $83 million dispute between Google Inc. and the Internal Revenue Commission over a 2002 stock deal with Time Warner Inc.’s America Online probably won’t go to trial until 2015, according to documents filed on Wednesday in U.S. Tax Court.
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March 7, 2014
Brand Battles: Champagne, Duck Dynasty, Wizard of Oz
In Law360's latest roundup of new actions at the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, the French organization that safeguards the name "Champagne" pops off three new oppositions, A&E calls out a "Truck Dynasty," and Time Warner Inc. defends a famed quote from "The Wizard of Oz."
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March 7, 2014
Deals Rumor Mill: Vivendi, Vodafone, InterMune
The owner of China’s Juneyao Airlines is in talks with Boeing and Airbus to clinch 20 planes in a deal that could be worth nearly $2 billion, while the likes of Blackstone and Bain Capital are eyeing up Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co.’s $3 billion indexing and management firm.
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March 7, 2014
Google Sued Over App Purchases Aimed At Kids
Google Inc. was hit with a putative class action Friday in California federal court claiming that its app marketplace exploits children by incentivizing them to spend large amounts of money on free or low-priced games without requiring them to get their parents’ permission for every purchase.
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March 7, 2014
O'Melveny DQ'd By Conflict of Interest In Synopsis IP Row
A California federal judge on Friday barred O'Melveny & Myers LLP from defending ATopTech Inc. against Synopsis Inc.'s patent-infringement suit over electronic design automation, saying O'Melveny’s discussions about one of the asserted patents with a corporate client that Synopsis later bought created a conflict.
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March 7, 2014
Apple Deals Boosted E-Books Competition, 2nd Circ. Told
A pair of economists told the Second Circuit on Tuesday that the district court overseeing the U.S. Department of Justice's e-books price-fixing case against Apple Inc. ignored key economic evidence in a decision that threatened to thwart the use of common, pro-competitive contract clauses.
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March 7, 2014
BlackBerry Offloads US Headquarters In Texas To Brookfield
BlackBerry Ltd. has sold a six-building campus in Texas that served as its U.S. headquarters to Toronto-based Brookfield Property Group for an undisclosed amount, it was announced Friday, as the struggling smartphone maker continues to shed assets to right itself amid dismal earnings.
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March 7, 2014
Twitter Paid $36M For IBM Patents After Threat Of Suit
Twitter Inc. said in a regulatory filing Thursday that it paid $36 million in a recent deal to acquire over 900 patents from IBM Corp. after being accused of infringement.
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March 7, 2014
Wireless Network Co. Resolves Iran Sanctions Claims
Ubiquiti Networks Inc. has agreed to settle claims it sold broadband wireless products that eventually ended up in Iran, in violation of U.S. sanctions, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced Thursday.
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March 7, 2014
Kaye Scholer Lands Cybersecurity, Privacy Leader From Cisco
Kaye Scholer LLP has hired a former Cisco Systems Inc. attorney to lead its new global cybersecurity and privacy group, which will provide cyber policy advice and represent clients in privacy-related litigation and regulatory actions, the firm said Friday.
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March 7, 2014
Antitrust Worries Plague PR Push For Sprint, T-Mobile Deal
After failing to convince regulators that further consolidation would benefit the U.S. wireless industry, the CEO of Sprint Corp. parent SoftBank Corp. will make his case to business leaders and policymakers on Tuesday. But while experts acknowledge some merit to his arguments, they question the viability of this public relations push.
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March 7, 2014
Female Powerbrokers Q&A: Edwards Wildman's Brown
A male in-house counsel once told me I had not been "nice" to him when I approached him about a business opportunity and would therefore not get the business. To add insult to injury, one of my male partners told me I should be flattered by the interest paid to me by the in-house counsel, says Paulette Brown, chief diversity officer at Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP.
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March 7, 2014
Female Powerbrokers Q&A: Greenberg Traurig's Mitchell
Several people have told me that they had a lot of trepidation when they found out they would be working for a woman. To be effective, you need to be able to eliminate or address the conscious or unconscious bias colleagues may have about having a female boss, says Nancy Mitchell, chairwoman of Greenberg Traurig LLP's New York business reorganization and financial restructuring practice.
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March 7, 2014
Garmin Sports Watches Fall Apart During Use, Suit Says
Garmin Ltd. was hit with a proposed class action in Utah federal court Thursday alleging that a model of its sports watches is defective and comes apart during use, forcing customers to pay to replace the wristband.
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March 6, 2014
Judge Seeks En Banc Review In Google's Anti-Muslim Vid Row
A Ninth Circuit judge on Thursday requested a vote to rehear en banc the appellate court’s recent decision refusing to stay its order directing Google Inc. to remove the controversial “Innocence of Muslims” video from its servers over copyright infringement allegations.
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March 6, 2014
Google, Yahoo Sued Over 'Revenge Porn' Links
A Texas woman involved in a class action against a so-called revenge porn website launched another suit in Texas federal court Thursday, claiming the sexually explicit images are now hosted on another site, and Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. continue to link to the photos.
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March 6, 2014
EU, APEC Officials Unveil Tool To Marry Privacy Principles
Data protection regulators from the European Union and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation on Thursday stepped up efforts to find common ground on vastly different privacy regimes, releasing a tool to help companies reconcile principles in the regions and an agreement to boost enforcement cooperation between the U.S. and U.K.
Expert Analysis
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How To Avoid Discovery Problems While Using The Cloud
Cloud users must know how to use the cloud responsibly to prevent later difficulties with document production. When negotiating a cloud service agreement, users should look for certain services that will prove useful when responding to discovery requests, such as comprehensive search options, instant suspension of the auto-delete function, and preservation of metadata and embedded data, say attorneys with Sidley Austin LLP.
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The 3 Most Important White House Patent Reform Efforts
The White House has clearly listened to the chorus of patent reform voices and worked with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to address the most pressing concerns. Of its initiatives, those that relate to ownership transparency, functional claiming examination changes and training, and crowdsourcing prior art may change the patent ecosystem’s status quo the most, says Wesley Helmholz of Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP.
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Comcast Turns 1: Trends In Class Certification
In the year since the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Comcast Corp. v. Behrend, nearly 200 cases have cited the ruling, but the only consensus reached is that its significance for class actions is unsettled. However, notwithstanding the lower courts’ inconsistent application of Comcast's “rigorous analysis” of damages model evidence, a few guiding principles have emerged, say Erik Snapp and Quinn Shean of Dechert LLP.
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As Legal Profession Evolves, GCs Outpace The Norm
In stark contrast to the changing environment for the majority of lawyers today, the evolution for the general counsel is driven less by necessity than by opportunity. Today’s GC may touch every aspect of his or her organization to solve challenges and propel the company forward, keeping the GC far ahead of what is expected of the average lawyer, says James Merklinger, vice president and general counsel of the Association of Corporate Counsel.
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DOJ Focuses On ADA Compliance In The Digital Age
Beyond the recent slew of class actions alleging that debit card readers used by many retailers violate the Americans with Disabilities Act, other lawsuits allege that various consumer-facing websites also violate the law. As the U.S. Department of Justice continues to push for a broader interpretation of the ADA for companies with websites and consumer-facing devices, we are likely to see more class actions, say Gonzalo Mon and Crystal Skelton of Kelley Drye & Warren LLP.
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Australian Privacy Reform May Have Big Impact On US Cos.
Historically, privacy compliance in Australia has not been a priority for many international corporations. However, with the publicity surrounding new reforms increasing Australian public awareness of privacy issues, new penalties coming into play and U.S. companies already under the microscope due to the Snowden leaks, no U.S. company doing business in Australia or with Australian customers can afford to ignore this compliance issue any longer, say Richard Pascoe and Alex Butterworth of Squire Sanders LLP.
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5 Ways To Reduce Costs Of Defending 'Patent Troll' Suits
Although there is little that can be done to avoid being targeted by a "patent troll," there are some methods available to both small and large companies trying to keep defense costs down. For instance, taking the time to carefully negotiate early case management orders provides defendants with a rare opportunity to implement cost-saving measures directly into a court order, says Jeffrey Ahdoot of Ahdoot IP Law PLLC.
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5 Reasons The Sony Data Breach Coverage Denial Is Wrong
A New York trial judge recently let Sony Corp.’s insurers, Zurich American Insurance Co. and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co., off the coverage hook for Sony’s massive 2011 PlayStation data breach. Among the reasons Sony appears to have excellent grounds for appeal is a well-established rule of insurance contract construction that “ambiguities in an insurance policy are to be construed against the insurer,” says Roberta Anderson of K&L Gates LLP.
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FRCP Discovery Amendments Prove Highly Controversial
The recently closed comment period for the proposed Federal Rules of Civil Procedure amendments generated passionate antipodal responses over discovery rules that appear to benefit large corporate litigants at the expense of individual plaintiffs and civil rights groups. The nature and intensity of the response should lead the committee to reconsider the overall fairness of the proposed discovery amendments, says Henry Kelston of Milberg LLP.
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Comcast-TWC Merger — An Opportunity For New Approaches
The proposed merger of Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable Inc. is going to be a conundrum for regulators. A narrow view of the markets involved could lead to a quick seal of approval, but lack of real competition, a national market for influence over norms and expectations, and public pressure may push authorities into finding new ways to measure the merger’s impact — to quantify competition and innovation through factors other than retail price, says Mitch Stoltz, staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.