Regulation

For employers, social media sites present a potential treasure trove of information on applicants, but mining this information for use in recruiting, hiring, firing and monitoring of employees is fraught with risk. Nonetheless, some studies show that 40% of employers search social media during the hiring process. While there are not currently any laws in the United States forbidding employers from gleaning information from social media, improper use can get them into trouble.

With schools back in session, now is the time for employers to review hiring, payment and scheduling practices for workers under the age of 18. The myriad federal and state child labor laws that employers must heed range from work permit requirements to the hours and type of work performed, all of which vary based on an employee's age and whether school is in session.

Never before has so much personal data been available anywhere but also completely outside the immediate control of the person who created it. Companies like Google and Facebook are the entities responding to government search warrants and subpoenas for individuals' personal information. Federal courts continue to struggle ' and sharply disagree ' over the scope of Fourth Amendment protections for this data.

U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton was set last month to be the latest jurist in the Northern District of California to grapple with how decades-old federal wiretapping laws apply to today's technology.

Despite China's quotas on film and TV program imports, and the country's aggressive content restrictions, the U.S. entertainment industry continues to look at the world's second largest economy as essential for expanding the international audience for U.S. productions. With that in mind, this article examines the first major amendments to China's trademark law in more than 20 years.

Anyone spending 10 minutes on the Internet reading content is often assaulted by angry and coarse language supporting frequently outrageous opinions. The First Amendment concepts of free speech have reached either new highs or discouraging lows when dealing with opinions and blogs on the Internet. In this unrestricted environment, can individuals or businesses protect their reputations?

Since its enactment in 1984, the scope of the "safe harbor" provision of the patent code has been in flux. The provision is intended to exempt from infringement certain acts related to the development of drugs and medical devices that are subject to FDA regulatory approval, to enable competitors to immediately enter the market upon patent expiration. However, the contours and boundaries of the safe harbor have been a consistent source of controversy in the courts.

In the first half of 2014, at least 96 significant data breaches were reported, compromising more than 2.2 million records. Of these breaches, at least 46 involved records that may have contained Social Security Numbers (SSNs). What the affected businesses may not know is that the mere collection of SSNs may have put them in violation of state laws, in addition to the liability they may now face for having failed to protect the SSN information.