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Interpreting FTC's New Endorsement Guidelines

For the first time since the 1980s, the FTC recently overhauled its guidelines and liability parameters for product endorsements and testimonials. These updated guidelines, which took effect Dec. 1, also cover the use of consumer endorsements and reviews. Entertainment companies that promote products ' and celebrities who blog and tweet ' through new media should consider how these guidelines may affect their marketing practices.

Administration Deal No Bar to Songs Grant from Artist

The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee ruled that a music publisher's exclusive administration rights to songs by recording artist Lori McKenna didn't prevent Warner Bros. Records from getting the rights directly from McKenna for compositions on McKenna's Bittertown album.

Sixth Circuit Ruling on 'Atomic Dog' Samples Protects Small Segments of Musical Compositions

The Sixth Circuit for the first time explicitly embraces the "fragmented literal similarity" test for determining whether there is substantial similarity between two works.

Use on Foreign Web Site Is Not U.S. 'Publication'

In a ruling of first impression, the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware decided that photographs published on a foreign Web site weren't simultaneously "published" in the United States.

Current and Impending Virtual World IP Issues

With popularity and subscribership rising, games like World of Warcraft, EverQuest, There and Second Life are big business. Growth has brought litigation. Indeed, some law firms have practice groups addressing this medium's issues.

Data Breaches Are Not Going Away

Because the costs of data breaches can be so astronomically high, the importance of ensuring that e-commerce and other types of firms have insurance to cover such claims cannot be overstated.

Dirty Laundry Hanging Out On The Web

Online objections to a corporation's products or services ' posted on "complaint" or "gripe" sites by former employees or consumers, or put elsewhere on the Web ' have a greater potential to be significantly more damaging to the target's operations than more traditional expressions of unhappiness.

What's Coming in e-Commerce in 2010?

For this year-end edition, because I believe that much of e-commerce law and strategy is no different from what is done in offline business (but people must be shown that it often is the same), I will follow suit and offer my own thoughts on the major trends that will affect online business in the next year.

Real Property Law

Analysis of recent cases.

Development

In-depth analysis of recent rulings.

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Judge Rules Shaquille O'Neal Will Face Securities Lawsuit for Promotion, Sale of NFTs
A federal district court in Miami, FL, has ruled that former National Basketball Association star Shaquille O'Neal will have to face a lawsuit over his promotion of unregistered securities in the form of cryptocurrency tokens and that he was a "seller" of these unregistered securities.
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Second Circuit Rejects Arbitration of Debtor's Asserted Discharge Violation
A bankruptcy court properly denied a bank's motion to compel arbitration of a debtor's asserted violation of the court's discharge injunction, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held.
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Attachment and Perfection of Security Interests
This article addresses common attachment and perfection problems raised in recent cases, and provides suggestions on how secured parties can avoid these pitfalls.
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Reining in the Inequitable Conduct Defense
Responding to views from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and elsewhere about the unintended consequences of the current inequitable conduct doctrine, a divided <i>en banc</i> Federal Circuit decision issued on May 25, 2011 adjusted the standard of the materiality element to make this defense harder to establish.
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Typically Uncommon: Defending Class Action Certification in Data Breach Litigation
The most common questions and key elements of a negligence claim are whether the defendant breached a duty of care, whether there is any injury as a result of the defendant's breach of any purported duty of care, and whether the defendant's alleged breach caused the plaintiff any damages. While these essential questions and elements apply with equal force in data breach litigation, the difficult question to answer in these cases is "what is the value, if any, of your injury or damages?"
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