Grabbing Customers' Copyrights
March 29, 2011
What's at issue is control, obviously, and the great lengths to which some will go to maintain, it even as they benefit from the wide-open, free-flowing viral information torrent of the Internet. These copyright acquisitions are not primarily motivated by the desire to exploit the works and make money, but rather by the desire to stop the public circulation of texts and images the new owners do not like.
Ninth Circuit Vacates Injunction In Advertising Keywords Case
March 29, 2011
Remember U.S. Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart's famous line about hardcore pornography? Stewart said it was tough to define, "but I know it when I see it." The quip came to mind after a ruling last month by the U.S Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in a trademark infringement case involving Internet advertising keywords. In essence, the Ninth Circuit concluded that there's no strict standard for determining infringement in the Internet age, so judges have to know it when they see it.
New Net-Use Tracking Tactics Capture Privacy Claims
March 29, 2011
The use of new technology makes peoples' efforts to keep Internet behavior private more difficult, has given rise to renewed claims from consumers of unlawful intrusiveness by Internet data-collectors, and has revived the argument that such behavior unlawfully violates privacy expectations.
IP News
March 29, 2011
Highlights of the latest intellectual property news from around the country.
Small Impact on Practice Predicted from White House IP Recommendations
March 29, 2011
When the White House's intellectual-property enforcement coordinator, Victoria Espinel, submitted a wish list to Congress in March recommending 20 changes to federal intellectual property law largely aimed at ramping up criminal punishment for IP infringement, IP lawyers said the white paper recommendations would likely have only a tenuous effect, if any, on civil IP litigation or patent prosecution.
Claims Risks
March 29, 2011
As in-house counsel continue to juggle their roles between corporate gatekeepers and confidants, they face a host of emerging risks.
Fourth Quarter e-Commerce: Lookin' Good!
March 29, 2011
Fourth-quarter 2010 estimated U.S. retailing rose 3.6% over the third quarter, the Census Bureau reports, as consumer confidence rose through the Christmas season on a wave of slightly rising employment.
Evolving Online Advertising Techniques
March 29, 2011
The federal government roared into March like a lion on online advertising, privacy and data'security practices, but hardly left like a lamb.
Reviving the Not'Quite Dead
March 29, 2011
Congress passed the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act ("ROSCA") to great public acclaim late last year. But was the new law necessary? Dictionary.com defines restore in several parts, but all refer to bringing back something "lost" or "dead." Looking at recent online business statistics, though, how can anyone reasonably believe that online shopping was "lost" or "dead," much less in need of the "restoration" desired by the new law's authors?
