Technology Media and Telecom

  • Analysis of Decision By Supreme Court on Video Games

    Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and his teammates recently mowed down California's ban on violent video games with fully loaded First Amendment precedents and barbed retorts to opposing arguments. In doing so, the U.S. Supreme Court reinforced a fundamental point: First Amendment protections do not depend on the medium of communication. Thus, video games are protected speech, and restrictions based on their content will be subject to strict scrutiny.

    July 28, 2011James Chadwick and Thayer Preece

  • Protecting IP Rights in a New gTLD World

    The International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the international body governing Internet naming and addressing practices, approved in June a plan that allows for a virtually unlimited number of new generic top-level domains (new gTLDs), including new non-English, character-set international domain names. Companies concerned with protecting intellectual property rights have two ways to address the issue — to the right of the dot and to the left of the dot.

    July 28, 2011Elisa Cooper

  • Understanding and Mitigating the Legal Risks of Cloud Computing

    There can be significant economic efficiencies realized by moving to the cloud. However there are also potential risks involved if an entity does not adequately consider the information governance implications, especially those involving electronic discovery.

    June 30, 2011Bennett B. Borden and Shannon Smith

  • Waging Trademark War Against 'i-Pirates'

    Trademark infringers have preyed on the fertile software marketplaces opened by companies like Apple and Google by offering apps for download under names that are identical or confusingly similar to other well-known brand names. These online trademark bandits are effectively engaging in a form of "i-piracy," whereby they attempt to profit from the goodwill associated with established trademarks by pirating those marks for use in their own knock-off apps.

    June 30, 2011John Sullivan and Michael Leonard

  • Internet Crime and the Elderly

    The same technology that provides the means for customers in various market sectors to truly interact with merchants also allows a similar force multiplication for Internet criminals, including charlatans and other rogues who prey on some of the most vulnerable among us ' the elderly.

    June 30, 2011Jonathan Bick

  • 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 en banc Federal Circuit decision issued on May 25, 2011 adjusted the standard of the materiality element to make this defense harder to establish.

    June 29, 2011Darren Donnelly and Betsy White

  • The Benefits of a Next Generation Database Platform

    Data processing tools have evolved and are now well suited for use in law firms to prepare electronic data for use with these Web applications. Law firms that implement these new applications are well positioned to significantly improve efficiency, better serve their clients and dramatically reduce costs.

    June 28, 2011Danny Thankachan

  • Integration In the Cloud

    One of the greatest challenges any organization can face is the integration of evolving technology into its culture, practice and processes. At Bradford & Barthel ("B&B"), our main challenges in this regard have focused on the adaptation of Google Apps within our environment and business model.

    June 28, 2011Eric Hunter