SureGene’s personalized medicine treatment was found to be unpatentable under Section 101 subject matter eligibility and the standards set in Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Labs., Inc. 566 U.S. 66 (2012).… Read More Narrowing of Section 101 Subject Matter Eligibility in ex parte Timothy
On November 27, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Oil States Energy Services v. Greene’s Energy Group. In addition to the issues regarding the separation of powers, the court may decide whether patents are private property rights or public rights. The results will certainly have a large impact on patents going forward. … Read More A Reckoning For The Patent Death Squad
Cryptocurrencies have emerged as an unregulated, highly-volatile yet increasingly profitable investment. The legal rights and remedies for investors remain to be determined, even as hundreds of billions of U.S. Dollars are used to purchase cryptocurrencies on a daily basis. … Read More The Unregulated World of Cryptocurrency Investing: Legal Rights and Remedies
In November, 2017, Hawaii State House of Representatives Member Chris Lee issued a statement regarding the questionable practices of video game developers in including “loot boxes” in many popular video games. Viewing the practices as deceptive, addicting, and attractive to children. Simultaneously, the European Union is presently weighing the legality of these in-game purchases in an effort to potentially regulate them. While loot boxes are just a regular part of a game for some nowadays, others are clamoring to have them banned outright from video games, going forward.… Read More Gambling, thy name is Loot Boxes: Regulators Take Aim at a New Trend in Video Games
Spotify cannot seem to keep getting sued for failing to pay royalties to artists. Recently, Spotify settled a consolidated lawsuit for over $43 million to be paid out to artists. Though the settlement is awaiting approval from the court, artists are urging it not to be approved on the grounds that the amount settled when divided up is so minimal for any one artist to gain from the terms of the settlement.… Read More Suing Spotify: What a Settlement Could Mean For Artists and How It Could Influence Spotify’s IPO
In the heat of the debate over “net neutrality,” President Trump’s repeal of formerly proposed broadband privacy regulations shed light on a disturbingly nosey industry.
Potentially more bad news for Equifax. In the ever-developing situation surrounding their security breach which compromised millions of customers’ private information, new evidence has come to light regarding suspicious activity at the executive level prior to the breach being made public.… Read More More ‘Suspicious Activity’ Reported in The Equifax Breach … and It’s Not What You Think
Border Patrol has the right to search one’s electronic devices when entering the Country. This poses a problem for attorneys who travel with confidential client information stored on their devices.… Read More Protecting Client Information When Traveling Internationally
Fake news has been spreading through our social media news feeds for years, but social media sites have begun to see the harsh consequences of these unregulated deceptive posts. Recent events such as the 2016 presidential election and the Las Vegas shooting have sparked interest of the spread of fake news in not only the eyes of politicians and platform creators, but also the public at large. … Read More Should We Trust the News Reported on Social Media?
States and legislatures are struggling with the concept of sexting and how to go about punishing minors who send, distribute, and possess sexual photos. The blog touches upon a specific case that was examined by the Washington Supreme Court and the goals of other states to limit sexting. … Read More From Love Letters to Explicit Photos: The Movement of Sexting
Following the devastation of Hurricane Maria and the other Caribbean storms of the 2017 hurricane season, Puerto Rico faces an uphill climb in their effort to rebuild. While reports estimate that 85% of the island is still without power, tech revolutionary Elon Musk proposed an eye-opening solution.… Read More Elon Musk uses Puerto Rico as a “Flagship” Power Project
This blog will discuss Apple’s appeal of a class-action lawsuit claiming violation of federal anti-trust law.… Read More Apple’s Appeal of Class Action Lawsuit Alleging the Company of Inflating Prices of App Store Applications
In recent decades, courts have struggled to apply Fourth Amendment protections to new technologies. With increased communication over the phone, some information held by telephone providers was subject to the “third party doctrine.” The proliferation of smartphones, however, has led to more and more data and information being held by these third parties, and the judiciary may be forced to adjust the Fourth Amendment Doctrine to account for such changes. Carpenter v. United States provides the Supreme Court with that chance. … Read More Fourth Amendment Doctrine Due For An Upgrade
China is accused of violating international trade agreements by engaging in unfair and deceptive trade practices. As a signatory of TRIPS, China is bound to provide and enforce IPR. A closer look at China’s industrial trade practices show it has failed to do so. President Trump has directed the U.S. Trade Representative to investigate the claims and decide whether sanctions are warranted. … Read More President Trump Takes Action Against China for $1.2 Trillion in IP Theft
In August, a U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of California granted a preliminary injunction brought by hiQ Labs that ordered LinkedIn to remove any technology preventing hiQ from accessing public profiles. Judge Edward Chen ruled that LinkedIn cannot prevent startups, such as hiQ, from accessing users’ public profile data. However, LinkedIn appealed this order to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in October claiming a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”).… Read More LinkedIn Appeals “Info Scraping” Suit to Ninth Circuit
The Supreme Court will decide a circuit split regarding private arbitration agreements within employment contracts which could influence the slew of sexual harassment claims against Silicon Valley Corporations such as Google and Uber. … Read More Can Your Employer Use Your Employment Contract to Force You to Arbitrate Class Action Claims?
Twitter’s recent attempt to censor a politician’s campaign advertisement reignites the debate on the relationship between free speech and social media.… Read More Twitter Attempts to Censor Senate Candidate’s Tweets
Blockchains are changing the real estate industry. Last week, the first property was sold in the Ukraine through a smart contract on a Blockchain. Tech companies are insisting this will create a new era in real estate transactions. … Read More How Blockchains Can Change Real Estate Transactions
California recently attempted to pass a piece of legislature which would give individuals a greater deal of control over what internet providers and other similar companies would be able to do with your private information, and the information they gather on you by monitoring your online activity. However when the time came, the bill was not even voted on.… Read More California Bill to Counter Trumps Repeal of FCC Privacy Protections for Internet Users Gets Shut Down in Legislature
If your face unlocks your iPhone X, then law enforcement likely has its key to Pandora’s box. This post discusses the applicability of Fifth Amendment protections in the context of electronic search warrants and facial recognition software. … Read More Apple’s New Facial Recognition Software is a Criminal Procedure Question Waiting to Happen