POSTED BY Alexander D. Schultheis There are a number of legal scholars who take the position that intellectual property (IP) is not that much different from real property. Thus, many of the same ownership rights that exist in property law are advocated for in the realm of IP. It seems reasonable from an objective viewpoint… Read More It’s a Name, It’s a Domain, It’s a…Contract For Services?
POSTED BY Meghan T. Bonk The Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) has recently made a proposal to allow the use of cell phones on airline flights. The Wall Street Journal reported that cell phone use would still be restricted during takeoff and landing, but once the plane reaches 10,000 feet, “airborne calls” and “cellular data” use… Read More Call Me Maybe: The FCC Proposes to Lift Ban on In-Flight Cell Phone Use
BY Nicholas Hasenfus Although Twitter is very popular, it has not yet been profitable. Because of this, Twitter wants to go public to raise money much like Facebook and Google have. In the first six months of 2013, Twitter has lost over $69 Million although revenue has more than doubled from 2012 to $253 million… Read More IBM Alleges Twitter Violated Three of Its Patents
POSTED BY Jared BIshop Online trading has been a popular area of business for over a decade. It has in turn created a whole new brand of commerce, known as e-commerce. With websites such as Amazon, eBay, craigslist, and more, consumers are now able to trade amongst each other through the internet. But this has… Read More The Danger of Online Trading
POSTED BY Yuen Yi Chung on October 18, 2013 Have you ever wished that your Google map would magically work when you are hopelessly lost somewhere overseas? Beginning October 31, T-Mobile customers who have one of the company’s “Simple Choice” plans will be able to use unlimited data and text for free in any of… Read More Antitrust Enforcement Kick Started the Wireless Revolution
POSTED BY Nicole Cocozza on October 18, 2013 In an era full of social media, cable television service providers are becoming extinct. In order to keep up to speed with the social media age, cable television providers need to change direction in the way they advertise their services to the public. One service provider in… Read More See It: Comcast’s Bold Move to Promote Television Deals on Twitter
POSTED BY Micah Kesselman on October 18, 2013 Video games, a relatively niche industry only a decade ago, has quickly grown into one of the largest entertainment sectors in the world and, as recently as a year ago, was projected to expand to an $82 billion dollar market by 2017. Families now game together. People… Read More Independent Video Game Developers: In Particular Need of Legal Assistance and Particularly Unable to Secure It
POSTED BY Marion Goodsell on October 4, 2013 The United States Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen) has applied similar regulatory constraints to bitcoin as it has to other money-transferers such as Western Union. FinCen determined that users exchanging bitcoins are acting as money-transmitters and are subject to the Banking Security Act. FinCen has actively pursued… Read More Persistence Trumps Tech Savvy
POSTED BY Jillian Hira on October 4, 2013 “Astroturfing,” known to many as the 21st century version of false advertising, has cost nineteen different companies over $350,000 in the state of New York. This past Monday the New York Attorney General’s Office announced the results of a year-long investigation into the producing of fake online reviews… Read More Astroturfing: the Modern Day Business Plan
POSTED BY Bridget Sarpu Earlier this month Microsoft and Nokia struck a deal unlike any other. Microsoft will obtain Nokia’s devices and services unit and license the company’s mapping services in a deal worth $7.2 billion. Specifically, the two-part transaction included Microsoft spending $5 billion on Nokia’s mobile phones unit, in hopes to compete with… Read More What’s Left for Nokia? Patents, Patents, Patents!
Posted by Laury Lucien at 11:00 AM In an era where large quantities of interactions take place on the Internet, the scope of the protection provided by the First Amendment is often unclear. On September 18, 2013, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit extended the First Amendment protection of speech to… Read More "To Like or Not to Like" That Is No Longer the Question
Posted by Hillary Cheng at 11:00 AM The technology industry’s hottest issue right now is immigration reform. While heatedly discussed in previous years, immigration reform has taken a back seat for most people to issues such as gun control, the debt ceiling, and the Syrian intervention. However, immigration reform has been a longstanding gripe of… Read More The Tech Lobby for Immigration Reform
Posted by Alex Zamenhof at 10:55 AM Net neutrality is a system whereby large Internet companies, such as Verizon, are prohibited from using the identity of websites as a reason to charge them extra for access to their customers. For example, without net neutrality, a Verizon user might suddenly find that their Netflix cost goes… Read More Net Neutrality: Not Having It?
Posted by Rebecca Ferrante at 6:21 PM Last week the Massachusetts Legislature’s Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development held a hearing regarding the enforceability of non-compete agreements. Non-compete agreements protect companies by limiting a separating employee’s right to work for competing companies within a specified time span or geographic area. The goal is to… Read More Trading Non-compete Agreements for the Uniform Trades Secret Act in Massachusetts
Posted by Megan McGovern at 12:46 PM The America Invents Act (AIA) is the latest reform in U.S. patent law signed into effect on September 16, 2011. With a set of rolling changes, on of the main modifications takes place on March 16, 2013, which will transition the patent system from a “first-to-invent” system to… Read More What Does a First-To-File System Mean and What Will This Change to the Patent Process Mean for Inventors and Companies?
Posted by Hillary Cheng at 12:40 PM The MBTA, U.S. Customs, Apple, and Cisco would like you not to know that their data was or is insecure. Yes, I repeat, their data was, or is, insecure, and they don’t want you to know. Rather than promoting information security by working with security researchers, the MBTA,… Read More The Law – Promoting Data Insecurity