Mealey's Cyber Tech & E-Commerce
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June 01, 2022
Divided Supreme Court Reinstates Injunction Of Texas Social Media Law
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A U.S. Supreme Court majority on May 31 granted an application by two trade associations to vacate the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ stay of a preliminary injunction preventing the enforcement of a Texas law that prohibits social network operators from basing editorial decisions about user-posted content on the users’ viewpoints.
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June 01, 2022
10th Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Voters’ Class Suit Alleging Conspiracy
DENVER — Voters who brought a putative class complaint accusing Dominion Voting Systems Inc., Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly Facebook) and Center for Tech and Civil Life (CTCL) of conspiring to interfere in the 2020 presidential election failed to show that a magistrate judge erred in determining that they lacked standing, a 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled May 27.
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June 01, 2022
Web Designer To High Court: Colo. Law Compels Speech Based On Content, Viewpoint
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Colorado’s Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA) violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by compelling, or proscribing, speech based on its viewpoint and content, a web designer tells the U.S. Supreme Court in her May 26 opening merits brief, seeking reversal of a 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that held that the statute required her to design same sex couples’ websites.
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May 24, 2022
Microsoft Bid To Undo Infringement Verdict, Damage Award Fails
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on May 20 upheld a jury’s determination that Microsoft Corp. infringed a patent directed to the automatic generation of an end-user interface and the jury’s award of $7 million in damages.
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May 24, 2022
3rd Circuit: Publisher’s Anti-Union Tweet Not Shown To Be ‘Threat’ Under Labor Act
PHILADELPHIA — Addressing a case over an anti-union tweet sent by the publisher of The Federalist from his personal account, a split Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on May 20 reaffirmed that the National Labor Relations Board is empowered to act on a complaint of an unfair labor practice filed by a party outside of the labor relationship but determined that the NLRB “lost the forest for the trees by failing to consider the tweet in context” and “misconstrued a facetious remark as a true threat” under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
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May 23, 2022
9th Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Putative Class Claims Over Apple Laptop Defect
SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on May 19 affirmed the dismissal of putative class claims against Apple Inc. for an alleged MacBook Pro screen defect, finding that claims against Apple for violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and eight other states’ deceptive trade practice laws fail because the defect was not safety related and Apple did not violate its duty to disclose under California law.
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May 20, 2022
Defendants In Bitcoin Theft, Data Breach Suit Seek Dismissal, Arbitration
SAN FRANCISCO — A retirement solutions company and a cryptocurrency exchange filed motions in California federal court on May 17 seeking, respectively, dismissal of and arbitration of a California man’s negligence claims over a February hacking incident that led to the theft of customers’ financial assets and personally identifiable information (PII).
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May 20, 2022
Google Prevails In Appeal Of Adverse Inter Partes Review
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a May 19 holding, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals vacated the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s finding that a reference relied upon by Google LLC in seeking inter partes review (IPR) of two patents did not qualify as prior art.
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May 20, 2022
Spyware Firm Asks High Court To Clarify Sovereign Immunity For Private Entities
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) does not clearly exclude sovereign immunity for private entities that, like it, act as agents for foreign states, an Israeli-owned spyware firm tells the U.S. Supreme Court in a May 16 reply brief supporting its petition for certiorari, asking the high court to offer guidance on this matter that it says has split the circuits.
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May 20, 2022
Texas AG Asks High Court To Uphold Stay Of Social Media Viewpoint Law Injunction
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Defending a law that he says “guarantee[s] all Texans equal access to the ‘modern public square’” of social media by prohibiting platforms operators from basing editorial decisions on a speaker’s “viewpoint,” Texas Attorney General (AG) Ken Paxton on May 18 opposed two organizations’ emergency applications asking the U.S. Supreme Court to vacate an appeals court’s stay of a preliminary injunction that would have prevented enforcement of the law.
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May 19, 2022
Google Says Patent Board Correctly Found Uniloc Tech Obvious
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a May 16 appellee brief, Google LLC urges the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to uphold a final written decision by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board that deemed three claims of a patent directed to a method of establishing a network connection unpatentable.
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May 18, 2022
Plaintiffs In Meta Antitrust Suit Seek Documents From Data-Sharing Privacy Suit
SAN FRANCISCO — In a May 13 letter brief, a group of consumer plaintiffs who allege Sherman Act monopolization claims against Meta Platforms Inc. ask a California federal court to compel the operator of the Facebook social network to produce documents from the class action lawsuit over the 2015 Cambridge Analytica data-sharing incident, arguing that information about Meta’s misrepresentations over its privacy practices are relevant to their claims that the social network gained dominance, in part, through such misrepresentations.
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April 28, 2022
COMMENTARY: A Credibility Checklist for the Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT)
By Hiram Kuykendall
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May 17, 2022
9th Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Trademark Suit Over Instagram ‘Hoax-19’ Account
PASADENA, Calif. — The sua sponte dismissal of a trademark infringement suit brought by Arizona State University (ASU) against the John Doe creator of an Instagram account that mocked the university’s Covid-19 policies was affirmed May 13 by a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel that found no error in a judge’s determination that there was no likelihood of confusion from Doe’s use of ASU’s trademarks.
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May 17, 2022
App Firm’s Contract, UCL Claims Against Facebook Stricken Under Anti-SLAPP Law
SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook Inc. prevailed on May 13 on an app developer’s claims against it, as a California judge granted the social network operator’s more than three-year-old motion to strike under California’s strategic lawsuit against public participation (anti-SLAPP) statute, disposing of claims for breach of contract and violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) related to Facebook’s decision to limit developers’ access to its application programming interface (API) platform.
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May 17, 2022
Cert Bid Denied In Challenge To Enhanced Patent Damage Award
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A petition for writ of certiorari that sought clarification on the proper standard for granting enhanced damages in a patent infringement action was denied May 16 by the U.S Supreme Court.
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May 17, 2022
After Partial Dismissal, FTC Seeks To Amend Match.com Complaint
DALLAS — In a May 13 motion, the Federal Trade Commission asks a Texas federal court for leave to file a first amended complaint (FAC) alleging deceptive practices by online dating website operator Match Group LLC to add a related entity that it says has an “apparent role in operating the Match.com service” at issue.
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May 16, 2022
Meta Denies Actual Knowledge, Commercial Use Of TV Anchor’s Photo In Dating Ad
PHILADELPHIA — After a Pennsylvania federal judge denied its motion to dismiss a television anchor’s publicity rights claims over the use of her photo in a dating service advertisement that ran on its social network, Meta Platforms Inc. on May 12 filed an answer to her second amended complaint in which it raises affirmative defenses of claim abrogation and lack of actual knowledge.
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May 16, 2022
5th Circuit Stays Injunction Of Texas Social Media Editorial Restriction Law
NEW ORLEANS — Five months after a federal judge preliminarily enjoined a newly enacted Texas law that bars certain social media platforms from engaging in viewpoint-based editing of users’ content, a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on May 11 issued an order granting, without comment, a motion by Texas Attorney General (AG) Ken Paxton to stay that injunction.
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May 11, 2022
Judge Won’t Dismiss Claims That Roblox Deleted Digital Goods It Sold To Minors
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on May 9 found that a putative class action plaintiff is not bound by terms of service for an online video game that she agreed to when she created an account at age 10 and declined to dismiss all but one of her claims for violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other statutes by charging users for digital goods sold in-game, which it later deleted.