Mealey's Cyber Tech & E-Commerce
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April 08, 2022
Former Beach Boy’s Putative Foreign Streaming Royalties Class Action Dismissed
LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge on April 6 granted a motion to dismiss without leave to amend a lawsuit filed by a former member of The Beach Boys who accused two music companies of fraud and violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) on behalf of a putative class that was allegedly deprived of digital streaming royalties from foreign markets.
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April 08, 2022
Online Game Developer, Others Dismissed From ADS Purchaser’s Securities Suit
NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York on March 31 dismissed claims in a securities class action against an online game developer, certain of its senior executives and an entity that acquired the company’s American depositary shares (ADS), ruling that a lead plaintiff failed to sufficiently plead loss causation or insider trading on the part of those defendants.
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April 07, 2022
Copyright Claims Against Amazon, Sony, Others Survive Dismissal Bid
NEW YORK — A New York federal judge on March 31 denied a request to dismiss allegations that the copyrighted vocal arrangements for “Smokey Joe’s Café” were infringed by various defendants who streamed live performances of the Broadway musical.
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April 07, 2022
TikTok Content Moderators Say They Suffered Harm From Exposure To ‘Toxic’ Content
SAN FRANCISCO — Two former content moderators for TikTok Inc.’s popular video app claim in a putative class action filed March 24 in a California federal court that it and its owner violated California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and were negligent by exposing them to extremely graphic sexual and violent content that caused them ongoing psychological harm.
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April 06, 2022
Discovery Denied, Hearing Date Set In UCL Suit Over Facebook App Platform Dispute
SAN FRANCISCO — In a March 24 docket note, a California judge stated that he would be signing a proposed order submitted by Facebook Inc. that confirms a recent minute order in which he denied an app developer’s motion for discovery and depositions from several Facebook corporate officers, deeming the motion inappropriate before resolution of Facebook’s motion to strike claims against it under California’s unfair competition law (UCL) per California’s strategic lawsuit against public participation (anti-SLAPP) statute.
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April 06, 2022
E-Commerce Platform Firm Sued Over Hack Of Cryptocurrency Users’ Info
WILMINGTON, Del. — E-commerce platform operator Shopify Inc. and its data processing vendor were hit with a putative class complaint in Delaware federal court on April 1, with cryptocurrency users claiming that the defendants’ negligence led to a data breach that exposed the personally identifiable information (PII) of the clients of a cryptocurrency wallet company.
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April 05, 2022
Websites Petition Board For Review Of Code Generating Patent
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The owners and operators of popular websites like Expedia.com and Pinterest.com on April 1 asked the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to institute inter partes review (IPR) of a patented system for generating code to provide content on the display of a device.
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April 04, 2022
D.C. Federal Judge Won’t Block Publication Of Industry Standards
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a March 31 ruling, a District of Columbia federal judge said that the online publication of industry standards already incorporated into law qualifies as a fair use and that an injunction barring publication of unincorporated standards is not warranted “in light of the meager evidence of irreparable harm and the possibility that these standards will be incorporated into law at a later date.”
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April 01, 2022
Claims In Overstock Market Manipulation Suit Lack Necessary Elements, Panel Told
DENVER — A 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel should affirm a federal district court’s dismissal of a shareholder’s claims against online retailer Overstock.com Inc. and certain of its current and former senior executives alleging that the defendants artificially inflated earnings guidance for the company’s struggling retail division as part of a market manipulation scheme because the shareholder failed to sufficiently plead any material misrepresentation or scienter in making its federal securities law claims, Overstock and others argue in a March 30 appellee brief.
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April 01, 2022
Infringement, Antitrust Claims Dismissed Against YouTube In Filmmaker’s Piracy Suit
MIAMI — Granting in part a motion by YouTube Inc. to dismiss claims filed against it by a Spanish-language filmmaker related to the unauthorized posting of his works on YouTube, a Florida federal judge on March 29 found that the plaintiff did not sufficiently state his Sherman Act tying claim, while concluding that some of the copyright infringement claims are time-barred.
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March 31, 2022
DOJ Tells D.C. Circuit DMCA Restricts Conduct, Not Freedom Of Speech
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Countering two technologists’ arguments in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that the anti-circumvention measures of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) restrict their rights under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the U.S. Department of Justice argues in a March 28 brief, representing several federal governmental appellees, that the statute’s focus is on restricting actions, not speech, while protecting digital copyrighted works.
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March 31, 2022
Class Suit Over University’s Switch To Online Pandemic Learning Dismissed
DALLAS — A putative class complaint accusing a Texas university of breaching its contract with students when it shut its doors and transferred all learning to online in March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic fails as the lead plaintiff never showed where a promise of in-person learning was made, a federal judge in Texas ruled March 29, dismissing the complaint with prejudice.
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March 30, 2022
Panel Says Minor Must Arbitrate Claims Against Game Company For ‘Loot Boxes’
SAN DIEGO — A California appellate panel on March 29 reversed a trial court’s ruling denying a gaming company’s motion to compel arbitration with a minor and his father who sought injunctive relief against the company under California’s unfair competition law (UCL) for allegedly allowing unlawful gambling through the in-game sale of “loot boxes” after the panel found the company’s arbitration agreement “sufficiently conspicuous.”
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March 29, 2022
Damages And Injunction Awarded In Florida Copyright, Trademark Row
MIAMI — In a March 28 final default judgment and permanent injunction, a federal judge in Florida ordered a virtual private network (VPN) to block its end users from accessing various foreign piracy websites including www.piratebay.org and to pay more than $15 million in damages.
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March 28, 2022
Epic Games Trademark Case Tossed By North Carolina Federal Judge
RALEIGH, N.C. — In a March 25 order, a federal judge in North Carolina said her court lacks personal and Rule 4(k)(2) jurisdiction over a China-headquartered defendant accused of infringing the “Unreal” trademark owned by Epic Games Inc., maker of the popular video game Fortnite.
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March 28, 2022
TV Anchor Maintains Meta Profited From Unauthorized Use Of Her Photograph
PHILADELPHIA — On remand after the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly Facebook Inc.) was not immune from a television anchor’s right of publicity claims over the purported unauthorized use of her photo, the plaintiff on March 18 filed her opposition to Meta’s motion to dismiss, telling a Pennsylvania federal court that the social network operator had knowledge of, and benefitted from, the use of her picture.
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March 28, 2022
Apple Defends Dismissal Of Epic’s Antitrust Claims In 9th Circuit Brief
SAN FRANCISCO — A trial court correctly dismissed Epic Games Inc.’s monopoly claims related to its sale of apps and in-app purchases (IAPs) for devices using its operating system (iOS), Apple Inc. says in a March 24 cross-appellant brief to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, raising arguments of standing, circumstantial evidence and overreaching accusations.
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March 23, 2022
Negligence Suit Filed Over Theft Of Cryptocurrency, Clients’ Personal Information
SAN FRANCISCO — A man who lost $85,000 in a cyberattack on a cryptocurrency company filed a putative class complaint in California federal court on March 18, bringing negligence and contractual claims over the loss of his monies and the unauthorized access of his personally identifiable information (PII).
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March 23, 2022
Federal Circuit Denies VoIP-Pal Mandamus Bid In Fight With Twitter
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in California did not clearly and indisputably err when denying a motion by a patent owner to dismiss a declaratory judgment action filed by Twitter Inc. because the parties’ history of litigation involving the same products “can play a significant role in establishing declaratory judgment jurisdiction,” the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled March 22.
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March 22, 2022
Company: Internet-Acquired Talc Samples Weren’t Admissible In Asbestos Case
BALTIMORE — A trial court properly evaluated chain-of-custody questions in excluding talc products obtained online, which an appellate court improperly reversed by substituting its own opinions in the place of the trial court’s properly conducted gatekeeping function, a company tells Maryland’s top court in a Jan. 28 opening brief.