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Mealey's Cyber Tech & E-Commerce

  • January 19, 2021

    9th Circuit Orders More Briefing Over Injunction Of Trump’s WeChat Ban

    SAN FRANCISCO — After a hearing in President Donald J. Trump’s appeal of a preliminary injunction that halted his ban of the WeChat social network and app, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Jan. 15 directed the president and an alliance of the social network’s users to submit supplemental briefs on whether Trump exceeded his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) by issuing the executive order that established the ban.

  • January 15, 2021

    Plaintiff Wants YouTube’s Counterclaims Dismissed In Anti-Infringement Tool Suit

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — One of two plaintiffs suing YouTube LLC for purportedly denying them access to a copyright anti-infringement tool that larger entities are permitted to use asks a California federal court tn a Jan. 14 reply brief to dismiss YouTube’s counterclaims against it, arguing that the counterclaims lack specificity and supporting facts.

  • January 15, 2021

    Google Infringes Patented Electronic Spreadsheet System, Appellant Says

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a Jan. 4 appellant brief, a patent owner urges the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to vacate and remand a Delaware federal judge’s determination that “Google Sheets” does not infringe a patented electronic spreadsheet system.

  • January 15, 2021

    Cert Denied In Software Dispute Over Copyright And All Writs Act

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In its Jan. 11 order list, the U.S. Supreme Court turned away a petition for certiorari that poses the question of whether U.S. courts can enforce monetary judgments against foreign companies under the All Writs Act (AWA) in a dispute involving copyrighted software.

  • January 13, 2021

    Magistrate:  ISP Not Entitled To Labels’ Investigator’s Report In Copyright Case

    DENVER — An internet service provider (ISP) has not established a sufficient need for an investigator’s “hash report” to overcome its protections as privileged work product, a Colorado federal magistrate judge ruled Jan. 7, denying a motion to compel by Charter Communications Inc. as it defends itself from vicarious copyright infringement claims brought by a group of record labels.

  • January 12, 2021

    Discovery Of Foreign App Sales Data Denied In Apple App Store Antitrust Suit

    OAKLAND, Calif. — A group of consumer plaintiffs in a long-running, consolidated antitrust lawsuit over purported monopolization by Apple Inc. related to its App Store were denied a request for production (RFP) of revenue data from the foreign sales of iPhone apps, with a California federal magistrate judge on Jan. 8 finding that the plaintiffs failed to establish that such information was relevant to their claims.

  • January 12, 2021

    Russian Stream-Ripping Site Owner Denied Certiorari In Jurisdictional Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The owner of two Russian-based stream-ripping websites lost his bid to challenge Virginia jurisdiction on Jan. 11, when the U.S. Supreme Court denied his petition for certiorari in a copyright infringement suit filed by a group of record labels.

  • January 12, 2021

    Parler Sues Amazon For Antitrust After Account Suspension, Seeks TRO

    SEATTLE — In the wake of having its web-hosting account with Amazon Web Services Inc. suspended for purportedly allowing its users to engage in posts that incite and encourage violence, conservative social network operator Parler LLC sued Amazon in Washington federal court on  Jan. 11, alleging antitrust violations that benefit rival Twitter Inc.

  • January 11, 2021

    Supreme Court To Consider Whether Students Can Be Disciplined For Online Actions

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In an order list released Jan. 8, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a school district’s petition for certiorari to decide whether a 50-year-old case that set precedent regarding students’ free speech rights and a school’s ability to discipline over a “substantial disruption” applies to online, off-campus behavior.

  • January 11, 2021

    Divided 9th Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Copyright Allegations

    SAN FRANCISCO — A panel of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Dec. 24 agreed with a federal judge in California that a Texas man cannot face copyright infringement claims in California because personal jurisdiction over him is lacking there.

  • January 08, 2021

    States’, DOJ’s Antitrust Suits Against Google Consolidated For Pretrial

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — States suing Google LLC for alleged monopolization in the internet search engine market were partly granted their motion to consolidate their lawsuit with a similar suit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), with a District of Columbia federal judge consolidating the cases on Jan. 7 “for pretrial purposes, including discovery and all related proceedings.”

  • January 06, 2021

    States Request Protective Order For Complaint In Google Antitrust Suit

    SHERMAN, Texas — A group of 10 states suing Google LLC for purported monopolistic practices related to online advertising agreements filed an “urgent” motion in Texas federal court on Jan. 5 seeking an interim protective order to partially retain the seal on their unreacted complaint to protect confidential third-party information.

  • December 22, 2020

    COMMENTARY: 2020 Cyber And Privacy Coverage – A Year In Review

    By Scott M. Seaman and Judith A. Selby

  • January 05, 2021

    Google AdWords Customer May Proceed With UCL Suit, 9th Circuit Rules

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Florida man’s claims against Google LLC under California’s unfair competition law (UCL) related to purported overcharging in the company’s AdWords program were revived by a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Jan. 4, with the majority finding that the man’s continued ownership of his AdWords account, despite the sale of the business he was advertising, conferred standing that allowed him to pursue his claims.

  • December 31, 2020

    Apple In 9th Circuit Brief: App Maker Did Not Use ‘Memoji’ Mark In Commerce

    SAN FRANCISCO — A trial court correctly found that a tech firm did not use its asserted “Memoji” trademark in commerce, per the Lanham Act, Apple Inc. argues in a Dec. 22 brief in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, asserting that the appellant only released its defective app in a quest to initiate litigation and to reserve the trademark.

  • December 23, 2020

    Antitrust Suits Filed Over Google’s Search Engine, Online Advertising

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — One day after a group of 10 states fronted by Texas (the Texas plaintiffs), sued Google LLC for alleged anti-competitive practices in the online advertising market, another complaint was filed against the technology giant in District of Columbia federal court on Dec. 17 by 35 states, along with Guam, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia (the D.C. plaintiffs), bringing antitrust claims related to Google’s purported monopoly of the internet search engine market (Colorado, et al. v. Google LLC, No. 20-3715, D. D.C.).

  • December 21, 2020

    Apple Must Provide Deposition Witnesses In 3 Antitrust Suits

    SAN FRANCISCO — In a ruling that encompassed three antitrust lawsuits against Apple Inc. related to its App Store, a California federal judge on Dec. 18 ordered the technology giant to provide 16 witnesses for depositions to iPhone owners, app developers and game developers that have brought allegations of monopolistic practices against Apple (In re:  Apple iPhone Antitrust Litigation, No. 11-6714, N.D. Calif.; Donald R. Cameron, et al. v. Apple Inc., No. 19-3074, N.D. Calif.; Epic Games Inc. v. Apple Inc., No. 20-5640, N.D. Calif.).

  • December 18, 2020

    9th Circuit:  No Trade Secret Protection For Published Patent Info

    SAN FRANCISCO — In a Dec. 16 holding, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a dismissal of allegations that Google LLC violated the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 when it disclosed engineered architecture (EA) information in patent applications filed in 2011 and published in 2012 (Eli Attia, et al. v. Google LLC, No. 19-15771, 9th Cir., 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 39491).

  • December 17, 2020

    Federal Circuit Affirms: Patented Anti-Virus Technology Not Obvious

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a Dec. 16 ruling, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals found that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board did not err when, on remand, it confirmed as patentable Finjan Inc. technology relating to protection against dynamically generated malicious code and computer viruses (Palo Alto Networks Inc. v. Finjan Inc., No. 19-2151, Fed. Cir., 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 39552).

  • December 16, 2020

    School District Seeks High Court Review Of Suit Over Online, Off-Campus Speech

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A lawsuit over a school district’s discipline of a student for her social media post “presents a quintessential issue for review” on the topic of whether the ruling on student speech in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District applies to off-campus, online speech, the school district argues in a Dec. 14 reply brief supporting its petition for certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court (Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L., No. 20-255, U.S. Sup.).

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