Mealey's Cyber Tech & E-Commerce
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December 14, 2021
Web-Hosting Company Wins Dismissal Of Copyright Infringement Claims
MIAMI — A federal judge in Florida on Dec. 13 agreed with a web-hosting company that allegations of contributory copyright infringement fail because a plaintiff is unable to demonstrate that the defendant “acted with culpable intent.”
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December 14, 2021
Shutterfly Settlement With Groupon Purchaser Class Granted Final Approval
SAN JOSE, Calif. — A federal judge in California on Dec. 7 granted final approval of a settlement reached between a consumer class and Shutterfly Inc. that will provide promotion codes and cash payments for individuals who purchased “Groupons” to use on the Shutterfly website only to find that the promotional codes they were provided could not be combined with others.
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December 13, 2021
Evidentiary Question In Online Defamation Suit Rejected By Supreme Court
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A former pharmaceutical chief executive officer on Dec. 13 saw his petition for certiorari denied by the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to address his question about whether the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals properly vacated a $22.3 million jury verdict in his favor in an online defamation case following a sufficiency of the evidence appeal by a biopharmaceutical company.
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December 13, 2021
In Loss For Lenovo, Panel Won’t Undo Board Patentability Findings
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Three final written decisions (FWDs) by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board which confirmed as patentable various claims of a method for accessing and displaying Internet content in a graphical user interface (GUI) will not be disturbed, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said Dec. 8.
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December 13, 2021
High Court Denies Certiorari In Lawsuit Over Ownership Of France.com Domain
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 13 declined to weigh in on the application of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) in a dispute between France and the former owner of the France.com internet domain, letting stand a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that found the country immune from cybersquatting and trademark infringement claims against it.
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December 13, 2021
California Federal Judge Denies Stay In UCL Suit Against E-Commerce Retailer
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on Nov. 30 denied an e-commerce retailer’s motion to stay a putative class action asserting violations of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and automatic renewal law (ARL) based on the automatic renewal of an e-commerce membership program, finding that the irreparable harm alleged by the retailer would be better addressed by having the parties focus on discovery regarding the issue of arbitration, which is the focus of a pending appeal by the retailer.
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December 10, 2021
Doe To Supreme Court: CDA Doesn’t Shield Facebook From Sex-Trafficking Suit
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A sex-trafficking victim says that Facebook Inc. has relied on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) “as an impenetrable shield to protect it from” liability for crimes facilitated through its platform, asking the U.S. Supreme Court in a Dec. 7 reply brief supporting her petition for certiorari to “realign the judicial interpretation of [the statute] with its plain text."
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December 08, 2021
Apple Asks 9th Circuit To Stay App Store Injunction In Epic Games Antitrust Suit
SAN FRANCISCO — An injunction requiring Apple Inc. to inform users that in-app purchases (IAPs) can be made outside of its App Store should be stayed pending resolution of an appeal of a lower court’s ruling on monopolization and unfair competition claims brought by Epic Games Inc., Apple contends in a Nov. 30 reply brief, telling the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that the injunction will harm both it and consumers.
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December 08, 2021
Jury Awards Mining Firm $100 Million In Long-Running Bitcoin Ownership Dispute
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Finding that one of two partners in a bitcoin mining operation engaged in conversion, a Florida federal jury on Dec. 6 awarded $100 million in compensatory damages to the mining company related to the defendant’s seizure of intellectual property.
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December 08, 2021
Myanmar Refugee Sues Meta For $150 Billion For Facilitating Genocide
SAN FRANCISCO — A Jane Doe refugee from violence in Myanmar filed suit against Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly Facebook Inc.) in California court on Dec. 6, leveling claims of negligence and product liability against the company for knowingly permitting its Facebook social network to be used by the Myanmar government to carry out acts of violence, which she calls ethnic cleansing and genocide, against the Rohingya.
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December 07, 2021
Texas Social Media Editorial Restriction Law Enjoined By Federal Judge
AUSTIN, Texas — A newly passed Texas law that restricts large social media platforms from editing or censoring users’ posts and comments was preliminarily enjoined Dec. 1, with a Texas federal judge finding two plaintiff organizations likely to succeed in their claims that the law violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
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December 07, 2021
Facebook Says Sex-Trafficking Victim’s Cert Petition Over CDA Immunity Lacks Merit
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a Nov. 24 brief, Facebook Inc. asks the U.S. Supreme Court to deny a petition for certiorari filed by a Jane Doe plaintiff who sued the social network for negligence after she was a victim of online sex trafficking, arguing that the Texas Supreme Court correctly found that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) shielded it from liability for the acts of third parties.
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December 07, 2021
Judge: Stored Communications Act Protects Myanmar Officials’ Facebook Content
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Vacating a magistrate’s ruling and sustaining an objection by Facebook Inc., a District of Columbia federal judge on Dec. 3 concluded that copies the social network keeps of private pages and communications that it has deleted are protected under the Stored Communications Act (SCA) from disclosure to the Republic of the Gambia in a foreign genocide proceeding because they constitute items in electronic storage.
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December 07, 2021
Panel To Patent Defendant: Seek Reconsideration Before Petitioning For Mandamus
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Dec. 6 turned away a petition for mandamus in a dispute over three patents directed to website accessibility for the disabled because the petitioner failed to seek reconsideration of a Texas federal judge’s refusal to transfer the case to New York.
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December 02, 2021
Website Remediation Method Is Obvious, Patent Challenger Says
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — In a Dec. 1 petition for inter partes review (IPR) filed with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, a technology company seeks cancellation of 21 claims of a patented system and method for making websites compliant with web accessibility guidelines.
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December 02, 2021
Response To Photographer’s Petition Over Copyright, Takings Clause Waived
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The University of Houston System on Nov. 22 filed a waiver in the U.S. Supreme Court of its right to respond to a photographer’s petition for certiorari over whether a copyright constitutes private property and can serve as the basis for a claim for compensation under the takings clause of the Texas Constitution.
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December 01, 2021
Dominion, Others Tell 10th Circuit Voters Lack Standing To Allege 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 lack standing, and the fact is so clear “that no reasonable attorney would have filed this case in the first place,” the parties that were sued argue in an answer brief filed Nov. 19 in the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
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December 01, 2021
Arbitration Motion Partially Granted In StubHub MDL Over Pandemic Cancellations
OAKLAND, Calif. — A federal judge in California on Nov. 22 partially granted a motion for arbitration filed by a secondary ticket marketer accused of changing its refund policies for events canceled or rescheduled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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November 30, 2021
DOJ, States Seek Discovery Extensions In Consolidated Google Antitrust Suits
WASHINGTON, D.C. — One day after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) requested a three-month extension of the deadline for fact discovery in its antitrust lawsuit against Google LLC, a coalition of U.S. states filed a memorandum on Nov. 24 supporting the motion, echoing the department’s arguments that Google’s slow responses to discovery requests resulted in the whole discovery request being delayed.
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November 29, 2021
High Court Petitioner Says Gravamen Of France.com Spat Is Trademark Infringement
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a Nov. 22 reply brief supporting its petition for certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court, the former owner of the France.com domain faults the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals for using the wrong actual harm criteria in reaching its conclusion that the gravamen of its complaint against France was a French court’s ruling transferring ownership of the domain rather than trademark infringement.