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Mealey's Cyber Tech & E-Commerce

  • October 17, 2019

    In Supplemental Brief, Google Defends Certiorari Bid In Java Copyright Suit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Responding to an amicus curiae brief filed by the U.S. government, Google LLC filed a supplemental brief in support of its petition for certiorari on Oct. 16, telling the U.S. Supreme Court that its presented questions regarding the copyrightability of software interfaces are of “breathtaking importance” to the practice of reimplementation that is vital to the software industry (Google LLC v. Oracle America Inc., No. 18-956, U.S. Sup.).

  • October 17, 2019

    Apple Seeks Rehearing Of Decision Denying Inter Partes Review

    ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A September 2019 divided decision by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board that turned away an Apple Inc. petition for inter partes review (IPR) of a patented beacon for transmitting Bluetooth messages should be reheard, the software giant maintains in an Oct. 16 filing with the board (Apple Inc. v. Uniloc 2017 LLC, No. IPR2019-00753, PTAB).

  • October 15, 2019

    Record Labels Told To Supplement Filings In Remanded Vimeo Copyright Suit

    NEW YORK — More than three years after the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals partly reversed a trial court’s ruling in favor of an online video-sharing service provider in a copyright infringement suit against it, a New York federal judge on Oct. 4 directed the plaintiff record labels to supplement and clarify their submitted evidence supporting assertions that employees of Vimeo LLC had “red flag knowledge” that certain user-submitted videos were infringing (Capitol Records LLC, et al. v. Vimeo LLC, et al., No. 1:09-cv-10101 and -10105, S.D. N.Y.).

  • October 16, 2019

    Dissenting 4th Circuit Judge Warns Of Applying Analog Standards To Digital Cases

    RICHMOND, Va. — As the lone dissenter from an Oct. 9 Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision to deny rehearing to a man who sought to suppress evidence that he downloaded child pornography, Judge James A. Wynn Jr., who also dissented from the original panel ruling that upheld a trial court’s decision to not suppress, voiced his concern that courts too often do not take the time to sufficiently familiarize themselves with modern technology when it is the subject of lawsuits (United States v. Nikolai Bosyk, No. 18-4302, 4th Cir., 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 30321).

  • October 16, 2019

    Hotels Answer Online Travel Agency’s Antitrust Suit With Trademark Counterclaims

    TEXARKANA, Texas — After seeing their motions to dismiss and transfer denied, an antitrust lawsuit brought against them by an online travel agency (OTA), the defendant hotel chains each filed answers in Texas federal court on Oct. 11, denying any conspiracy and leveling counterclaims for trademark infringement against TravelPass Group LLC (TravelPass Group LLC, et al. v. Caesars Entertainment Corp., et al., No. 5:18-cv-00153, E.D. Texas).

  • October 15, 2019

    Marketing Firm, Facebook, Instagram Settle Suit Over Revoked Social Network Access

    OAKLAND, Calif. — In a jointly filed stipulation of dismissal on Oct. 14, Stackla Inc., Facebook Inc. and Instagram LLC tell a California federal court that they have settled and agreed to dismiss a month-old complaint brought by Stackla against the social networks over the decision to revoke the online marketer’s access to their platforms (Stackla Inc., et al. v. Facebook Inc., No. 4:19-cv-05849, N.D. Calif.).

  • October 15, 2019

    Facebook’s Anti-SLAPP Motion In App Maker’s UCL Suit Properly Denied, Panel Rules

    SAN FRANCISCO — Citing an unjustified delay by Facebook Inc. in moving to dismiss an app developer’s claims against it under California’s Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (anti-SLAPP) statute, a California appeals panel on Sept. 30 affirmed denial of that notion, permitting claims against the social network under California’s unfair competition law (UCL) to proceed (Six4Three LLC v. Facebook Inc., et al., Nos. A154890 and A155334, Calif. App., 1st Dist., 2019 Cal. App. Unpub. LEXIS 6616).

  • October 15, 2019

    Class Claims Against Adobe Over Allegedly Deleted Files Sent To Arbitration

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — A California federal judge on Oct. 11 granted a motion by Adobe Systems Inc. to compel arbitration in a class complaint by a professional photographer and videographer who alleges that the software company’s editing program malfunctioned and permanently deleted his files and data, but denied Adobe’s request to dismiss the class claims (David Keith Cooper v. Adobe Systems Incorporated, No. 18-6742, N.D. Calif., 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 177413).

  • October 14, 2019

    LinkedIn Asks 9th Circuit To Reconsider Injunction In CFAA Data-Scraping Suit

    SAN FRANCISCO — A panel’s ruling that allowed an analytics firm to collect and use publicly available user data “pose[s] a grave threat to user privacy and the openness of the Internet” and runs counter to the intent of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), LinkedIn Corp. tells the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in an Oct. 11 petition in which it seeks en banc rehearing of the panel’s decision that upheld an injunction permitting the data collection (hiQ Labs Inc. v. LinkedIn Corp., No. 17-16783, 9th Cir.).

  • October 14, 2019

    Judge Grants Apple’s Motion To Dismiss UCL, Other Claims In False Advertising Suit

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — A federal judge in California on Oct. 11 granted Apple Inc.’s motion to dismiss 10 claims in a putative class action alleging that it falsely advertised that its computer screens were of the “highest quality” even though they contained a “critical defect” that it knew about, rejecting the plaintiffs’ contention that Apple’s fraudulent omissions makes it liable under the California’s unfair competition law (UCL) (Kim Ahern, et al. v. Apple Inc., No. 18-07196, N.D. Calif., 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 177425).

  • October 14, 2019

    Twitter Users To 2nd Circuit: Rehearing Not Merited In Trump 1st Amendment Suit

    NEW YORK — In a Sept. 27 brief opposing President Donald J. Trump’s petition for rehearing, a group of Twitter users who were blocked from the president’s account tell the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that there is nothing exceptional about a panel’s finding that the blocking violated the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, et al. v. Donald J. Trump, et al., No. 18-1691, 2nd Cir.).

  • October 11, 2019

    7th Circuit Remands Groupon Right Of Publicity Suit For Jurisdictional Finding

    CHICAGO — Concluding that Groupon Inc. failed to properly plead federal diversity jurisdiction in removing a right of publicity putative class action from state court, a Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Oct. 9 remanded an appeal over a class certification denial to the trial court for a determination of whether federal jurisdiction exists (Christine Dancel v. Groupon Inc., No. 19-1831, 7th Cir., 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 30246).

  • October 10, 2019

    Twitter Must Identify Poster Of Defamatory Statements About Japanese Psychologist

    SAN FRANCISCO — A subpoena requiring Twitter Inc. to identify an anonymous user who is the defendant in a Japanese defamation lawsuit survived the social network’s motion to quash on Oct. 7, when a California federal magistrate judge found that the plaintiff in that suit sufficiently established that the subpoena did not violate the right to anonymous speech under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (In re Ex Parte Application of Dr. Yuichiro Yasuda, et al., No. 3:19-mc-80127, N.D. Calif., 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 174001).

  • October 09, 2019

    Board Sides With Apple, Deems Authentication Patent Obvious

    ALEXANDRIA, Va. — In an Oct. 8 final written decision, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board agreed with inter partes review (IPR) petitioner Apple Inc. that a patent directed to authenticating the identity of multiple users would have been obvious to a person of skill in the art (POSITA) (Apple Inc. v. Universal Secure Registry LLC, No. IPR2018-00809, PTAB).

  • October 07, 2019

    Supreme Court Won’t Hear Petition Over CDA Immunity In Grindr Negligence Suit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A petition for certiorari over the application of an immunity defense under the Communications Decency Act (CDA), which was filed by a New York man who brought negligence and product liability claims against Grindr LLC after he was the victim of online harassment, was denied by the U.S. Supreme Court in its Oct. 7 order list (Matthew Herrick v. Grindr LLC, et al., No. 19-192, U.S. Sup.).

  • October 07, 2019

    Domino’s Pizza’s Petition Over Website Accessibility Denied By Supreme Court

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In its Oct. 7 order list, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to enter the debate over what obligations the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) imposes upon a website operator in terms of making a website accessible to people with disabilities, denying a petition for certiorari by Domino’s Pizza LLC in a lawsuit brought by a blind man (Domino’s Pizza LLC v. Guillermo Robles, No. 18-1539, U.S. Sup.).

  • October 07, 2019

    High Court Denies Copyright Volitional Conduct Petition Over Online Photo Use

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 7 declined to consider three questions over the role that volitional conduct plays in copyright infringement, denying a petition for certiorari by a real estate photography firm, which sued Zillow Inc. for its purportedly infringing use of certain photographs in its online listings that the petitioner said Zillow had the ability to control (VHT Inc. v. Zillow Group Inc., et al., No. 18-1540, U.S. Sup.).

  • October 03, 2019

    Solicitor General Counsels Against Certiorari In Google, Oracle Java Copyright Row

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Opining that lines of Java computer code copied by Google LLC constituted protectable expressive content, Solicitor General (SG) Noel J. Francisco, in a Sept. 27 amicus curiae brief filed on behalf of the U.S. government, asserts that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals correctly ruled in favor of Oracle America Inc. in a long-running copyright dispute, recommending that the U.S. Supreme Court deny Google’s petition for certiorari (Google LLC v. Oracle America Inc., No. 18-956, U.S. Sup.).

  • October 02, 2019

    D.C. Circuit Mostly Affirms Net Neutrality Repeal, Permits State Neutrality Rules

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Communications Commission’s 2018 order repealing net neutrality was mostly affirmed Oct. 1 in a detailed 186-page opinion by a District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel that upheld reclassification, deregulation and transparency provisions, while vacating a portion of the order that would preempt state laws that conflict with the order (Mozilla Corp., et al. v. Federal Communications Commission, et al., No. 18-1051, D.C. Cir., 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 29480).

  • September 30, 2019

    $62.4 Million Judgment Issued Against VidAngel In Studios’ Copyright Suit

    LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge on Sept. 23 issued judgment against VidAngel Inc., in accordance with a $62.4 million jury verdict that penalized the online video-filtering service provider for violating the Copyright Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) via its services (Disney Enterprises Inc., et al. v. VidAngel Inc., No. 2:16-cv-04109, C.D. Calif.).