Mealey's Artificial Intelligence : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Artificial Intelligence

August 07, 2020
Consolidation At Issue In New York, Illinois Clearview Biometric Collection Suits

NEW YORK — Responding to a motion by Clearview AI Inc. to extend time to answer several class complaints against it, a New York federal judge on Aug. 4 issued an order clarifying that the deadlines to respond are adjourned sine die in light of an upcoming conference that will address all six biometric privacy suits against Clearview pending in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Mario Calderon, et al. v. Clearview AI Inc., No. 1:20-cv-01296, S.D. N.Y.).
June 26, 2020
Black YouTube Users Sue For Discrimination Over Targeting, Restricting Videos

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A group of creators of Black-themed content on YouTube LLC’s online video-sharing platform filed a punitive class complaint in California federal court on June 16, claiming that the company engages in “knowing and intentional” race discrimination by targeting and restricting videos on the basis of “race, identity or viewpoint” (Kimberly Celeste Newman, et al. v. Google LLC, No. 5:20-cv-04011, N.D. Calif.).
June 02, 2020
Illinois Man Denied Motion To Intervene In 6 New York Biometric Privacy Suits

NEW YORK — An Illinois resident who filed the first of several biometric privacy suits over Clearview AI Inc.’s creation of a facial scan database failed in his bid to intervene in six putative class actions against the tech firm in New York federal court on May 29, as a New York federal judge deemed intervention in the noncertified putative class actions “not justified on either mandatory or permissive grounds” due to the movant’s lack of cognizable interest (Mario Calderon, et al. v. Clearview AI Inc., No. 1:20-cv-01296, S.D. N.Y., 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 94926).
June 02, 2020
Questions Prevent Tech Company’s Bid For Injunction In Trade Secrets Dispute

BOSTON — A federal judge in Massachusetts on May 29 ruled that a technology company is not entitled to a preliminary injunction in its breach of contract and trade secret misappropriation lawsuit against a former employee and his present employer, Facebook Inc., because questions exist as to whether the source code and algorithms the defendants are alleged to have misappropriated are truly trade secrets and whether the alleged trade secrets were obtained by the defendants by improper means (Neural Magic Inc. v. Facebook Inc., et al., No. 20-10444, D. Mass.).
May 27, 2020
Intervention, Dismissal, Injunction Debated In Facial Data Collection Lawsuits

CHICAGO — An Illinois man who filed the first of several privacy lawsuits over the online facial data collection practices conducted by Clearview AI Inc. filed a supplemental brief in New York federal court on May 20, supporting his motion to intervene in five lawsuits in that venue, arguing that a recent development in his suit in Illinois federal court weights in favor of litigating claims against the tech firm in the Illinois court (David Mutnick v. Clearview AI Inc., et al., No. 1:20-cv-00512, N.D. Ill.).
April 09, 2020
Illinois Man Seeks To Enjoin Clearview’s Collection, Sale Of Biometric Identifiers

CHICAGO — The lead plaintiff in the first of six federal complaints filed against Clearview AI Inc. for its collection and sale of the biometric identifiers of millions of people filed a motion in Illinois federal court on April 8, seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent any further use of the identifiers pending the resolution of his claims under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) (David Mutnick v. Clearview AI Inc., et al., No. 1:20-cv-00512, N.D. Ill.).
March 18, 2020
Facebook, Former Employee Misappropriated AI Trade Secrets, Tech Start-Up Says

BOSTON — A technology company’s former employee breached the terms of his employment agreements by providing the company’s proprietary set of algorithms used in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) to Facebook Inc. in violation of state and federal trade secret laws, the company alleges in a March 4 complaint filed in Massachusetts federal court (Neural Magic Inc. v. Facebook Inc., et al., No. 20-10444, D. Mass.).
January 27, 2020
Tech Firm Hit With Class Complaint For Creating ‘Massive’ Facial Scan Database

CHICAGO — Clearview AI Inc. created and furnished to law enforcement a database of the facial scans of “millions of unsuspecting individuals,” contributing to the creation of a “massive surveillance state” a plaintiff claims in a putative class complaint filed Jan. 22 in Illinois federal court, alleging violations of the First, Fourth and 14th amendments to the U.S. Constitution and the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) (David Mutnick v. Clearview AI Inc., et al., No. 1:20-cv-00512, N.D. Ill.).
January 09, 2020
COMMENTARY: Top Ten Digital Accessibility Legal Stories Of 2019

By Sean McElaney
May 21, 2019
COMMENTARY: LCIA Perspectives, Parts 10 - 12

LCIA Perspectives, Parts 10 - 12
April 01, 2019
COMMENTARY: LCIA Perspectives, Parts 7 - 9

To help mark the 125th anniversary of the formal inauguration in 1892 of “The City of London Chamber of Arbitration”, which evolved into The London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), the institution published a series of “perspectives” over the course of 2018, from a range of commentators from the diverse LCIA community.
March 12, 2019
COMMENTARY: LCIA Perspectives, Parts 4 - 6

To help mark the 125th anniversary of the formal inauguration in 1892 of “The City of London Chamber of Arbitration”, which evolved into The London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), the institution published a series of “perspectives” over the course of 2018, from a range of commentators from the diverse LCIA community.
March 20, 2019
Microsoft Petitions Board For Review Of Software Task Completion Patent

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A claimed method of collective task completion among distributed software agents using an inter-agent communication language (ICL) to provide a common communication protocol would have been obvious to a person of skill in the art (POSITA), Microsoft Corp. asserts in a March 19 petition for inter partes review by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (Microsoft Corp. v. IPA Technologies Inc., No. IPR2019-00837, PTAB).
February 12, 2019
COMMENTARY: LCIA Perspectives, Parts 1 - 3

To help mark the 125th anniversary of the formal inauguration in 1892 of “The City of London Chamber of Arbitration”, which evolved into The London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), the institution published a series of “perspectives” over the course of 2018, from a range of commentators from the diverse LCIA community.
February 23, 2018
Defendant Says Electric Car Company’s DTSA Claim Is Subject To Arbitration

LOS ANGELES — A stay of proceedings in a Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) suit filed by an electric car company against a competitor is necessary because employment agreements for the car company’s former employees that now work for the competitor state that all disputes are required to be arbitrated, the competitor argues in a brief filed Feb. 20 in California federal court (Faraday & Future Inc. v. EVelocity Inc., No. 18-0737, C.D. Calif.).
July 18, 2017
COMMENTARY: Insuring The Sharing Economy and FINTECH: The Exposures And Related Coverage Issues, Where Things Now Stand And Where They May Be Heading

By Todd D. Kremin and Peter J. Biging
May 03, 2016
Judge In Ashley Madison MDL Bars Plaintiffs From Using Stolen Documents

ST. LOUIS — The plaintiffs in a multidistrict litigation against the operator of AshleyMadison.com related to a July 2015 breach of the adult dating website’s network may not use or refer to documents stolen from Avid Dating Life Inc. in the computer hack of its database when filing the plaintiffs’ consolidated complaint, a Missouri federal judge ruled April 29 (In re Ashley Madison Customer Data Security Breach Litigation, No. 15-2669, E.D. Mo.; 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 57619).
April 11, 2016
Class Representatives In Ashley Madison MDL May Not Proceed Under Pseudonyms

ST. LOUIS — A Missouri federal judge on April 6 ruled that 42 plaintiffs currently proceeding under pseudonyms in a multidistrict litigation against the operator of AshleyMadison.com related to a July 2015 breach of the adult dating website’s network who wish to serve as class representatives must decide to use their real names or dismiss their complaints and proceed without revealing their names as class members (In Re Ashley Madison Customer Data Security Breach Litigation, No. 15-2669, E.D. Mo.; 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 46893).
February 25, 2016
AI Company’s Subpoena Of Its Former Law Firm’s Documents Mostly Quashed

SAN FRANCISCO — An artificial intelligence (AI) company saw its subpoena for documents from a law firm that previously represented it quashed on Feb. 24 by a California federal magistrate judge, who found that the federal fiduciary exception to the attorney-client privilege did not apply (Loop AI Labs Inc. v. Anna Gatti, et al., No. 3:15-cv-00798, N.D. Calif.; 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22656).
December 10, 2015
Ashley Madison Data Breach Class Actions Consolidated In Missouri Federal Court

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Five lawsuits against the operator AshleyMadison.com related to a July 2015 breach of the adult dating website’s network were consolidated in Missouri federal court on Dec. 9 by the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPMDL), which ruled that centralization in that venue will best “serve the convenience of the parties and witnesses and promote the just and efficient conduct of this litigation” (In Re: Ashley Madison Customer Data Security Breach Litigation, MDL No. 2669, JPMDL).