Mealey's Cyber Tech & E-Commerce : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Cyber Tech & E-Commerce

September 27, 2023
Chipmaker Wins Summary Judgment On Class MDL Claims For ‘Exclusive Dealing’

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on Sept. 26 granted summary judgment sought by a modem chipmaker on putative class claims against it brought by plaintiffs in a multidistrict litigation who accused it of exclusive dealing to two original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), finding that the plaintiffs failed to allege an actual antitrust injury and failed to plead a violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL).
September 25, 2023
Justice Alito Extends Stay On Biden Administration Social Media Injunction By 5 Days

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The administrative stay of a preliminary injunction banning certain federal government parties from coercing social media platforms on content moderation decisions regarding user content was extended Sept. 22, when U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. issued an order revising the end date of the stay, which he issued Sept. 14, from Sept. 22 to Sept. 27.
September 25, 2023
Judge Relates Authors’ AI Suits Against Meta For Copyright Infringement

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on Sept. 22 brought a putative class action against Meta Platforms Inc. for copyright infringement in its training of its artificial intelligence software filed by authors including Michael Chabon into the docket of a similar suit filed by a group of writers including comedian Sarah Silverman, who had moved to relate the cases.
September 25, 2023
Panel: Patent Settlement With Microsoft Dooms Later Infringement Claims

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals found Sept. 22 that a provision in a 2017 settlement between a patent owner and Microsoft Corp. reaches an allegedly infringing software program and website.
September 21, 2023
Trump Says Recent 5th Circuit Ruling Supports Coercion Argument In Twitter Suit

PASADENA, Calif. — In a citation of supplemental authority in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, Donald J. Trump argues that the Fifth Circuit’s recent upholding of some injunctive relief against the government in Missouri, et al. v. Joseph R. Biden Jr., et al., No. 23-30445, 5th Cir., supports his position that “the government coerced and encouraged social media platforms to suppress” the protected speech of himself and other conservative parties, including Twitter Inc.’s suspension of their accounts, which are at issue in upcoming oral argument in the present case.
September 21, 2023
Best-Selling Fiction Writers Sue OpenAI For ‘Systematic Theft On A Mass Scale’

NEW YORK — The Authors Guild and 17 of its members, who are best-selling fiction writers, filed a putative class complaint against OpenAI Inc. and related companies (OpenAI, collectively) in New York federal court, accusing the artificial intelligence research and deployment firm of “flagrant and harmful” infringement of their copyrighted works in the training of its large language models (LLMs) without obtaining licenses or permission.
September 21, 2023
Sarah Silverman Seeks To Relate AI Suit Against Meta With Michael Chabon’s

SAN FRANCISCO — A group of writers including comedian Sarah Silverman moved in California federal court to relate their putative class action against Meta Platforms Inc. for copyright infringement in its training of its artificial intelligence software with a similar suit filed by authors including Michael Chabon, one day after Meta moved to dismiss the litigation involving Silverman.
September 20, 2023
Trump, Eddy Grant Argue Infringement Of ‘Electric Avenue’ In Tweeted Video

NEW YORK — In competing summary judgment motions filed in New York federal court, former president Donald J. Trump and singer Eddy Grant dispute whether the inclusion of Grant’s song “Electric Avenue” in a campaign video posted to Trump’s Twitter account constituted fair use, with the parties also disagreeing as to whether the musician can maintain separate copyright infringement claims for the song’s composition and recording.
September 20, 2023
Texas Federal Magistrate Judge: Meta Owes Patent Owner $138,004 In Costs

AUSTIN, Texas — A patent owner is entitled to recoup $138,004 in deposition and copying costs from Meta Platforms Inc., a federal magistrate judge in Texas has found nearly one year after a jury awarded $174,530,785 in connection with infringement by the “Facebook Live” feature.
September 18, 2023
COMMENTARY: Generative AI In Legal Practice: Technical And Legal Aspects To Consider

By Dr. Ilia Kolochenko
September 07, 2023
COMMENTARY: Establishing Guardrails For AI

By Susan Divers
September 18, 2023
9th Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Suit Against Apple For IDevices’ Defects, Slowdown

SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals split panel affirmed a federal judge’s dismissal for failure to state a claim a putative class suit claiming that Apple Inc. violated California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other statutes by concealing the fact that its software updates to fix security defects in iPhones, iPods, iPads and Apple TVs (collectively, iDevices) significantly slowed their performance.
September 15, 2023
Justice Alito Stays Injunction Halting Biden, FBI, CDC From Coercing Social Media

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a Sept. 14 docket order, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. enacted an administrative stay of a preliminary injunction issued by a trial court and modified by the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that prevents the White House, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and certain government officials from coercing social media platforms to make moderation decisions concerning users’ posts and accounts.
September 14, 2023
5th Circuit: Doctors’ Ultra Vires Claim Against FDA For Ivermectin Tweets Is Valid

NEW ORLEANS — A panel of the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed the judgment of a Texas federal court dismissing the lawsuit of a group of doctors claiming that the Food and Drug Administration exceeded its statutory authority when it created social media and government website posts recommending that people not use ivermectin to treat or prevent COVID-19, ruling that the posts were agency action and plausibly ultra vires under the Administrative Procedure Act.
September 14, 2023
Company Responds To Investor’s Opposing Brief In Securities Supreme Court Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a reply in support of its petition for a writ of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court, a real estate company accused by an investor of making misrepresentations in social media posts disagrees with the investor’s assertion that the company mischaracterized the findings of a federal appeals court regarding the bespeaks caution doctrine in a class action.
September 14, 2023
SEC Argues For Interlocutory Appeal Over Crypto Firm’s Objections In Fraud Case

NEW YORK — A New York federal judge’s ruling “explicitly” contradicts a recent ruling in a similar case in the same district, the Securities and Exchange Commission says in reply to objections to its petition for an interlocutory appeal in a suit the commission filed against a crypto asset firm it accused of selling cryptocurrencies without registering them as a security.
September 13, 2023
D.C. Circuit: Publication Of Industry Standards Protected By Fair Use

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia correctly concluded that the noncommercial publication of industry standards for incorporation by reference into law cannot form the basis of a copyright infringement action, the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said Sept. 12.
September 13, 2023
Award-Winning Writers Sue AI Developers For Unfairly Using Copyrighted Books

SAN FRANCISCO — Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon, his wife and fellow author Ayelet Waldman and three other writers on Sept. 12 filed a putative class action in California federal court against Meta Platforms Inc. accusing it of copyright infringement and violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by integrating their copyrighted written works into a dataset it uses to train artificial intelligence software, days after they sued OpenAI for similar conduct.
September 13, 2023
Roblox User Says Discovery Subpoenas Correctly ID’d Doe Defendant In Libel Suit

ORLANDO — Information obtained via discovery subpoenas served on Roblox Corp. and Twitter Inc. helped to confirm that the defendant identified in an amended complaint was the Jane Doe listed as the original defendant, a Roblox user tells a Florida federal court in a brief opposing dismissal of defamation and trade libel claims over false statements made about her on the online gaming platform and Twitter.
September 12, 2023
Man: ChatGPT Disclaimer Can’t Transform Defamatory Comments

ATLANTA — OpenAI is subject to jurisdiction in Georgia based on its registration in the state, and disclaimers and terms of use are outside the scope of a motion to dismiss and in any case cannot transform defamatory comments into innocuous statements, a man told a federal court in Georgia in opposing the motion.
September 12, 2023
Biden, FBI, CDC Ask 5th Circuit To Stay Social Media Coercion Injunction

NEW ORLEANS — Three days after the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals partly affirmed, and offered a modified version of, a preliminary injunction barring certain government officials and agencies from coercing social media platforms to censor their users’ speech, the government appellants on Sept. 11 filed an emergency motion asking the appeals court to stay the injunction pending an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
September 11, 2023
Roblox Digital Good Purchaser Seeks Final Approval Of $10M Settlement

SAN FRANCISCO — A class action plaintiff moved in a California federal court for final approval of a $10 million settlement to resolve putative class claims that will return more than half of “Robux” that 8 million users of the Roblox online video game lost when the game deleted in-game digital items the users had purchased, allegedly in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL).
September 08, 2023
Federal Judge Dismisses TCPA Coverage Suit After Yahoo, Insurer Reach Settlement

SAN JOSE, Calif. — One day after Yahoo! Inc. and its commercial general liability insurer filed a notice of settlement, a federal judge in California dismissed with prejudice Yahoo’s lawsuit seeking coverage for underlying class actions alleging that it violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).
September 08, 2023
Injunction Entered In Florida Trademark, Copyright Dispute Over ‘Masha And The Bear’

MIAMI — A federal judge in Florida on Sept. 7 adopted in full a Florida federal magistrate judge’s recommendation that the owner of copyrights and trademarks associated with the hit children’s television show “Masha and the Bear” be awarded a preliminary injunction while it proceeds with an infringement action against myriad online counterfeiters.
September 08, 2023
DOJ To Argue In High Court Over Tester’s Standing To Bring ADA Website Claims

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court in its Sept. 8 order list granted a motion by the U.S. Department of Justice to argue on behalf of the United States at Oct. 4 oral arguments over whether a self-appointed “tester” has standing under Article III of the U.S. Constitution to sue over a business’s website’s purported noncompliance with Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements.