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

Mealey's Cyber Tech & E-Commerce

August 10, 2023
Election Commission To Consider AI, Deepfake Political Advertising Rule

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is soliciting comments on, and is set to consider at its Aug. 10 meeting, whether it should amend the rule prohibiting fraudulent misrepresentation in political campaign advertising to include the use of artificial intelligence (AI).
August 09, 2023
Judge’s Order Questions Jurisdiction Over ChatGPT Defamation Case

ATLANTA — A federal judge in Georgia said OpenAI LLC’s notice of removal vaguely states that none of its entities reside in Georgia, which is insufficient to create diversity jurisdiction over a man’s case claiming he was defamed by artificial intelligence ChatGPT when it created a fake complaint naming him as a defendant. In a docket entry, the court issued an order to show why the case should not be remanded.
August 08, 2023
SEC Adopts New Rules On Cybersecurity Management, Reporting

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has announced the adoption of new rules that will require registrants to disclose material cybersecurity incidents and to make annual reports on information regarding cybersecurity risk management, along with their strategy and governance.
August 08, 2023
AI Merger Software Company Wants Damages For Wrongful Injunction

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A company that developed an artificial intelligence platform designed to analyze mergers and other business pairings told a federal judge in Ohio that having prevailed in a case brought against it by a failed business partner and having been improperly damaged by an injunction, it was entitled to the entire amount of the injunction bond the plaintiff filed.
August 07, 2023
In Blow To Realtime, Panel Says Eligibility Analysis On Remand Was Proper

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Nearly three years after directing a federal judge in Delaware to revisit his finding of ineligibility with regard to five Realtime Data LLC patents, a divided Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has declared the same five patents — plus two new patents —ineligible after all.
August 07, 2023
Data Processing Patent Deemed Indefinite By North Carolina Federal Judge

GREENSBORO, N.C. — A patent owner who demanded that the owner of an e-commerce website pay a $65,000 licensing fee saw its technology declared unpatentable as indefinite on Aug. 4 by a federal judge in North Carolina.
August 04, 2023
ADA Tester Asks High Court To Dismiss Mooted Website Accessibility Suit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Because of her recent voluntary dismissal of the underlying complaint against a hotel chain for its purported failure to comply with website accessibility requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a self-described “tester” tells the U.S. Supreme Court that the case merits dismissal without any need to address the hotel chain’s question on standing in such ADA cases on which the high court granted certiorari.
August 03, 2023
Judge Stays UCL Class Suit Against Cryptocurrency Exchange Pending Arbitration

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on Aug. 2 granted cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Inc.’s motion to stay and compel arbitration of putative class claims accusing it of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other statutes by misrepresenting its platform’s ability to protect funds stored by users in their accounts, finding that the plaintiffs all agreed to arbitrate disputes when they created Coinbase accounts.
August 02, 2023
Orders Related To Proposed Settlement Vacated In Grubhub Faulty Info Class Suit

DENVER — A federal magistrate judge in Colorado issued a minute order vacating orders related to an amended proposed settlement agreement in a class lawsuit by restaurants accusing Grubhub Inc. of deceiving consumers by offering faulty information regarding restaurants that did not partner with it after the parties filed a notice of termination of settlement.
August 01, 2023
Emergency TRO Entered In Trademark, Copyright Row Between Shein, Temu

CHICAGO — A federal judge in Illinois said July 31 that Roadget Business Pte. Ltd., operator of the low-cost fashion and home goods website Shein.com, is likely to succeed on its contributory and vicarious trademark infringement and copyright infringement claims against the operators of the competing website Temu.com.
August 01, 2023
Hotel Chain To High Court: Deny Voluntary Dismissal Of Pending ADA Website Suit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A hotel chain operator asks the U.S. Supreme Court to reject a respondent’s attempt to voluntarily dismiss an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) suit over website accommodation, arguing that the self-described “tester” is pursuing dismissal of the suit, which was granted certiorari, only because her string of similar ADA lawsuits “was recently revealed to have been an unethical extortionate scheme.”
August 01, 2023
Justice Kagan Wants Apple’s Reply To Epic’s Bid To Nix Stay In App Store UCL Row

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Six days after Epic Games Inc. filed an emergency application with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking relief from the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ stay of a mandate that granted Epic an injunction related to its antitrust claim against Apple Inc. under California’s unfair competition law (UCL), Justice Elena Kagan on July 31 requested a response to the application from Apple in the suit over Apple’s purported anti-competitive behavior related to in-app purchases (IAPs) and its App Store.
July 31, 2023
‘Virtually Certain’ Copyright Violations Keep AI Github Claims Alive, Class Says

OAKLAND, Calif. — Anonymous plaintiffs defended California unfair competition law (UCL) and other claims stemming from the alleged use of licensed software posted to the Github repository to train artificial intelligence from a motion to dismiss, saying their allegations were “plausible, highly likely and indeed, virtually certain.”
July 31, 2023
Maine Federal Judge Partly Dismisses Copyright Case Against EBay Inc.

PORTLAND, Maine — An artist whose copyrighted photographs of her children were photoshopped and then used by others selling counterfeit costumes on eBay.com saw her direct and contributory copyright infringement claims against the online marketplace dismissed July 28 by a federal judge in Maine.
July 26, 2023
Unanimous 11th Circuit: Single Illegal Text May Constitute Concrete Injury

ATLANTA — A single telemarketing text sent in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) is sufficient to show concrete injury as it can constitute “intrusion into the peace and quiet in a realm that is private and personal,” an en banc 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled, remanding the matter to the panel to consider the rest of the appeal concerning a class settlement.
July 26, 2023
New Jersey High Court Grants Insurers Leave To Appeal Cyberattack Coverage Dispute

TRENTON, N.J. — The New Jersey Supreme Court granted insurers and reinsurers’ motion for leave to appeal an appeals court’s finding that they failed to demonstrate that a “Hostile/Warlike Action” policy exclusion applied to bar coverage for insureds’ losses arising from a June 2017 malware/cyberattack.
July 26, 2023
Judge Closes Professional Liability Coverage Suit Over Cryptocurrency Cyberattack

MIAMI — One day after a professional liability insurer and a retirement solutions company insured announced that they reached a settlement, a federal judge in Florida administratively closed without prejudice the coverage dispute arising from a cyberattack that stole $36 million in cryptocurrency from the insured’s customers’ individual retirement savings accounts.
July 25, 2023
OpenAI Removes, Wants Dismissal Of ChatGPT Made-Up Lawsuit Defamation Case

ATLANTA — After removing a case, artificial intelligence company OpenAI LLC asked a federal judge in Georgia to dismiss with prejudice the defamation case claiming that ChatGPT created a fake complaint, saying that inaccuracies are inherent in the nature of the program and that its user agreement puts responsibility for final output on the user.
July 25, 2023
Summary Judgment Partially Granted In SEC’s Suit Against Digital Asset Firm

NEW YORK — A federal magistrate judge in New York directed the Securities and Exchange Commission and a digital asset firm accused of offering or selling billions of units of its digital token as securities without registering them to provide “three mutually convenient dates to schedule a settlement conference if they believe it would be productive”; the order came five days after a federal judge determined that the “Institutional Sales . . . constituted the unregistered offer and sale of investment contracts in violation of Section 5 of the Securities Act.”
July 24, 2023
Study Finds Some ChatGPT Abilities Degrading Over Time

ITHACA, N.Y. — ChatGPT’s performance of some tasks has gotten “substantially worse over time,” according to a study by three researchers published at open-access pre-print repository ArXiv on July 18.
July 24, 2023
Zillow Asks 9th Circuit To Rethink Compilation Ruling In Online Photo Use Spat

SEATTLE — One month after a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a lower court’s finding that a statutory damages award against Zillow Group Inc. for its unauthorized use of photos on its website should be calculated on a per-photo basis, the real estate listings platform provider filed a motion for rehearing on July 21, arguing that the infringed photos constituted a single compilation, thus meriting a single damages award.
July 19, 2023
COMMENTARY: International Arbitration Experts Discuss The Impact Of Artificial Intelligence On International Arbitration

[Editor’s Note: Copyright © 2023, LexisNexis. All rights reserved.]
July 21, 2023
OpenAI Removes Case Alleging ChatGPT Defamed Man With Made-Up Lawsuit

ATLANTA — Artificial intelligence company OpenAI LLC removed to a federal court in Georgia a case claiming that its ChatGPT program created a fake complaint and told a reporter that gun-rights radio personality Mark Walters committed financial misconduct, even though Walters has no association with either party or the case.
July 21, 2023
AI Co-Founder Says He Was Duped Into Selling Billions Worth Of Shares For $100

SAN FRANCISCO — The majority shareholder of an artificial intelligence (AI) image company portrayed the business as “essentially worthless,” tricking his partner into selling what would now be a half-billion-dollar stake in the enterprise for $100, the company’s co-founder and former minority shareholder alleges in a complaint in California federal court.
July 20, 2023
Judge Remands Putative Class Suit Against Apple For Restricting Consumer Repairs

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A California federal judge on July 19 remanded to state court a putative class lawsuit accusing Apple Inc. of violating consumer protection laws by restricting consumers’ ability to independently repair their Apple devices after finding that the court lacks jurisdiction over their claims for equitable relief and that refusal to remand the claims could result in “unnecessary parallel litigation.”