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

Mealey's Cyber Tech & E-Commerce

June 09, 2023
9th Circuit Finds Zillow Infringed 2,700 Individual Photos, Not Compilation

SEATTLE — Affirming a trial court’s ruling, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found that Zillow Group Inc.’s unauthorized online use of real estate photos constituted 2,700 separate acts of infringement, rather than infringement of a single compilation of photos.
June 09, 2023
3rd Circuit Asks SEC If It Decided Coinbase’s Rulemaking Petition

PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission if it has decided to deny a petition by cryptocurrency trader Coinbase Inc. for rulemaking on whether its products are regulated, when it will do so and why the court should not retain jurisdiction to rule on Coinbase’s petition for a writ of mandamus.
June 09, 2023
Google, Lyrics Website Spar Over ‘Atypical’ Contract Claim In High Court Briefs

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a supplemental brief further supporting its opposition to a petition for certiorari by a song lyrics website operator, Google LLC tells the U.S. Supreme Court that questions about the enforceability of the website’s terms of service (TOS) bolster the U.S. government’s position that the case presents a poor a vehicle for the court to decide whether the petitioner’s “atypical” contractual claims are preempted by federal copyright law.
June 09, 2023
Panel Sends Fee Award For Copyright Class Counsel Back To Trial Court

SAN FRANCISCO — A $1.7 million award of attorney fees to counsel for a class of copyright holders was unreasonable where their action against a music streaming service recovered just over $50,000 for the class members, according to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
June 09, 2023
SEC Seeks To Repatriate, Freeze Assets Of Crypto Business Pending Suit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) to freeze the assets of a what the agency calls an illegal cryptocurrency business pending resolution of the SEC’s complaint.
June 08, 2023
ICSID Denies Sweden’s Request To Bifurcate Huawei’s 5G Ban Claim

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) tribunal denied the Kingdom of Sweden’s request to bifurcate an arbitral claim brought against it by a Chinese telecommunications company for banning the company from selling 5G technology and ordering its existing equipment removed from Swedish infrastructure, finding that Sweden’s objections are intertwined with the merits of the dispute.
June 08, 2023
ChatGPT’s Use In Brief Stemmed From Misunderstanding, Lawyer And Firm Say

NEW YORK — Counsel’s reliance on ChatGPT stemmed from a “fundamental misunderstanding” and at most demonstrates poor judgment, not bad faith or an intent to deceive the court, a lawyer and his law firm tell a federal judge in New York, responding to an order to show why sanctions shouldn’t be imposed.
June 08, 2023
Georgia Man Claims ChatGPT Made Up Lawsuit Details, Defamed Him

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — Artificial intelligence ChatGPT told a reporter that a lawsuit involved allegations that Mark Walters committed financial misconduct — going so far as to produce a fabricated complaint — even though Walters wasn’t employed by the company in question and isn’t involved in the case, Walters says in a state court complaint seeking damages from the program’s parent, OpenAI LLC.
June 07, 2023
Video Game Company To 2nd Circuit: Stockholder Failed To Plead Loss Causation

NEW YORK — A former stockholder and former owner of American Depository Shares (ADS) who accused a video game company in a putative class complaint of committing securities fraud when taking the company private failed to sufficiently plead loss causation, the company argues in an appellee brief filed in the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
June 06, 2023
Parties Brief Dismissal In AI Lending Platform Securities Class Action

CINCINNATI — Optimistic statements about how an artificial intelligence lending platform would perform cannot form the basis of a securities class action, and the class never shows that the alleged misrepresentations were false, let alone false when they were made, defendants argue in a pair of reply briefs in support of motions to dismiss filed in an Ohio federal court.
June 06, 2023
Lawyer Cites ChatGPT Responses In Declaration Supporting Attorney Fees

NEW YORK — An attorney in a federal court in New York supported his claim for fees by citing a conversation he had with artificial intelligence ChatGPT, saying in part that it was important to know what consumers with access to the technology would expect to pay.
June 06, 2023
Meta Again Wins Dismissal Of Copyright, Lanham Act, DMCA Putative Class Action

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California granted a motion to dismiss a photographer’s amended class complaint against Meta Inc. alleging claims of copyright infringement and violation of the Lanham and Digital Millennium Copyright acts, this time without leave to amend, finding that the claims “fare no better” under the plaintiff’s new theories related to “a convoluted combination of the ‘check-in’ and ‘prefetching’ functionalities on Facebook.”
June 06, 2023
Amended Settlement In Grubhub Faulty Info Class Suit Preliminarily Approved

DENVER — A federal judge in Colorado granted preliminary approval to a class settlement providing injunctive relief in a lawsuit accusing Grubhub Inc. of deceiving consumers by offering faulty information regarding restaurants that did not partner with it after the parties amended the agreement to state that claims for disgorgement of profits under the Lanham Act were not released.
June 06, 2023
9th Circuit Again Revives Antivirus Firm’s False Advertising Suit Against Rival

PORTLAND, Ore. — For the second time, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals overturned the dismissal of an antivirus software company’s Lanham Act claim against a competitor, finding the defendant’s labels of “malicious” and “threats” for the plaintiff’s products to be statements of objective fact that could potentially support a false advertising claim, rather than “non-actionable statements of opinion,” as a trial court held.
June 06, 2023
Judge: Lawyers Must Certify Whether They Used AI, Checked Its Accuracy

DALLAS — Lawyers must either certify that ChatGPT and other similar generative artificial intelligence played no role in the creation of a filing or that any language drafted by such programs was checked for accuracy against print reporters or traditional legal databases, a federal judge in Texas said.
June 05, 2023
German Entity Defaulted In Trademark, Award Fight With Twitch, Magistrate Says

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A California federal magistrate judge recommended that a district judge grant a video-game streaming service’s motion for default judgment confirming a more than $1.5 million arbitral award against a German competitor that has not appeared in court and recommended denying a motion for leave to file an amicus curiae brief filed by German parties that claim that they own the rights to the award-debtor’s domain name.
June 02, 2023
Magistrate Quotes ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ In Setting AI Court Rules

CHICAGO — Any party relying on artificial intelligence for a filing must inform the court of the use and the specific tool used for research or writing, a federal magistrate judge in Illinois said in a new standing order.
June 02, 2023
Industry Orgs Back Music Publishers In High Court Direct Copyright Liability Row

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The day after the Motion Picture Association Inc. (MPA) filed an amicus curiae brief supporting a petition for certiorari by a group of music publishers, a coalition of three music industry associations teamed up on another amicus brief, urging the U.S. Supreme Court to clarify whether direct copyright liability rests solely on the individual that “presses the button” to make infringing copies of a copyrighted work or also on the party who directs or authorizes such infringing activity.
June 01, 2023
DOJ: Lyrics Website’s Copyright Claims Preempted; Certiorari Should Be Denied

WASHINGTON, D.C. — State law contractual claims brought by a song lyrics website operator against Google LLC are indistinguishable from federal copyright infringement claims and are, therefore, precluded by Section 301(a) of the Copyright Act, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) argues in an amicus curiae brief in which it recommends that the U.S. Supreme Court deny the company’s petition for certiorari in which it seeks clarification on application of the statute.
May 22, 2023
COMMENTARY: Intellectual Property Legal Issues Impacting Artificial Intelligence

By Edward D. Lanquist and Dominic Rota
May 31, 2023
Vietnamese App Maker Denied Certiorari For Website Jurisdiction Issue

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Vietnamese music app creator will have to face copyright infringement claims brought against it by a music distributor because the U.S. Supreme Court denied the company’s petition for certiorari in its May 30 order list, declining to weigh in on a question of when a website can confer jurisdiction over a foreign party.
May 30, 2023
Judge Threatens Sanctions After ChatGPT-Produced Brief Cites Fake Cases

NEW YORK — An attorney and his law firm must appear at a June hearing to show why they should not be sanctioned for submitting an opposition brief with fake cites created through the use of artificial intelligence software ChatGPT, a federal judge in New York said May 26.
May 30, 2023
Judge Denies Certified Question, Says Parties Must Unwind AI Merger Software Sale

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A company may rescind the sale of artificial intelligence software that analyzes mergers, acquisitions and other investments after prevailing on a fraudulent inducement claim, a federal judge in Ohio said after declining to certify a question to the Ohio Supreme Court.
May 30, 2023
High Court Declines CDA Immunity Question In Reddit Sex-Trafficking Suit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Less than two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari in a lawsuit over immunity under the Communications Decency Act (CDA) for online platforms in the context of terror-aiding claims, the high court in its May 30 order list denied certiorari in another CDA immunity suit, this one pertaining to sex-trafficking claims against Reddit Inc. centering on over the child sexual exploitation material (CSEM) posted on its platform by third parties.
May 30, 2023
Court Grants Final Approval To $50M Settlement In MacBook Keyboards Class Action

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A California federal judge granted final approval to a $50 million settlement to resolve claims that Apple Inc. violated California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and consumer protection laws in several other states by selling MacBooks with allegedly defective keyboards, without Apple being required to admit liability.