Legal Solutions  Blog

There is a fight underway for control over the Amazon.  It is not, however, a battle among nations.  Instead, it is a conflict over the right to own one of the new Internet generic top-level domains (gTLDs), “.amazon”.  The outcome of this dispute is likely to have an important impact on the future of trademark and [...]

Government privacy authorities in several European countries, led by France, are on the verge of launching a major enforcement action against Google’s information privacy policies and practices.  The authorities allege that Google’s process for handling personal information of users violates the European Union’s information privacy regulations. Of particular concern to European regulators is Google’s policy of [...]

One of the more popular uses for cloud computer networks and their community of shared computing resources is the provision of access to useful software.  In the past, software was purchased and installed on each user’s computer.  Today, software is frequently obtained through shared access, often described as “software as a service” (SaaS). Like businesses in [...]

There is an uneasy relationship between trademark owners and online search engines.  Court cases over the years have established basic principles for permissible use of trademarks in online searches.  Recently, the federal district court in the Central District of California added to those principles in the case of, Multi Time Machine, Inc. v. Amazon (Case No. CV [...]

It is likely that many legal professionals give little thought to the challenge that metadata present to information security and privacy.  A number of bar organizations have, however, begun to examine this issue.  To comply fully with their ethical responsibilities, legal professionals should begin to familiarize themselves with the issues associated with metadata management. Metadata are [...]

Security of information stored, shared, and processed using computing and communications technology is a critical requirement for legal professionals.  Encryption technology provides a fundamental content security tool for the legal community.  Several forms of encryption are particularly significant when confidential client materials are involved, and legal professionals should have a working knowledge of all of them. E-Mail [...]

Like businesses in virtually all other fields, legal service providers now routinely use cloud computing services provided by outside vendors.  This form of outsourcing of critical information technology services has significant legal ethics implications.  State bar organizations in several states have begun to address this issue, and fairly clear compliance standards for legal professionals are emerging. [...]

Litigation around the world underscores the substantial economic value of patents and other forms of intellectual property on a virtually daily basis.  A few months ago, Apple, Inc. won an award in excess of one billion dollars against Samsung Electronics Company.  Now, Carnegie Mellon University has won a judgment of approximately $1.17 billion against microchip manufacturing company, [...]

An Italian court of appeals in Milan recently overturned the conviction of three Google executives who were prosecuted based on online content deemed to be in violation of Italian law.  In a case with notable implications for online commerce, the court determined that the Americans were not liable for user-generated content which had been uploaded on the [...]

Effective November 29, 2012, all software applications developers who make their apps available in California must comply with new privacy requirements.   Specifically, apps developers must provide notice to users describing all personally identifiable information collected, processed, or distributed by their apps.  Failure to provide such notice can result in a $2,500 fine for each download of [...]

What constitutes an act of war in the digital age?   TheUnited States government is currently engaged in high-level discussion and debate on this issue.  The goal is identification of basic criteria for use in defining cyberwarfare. The definition of an act of war in the physical environment is flexible and highly dependent on specific circumstances.  Traditionally, [...]

Judge Harold Baer’s recent decision in the Authors Guild v. HathiTrust Digital Library case has an important impact on copyright in the digital environment.   By applying the fair use doctrine to a potentially wide range of electronic applications for copyright protected material, this case paves the way for Google’s ambitious Digital Library plans, and for other future [...]

Copyright law enforces a set of rights associated with original works of authorship.  Traditionally, the authors of those works were human beings.  Today, an increasing amount of that work has been created by computers.  This evolution raises interesting questions regarding what constitutes creativity, and how the law should treat works created by non-human authors. Companies such as [...]

Printers today have capabilities far beyond those of their predecessors.   For a bit more than $1,000, consumers and businesses can purchase printers that quickly and easily generate plastic objects.  Previous generations of printers could only produce two-dimensional content such as text and images. No such constraint exists today.  These printers enable users to create three dimensional replicas [...]

Recent media reports, based on declassified United States Air Force documents, depict a war between the United States government and online watchdog organization, WikiLeaks, and its supporters.   By classifying WikiLeaks, its leader Julian Assange, and the people associated with it as enemies of the United States, that war is literal, not merely figurative.  The declaration of [...]

The muti-year legal struggles of an unidentified Frenchman from the Breton region underscore many of the issues and challenges associated with computer security.   Prosecuted as malicious hacker, a French court ultimately concluded that he was, instead, merely unlucky. His story provides a cautionary tale for the cyber-age. In 2008, the man in question was unemployed and trying [...]

A high stakes legal and lobbying effort is currently underway attempting to distinguish poker from other forms of gambling.   If successful, the effort could result in legalization of online poker in the United States.  Lifting the U.S. legal barriers to online poker could provide a windfall of billions of dollars to a range of online gaming [...]

The current framework of rules designed to protect the privacy of children online was established under the Children’s Online Privacy Act of 1998 (COPPA).   The regulations established by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) under COPPA are currently being revised.  Until September 24, 2012, the FTC is accepting public comments regarding changes it proposes to the COPPA [...]

A growing number of companies now make active use of “crowdsourcing” when undertaking projects that can be efficiently accomplished by assigning many small tasks to a great number of people.   Those companies have determined that crowdsourcing provides the most economically efficient method to accomplish certain tasks.  Critics argue, however, that crowdsourcing can create “digital sweatshops” in [...]

Patent lawsuits rarely attract much attention.  The case involving Apple and Samsung in federal court in the Northern District of California is a significant exception.  When the jury in that case awarded Apple more than $1 billion in damages late last week, the news spread rapidly around the world. At issue in the case were allegations of [...]