Facebook's $20 Million Privacy Settlement Clears Appeals Court
January 31, 2016
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Jan. 6 upheld a $20 million class action settlement that resolved privacy claims against Facebook Inc. over a feature that posted users names and images along with advertising promotions.
Mobile App Developer Agreements
January 31, 2016
Many companies that have had disputes with developers have been surprised to discover that the agreements signed, often without input from legal, failed to hold developers to measurable standards, give the company ongoing interest in deliverables, or provide meaningful remedies to problems that arise.
Into the Dark: Patent Trend Post America Invents Act and <i>Alice</i>
January 31, 2016
Ah, the good old days. When the America Invents Act was being pushed through Congress in 2011, proponents of the proposed changes expounded on the virtues of a system that mirrored the patent practices of the majority of the industrialized world. But the unforeseen consequences of both the AIA and the seminal 2014 Supreme Court decision in <i>Alice v. CLS Bank</i> have created a hostile environment for patent portfolios, which has negative implications for investment in innovation and startups.
<b><i>Online Extra:</b></i> The Anti-Social Network
January 26, 2016
In 2011, a 23-year-old student of data privacy law wondered how private his data was. Max ?Schrems of the University of Vienna asked Facebook for everything they had on him. Schrems sent two emails and got no response. A letter. No response. A phone call. No response. Then, as his lawyer, Wolfram Proksch of PFR in Austria, tells the story, ?Schrems received a mystery package in the mail with the data he had requested, perhaps from a secret privacy sympathizer at Facebook.
