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Caught in a Media and Legal Firestorm: The Inevitable Regulation of Facial Recognition Technology
Facial recognition technology continues to experience an onslaught of complications and backlash.
HOW TO USE MEDIA TO SUPPORT YOUR MEDIA (AKA HOW NOT TO GET REPORTED)
Social media influencers need to stay abreast of intellectual property laws so their content does not violate them. This post explores the relevant U.S. legal issues implicated by every video or post creation.
Privacy in the Golden State
Are you a resident of California? Or are you a business owner whose business reaches consumers in California? If your answer to either of these questions is “yes,” then you should familiarize yourself with the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”).
The CRISPR War Drags On: How the Fight to Patent CRISPR-Cas9 Creates Uncertainty in the Biotechnology Sphere
On September 10, 2018, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals (“Federal Circuit”) affirmed the ruling of the United States Patent Trial and Appeals Board (“the Board”) in Regents of the University of California v. Broad Institute, finding that there was no interference-in-fact between competing patents that claimed methods of using CRISPR-Cas9 to modify cellular DNA. Rather than settling the patentability issue, however, exhaustive litigation has continued, as both parties seek to protect the results obtained from costly research.
The Watchers Still Aren’t Being Watched: Body Cameras and the Continued Problems of Police Accountability
The number of people shot and killed by police officers in the past several years is disturbingly consistent: 987 in 2017, 992 in 2018, 1004 in 2019. People of color and those with mental illnesses are disproportionately the victims.
Justice is Blind(ed): The Issue with Proprietary Algorithms in Criminal Investigations
After serving seven years in prison, Lydell Grant was released on bond in November 2019 as a result of exonerating DNA evidence. Grant was convicted of murder in 2012 primarily based on eyewitness testimony, despite the fact that Houston police could not conclude the mixture of DNA found on the victim belonged to Grant.
Three Strikes and You’re Cancelled – What to Do If You Receive a DMCA Takedown Notice
If you are a digital content creator in the US, whether it be through YouTube, Instagram or blogs, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is important to you, as it governs what happens if you post content that may infringe on another person’s copyright.
Patchwork Privacy: The Need for a Uniform Approach to Data Protection
When implemented in 2018, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) represented the most comprehensive privacy and data protection laws to date in the world. Its territorial scope is quite staggering.
Methuselah’s Third Strike: How Advances in Anti-Aging Technology Could Present Novel Challenges to the Criminal Justice System
Anti-aging researchers and their investors are beginning to make bold claims about the future of their field. Bank of America predicted that the market for anti-aging products will grow to $610 billion by 2025, roughly six times what the market is today.
The Rise and Fall of a Patent Boomtown
Plano, Texas used to be home to the third oldest Apple store ever built. This Dallas suburb’s median household income of $92,121 is 55% above the national average. The eventual construction of Apple’s 500 locations worldwide was in some ways a result of its early success in Plano.
The Future of Autonomous Vehicles and the Fourth Amendment
Level 4 autonomous vehicles, vehicles that do not require human interaction in most circumstances, are predicted to be on the road as soon as 2021. Experts believe that as autonomous vehicles grow in popularity and availability, the prevalence of car ownership will dramatically decrease.
SCOTUS Dodges Patent Eligibility Question, Ball is Now in Congress’s Court
What is the line dividing nature and patentable invention in life sciences and biotechnology? On January 13, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to answer this question by denying all pending petitions concerning patent eligibility.
Why the “Right to be Forgotten” Won’t Make it to the United States
In 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) began to govern members of the European Union. The GDPR allows individuals the “right of erasure” — the ability to request erasure of personal data from the Internet. But the European Union’s top court recently stymied the regulation’s effect, ruling that search engine operators are not required to de-reference subjects globally. Thus, the potential spillover effects — i.e., the potential issue of whether a U.S. court ought to enforce a European de-referencing — won’t allow for a cascading privacy right debate to enter American discourse.
Privacy Policies in a World Without Privacy. Is There Such a Thing as a Good Privacy Policy?
Questions surrounding data privacy and what happens to our personal data when companies collect it have risen to the forefront of public discussion more in recent years than ever before.
Trademark Infringement in Virtual Reality Spaces: When Your Virtual World Gets Too Real
Increased development of virtual reality (“VR”) technology brings a host of legal questions surrounding both the intellectual property (“IP”) of the actual technology as well as unlawful activity within the VR space itself.
Cars, Smartphones and Waste: Fighting for the Right to Repair in 2019
Massachusetts is a hot battleground for Right to Repair movements – first for cars, and now for smartphones.
In re Ricardo P. and the Privacy Rights of Probationers: An Incomplete Resolution
Should a probationer be forced to submit to warrantless searches of their electronic devices at any time, including being forced to provide all electronic passwords to a probation officer to allow remote and continuous monitoring?
The Role of Underwriters in a World of Unicorns
What do WeWork, Lyft, and Smile Direct Club have in common? They are “tech companies,” their IPOs underperformed or didn’t happen at all, and they all hired JP Morgan as their underwriter.
Don’t Bury your Bitcoin! Estate Planning for Cryptocurrencies
From the transferability of social media or email accounts to maintaining online accounts linked to a client’s virtual assets, estate planning issues regarding digital assets have existed for some time. But, now that blockchain based assets such as cryptocurrencies are more commonplace, there is an increased need to plan for the disposition of these digital assets. Estate planning for cryptocurrencies raises unique concerns and the blockchain technology behind cryptocurrencies might provide potential solutions.
Is Seeing Still Believing? Deepfakes and Their Future in the Law
While video manipulation has been around since before Tom Hanks was shown meeting with President John F. Kennedy 31 years after his assassination in Forrest Gump, there has been a recent proliferation of a more sinister use of editing technology.
Scam Likely! Time for Phone Companies to Rise and Shine the Light on Robocalls
Do you ever receive an incoming call on your cell phone only to see it’s coming from a “Scam Likely”? Robocalls, or automated phone calls usually for scam or spam purposes, have risen to approximately 85 billion calls worldwide in 2018 according to the Hiya Global Robocall Radar Report.
Who Will Drive Innovation in CBD Products?
Cannabidiol (CBD) has the potential to be big business. Since the descheduling of hemp-derived CBD, large corporations have been exploring how they might capitalize on CBD’s hold on the public’s attention.
REMS Helps A Speedy Launch of CAR-T Cell Therapy
I first learned of CAR-T cell therapy in 2015 while working in an immunology lab. It immediately caught my attention as a brilliant, unconventional cancer treatment: it modifies a patient’s own T cells and enlists them to fight cancer. T cells can recognize non-self antigens presented on a cell’s surface, label those cells exogenous, and eliminate them. Scientists have developed CAR-T cell therapy by utilizing these unique characteristics of T cells.
Physical Touch in a Virtual World
Virtual reality is more lifelike than ever before — not only can users see and hear the virtual world, but they can now feel and smell it too. Two major industries embracing this technology are gaming and mental health treatment.
Posts on the MTLR Blog are editorial opinion pieces written by student-editors of the Michigan Technology Law Review. The opinions expressed in these editorial posts are not espoused or endorsed by the University of Michigan or its Law School. To view scholarly Articles and Notes published by the Michigan Technology Law Review, please visit the MTLR home page.