' Blog | MTLR

Blog

Give Me A Break [From Litigation]

Litigation and trademark registration decisions throughout the world are now struggling with an important question: should Nestlé be permitted to have a trademark in their Kit Kat candy bar shape? It seems that the answer varies by country. Recently, Nestlé has become...

Is Netflix Safe?

Just as Frank Underwood turns to you to share his secret plan to become president of the United States, a buffering signal pops up on your computer. 2% then 23% then 68% then 2% all over again. All you want to do is finish this one episode so you can go back to work...

“Dumb Starbucks” and The Parody Defense

In February, the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, CA found itself at the center of national media attention when a new local business by the name of “Dumb Starbucks Coffee” opened its doors to the public. Patrons waited in line for hours  to purchase a cup of...

Smart Licensing Lifts Lego to the Top of the Toy World

So when exactly did the brightly colored building blocks we played with as kids transform into a wildly successful multimedia entertainment platform? On February 7, the Lego Movie stormed theaters and notched one of the top opening weekends ever for a non-sequel...

Oops–fraudulent data behind recent patent grant

Patent-seeking inventors may spend countless hours perfecting that grand idea that sparked its way into their brains while returning from a hunting trip--in the case of that useful adhesive we know as velcro--or while watching a cat pull feathers through a cage--as in...

“Deleting” Memories

At a mere three pounds, the brain is the most complex organ in the human body. It contains 100 billion neurons and is capable of storing roughly 2.5 petabytes of data. This functionality is mind boggling--as is the fact that despite all this capacity, I can’t even...

Update on Bitcoin Regulation

Since the last post on a proposal for Bitcoin regulation, another 300,000 Bitcoins were mined, [1] the Alibaba Group banned the use of Bitcoin on its e-commerce sites, [2] and the U.S. Department of Justice charged the vice-chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation in a...

Google And Samsung Announce Long-Term Cross-Licensing Deal

Google and Samsung have announced a substantial and long-term cross-licensing agreement. This agreement will allow the companies to use each other’s existing patents, and any new patents filed, for the next 10 years. [1] Cross-licensing is a contract between two...

Harnessing Deeper Relationships in South Korea

Korea has opened its legal market to foreign law firms under Free Trade Agreements about one and a half years ago.  According to the Ministry of Justice, 16 foreign firms have opened shop and are currently operating in South Korea: • 13 US-based firms: Cleary Gottlieb...

A Proposal for Bitcoin Regulation

Bitcoin, the creation of Satoshi Nakamoto, an anonymous person or group, is commonly touted as the “world’s first decentralized digital currency”. Since its launch in 2009, users around the world have “mined” just over 12 million Bitcoins, leaving about 9 million to...

The Bad People Behind Good Crime Lab Evidence

It's often said that it’s better for a guilty person to go free than for the innocent to be wrongfully convicted. Recently, the state of Massachusetts released over 300 criminal defendants from prison and hundreds have had their charges dismissed amid a crime lab...

Should You Be Afraid of the Kinect?

Last month Microsoft released its newest console, the Xbox One. As part of its basic package the Xbox One includes a separate, yet required, add-on called the Kinect. The Kinect is a combination of a microphone, a camera, and a plethora of other sensors. The Kinect...

Google and Microsoft Crackdown on Child Pornography

On November 18, 2013, Google announced its plans to crack down on child pornography on its search engine. In addition to removing over 100,000 search results, Google will post warning signs about potentially unlawful content, links to child pornography abuse...

“Hacktivist” criminal conviction reignites debate about CFAA

On November 15, 2013, self-described “hacktivist” Jeremey Hammond was sentenced to ten years in federal prison for obtaining and publishing confidential information from private defense firm Strategic Forecasting (Stratfor). [1] At the urging of the U.S. Department of...

Patent Litigation Integrity Act – Raising The Stakes

Patent trolls had an especially scary Halloween this year as Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) introduced Senate Bill 1612 – the Patent Litigation Integrity Act. The short and succinct bill has one purpose – “To deter abusive patent litigation by targeting the economic...

Google One Step Closer To World Domination, Seriously

In yet another unfortunate turn of events in the Authors Guild’s fight to enforce their interpretation of copyright law, the United States District Court in Manhattan ruled in favor of Google in Authors Guild v. Google, Inc. The court held that by digitizing books and...

How Would You Like Your Cable Served?

Are you counting down the days till the Michigan-OSU football game? What about the thrilling Houston Rockets-Dallas Mavericks game on ESPN’s Wednesday night NBA broadcast? Or for those of you who are more drama inclined, what about the latest episode of Rizzoli &...

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.