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...
As Patent Litigation Reaches “DEFCON 1,” Tech Companies Look for Alternatives
Non-practicing entities (NPEs) are nothing new in the world of patent litigation, but this past October, NPE litigation reached a new level when the Rockstar Consortium filed an infringement suit in the Eastern District of Texas. Rockstar Consortium (not to be...
Coalition for Patent Fairness Attempts to Curb Inefficient Patent Litigation
On February 5, 2014, Google and Cisco announced a long-term cross-licensing deal. The agreement permits either company to utilize the other company's patent portfolio. That day, Cisco also agreed to a similar cross-licensing agreement with Samsung. Last week, Google...
Free Taxi to Rick’s? The Exciting Future of Google’s Automated Cars.
In January, the Google patent machine churned out this latest patent entitled “transportation-aware physical advertising conversions.” The patent describes a method of weighing the profit an advertiser could expect to make from a potential customer, the likelihood of...
International Project Finance: Information & Communications Technology to Create Social and Environmental Accountability
Project finance is a method of nonrecourse financing that “is not primarily dependent on the credit support of the [project] sponsors or the value of the physical assets involved,” but rather depends upon the expected “performance of the project itself.” [1] This...
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...
Tribal Lending Poses Online Obstacle to Effective Payday Regulation
Recent class action lawsuits and state regulators are confronting head-on the tribal payday lending business model. [1] Tribal lenders are companies that originate small dollar (payday) loans online from servers located within Indian Country, permitting them to...
“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...
Judge has ruled in landmark copyright case: Google Books is here to stay
If you are anything like the average college student, you have probably scrambled for a book desperately needed for a research project in the last few days before said project is due. The most common fix to this problem is a technique perfected over the last decade –...
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 &...
San Diego Pilots Facial Recognition Technology for Law Enforcement Officials
Earlier this year, 133 Galaxy tablets and smartphones were distributed to 25 law enforcement agencies in the San Diego region as part of a pilot program. Their purpose: to allow San Diego law enforcement officials to make use of mobile facial recognition technology in...
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.