Blog
Business Method Patents after Bilski v Kappos
The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC), on October 30, 2008, decided In re Bilski (545 F.3d 943), which had serious implications for the future of business method patents. The eleven members of that court found that a method of hedging risk...
National Trademark DNS Servers
Much has been written about the enforcement of trademarks in cyberspace. The rationale behind trademarks is to allow companies to protect their identifiable brand names and goodwill developed through investing in service, quality, etc. Traditionally the geographic...
Trademark Infringement in Google AdWords
Google AdWords is a juggernaut of online advertising, generating huge amounts of revenue for both Google and for AdWords account holders. It has revolutionized the way advertisers and consumers connect with each other online—and lately, it has also strained the...
FCC and the Internet: Edit->Undo?
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals recently held that the FCC was not authorized to prohibit Comcast from interfering with P2P networking applications, erecting what appears to be a large roadblock on the FCC's path to net neutrality. The court held that the FCC's...
Copyright and Religion
If Jesus told you to sue for copyright infringement to protect the purity of your religion, would you? At least one person has answered “yes.” If someone stole your “secret” religious text and criticized it on the internet, would you sue them for copyright...
Victims of the Justice System are Still Victims — Errors in Forensic Testing Must be Corrected
In May 2008, Walter Swift was exonerated after serving 26 years in prison for a rape he did not commit. Mr. Swift’s case, like many where an innocent person is convicted, didn’t have just a single error. One problem was with the identification that not even the...
State and Federal Robocall Laws
My note, Regulating Robocalls: Are Automated Calls the Sound of, or a Threat to, Democracy? discusses the federal and state laws that limit the use of automated political phone calls. Robocalls are a popular campaign tool because of how cheap they are, with vendors...
The Performance Rights Act — The Future of Radio?
Ask the average American how much an artist receives when his or her music is played on the radio, and most will suggest that the musicians earn a penny or two per play. And if we're talking about online radio, they would be right. But in the context of terrestrial...
Microsoft Proposes Cloud Computing Regulation
Microsoft’s long awaited cloud computing platform, Azure, opened for business this week. Now available in 21 countries, the platform comes with a flexible and transparent payment schedule. This might not sound as nifty as the iPad, but startups with small budgets...
UPDATE: MarriageTrial.com Creates YouTube Re-enactment of Proposition 8 Trial
I posted a few weeks ago about the Supreme Court's decision to temporarily stay YouTube streaming in the Proposition 8 trial. As expected, the Supreme Court later extended its temporary stay into a permanent block of the proposed stream. The Northern District of...
President Obama Bets Big on Solar Energy
From a technical/efficiency standpoint, it’s hard to imagine solar energy not becoming a significant contributor to our national grid. Unlike conventional energy sources, photovoltaic cells contain no moving parts, produce minimal waste heat, and have no...
Supreme Court Temporarily Stays YouTube Streaming of Proposition 8 Case
In May 2008, the California Supreme Court held that the Equal Protection Clause of the California Constitution required same-sex marriages be recognized. However, the voters passed Proposition 8 just a few months later, redefining marriage as only between a man and...
Heading toward a pathway for biosimilars
On December 24, 2009, the Senate passed a landmark health care reform bill. Included within the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act, which contains provisions for the regulation of cheaper versions of...
Texas DA uses Twitter to scrooge with people arrested for a DWI
PC World wrote a story that people arrested for DWI during holidays in Montgomery County, Texas will have their names put up on Twitter by the local district attorney. So far Brett Ligon's tweets haven't included any names although there sure is a lot of information...
CPSIA – Building a Castle to Protect from the Rain
It’s been seventeen years since I tore the wrapping paper off my G.I. Joe Battle Wagon. I believe I ended its electronic-missile-firing life a few months later with a poorly thought out tour through the bathtub. But nearly a score later, it’s not so certain that the...
Butt of a Joke? The North Face v. The South Butt: Accounting for Viral Media When Suing the “Little Guy”
Owners of famous trademarks are often faced with making the difficult decision that arises when their mark becomes the subject of a parody. Spend a lot of money in court with the goal of obtaining an injunction to stop the potentially infringing use, or do nothing...
1,200 TV Stations Sue BMI Over Music License Fees
The topic of music royalties has come up time and again in 2009, from the introduction of the Performance Rights Act, currently making its way through Congress, to various digital performance royalty rate disputes, from Internet broadcasts to satellite radio. To end...
Stud or Dud: How much should your date know?
It is a fair guess that just about anyone uses the Internet regularly has run some kind of search on themselves, a future employer, their co-workers, etc. Reviewing a Facebook profile or Googling a name are two common techniques. Capitalizing on this sleuthing,...
Sexting at Work: Right to Privacy?
The Supreme Court granted certiorari to City of Ontario v. Quon on December 14, 2009 (No. 08-1332). Quon was a SWAT member who had sent and received text messages on his work-issued pager. While the city's written policy was that employees should have no expectation...
Protecting Traditional Medicines from Biopiracy
As biotechnology continues to expand the boundaries of medical treatment, it is important to protect the traditional medicines used and developed over hundreds of years by communities around the world. To that end, the Indian and U.S. government have recently taken...
Court Dismisses AT&T’s Trademark Claim Against Verizon
When AT&T sued Verizon Wireless for its "There's A Map for That" advertising campaign, AT&T could have brought a dilution claim against Verizon's use of the slogan, "There's a map for that," which is very similar to AT&T's slogan, "There's an app for...
New Legislation Targets Unsolicited Text Message Ads
New Jersey senators Joseph Vitale and Sean Kean have proposed legislation that would impose heavy fines on entities that sent unsolicited text message advertisements. Though the Telephone Consumer Protection Act was enacted prior to the advent of text messaging, such...
FCC re-examines cableCARD as part of the national broadband plan
Most people don't think of TV when the subject of broadband internet comes up. That may change if the FCC gets its way. The commission is currently reviewing some of its TV policies as part of its National Broadband Plan to encourage nationwide adoption. Last...
Cloud Computing: Risks and Regulation
Cloud computing, though its definition can be expressed in a more detailed manner, is basically the next generation of IT systems organization, where data and applications are centrally accessible through individual portals such as laptops or desktops. Many popular...
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.