Status Anxiety

The New York Times reported Wednesday that a man arrested in connection with a robbery got the charges against him dropped by proving that a status updated was posted to his Facebook account at the time. Rodney Bradford, 19,  hired a criminal defense attorney who...

False Hope?

One of the most prominent copyright/fair use cases over the last year has been artist Shepard Fairey’s dispute with the Associated Press (AP) over his famous poster of now-President Obama during the 2008 Presidential Campaign. The poster, which featured a...

Facebook Sued for Violating Social Networking Patent

The patent in question was filed by WhoGlue on May 9, 2002 and granted on July 17, 2007.  The patent very broadly covers “an information management system, method and computer program code and means for facilitating communications between user members of an...

The Bilski Effect: Not Just Business Methods

In Diamond v. Diehr, the Supreme Court held that a process claim is not patent-eligible under 35 U.S.C. § 101 if the claim preempts a “fundamental principle,” such as a law of nature, a natural phenomenon, or an abstract idea.  On the other hand, a claim is...

Gawronski v. Amazon Update

The New York Times reported today that Amazon has changed its mind yet again about deleting Kindle copies of Orwell works, due to it lacking the rights to them. Amazon is now offering affected customers a free upload of a different, legally authorized...