Is Edward Snowden a Whistleblower?
Vague Definitions in CISPA Raise Concerns of SOPA 2.0
Social media giant TikTok has been sued by the United States for allegedly collecting data on children under thirteen illegally. The suit claims the app, which is owned by China-based parent company ByteDance, allowed...more
A federal district court in California has declared that an Australian injunction censoring an American advocacy organization—Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)—is repugnant to U.S. law and public policy and is, therefore,...more
In Personal Audio, LLC. v. Electronic Frontier Foundation, No. 2016-1123 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 7, 2017), the Federal Circuit reviewed a Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) decision invalidating claims of U.S. Patent No....more
The Federal Circuit determined that Article III standing was not necessary for an appellee to participate in a judicial appeal of an IPR final written decision because the appellant had Article III standing in Personal Audio,...more
The textbook policy rationale for the existence of a patent system is a quid-pro-quo -- a tradeoff in which an inventor is granted a time-limited property right over his or her invention in return for disclosing it to the...more
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (“EFF”) and the American Civil Liberties Union (“ACLU”) have weighed in on Facebook’s high-profile dispute with a social media aggregation company over whether it had unlawfully accessed...more
Even though Microsoft is a U.S. corporation subject to domestic subpoenas and warrants, prosecutors are not entitled to emails stored on its servers abroad, the Second Circuit ruled last week in Microsoft Corp. v. United...more
When we last left our story, Jedi combatants Apple and Samsung were circling the Supreme Court imploring it to review their dispute involving design patents—an area of the law that the Court has not touched in over a century....more
Earlier this week Apple CEO Tim Cook announced to Apple customers that the company would oppose a federal court order (the “Order”) issued on February 16, 2016 that the company believes “threatens the security of our...more
A group of sixty prominent civil liberties organizations sent a joint letter to the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) on January 20, urging Chairman Tom Wheeler to propose new privacy rules governing broadband...more
In a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) made public on January 20, 2016, sixty civil liberties organizations, including the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, called on the FCC to use its...more
Admittedly, only on its Op-Ed page. But last Saturday Joe Nocera wrote a remarkably sane and reasoned column, entitled "The Patent Troll Smokescreen," pointing out that "big companies with large lobbying budgets" are using...more
Monday, the Ninth Circuit issued an opinion in the heavily followed “dancing baby case,” holding that copyright owners must consider an alleged infringer’s defense of fair use before sending a notice under the Digital...more
Pending before the 9th Circuit is a case which may change the landscape for online copyright protection. The case, Lenz v. Universal, may make it more difficult for copyright owners to protect against infringement in today’s...more
As we have reported over the past couple of weeks, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in two cases involving the attorney fees provision of 35 U.S.C. § 285 on Wednesday, February 26. That statute provides that a "court in...more
In May of this year, the NPR podcast "Planet Money" released an episode entitled "When Patents Hit the Podcast." At that time, we reported on this podcast, and the misconceptions of the patent system that the show...more
The mainstream media continues its attack on the patent system. This problem has become significant, because the average American does not appear to understand the purpose (and benefits) of the patent system. With all of...more
Recent revelations regarding surveillance activities by the U.S. Government have raised many questions regarding the balance between privacy and security. There have already been, and there will continue to be, Congressional...more