In late March, The United States Supreme Court ordered the U.S Court of Appeal for the Federal Circuit to reconsider Myriad Genetics’ existing patent on two genes associated with a high risk of breast and ovarian cancer, in light of the judgement rendered in Mayo Collaborative Services v Prometheus Labs (Prometheus). A unanimous Supreme Court […]
In the past few years, policymakers, academic commentators, consumer advocates, civil liberties groups, and user communities have expressed grave concerns about the steadily increasing levels of enforcement of intellectual property rights. Many of these concerns relate to the “alphabet soup” of transborder intellectual property enforcement, which consists of the following: SECURE (Standards to Be Employed […]
On May 10th, 2012 Dish network (hereafter “DISH”) announced that it would be adding a new feature named “AutoHop” to their digital video recorder (the Hopper). The feature would allow viewers to automatically skip over advertisements in the shows that they record. Large TV networks such as Fox, CBS and NBC have called the feature […]
Life in a Glass House, ABC’s forthcoming reality show that is noticeably reminiscent of CBS’ Big Brother, is poised to air in a number of weeks, irrespective of the vigorous legal efforts on the behalf of CBS to suppress its release.
In 2007, Pepsico (“Pepsi”), makers of its namesake fizzy drink did their competitors, The Coca Cola Company (“Coke”) a good turn, by turning in two Coke employees who tried to sell its secret recipe to Pepsi. This decision on Pepsi’s part can be read as a mixture of sound business acumen, legal sense and some […]
In an effort to draw a line in the sand in the smartphone market, an “innocent bystander” has been caught in the legal crossfire. Following a successful sales ban of the Xbox 360 in Germany, Motorola set its sights on the gaming console’s home turf, and currently, things are not looking good for Microsoft in […]
On February 28th 2012, the Navajo Nation filed a lawsuit against Urban Outfitters Inc. and its subsidiaries in the District Court of New Mexico for ‘trademark infringement, trademark dilution, unfair competition and commercial practice laws violation and for the violation of The Indian Arts and Crafts Act’. The basis of the Navajo Nation's complaint was […]
At the heart of the Rosetta Stone v Google lawsuit is whether the sale of trademarks as search keywords for sponsored links makes Google liable for trademark infringement. Recently, the United States Court of Appeal for the Fourth Circuit in Rosetta Stone Ltd v Google, Inc reversed a significant portion of a Virginia district court decision […]
Free online access to tax-funded scientific research is the most recent movement by American open-access advocate group Access2Research. The group calls for a policy similar to the one currently implemented by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). New scientific papers, which were funded by the NIH, are deposited in the online databank PubMED within a […]
This April, the United States Court of Appeals ruled that Sergey Aleynikov, former Goldman Sachs software developer-turned convicted thief and spy, was wrongly charged and convicted of theft and espionage under the rationale that software code is not physical property and thereby not subject to theft. This ruling sparks the debate about whether criminal courts […]