By: Audrey Millemann and Etan Zaitsu
The federal Stored Communications Act (SCA) of 1986 was established in an attempt to give Fourth Amendment-type privacy protections to people for their Internet communications. In other words, Congress sought to protect people’s Internet privacy from warrantless intrusion.
Continue Reading Social Networking Websites – Just How Private Are they?
By: Jeffrey Pietsch and Etan Zaitsu, second year law student at McGeorge School of Law
Thinking of running a smear campaign against a business competitor? Thinking of posting disparaging content about someone anonymously online? Think again. According to a decision made by the Ninth Circuit on July 12, 2010, anonymous online postings may not qualify as protected speech under the First Amendment.
Continue Reading Anonymous Online Video and Blog Posters Beware
Farzad and Lisa Tabari are auto brokers specializing in matching customers with new Lexus automobiles through authorized Lexus dealers. They used two Internet domain names to market their business – buy-a-lexus.com and buyorleaselexus.com. Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. (“Toyota”), the exclusive distributor of new Lexus vehicles, objected to the Tabari’s use of their trademark “Lexus” in the domain names, and sued for infringement. The district court found infringement after a bench trial, and granted Toyota’s request for an injunction. Specifically, it enjoined the Tabari’s use of the Lexus mark in any domain names. The Tabaris appealed to the Ninth Circuit, which agreed with the Tabaris and reversed. Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., Inc. v. Tabari (9th Cir. July 8, 2010).
The Supreme Court recently decided a key case addressing the patentability of business methods. In In Re Bilski, 2010 U.S. Lexis 5521(June 28, 2010), the Court rejected the Federal Circuit of Court of Appeals’ “machine-or-transformation” test for determining the patentability of a process. The Court also declined to adopt a rule that business methods are not patentable.
Continue Reading Supreme Court Holds Business Method Patents Remain Viable
The Ninth Circuit recently addressed the application of anti-dilution law to trademarks that happen to be common English words. In Visa International Service Association v. JSL Corporation (decided June 28, 2010), the Court held that the defendants’ use of the term “eVisa” for its multilingual education and information business was likely to dilute the Visa trademark. Joseph Orr, who operated eVisa through JSL Corp., ran an English language tutoring service while living in Japan called “Eikaiwa Visa.” (Eikaiwa is Japanese for “English conversation.”) After returning to the U.S., Orr started eVisa (the short form of Eikaiwa Visa) and claimed that the use of the word “visa” was meant to suggest “the ability to travel both linguistically and physically through the English speaking world.” Visa sued JSL claiming that eVisa was likely to dilute its “Visa” trademark. The district court granted summary judgment in Visa’s favor.
