Social media is a powerful and useful tool for facilitating communication between federal agencies and their constituents. However, the recent ruling by the Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) that a social media campaign undertaken by the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) violated both the Federal Antideficiency Act (“FADA”) and the prohibition on grass-roots lobbying has raised questions regarding how agencies can continue to utilize …
Imagine—your taxi arrives at the airport terminal, you quickly check your bags, and then join hundreds of other passengers in line for security screening. The line seems to be moving even more slowly than usual, and you glare ahead when you notice the hold up—Transportation Security Administration (“TSA”) officials removing snakes and tortoises from a passenger’s pants. This bizarre scenario made …
In the wake of press reports of abusive patent behavior, the North Carolina legislature followed other states and passed a state law designed to curb abusive patent practices. The Abusive Patents Assertions Act (the Act), passed in 2014, creates a state law tort action for a bad faith assertion of patent infringement. A business that believes it has been …
On May 13, 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) announced its judgment in Google Spain SL, Google Inc. v. Agencia Espanola de Proteccion de Datos, Mario Consteja González. The decision required Google to delist certain internet search results when a search query was made using an individual’s name. Commentators worldwide have referred to this delisting as the …
As part of a growing phenomenon, patent holders are increasingly making voluntary, public commitments to limit their patent’s enforcement and other exploitation. While most of these commitments are FRAND commitments, in which patent holders promise to license their patents to manufacturers of standardized products on terms that are “fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory,” a growing number of voluntary patent pledges are made …
Within the past several years, hashtags have become one of the most popular means of organizing content on social media. The experimental categorical tool is rampant in our society because it allows consumers to connect with and engage other social media users based on a common interest, theme, or topic. Brands started using trademarks in hashtags and even trademarking hashtags themselves …
Cleaner energy is necessary to avoid significant health and climate risks in the future, and no energy is dirtier than our nation’s fossil-fuel burning power plants. The United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA”) Clean Power Plan seeks to address the hazards posed by the electricity sector, and proposes carbon dioxide (“CO2”) emissions trading as an efficient, cost-effective option to do so. …
As technology has evolved over the past few decades, the power of the Internet has transformed how consumers purchase goods and services. The medical profession, though, has been slow to adapt to this changing marketplace. Telemedicine has the ability to change the future of medicine by providing quality, cost-effective care. However, the state medical boards impose an array of restrictions …
An innovative new technique for gaming the financial markets emerged in late 2014 when a hedge fund manager began filing inter partes review petitions with the United States Patent and Trademark Office against pharmaceutical companies in an attempt to profit from the short selling of pharmaceutical stocks. The pharmaceutical industry deemed this practice an abuse of process and attempted to regulate …
This Recent Development discusses the future of secondary liability for e-commerce platforms whose users sell counterfeit goods in the wake of the ongoing Gucci v. Alibaba litigation. Should the plaintiffs prevail, e-commerce platforms will be held accountable to cooperate with brand owners by removing infringing listings in a timely fashion and sanctioning users who sell counterfeits in an effective manner, resulting …
