As a result of the Supreme Court’s decision in Quill v. North Dakota, unless a retailer has a physical presence in a state, it is not obliged to collect sales taxes in that state. In order to avoid collecting sales taxes, many companies like Amazon.com have set up subsidiary companies in many states to ship, …
Considered by many as the next key development in Internet technology, the semantic web has generated a lot of buzz recently. A creation of Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, the semantic web is a “web of data,” a technology that promises to provide the world with enhanced access to information through more …
Among the many factors that impact the declining quality of U.S. patents is the increasing disconnect between the technological education patent bar members have and the fields in which patents are being written. Based on an empirical study, the authors show that too few patent attorneys and agents have relevant experience in the most often …
The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (“GINA”) is a recently enacted law that prohibits employers and insurance companies from discriminating against people based upon their genetic information. Soon after the passage of GINA, many people praised the law, but the flaws of GINA have not been as widely talked about. This Recent Development addresses a major …
The United States’ government has developed a policy that supports the use and deployment of commercial level carbon capture and sequestration as a method for reducing carbon emissions from major electricity generating sources. The Environmental Protection Agency must determine which current provisions of the Clean Air Act are best used to regulate greenhouse gases and …
Shifting the United States’ primary source of electricity from non-renewable energy to renewable energy requires expanded capacity to facilitate long-range transmission from regions where it can be efficiently produced to large population centers where it will be used. In Piedmont Environmental Council v. FERC the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals recently held that the Federal …
The formative jurisprudence on the modification of video games came when copyright recognition of computer software was itself quite recent, when the level of creative “expression” in the altered videogame was meager. Consequently, modded games are currently held to be derivative works and infringement of the copyright of the originals. A determination of fair use …
Law enforcement is increasingly turning to “genetic witnesses” to solve crimes. The incorporation of genetic technologies like DNA ancestry tests and indirect molecular photofitting has drawn criticism as high-tech “racial profiling.” In cases where law enforcement has requested voluntary DNA samples to assist with criminal investigations, critics have quickly labeled the conduct “DNA dragnets.” To …
The threat posed by climate change has finally been recognized, and governments have begun taking actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to attempt to mitigate the potential damage. While government regulations may require reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, insufficient technology exists to achieve the necessary reductions without severe economic consequences. Encouragement of the development and …
The recent, unanimous decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Matrixx Initiatives, Inc. v. Siracusano resolved a circuit split on the materiality standard under Rule 10b-5 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. By affirming the Ninth Circuit, the Court re-established the materiality standard set forth twenty-three years ago in Basic Inc. v. Levinson. Although …