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Mealey's Cyber Tech & E-Commerce

  • December 20, 2024

    Amazon Refutes Claims As To Quality Of Care In Telehealth Death Suit Against It

    OAKLAND, Calif. — In response to a wrongful death and medical malpractice suit filed in a California state court against Amazon One Medical, a virtual and in-office health care provider, regarding alleged negligent virtual care, an Amazon One Medical spokesperson in a Dec. 19 email reply to Mealey Publications said, “While we are prohibited by law from discussing patient records, we refute claims that a change in the duration of visits or location of a virtual visit has impacted the care provided at Amazon One Medical.”

  • December 20, 2024

    $1.5M Chinese Arbitral Award For Breach Of Facebook Marketing Contract Confirmed

    LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge confirmed a Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration (SCIA) award worth $1.5 million in favor of a Hong Kong company for its dispute with an American marketing company that agreed to conduct marketing services on Facebook but was unable to perform the contract after Facebook froze the pages and sued it for a “bait-and-switch” scheme in 2021.

  • December 19, 2024

    Federal Circuit Says Judge Wrongly Denied JMOL In Patent Fight

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Texas federal judge was wrong to deny judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) of no direct infringement to a defendant software company, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said Dec. 18, holding that the judge should have found that the alleged infringement could be attributed to the company’s merchants but not the company itself.

  • December 18, 2024

    U.S. High Court Agrees To Hear TikTok’s Bid To Stop Enforcement Of Law Banning It

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 18 granted certiorari to TikTok Inc. and Tik Tok creators and a nonprofit seeking to stop the enforcement of a federal law that promises to ban the popular social network on Jan. 19, 2025, absent a corporate ownership change.

  • December 18, 2024

    YouTube Sues ‘Cult’-Aligned Company For ‘Cloning’ Its Platform And Content

    SANTA CLARA, Calif. — YouTube LLC on Dec. 18 filed a complaint in California state court accusing a Delaware corporation of operating an online website that is a “clone” of its video platform and of hosting reuploaded content from YouTube in breach of contract and violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL).

  • December 18, 2024

    TikTok Urges U.S. Supreme Court To Stop Enforcement Of Law Banning TikTok

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — ByteDance Ltd. and its subsidiary TikTok Inc. (collectively, TikTok) filed an emergency application for a temporary injunction in the U.S. Supreme Court pending the filing and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari, seeking to stop the enforcement of a federal law that promises to ban the TikTok platform in the United States on Jan. 19 absent a corporate ownership change.

  • December 18, 2024

    9th Circuit Denies Rehearing After Live Nation, Ticketmaster Arbitration Ruling

    PASADENA, Calif. — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel unanimously denied a petition for panel rehearing, and the majority denied a petition for rehearing en banc filed by Live Nation Entertainment Inc. and Ticketmaster LLC after the panel affirmed a trial court’s denial of arbitration in a putative class complaint accusing the two companies of engaging in anticompetitive practices in online ticket sales.

  • December 17, 2024

    Software Company Appeals Finding That Patent Is Directed At Abstract Idea

    SAN FRANCISCO — A plaintiff software company appealed to the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals a California federal judge’s finding that three patents it holds related to chart creation software claim patent ineligible subject matter, a day after the judge issued the order.

  • December 17, 2024

    9th Circuit: Judge Wrongly Held Software Was ‘Derivative’ In Copyright Row

    SAN FRANCISCO — A partially split panel in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Dec. 16 vacated or reversed large portions of a Nevada federal judge’s finding in a long-stewing copyright case between two software companies, holding that much of the judge’s decision was based on an erroneous understanding of “derivative work.”

  • December 16, 2024

    Intel Didn’t Show Obviousness During Patent Review, Federal Circuit Says

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Affirming Patent Trial and Review Board (PTAB) findings issued after inter partes review (IPR), a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel agreed that the Intel Corp. failed to show that challenged claims in another company’s patent were invalid as obvious.

  • December 16, 2024

    U.S. High Court Denies Certiorari To Broadband Providers In New York Rate Row

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 16 denied a petition for writ of certiorari filed by New York State Telecommunications Association and other broadband providers urging review of the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling reversing a district court’s judgment that granted a permanent injunction barring the enforcement of New York’s Affordable Broadband Act (ABA) and found that the Federal Communications Act of 1934 preempts state regulation of broadband services.

  • December 16, 2024

    D.C. Circuit Rejects Bid To Stop Enforcement Of Act Banning TikTok In U.S.

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Dec. 13 rejected motions for a temporary injunction filed by petitioners TikTok Inc., Tik Tok creators and a nonprofit seeking to stop the enforcement of a federal law that promises to ban the popular social network on Jan. 19 absent a corporate ownership change, finding that the court already determined that the law meets constitutional requirements.

  • December 13, 2024

    UCL, RICO Suit Against Gaming Company That Uses Bots Stayed Pending Appeal

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted a motion filed by a gaming company, its co-founders and two investors to stay putative class claims against them for violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and federal racketeering laws by falsely advertising their mobile games as offering live competition when players in fact compete with bots, finding a stay appropriate pending an appeal of his earlier refusal to compel arbitration.

  • December 12, 2024

    DOJ Urges Panel To Reject Bid To Stop Enforcement Of Act Banning TikTok In U.S.

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on Dec. 11 urged the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reject motions for a temporary injunction filed by petitioners TikTok Inc., Tik Tok creators and a nonprofit seeking to stop the enforcement a federal law that promises to ban the popular social network on Jan. 19, 2025, absent a corporate ownership change, arguing that while the petitioners are entitled to seek the law’s enjoinment in the U.S. Supreme Court, they are not entitled to an injunction against a federal law when the Circuit Court rejected their challenge to that law.

  • December 12, 2024

    Real Estate Law Firm, Cyber Security Insurer Settle Coverage Dispute

    ASHEVILLE, N.C. — A real estate law firm, its insurer and a third-party administrator filed a joint stipulation asking a North Carolina federal court to dismiss with prejudice the firm’s lawsuit seeking coverage under a cybersecurity policy for gross negligence and obstruction of justice cross-claims arising from a “cyber incident” in 2021 that resulted in the misdirection of funds.

  • December 11, 2024

    FTC Announces Refunds Under Epic Games $245M Settlement For Fortnite Purchases

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it is sending the first round of refunds that will total more than $72 million as part of Epic Games Inc.’s agreement to pay $245 million to resolve allegations that users were tricked into purchasing items while playing the popular online game Fortnite and that children playing the game were allowed to purchase items without parental consent.

  • December 11, 2024

    8th Circuit Reverses Summary Judgment For Hospital On Chair’s Speech Claim

    ST. PAUL, Minn. — An Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel reversed summary judgment for a hospital on a former department chair’s claim of First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution retaliation, finding that there was evidence that social media posts were discussed leading up to the chair’s demotion.

  • December 10, 2024

    Federal Circuit Affirms Construction Of ‘Merchants’ Claim In Patent Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Delaware federal judge did not err when holding that the claim term “merchants” should be limited only to those who sell goods, not services, in a patent dispute involving e-commerce platforms, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held, affirming the judge’s finding of noninfringement.

  • December 10, 2024

    5th Circuit Rejects Rehearing Petitions From ISP, Labels In Copyright Fight

    NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rejected petitions for rehearing from parties on both sides of a copyright infringement suit, standing by its October decision to affirm a Texas federal jury’s finding that an internet service provider (ISP) was vicariously liable for copyright infringement by failing to prevent the piracy of plaintiff music labels’ copyrighted works but to reverse the judge’s holding that the ISP was separately liable for infringement for each of more than a thousand songs.

  • December 10, 2024

    PPE Seller’s Lawsuit Against Postal Service Stemming From Hacked Email Settles

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and a personal protective equipment (PPE) seller it contracted with to purchase PPE during the COVID-19 pandemic on Dec. 9 filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims a joint stipulation of dismissal with prejudice of a lawsuit brought by the seller alleging that the USPS failed to pay it for two shipments of PPE after a third party commandeered the seller’s email system and persuaded the USPS to direct payments to a different bank account.

  • December 03, 2024

    COMMENTARY: The Future Of Work: Exploring The Employment And Data Protection Law Implications Of The Use Of Artificial Intelligence (AI) In European Workplaces

    By Matthew Howse, Louise Skinner, Vishnu Shankar and William Mallin

  • December 09, 2024

    High Court Grants Solicitor General’s Bid In Age-Based Online Texas Porn Law Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 9 granted a motion filed by the U.S. solicitor general to participate in and for extended argument in a case where Free Speech Coalition Inc. (FSC), a nonprofit adult industry trade association along with adult entertainment industry petitioners, urges reversal of a ruling by the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that vacated an injunction for a Texas law (HB 1181) requiring the operators of pornographic websites to verify that their visitors are adults.

  • December 09, 2024

    Dismissal Of Claims Apple Lured Users Into ICloud Subscriptions Affirmed

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the dismissal of a putative class complaint brought by plaintiffs who claimed that Apple “addicted” them to its free iCloud data storage service and then required them to pay once the data they stored exceeded its free storage maximum of five gigabytes, writing that they failed to plead any misrepresentations.

  • December 06, 2024

    D.C. Circuit Denies TikTok Petitions Over 1st Amendment Challenge To Federal Law

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Dec. 6 denied petitions filed by TikTok Inc., Tik Tok creators and a nonprofit promoting TikTok content seeking review of a federal law that promises to ban the popular social network absent a corporate ownership change, finding that provisions of the act related to the TikTok platform “are narrowly tailored to further” national security interests.

  • December 06, 2024

    Some Claims Obvious In Circuit Package Patent Row, Federal Circuit Says

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a patent infringement dispute between manufacturers of semiconductors, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Dec. 5 affirmed findings from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that some claims in the relevant patents are ineligible as obvious while other claims are patent eligible, handing mixed results to both the appellant and cross-appellant companies.