Beginning today, September 7, 2011, owners of registered trademarks can file applications to block third parties from registering adult-oriented .XXX domains that contain their marks. This “Sunrise” period runs through October 28, 2011. Opt-out applications can be submitted using any .XXX accredited registrar. The current list of accredited registrars is available here. Registars’ fees vary but typically range from $200 to $500 per mark ...
There are numerous internet-based interactive platforms that may be referred to as social media outlets, for example Facebook, Linkedin or Twitter. It is hard to spend any time online without coming across some form of social media platform. Many retail websites will have a section for user feedback and reviews, such message boards are themselves a form of social media ...
It’s an all too common scenario. An unsuspecting Internet user opens an email with a link to a website spoofing that of a leading financial institution. The user is asked to input personal information such as bank credentials or social security numbers and in a matter of seconds the user becomes the victim of a phishing scam and is left to deal with the financial and emotional fallout stemming from the identity theft ...
Should the internet be free and open, with all internet traffic treated equally and no restrictions on transmitting content regardless of its type or size (so called 'net neutrality')? That is the view taken by Dutch lawmakers, who have finally approved a new piece of legislation to force internet service providers (ISPs) to do just that ...
A recent technical malfunction that knocked out websites and affected hundreds of businesses using Amazons cloud computing services offered high profile evidence of both the widespread popularity of cloud services and the potential consequences of storing company data in the cloud. The incident also drew attention to cloud service contracts, raising questions about performance levels and backups in the event of a service interruption ...
First proposed more than a decade ago, .XXX top-level domains have now been approved and will be launching shortly. The domains are intended for use by the adult entertainment industry, but for trademark owners in other industries, the potential association of their valuable brands with .XXX domains could have serious consequences. Fortunately, owners of registered trademarks can soon apply to block third parties from registering .XXX domains that contain their marks. The ...
The Supreme Court ruled last week in Microsoft Corporation v. i4i Limited Partnership that “clear and convincing evidence” is still the standard of proof required to invalidate a patent. Section 282 of the Patent Act states that “a patent shall be presumed valid” and that “[t]he burden of establishing invalidity of a patent or any claim thereof shall rest on the party asserting such invalidity ...
The Social Network did not just tell the fascinating story of Facebook's rise to a social media power house. It showed how society is increasingly using social platforms as one of its primary channels for communication. Social media is broader than social networking sites such as Facebook or Linked-In ...
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery — so they say. Boosters in Wellington, New Zealand, call themselves “Silicon Welly.” And Texas Gov. Rick Perry said somewhere in America “Silicon Valley will be replicated. I want it to be in Austin” — even though central Texas dubbed itself “Silicon Hills” long ago. There’s also the Silicon Forest, Prairies, Alleys and other Valleys. Not to mention the No. 1 Silicon Alley — in New York City ...
All businesses possess confidential information - trade secrets, customer lists, staff records - which could mean loss of business, reputational damage, or give competitors an advantage if leaked, whether deliberately or accidentally.Depending on the type of information disclosed and the type of organisation, there are potential consequences regarding public policy and data protection ...
In the latest in a series of legal challenges around internet keywords and particularly the Google AdWords system, the special adviser to the Court of Justice of the European Union, Advocate General Jaaskinen, has issued his opinion ...
Website accessibility is a requirement of the Equality Act 201. The first of a two-part article explaining Equality Act 2010 to websites. In our last article, Website accessibility: Industry standards and best practice, we considered how the Equality Act 2010 would be implemented, and considered what the new BSI Standard for website accessibility might look like ...
Concents : * Technology Licences in the Event of Bankruptcy * New Quebec Business Corporations Regime * The Shareholder Agreement: the "Specifications" of the Private Corporation Shareholder Technology Licences in the Event of Bankruptcy Sive Burns [email protected] The owner of a technology protected by an intellectual property right (copyright or patent) or protected by secret (trade secret) may grant a licence to a licensee ...
The Federal government’s legislation to control spam and other ills of the electronic age with the oh-so-catchy title of An Act to promote the efficiency and adaptability of the Canadian economy by regulating certain activities that discourage reliance on electronic means of carrying out commercial activities, and to amend the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission Act, the Competition Act, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act and
1. How can the government’s attitude and approach to internet issues best be described? The attitude of the Belgian government can be described as positive and their approach is proactive. In 2003, the Belgian authorities announced the introduction of ‘egovernment’ ...
In the second of a two-part look at issues arising out of the tender process we consider what can happen when that process is poorly run. Part 1 of the series can be found at IT tendering: Leveraging the benefits. A typical tender process involves the customer analysing and documenting its requirements in a Request for Proposals (RFP) to which interested suppliers will prepare a response ...
In a recent article we looked at some of the employment risks for customers associated with cloud computing. Following on from Cloud computing: Employment law implications, we now consider how best to assess the other risks associated with cloud computing ...
IT projects: It’s a team game 28 September 2010 IT projects have a knack of over-running for significant periods, requiring ‘out-of-scope’ changes half way through, and consequently going over budget. Although any project will develop and evolve over time, such problems can be minimised through sensible project management methods. It is not uncommon for IT projects to last several months, if not years, from conception to completion ...
Interest about the relevance of buyer power for competition has been growing in the last decades, as the markets of retail distribution were subject to a process of consolidation, if at different speed, in most European countries ...
Getting the Deal Through - e-Commerce 2011 Getting the Deal Through published a fully revised and updated seventh edition of e-Commerce, a volume in GTDT's series of annual reports published by Law Business Research. This publication provides international analysis in key areas of law and policy for corporate counsel, cross-border legal practitioners and business people ...
Social networks: Hype and its legal consequences published in: WirtschaftsBlatt,Author: Dr. Axel Anderl, LL.m., Mag. Martina Schmid Social networking platforms like Facebook, MySpace or XING are an increasing popularity. It has never been so easy to operate social networking ...
On June 28, 2010, the United States Supreme Court announced its decision on Bilski v. Kappos regarding what inventions are eligible for patent protection. The decision affirms that business methods are patentable, although the specific business methods at the center of the case are not. While stating that no single test governs the issue, the Court approved of the use of the “machine-or-transformation test” that the Federal Circuit had distilled from earlier Supreme Court cases ...
Just one day after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit indicated that it would consider the current state of the inequitable conduct doctrine en banc in Therasense, Inc. v. Becton Dickinson and Co., a split panel of the Federal Circuit issued a decision in the case of Avid Identification Systems, Inc. v. Crystal Import Corp. affirming a lower court’s finding of inequitable conduct ...
The answer is that they were both the subject of two recent decisions which shed further light on the ability to register three-dimensional shapes as trade marks. On the face of it, a three dimensional shape may be registered as a trade mark provided it meets the usual criteria (distinctive, non-descriptive, capable of distinguishing goods of one business from another etc) ...
The High Court has ruled that contractual interest will form part of any agreed liability cap, but that statutory interest arising from the exercise of the court's discretion will not. In Markerstudy Insurance Co Ltd and others v Endsleigh Insurance Services Ltd, the claimants alleged widespread breaches by the defendant of a number of agreements, causing the claimant to suffer loss of approximately £14m ...
