Case Law & Court Rules

On September 12, 2016, an Illinois District Court ruled that the publication of online attorney directories is fully protected under the First Amendment and does not violate an Illinois law that prohibits the use of someone’s identity for commercial purposes without permission. In this putative class action, Plaintiff alleged that defendant violated the Illinois Right […]

On July 5, 2016, the Ninth Circuit  affirmed a conviction for “knowingly and with intent to defraud accessing a protected computer “without authorization”. The former employee had his computer access credentials revoked and used the login credentials of a current employee to gain access to data owned by the former employer. The court found the […]

On May 12, 2016, the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) Campos Sánchez-Bordona presented his conclusions in Patrick Breyer v. Bundesrepublik Deutschland (case C‑582/14). The case deals with dynamic IP addresses, i.e. those IP (“Internet Protocol”) addresses dynamically assigned to a device by an access provider (usually a telephonic carrier). Mr. Breyer […]

On April 7, 2016, the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice Melchior Wathelet has sent his advisory opinion to the European Court of Justice, which is called to issue a ruling between the Dutch wblog GeenStijl.nl and Playboy. Case C‑160/15 GS Media BV v Sanoma Media Netherlands BV. In 2011 GeenStijl published a link to some pirated Playboy […]

For the first time in the UK, on February 16, 2016, a court (the High Court of Justice Chancery Division, Master Matthews) approved the use of predictive coding in e-disclosure. Pyrrho Investments Limited v MWB Property Limited, [2016] EWHC 256 (Ch). Noting that there were no English precedent (¶32), the Master relied on some US […]

Several class actions have been filed in recent years against companies that had their database compromised as a consequence of a data breach. The class usually consists of consumers whose information was stolen in the breach. The problem that plaintiffs have faced in the majority of these actions is lack of standing. Indeed, in most […]

On November 21, 2014 the hearing board of the Illinois Registration and Disciplinary Commission has recommended a 3-year suspension for an Illinois patent lawyer who blogged about corruption in the probate court.  In re JoAnne Marie Denison. Among the others, she was charged with “making a statement the lawyer knows to be false or with reckless […]

In Re Reines, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 21107 (Fed. Cir.Nov. 5, 2014) On November 5, 2014, the US Court of Appeals publicly reprimanded a California lawyer for disseminating to clients and prospective clients an email he received from a Judge. The lawyer received a private e-mail from a Chief Judge. This is an extract of […]

In the matter of Svitlana E. Sangray, Case Ns. 13-O-13838-DFM A California lawyer kept a website featuring a large number of “publicity” photos showing herself and several celebrities. Many of these pictures were not genuine: the attorney had created them by taking original celebrity photos and overlaying her own image. According to the court these […]

In Melian Labs Inc. v. Triology LLC, case number 4:2013cv04791, a trademark infringement action, plaintiff objected to defendant’s non responsive responses to some of its requests for production. The order of the court (NDCA) is interesting (at least) under two perspectives. First, the order is interesting for the part in which it deals with the […]