Export Controls – Party Time!

I know what you’re thinking: “Trademarks and copyrights are fun, but when do we get to the REALLY fun stuff?” Well, loyal reader, wait no longer: I give you…EXPORT CONTROL REGULATIONS!!! No reaction? Well, you might want to reconsider that, since violations of export control regulations can carry severe penalties (criminal penalties can be up […]

The Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA)

Sorry, folks, no cheeky title here – this is serious business.  Theft of trade secrets is a significant threat to businesses, and the country’s economic growth – by some estimates, trade secret theft and economic espionage cost the U.S. economy tens, and perhaps even hundreds, of billions of dollars each year (see https://www.fbi.gov/news/testimony/combating-economic-espionage-and-trade-secret-theft). On the […]

Lodsys-Apple patent dispute gets legs

For those just tuning in, a patent holding company called Lodsys recently made waves in the Apple app dev community by claiming that it owns patents covering in-app purchasing technology enabled by Apple’s API’s.  Lodsys sent threat letters to numerous parties and actually sued a handful of them.  Apple, for its part, claims that all […]

Business Lessons from the Facebook Terms of Use Mess

Just over a month ago, and all in the span of a single week, Facebook.com announced a set of drastic changes to its Terms and Conditions, a massive revolt ensued, and just as quickly as it all started, Facebook retreated. As the dust settled, many great legal analyses of the events quickly made their way […]