Author Archives: John DiGiacomo

A few years ago, a company called VIP Products, Inc. (“VIP”) created and began selling a plastic squeaky dog chew toy in the shape of a whiskey bottle meant to parody a Jack Daniel’s whiskey bottle. In general, VIP sells a whole line of squeaky dog toys called “Silly Squeakers” VIP sold over a million […]

A recent decision from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is notable for being an excellent exposition of the rule in Copyright law that the scope of a copyright is limited by the copy of the artistic work that is deposited with the Copyright Office. See Skidmore v. Led Zeppelin, Case No. 16-56057 (9th Cir. […]

Website accessibility for the visually impaired has been one of the thornier legal issues that has arisen over the last decade or so. This is because the federal Americans With Disabilities Act (“ADA”) requires that all places of “public accommodation” be accessible to those with disabilities. However, it was a debatable legal question about whether […]

The City of Portland, Oregon, just banned the use of facial recognition technology by private businesses and individuals. See Popular Mechanics news report here. Portland previously banned use of facial recognition by law enforcement and city agencies. However, now all private entities are prohibited from using facial recognition software and technology anywhere in the City […]

Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed Assembly Bill (“AB”) 713 which amends the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”). See text of AB 713 here. The CCPA has now been amended at least eight times and businesses should expect continued changes in the coming years. AB 713 makes several amendments to the CCPA the most important of […]

An eye opening opinion was recently issued in the case of ECIMOS, LLC v. Carrier Corp., Case Nos. 19-5436; 19-5519 (US 6th Cir. August 21, 2020). The case involved various breach of contract, copyright infringement and trade secret misappropriation claims related to heating, ventilation and cooling systems. After trial, the jury found in favor of […]

At the international level, trade secrets are protected under the auspices of the World Trade Organization (WTO). In particular, the signatories and members of the WTO signed a treaty called the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (the TRIPS Agreement) which went into effect in January 1995. The TRIPS Agreement obligated the various […]

A federal court in Tennessee has recently held that COVID-19 concerns do not justify a terminated franchisee’s continued use of a franchisor’s trademarks, trade secrets and business plan in violation of a temporary restraining order issued by the court. See Gus’s Franchisor, LLC v. Terrapin Restaurant Partners, LLC, Case No. 2:20-cv-2372-JPM-cgc (US W.D. Tenn. Aug. […]

Capital One, N.A., and Capital One Bank (USA), N.A. (“Capital One”) were recently fined $80 million for a 2019 data breach and data security failures that contributed to the data breach. See Reuters report here. The result is in line with many governmental investigations and fines that have been imposed for cybersecurity failures over the […]

Over the years, federal courts have been consistent in refusing to extend copyright protection to the facts and “truths” that are presented in nonfiction books, documentaries, and other works. This is because copyrights extend to “original works of authorship,” not to facts and ideas. This issue has become nettlesome in recent years because, when a […]