Author Archives: John DiGiacomo

Not too long ago, we wrote about a recent decision from the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit that held that data scraping can be deemed a misappropriation of trade secrets. See here. That case was decided based on the Florida version of the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (“UTSA”). In another case involving […]

Many companies have gone out of business and many more are in danger of going out of business as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. As a consequence, many creditors are facing debtors that have no money or assets from which a judgment can be collected. As an example, a commercial landlord might have a contractual lease […]

In yet another example of the importance of encrypting mobile devices and laptops, a small Rhode Island healthcare system called Lifespan ACE has agreed to pay $1.04 million to the Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) to settle an investigation resulting from an unencrypted MacBook laptop computer that was stolen in 2017. The OCR is a […]

A federal court has recently held that POSSESSION of a trade secret is sufficient for a party to bring a trade secret misappropriation claim. Under the court’s ruling, OWNERSHIP is not required. See Advanced Fluid Systems, Inc. v. Huber, Case Nos. 19-1722 and 19-1752 (3rd Cir. April 30, 2020). In the Advanced Fluid Systems case, […]

To drive sales and market share, trademark owners create websites that use their trademarked words or phrases as the internet domain name. However, many times some third person or business has already registered a domain name that is the same as or is very similar to the trademarked word/phrase. If this is done in bad […]

If you are operating an online business or a blog, understanding copyright law is essential. Copyrights protect original works of authorship from being used or copied without the permission of the author. This is true even if the original author is given credit and/or if a hyperlink is provided to the original posting/publication of the […]

Joint ownership of trademarks is allowed under trademark law here in the US. However, there are some complex legal issues that should be considered before embarking on joint trademark ownership. It may be more advisable to create a joint venture or a corporate entity to hold title to the Certificate of Registration for the trademark(s). […]

When the COVID-19 health crisis began, many companies sent their employees home to begin working remotely. Often, as a matter of convenience and cost-savings, businesses allowed — and maybe encouraged — employees to use their own devices such as smartphones, computers and tablets. As the pandemic continues, remote working may become one of the “new […]

In 1991, Congress enacted the Telephone Consumer Protection Act’s (“TCPA”) designed to prevent “robocalls” to consumer telephones. See 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(1)(A)(iii). More specifically, the TCPA prohibits anyone from calling or texting someone “using any automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice” without the “prior express consent of the called party.” The […]

The US Supreme Court recently resolved a decades-long legal question by holding that “Booking.com” is eligible for trademark registration. See USPTO v. Booking.com B.V., Case No. 19-41 (June 30, 2020). At issue was whether adding an internet domain name extension could convert an otherwise generic or merely descriptive word into something that could be trademarked. […]