Category: Corporate

Since the enactment of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (“CDA”), many online service providers have decided that they carry absolute immunity from defamation claims. Is this really the case though? ComplaintsBoard.com and RipOffReport.com are two service providers that offer a forum for unhappy customers to post about poor experiences they have with companies. […]

Unhappy consumers take to the Internet and social media all the time. It’s commonplace today for a person irritated by a flight delay to post on Twitter, or someone that received poor service in a restaurant to leave a damning review on a consumer based website. But, what happens when the complaint lodged against the service provider isn’t true? The answer is that you get sued, and the First Amendment won’t protect you.

Fathers and Daughters Nevada has filed suit in the Eastern District of Michigan (Fathers and Daughters Nevada, LLC v Does 1-15, Case No. 2:16-cv-10372) against fifteen John Doe defendants (Does 1-15) who they believe have illegally copied and distributed its copyrighted work, the movie “Fathers and Daughters,” via bit torrent sites. The defendants, who haven’t […]

Anonymity is a blessing and a curse, allowing us to hide behind our computers and electronic devices, creating whatever image and identity we wish to portray. “Screen names” offer a form of protection to Internet users, so when an anonymous defamatory post is made, tracking down the user can feel like an almost impossible task.

Semiconductor chips have become a popular and widely used product in almost all electronics today. Considering how ubiquitous these products are, it might be surprising to learn that the owners of these chips are extended large amounts of protection ov…

Semiconductor chips are found in almost any type of electronic these days, fulfilling a huge area of uses to the designer and consumer alike. Considering how widely used these products are today, one might reasonably assume that anybody can make them a…

Individuals often assume that their trademark is fully protected once their trademark application has passed an examiner’s inspection, but the process is more complex than that. Procedural forms called oppositions can be filed by third parties to challenge a pending trademark application. When a pending application receives notice of opposition, it roughly translates to someone […]

“We are in the era of big data. With a smartphone now in nearly every pocket, a computer in nearly every household, and an ever-increasing number of Internet-connected devices in the marketplace, the amount of consumer data flowing throughout the economy continues to increase rapidly.” We couldn’t have said it better ourselves, so we didn’t […]

PTG Nevada, LLC, a movie producer and developer, recently filed a copyright infringement complaint in the Eastern District of Michigan (PTG Nevada, LLC v Does 1-5, Case No. 2:16-cv-10125). A copy of the complaint can be found here, but to summarize: PTG Nevada has filed suit against five John Doe defendants (Does 1-5) who they […]

Imagine this: Shortly after receiving notice from the US Patent & Trademark Office that your trademark application has been approved, you get another letter in mail. This letter offers to register your newly acquired trademark with US Customs &…