A consumer in New York alleges that LinkedIn violated consumer privacy by programming its apps on Apple devices to collect sensitive data.
On Thursday, July 2, 2020, Grammy award-winning composer and musician Maria Schneider filed a class action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, against YouTube, LLC, Google, LLC, and Alphabet, Inc. The lawsuit concerns copyright piracy on YouTube and alleges that YouTube's copyright management tool, Content ID, "actually insulates the vast majority of known and repeated copyright infringers from YouTube's repeat infringer policy" and leaves plaintiffs in the class with "no meaningful ability to police the extensive infringement of their copyrighted work." The complaint requests, among other things, equitable relief in the form of providing Content ID to all copyright owners and monetary relief in the form of defendants' profits derived from copyright infringement on YouTube.
A Las Vegas resident has filed a lawsuit against the City of Sacramento, California regarding a section of the city code that requires people to stand when the national anthem is played. He alleges that he plans to attend at least one Sacramento Kings NBA game in the foreseeable future, but that it will be impossible for him to go if he must subject himself to criminal prosecution for exercising his freedom of speech by refusing to stand for the anthem at such an event.
In a new complaint brought by Facebook operations program manager Oscar Veneszee Jr. on behalf of himself and all other black workers at Facebook, employees are claiming that there has been a “pattern or practice of discrimination against Black employees, including in evaluations, promotions, and pay.”
The Court determined that internet companies can trademark the combination of a generic word and ".com" if the combination has acquired a secondary meaning.
On Monday, June 22, 2020, the United States Supreme Court issued a ruling in Liu v. Securities and Exchange Commission, 591 U.S. ___ (2020). In an 8-1 decision, the Supreme Court held that, in civil enforcement cases brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, "[a] disgorgement award that does not exceed a wrongdoer's net profits and is awarded for victims is equitable relief permissible under [15 U.S.C.] §78u(d)(5)."
A ruling issued last week by the US District Court for the District of Maryland states that the federal government must face a lawsuit filed by the families of US citizen children whose parents have been denied coronavirus stimulus checks due to their status as undocumented immigrants. The court rejected the Department of Justice's arguments that federal officials are immune from constitutional claims arising from how Congress and the US Treasury Department decided to administer relief funds.
The dispute between the tech giant and the smart speaker maker raises issues involving antitrust and anti-competition in addition to intellectual property.
Two plaintiffs have filed a lawsuit against the City of Cincinnati, alleging violations of the First and Fourteenth Amendments arising from the curfew the City recently imposed in light of ongoing protests against police violence and systemic racism. The plaintiffs state that they wanted to participate in the protests, but did not for fear of being subjected to arrest or injury due to police use of tear gas, pepper projectiles, rubber bullets, and other displays of force.
The U.S. Congress plans to update the Digital Millennium Copyright Act later this year. A lengthy report produced by the U.S. Copyright Office suggests that this update may enhance protections for rights holders.