Balough
December 14, 2013
Sears’ current tagline “Where Shopping Revolves Around You 24/7” might be better phrased as “Where We Spy On You 24/7.” Under a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) consent order, Sears Holdings Management Corporation (SHMC), owned by Sears, Roebuck and Company and Kmart Management Corporation, agreed that it failed to adequately disclose that a computer tracking program […]
Balough
December 14, 2013
Prohibiting a mother of a kindergartener from reading from the Bible as part of his “All About Me” week did not violate her constitutional rights, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals found. The mother who wanted to read verses 1-4 and 14 of Psalm 118 from the King James Bible to the class in a […]
Balough
December 14, 2013
Protecting intellectual property rights in the virtual world of Second Life was discussed by Richard C. Balough at the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education (IICLE)’s first annual Intellectual Property Law Seminar. The two-day seminar in Chicago featured presentations by experts in intellectual property law as well as a panel discussion by federal court judges, including […]
Balough
December 14, 2013
It is not a copyright violation for a plagiarism detection website to keep a copy of a student’s paper in its data base to use to check other students’ papers. The case arose when high school students were required to submit their papers to iParadigms, an online service that compares the students’ papers to other […]
Balough
December 14, 2013
It’s hard to keep a trade secret in a small town, especially if the secret is a customer list for providing computer networking service. An Illinois appellate court reversed the trial court’s finding that an existing and potential customer list was a trade secret. The court also dissolved an injunction that prevented former employees from […]
Balough
December 14, 2013
Google’s practice of recommending and selling keywords that incorporate trademarks may violate the Lanham Act by causing confusion in the marketplace, a court of appeals has found. The Second Circuit reversed a trial court’s dismissal of a case brought by Rescuecom Corp. The appellate court said the trial court misinterpreted the appellate court’s earlier decision […]
Balough
December 14, 2013
It takes an entire city council to fire a psychologist. Unless the psychologist can show that his membership in a conservative organization was a motivating factor behind the city’s decision to terminate his contract, there is no violation of his First Amendment right of freedom of association, the Seventh Circuit has found. The City of […]
Balough
December 14, 2013
A Pennsylvania couple’s privacy rights were not invaded when Google Street View captured images of their residence, outbuildings, and swimming pool, a federal district court ruled. Aaron and Christine Boring contended that their privacy was invaded and Google was unjustly enriched because the search company’s Street View showed images of their house, which is located […]
Balough
December 14, 2013
A federal judge has temporarily stopped the marketing and use of a spyware program that tracks computer keystrokes of its unsuspecting victims. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) obtained a temporary restraining order (TRO) stopping CyberSpy Software, LLC from marketing, selling, and allowing access to information gained from its RemoteSpy program. In a complaint, the FTC […]
Balough
December 14, 2013
Florida has joined a minority of states in rejecting a privacy cause of action for false light. The Florida Supreme Court found that the tort of “false light is largely duplicative of existing torts, but without the attendant protections of the First Amendment.” The tort of false light invasion of privacy concerns publicizing a matter […]
