Balough
December 13, 2013
A flyer in a judicial race “full of disparagement and innuendo unbefitting a campaign for judicial office” cannot support a claim for libel or tortuous interference with a prospective economic advantage, an Illinois appellate court found. The flyer was distributed by the Illinois Coalition for Jobs, Growth and Prosperity and was mailed to voters in […]
Balough
December 13, 2013
The popularity of YouTube has increased visits to utube.com-and according to the owner of the domain name-that is a big problem. Universal Tube and Rollform Equipment has filed a trademark infringement case against the popular video download website. Universal Tube uses the domain name utube.com for its customers who want to buy used tube and […]
Balough
December 13, 2013
Prohibiting nude and seminude dancing in establishments that serve alcoholic beverages does not violate the dancer’s First Amendment rights of expression, the Illinois Supreme Court said. The court upheld the validity of a City of Chicago ordinance that bans nude and semi-nude dancing in licensed establishments selling liquor by the drink. If dancers want to […]
Balough
December 13, 2013
A Marine Corps officer has an expectation of privacy in her e-mail messages sent and stored in a government computer system, the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces found. The e-mails were from the officer’s account stored on an unclassified government computer system on which she had authorized limited personal use. The […]
Balough
December 13, 2013
Google’s sale of trademarks as keywords is not a “use” under the law to support a claim for infringement, a New York federal district court found. Rescuecom Corp. sued Google under the Lanham Act for trademark infringement, false designation, and dilution of its trademark. The court granted Google’s motion to dismiss. Rescuecom alleged that Google’s […]
Balough
December 13, 2013
A website not accessible to the blind may violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) since violations of the ADA are not limited to brick and mortar facilities, a federal court in San Francisco has ruled. The court found that a complaint filed by the National Federation of the Blind was sufficient to state a […]
Balough
December 13, 2013
There is no copyright infringement where a company has a third-party build an assembly machine based on copyrighted drawings of another when the company had been granted a license to duplicate the machine for its own use. Automation by Design, Inc. (ABD) sued Raybestos Products Company for copyright infringement and breach of a license agreement […]
Balough
December 13, 2013
A cosmetology instructor’s distribution of pamphlets on the sinfulness of homosexuality is neither protected speech nor does the school’s prohibiting such distribution constitute prior restraint under the First Amendment. The instructor sued Carl Sandburg College when her part-time contract was not renewed after someone reported that she gave a gay student two religious pamphlets and […]
Balough
December 13, 2013
A trade secret is usually “rich in detail” since general terms will usually be widely known and thus not capable of being protected, the Seventh Circuit said, affirming a judgment for the defendant. The defendant had filed for a patent for a process that was disclosed to it in general terms by the plaintiff. The […]
Balough
December 13, 2013
The popular social networking website xanga.com has agreed to pay $1 million in civil penalties for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Xanga.com agreed to settle a complaint by the Federal Trade Commission that alleged over the past five years the website allowed 1.7 million xanga.com accounts to be opened by children under […]
