Briefings

“Human Intervention” in Yahoo! Messaging Service Left for Jury

Reed Smith – On December 14, 2015, a federal judge in the Southern District of California concluded that a jury should decide whether Yahoo is liable under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), 47 U.S.C. § 227, for “welcome messages” automatically sent via the Yahoo Messenger platform, even though the messages were triggered by the

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Apple v. Samsung: The Importance of Patented Features in Purchase Decisions

Kelley Drye & Warren – Last week, the Federal Circuit denied en banc review by the entire court of the three-judge panel decision in the Apple v. Samsung case that had revived the ability to obtain injunctive relief against multiple component products, such as smartphones (see our Sep. 17, 2015 post). In doing so, the

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Defamation Law: The High Burden on Public Figures

Kelley Drye & Warren – Andreas Becker, Lee Brenner  In Biro v. Condé Nast, et al., the Second Circuit recently determined that, in a defamation action, limited-purpose public figures must plead in a “plausible way” that the defendants acted with actual malice, citing Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8 and the Supreme Court’s decisions in Iqbal andTwombly.

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Cyber Products Face Heightened Scrutiny In Face of Terrorism

Reed Smith – Leigh T. Hansson, Julianne K. Nowicki – Recent trends and discussions relating to export controls and national security concerns may now capture the attention of software manufacturers, technology firms, and online retailers of software, as well as their global trade compliance teams. In a time where cyber-hacking and cyberterrorism pose increasingly greater threats to

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Appellate Scrutiny For Class Actions

Reed Smith – Class actions have penetrated every sector of American commerce. Significant resources routinely are invested in resisting class certification because of the adverse economic and business management consequences that can follow from classwide relief. In those circumstances when a class is certified, the incentive to settle and avoid a classwide trial can be

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Taking Safety Seriously

Baker Donelson – The Federal government is engaging tough measures to ensure corporations take safety seriously. First, OSHA is in the process of implementing changes to its penalty calculation system, which includes increasing penalty amounts as much as 82%, and extending the time period for consideration of repeat violators and penalty reductions based on history

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Strangers No More? Trends in the Architect’s No Privity Defense

LeClairRyan – Simply put, “privity of contract” is “‘the relationship between the parties to a contract, allowing them to sue each other but preventing a third party from doing so.” The existence of ‘privity’ had long protected an architect in a contractual relationship with an owner or some other entity from potential liability to a

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