26 March 2012
Patents: Where will the dust settle after Yahoo and Facebook have fought it out?
Late nights for Facebook’s legal team in the wake of Yahoo! filing a suit against the social network claiming that it operates in breach of ten patents held in Yahoo’s portfolio.
Outsiders were quick to note that Yahoo didn’t seem to have a problem with Facebook’s technology until very recently, many going so far as to speculate that Yahoo’s decision to go to court may have less to do with defending intellectual property and more to do with securing a settlement paid in equity before Facebook goes public later this year.
As well as underscoring the importance of patenting innovations at the first possible opportunity, Yahoo’s claim raises interesting questions about whether current software patenting regimes (both in the UK and US) are viable in the longer term.
21 March 2012
Defamation and Unlawful Acts Online: Blogger defends its right to provide access to controversy
Tamiz v Google Inc is the latest in a series of cases in which individuals have sought damages from Google in respect of allegedly defamatory material published about them on its ‘Blogger.com’ platform.
Google’s usual policy for dealing with such complaints is to refuse to take sides, awaiting a court order before taking action. This approach has led to cases such as Tamiz, in which defendants have sued Google directly after it has denied takedown requests.
14 March 2012
The EU Objection to Google’s Combined Privacy Policy Explained – It’s not what you do, it’s the way that you do it
March is proving to be an exciting month for European technology and privacy lawyers, notably with the Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL)’s announcement that Google’s new privacy policy is likely to be in breach of European Law.