Technically Legal

In this special episode we discuss the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Bilski v. Kappos.

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Comments Off Posted in: Podcast on June 29, 2010

Today the Supreme Court handed down its long awaited opinion in Bilski v. Kappos.

The opinion, authored by Justce Kennedy, affirms the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, which held that the patent on hedging investments was invalid.

We discussed this way back in November on podcast episode 25. We’ll be doing more detailed analysis over the next few days.

Comments Off Posted in: Links on June 28, 2010

Quon and SMS Privacy, AT&T Security Breaches, and FTC Wants to Save the Newspaper

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Quon and SMS Privacy

Analysis: Hints on texting privacy
The Opinion

AT&T Security Breaches

iPhone 4 Order Security Breach Exposes Personal Information
FBI Investigates iPad Data Breach
AT&T Explains iPad Security Breach

FTC Wants to Save Newspaper

Potential Policy Recommendations To Support The Reinvention Of Journalism

1 Comment Posted in: Podcast on June 21, 2010

In a bit of a surprise, the Supreme Court released its opinion in Quon today. The case was argued in April, and the court reverses the 9th Circuit. The Supreme Court held that the search of the officer’s text messages was constitutional.

The court realized that there was some significance in the case, but resolved it purely on a whether the search was reasonable. More detailed analysis to come. We last discussed this case in podcast episode 31.

As of writing, we’re still waiting on Bilski, which was argued in November. It’s the only outstanding case from November.

Comments Off Posted in: Links on June 17, 2010

The new story about the Bilski case is how long it has taken the Supreme Court to release the opinion. The good folks at Patently-O have found a chart indicating the amount of time elapsed between oral argument and a written opinion in eighteen recent patent cases taken by the Supreme Court.

The average wait is about ninety days, with a median of seventy-seven. The nearest competitor to Bilski is KSR v. Teleflex, which totally re-wrote obviousness law, or, depending on how you look at it, brought the Federal Circuit back in line with what it always should have been. KSR took 153 days, meanwhile, Bilski will be a minimum of 210 days before its release. The next day opinions will be released is the 7th, with the last day to release opinions being the 28th of June. There is always a chance, albeit a slim one, that Bilski will be re-argued next term, if the Justices can’t come to a decision, or think one issue wasn’t sufficiently addressed the first time around.

So far no one is really revising what they think the outcome will be based on the delay, but delays in releasing cases generally indicates that the court is fragmented on how they want to rule. This would be a stark departure from recent patent cases taken by the Supreme Court, which have been decided unanimously.

Comments Off Posted in: Commentary on June 1, 2010

SCOTUS to consider legality of CA restrictions of video game sales to minors, Sony Class Action over disabling Linux on PS3s, and statutory damages for record sales.

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SCOTUS considers CA Video Game Law

Supreme Court Will Hear California Video Game Statute Appeal
9th Circuit Opinion

Sony Class Action

PS3 Linux class action lawsuit coming at ya
The Complaint

1 Statutory Damage Award Per Record

Record Album Only Supports One Statutory Damages Award–Bryant v. Media Right
The Opinion
April 2009 Quick Links

2 Comments Posted in: Podcast on May 3, 2010

The Supreme Court of the United States has agreed to hear a case challenging a California law which limits the sale of violent vido games.

The law, which was found invalid by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, likens video game violence to sexually obscene content. However, the Supreme Court has never held that fictional depictions of violence can legally be banned or regulated under the First Amendment.

We’ll watch this case closely, but it will not be argued until the fall, and a decision should not be expected until the Winter or Spring of 2011.

Comments Off Posted in: Links on April 26, 2010

The Supreme Court yesterday held argument in Quon a case which presents the question of what, if any, privacy interest a state employee has in text messages sent over an alpha-numeric pager provided by his employer.

We covered this way back in podcast 31. This isn’t a great case to address this issue, largely because the police department says they told all the employees they had no expectation of privacy in the text messages they sent. There’s also a wrinkle in that the government says that Quon could have just paid for the overage and not have been subject to the search. Also, the Supreme Court didn’t seem to be able to wrap its head around alpha-numeric pagers, which is worrisome.

Comments Off Posted in: Links on April 20, 2010

Yesterday I mentioned on our twitter feed that the Supreme Court released an opinion relating to copyright law. Evan Brown, of Internet Cases and a regular TWiL panelist, wrote up a post that goes over the facts and ruling of the case. This case is a little dry, but if you’re interested, please hop over to his blog and check it out.

Comments Off Posted in: Links on March 3, 2010

In a 5-4 decision the Supreme Court said that the Prop 8 trial could not be broadcast. The gist of the opinion is that there are proper ways to make new rules for the court that would allow broadcast, and those rules weren’t followed here. Much more at the link above.

Comments Off Posted in: Links on January 14, 2010