Recent Blog Entries
Federal Patent Law Preempts State Price Regulations
- Lawrence Lassiter
Foreign Privacy: The Canadian PIPEDA
- Julie Machal-Fulks
Largest Patent Verdict in US History Gets Overturned
- Kathleen Kilanowski
Unpleasant Surprises in BSA & SIIA Software Audits
- Christopher Barnett
Attorneys
Jon Scott
Rob Scott
Julie Machal-Fulks
Lawrence Lassiter
Kathleen Kilanowski
Adam Vanek
Christopher Barnett
Upcoming Events
Harvard Privacy Symposium - Summer 2007
8/21/07 - Cambridge, MA 
Managing Software Disputes: Cooperation or Litigation? - Webinar
8/30/07 - Dallas, TX
Data Breach: National Survey Results - Webinar
9/12/07 - Dallas, TX
IAITAM 2007 Annual Conference & Exhibition - Managing Software Disputes
11/7/07 - Rancho Mirage, CA |
New Standard for False Advertising
- by Jon Scott
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has recently clarified the standards for false advertising under the Lanham Act. The court has now indicated that an advertisement can still be false even when it does not explicitly include any false assertions if the entire advertisement, taken as a whole, conveys a false message. But the court also expanded the concept of “puffery” to include advertisements featuring inaccurate images that are so grossly exaggerated that no reasonable consumer would believe them to be true. These dueling concepts may make it more difficult for businesses to discern where the line is drawn with respect to advertising that attacks the competition.
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Texas Attorney General Abbott Declares War on Identity Theft… Again.
- by Adam Vanek
“Texans expect their personal information to remain confidential. The Office of the Attorney General will take all necessary steps to protect consumers from identity thieves.”
– Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott
Last week the Texas Attorney General filed suit against yet another company that disposed of its customers’ confidential personally identifiable information in a publicly accessible trash dumpster. Minnesota-based Lifetime Fitness has been accused of “systematically exposing its customers to identity theft.”
The documents were discovered by a Dallas resident who was looking for empty boxes in trash dumpsters behind local businesses. Instead, the Dallasite found a plastic bag full of credit card receipts with corresponding driver’s license numbers, as well as complete credit card numbers. The concerned citizen reported the incident to the Dallas Police Department, who in turn visited the store manager to investigate the problem. The Lifetime Fitness store manager assured the Dallas Police Department and the concerned citizen that he would shred its customers’ confidential information and dispose of the material properly. The next day, the concerned citizen visited the same dumpster and found that the documents were not completely shredded properly and that he still could read confidential personally identifiable information. Upset that the Lifetime Fitness store manager had not kept his word, the concerned citizen...
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