Social Media

Perkins Coie was ranked #4 on the Top Law Firms for Patent Quality in Information Technology and #6 on the Top 20 All Industries list put on by Intellectual Asset Management magazine in accordance with Ocean Tomo PatentRatings. Ocean Tomo is a patent ratings company that specializes in assigning value to intellectual patents.

Perkins Coie Partner Albert Gidari testified today before the Committee on the House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, on the need for reform of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). Gidari noted that ECPA is 25 years old and its application to many new services like cloud computing, social networking and location-based services is unclear. He called for clear rules for service providers to disclose user content, communications and information and for more transparency about the amount of information collected by governmental agencies. Read written testimony.

Retailers and manufacturers are feeling the pressure to engage their customers through social media. But, many executives are concerned about legal risks and the conservative advice received from lawyers. Tom Bell addresses these risks and cautious counsel in "Social Savvy," an article authored by Bell and published by American Executive.

Brian Flock authored an article published by Law360 entitled "What Employers Need to Know About Social Media," covering employee and corporate use of social networking tools and how to avoid common pitfalls and mistakes. In the article, Flock suggests that the key to avoiding these issues is to work to develop policies and practices that will foster professional and proper use of social networking tools by both employees and the organization.

Brian Flock was quoted in an article in the September 2009 Law Supplement to the Puget Sound Business Journal, stating: "For retailers [social media] is a huge issue. . . . Many retailers are using social media sites to deal with customers-service problems or to make business connections and promote their brands." The article, authored by Greg Lamm, surveyed the range of potential problems employers face with more and more employees now using social media not just personally, but professionally. Flock is a member of Perkins Coie's Social Media Industry Group, and a frequent commenter on the pitfalls that employers face when their employees use social media. He can be followed on Twitter @brianflock.

Perkins Coie Partner and social media team lead, Tom Bell, recently authored an opinion piece published in Computerworld. The article highlighted what legal land mines companies should proactively seek to avoid when participating in social media, and the policies they should adopt for better protection.

On August 21, 2012, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York held that poker is a game of skill and thus running a poker game or business is not subject to federal prosecution under the federal Illegal Gambling Business Act ("IGBA").  Following on the heels of the Justice Department's September 20, 2011 ruling that the Wire Act (which prohibits using wire-line communications to place or receive bets) only applied to sports betting, last week's ruling may be another step toward legalizing online poker.

Earlier this year, Washington state legislators unanimously passed the nation's first criminal law requiring age verification for commercial sexual services advertisements depicting minors. The landmark law's goals are laudable, but its broad reach has some on-line service providers and traditional publishers concerned. For example, on-line service providers that allow users to post content and images on their sites, including on social networking sites, dating sites, discussion forums, blogs and chat rooms, could now face criminal exposure, even if they have absolutely no interest in placing, or permitting the placement of, such ads.

Just as more professionals have started taking advantage of social media to develop and grow their business, the financial services industry is following suit.  However, given the highly regulated nature of this industry, financial services professionals must be aware of special regulatory considerations when utilizing social networking tools.

On September 15, 2011, the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") released the changes it is proposing to make to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (required by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or "COPPA"), which has been in effect since 2000. To address technological developments in the past decade, the FTC is recommending a number of changes.

There have been many recent changes in the world of domain names.  This is the fourth in a series of updates on these issues.  It is intended to keep you informed about issues that are important to brand owners and any others with a significant web presence.

In a matter of months, the amount of "Internet real estate"—which has been static for the past several years—will expand dramatically. Companies, organizations, cities and others will be able to apply to ICANN to launch new domain spaces using brand names (for example, .nike), generic terms (such as .shoes) and locations (such as .nyc).