E-Commerce

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 Dax Hansen was quoted this week in an article published by Internet Retailer, "Changing Their Stripes." The article discusses initiatives recently launched by Visa and MasterCard Worldwide in response to an increase in e-commerce and the rise of online competitors like PayPal and Facebook Credits. One example is MasterCard's Open APIs, which according to the article "is designed to make it easier for mobile and web developers to integrate MasterCard payments into their applications." The author quoted Hansen as saying this "appears aimed at developers looking for ways to sell games, music and other digital content to mobile consumers." "Developers are looking for flexible, easy solutions that don't require customers to input their card numbers," Hansen says.

Perkins Coie Partner Barry Reingold was quoted this week in an article published by BNA entitled, "'Cloud' Customers Facing Contracts With Huge Liability Risks, Attorneys Say."  The article focuses on the risks companies face when they agree to store their data with third party providers. Reingold said companies in regulated industries like health care and banking need to be especially careful. "You may lose physical control over your data, but you never lose legal responsibility," he told BNA.

The mobile commerce industry is rapidly expanding. New commerce business models are being developed and their number is increasing. In this article published by E-Finance & Payments Law & Policy, Perkins Coie attorneys Dax Hansen and Matthew Senechal offer one approach to organizing and classifying the many different mobile commerce business models, assess the legal issues applicable to particular business models and summarize some of the core and emerging US legal issues applicable to mobile commerce solutions.

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.

Perkins Coie Associate Miriam D'Jaen published an article this month in E-Commerce Law Reports on Raggi v. Las Vegas Metro Police Dept., a case that determined whether a law enforcement personnel union was liable for posting offensive content on its Web site.  D'Jaen explained in the article that the case highlights the need for companies "to take proactive, strategic steps to minimize legal exposure for the online activities of third parties."

This is the latest opinion in the ongoing litigation arising out of a massive data breach suffered by Hannaford Bros. grocery stores. In re Hannaford Bros. Privacy Litigation, __F. Supp. 2d __, Case No. 2:08-MD-1954-DBH, 2013 WL 1182733 (D. Me. Mar. 20, 2013).

To address a perceived gap in regulatory treatment of increasingly popular virtual currencies, including Bitcoin, the U.S. Department of the Treasury Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) released new guidance on March 18, 2013.

A federal judge in the Northern District of California recently added to the growing list of cases rejecting attempts to recover damages resulting from data breaches.  In In re LinkedIn User Privacy Litigation, Case no. 5:12-CV-03088 EJD (March 6, 2013), the court dismissed a lawsuit brought by LinkedIn users who were upset over the June 2012 posting of 6.5 million stolen LinkedIn user passwords.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which is charged with enabling and securing the Internet, has been hard at work on a significant expansion project.

The California Supreme Court recently issued a landmark ruling in Apple Inc. v. Superior Court (formerly Krescent v. Apple Inc. in trial court proceedings), a case with wide-reaching implications for consumer privacy in e-commerce. The issue before the Court was whether California’s Song-Beverly Credit Card Act (the Act), which generally prohibits retailers from collecting or requesting personal identification information (PII) as a condition of accepting credit card payments, should apply to online retailers.

As more countries join the Madrid Protocol System for the International Registration of Marks (Madrid System), trademark owners should be sure to take full advantage of this trademark registration option.  There are now 89 members of the Madrid System.  Significantly lower application and maintenance costs, as well as streamlined portfolio management options, are just a few of the reasons why the Madrid System is advantageous for trademark owners.