In its recent decision in Elliot v. Google, the Ninth Circuit reinforced Google’s trademark significance against claims that the mark “google” should be canceled under the Lanham Act due to the public’s verb usage of the trademark. The public’s “verbing” of popular marks has become a particularly onerous problem for internet and technology trademark owners …
Blockchain technology has been hailed as a world-altering breakthrough that will change the ways information is stored, contracts are executed, and transactions are made. Blockchains are being integrated into a myriad of industries, but the law has been slow to respond to these implementations. However, this has not stopped supemerging companies, like Ascribe,1 from trumpeting …
Applying the perspectives of law, technology, and economics, this article explores the privacy concerns arising from the ability of search engines and web domain owners to indiscriminately track an individual’s health-related internet searches. Using the hypothetical example of a forty-year-old woman diagnosed with high cholesterol who turns to Google to begin gathering data about her …
The prospect of digital manipulation on major online platforms reached fever pitch in the last election cycle in the United States. Jonathan Zittrain’s concern about “digital gerrymandering” found resonance in reports, which were resoundingly denied by Facebook, of the company’s alleged editing of content to tone down conservative voices. At the start of the last …
The Biblical story of the Tower of Babel illuminates contemporary efforts to secure ourselves from global catastrophic threats. Our advancing knowledge has allowed us to specify with greater clarity the Floods that we face (asteroids, supervolcanoes, gamma-ray bursts, etc.); our galloping powers of technology have spawned a new class of human-generated dangers (climate change, nuclear …
A genome editing revolution of unprecedented magnitude— spearheaded by a scientific breakthrough called CRISPR—is underway. This powerful technology has enabled scientists to precisely edit genes and is challenging long-held conventions of how humans view life. The incipient power to control and alter the genetic destiny of living organisms, including plants and animals intended for human …
Grid modernization holds the alluring promise of rationalizing electricity pricing, saving consumers money, and improving environmental quality all at the same time. Yet, we have seen only limited and patchwork regulatory initiatives towards significant grid modernization in the United States. Outside of a few leading states, state energy regulators appear loath to embrace full- throated …
An array of new state policies and declining costs for clean energy technologies have opened electricity markets to many new participants, including electric utilities’ own customers. Most low- income customers, however, lack the resources to access these markets. Indeed, low-income customers already face disproportionately high energy and transportation burdens. Regulators and utilities have expressed concerns …
Through a historical analysis spanning nearly five decades, this Article provides a comprehensive discussion of how demand response (reductions in electricity consumption in response to grid emergencies or price signals) has become both a growing resource on the electric grid and a policy trailblazer in the grid’s ongoing transformation. The discussion centers on three separate …
Uber, a company that offers ride-sharing arrangements through its smartphone app, has quickly grown in popularity. As Uber grows in widespread use, injuries involving rides arranged through Uber have been on the rise. Uber maintains that it is a technology platform that connects users on its app, not a transportation company. Such a characterization would …
