As opioid deaths continue to rise to over 130 people a day, the state of Massachusetts is beginning to take legal action on the companies and individuals responsible for fueling the epidemic. In a complaint launched on January 31, 2019, Attorney General Maura Healey charged Purdue Pharma Inc. and seventeen others with engaging in deadly, …
In 2015, China’s President, Xi Jinping, entered into an agreement with U.S. President Barack Obama whereby China agreed to refrain from hacking the United States and American based corporations. The agreement sparked a new wave in what seemed to be an increase in Chinese cyber intrusions. However, despite the short-term effects of that deal, Chinese …
The showdown before the Supreme Court is unprecedented: Oracle Corp. has come head-to-head with Google. And what exactly are these two tech giants fighting about? Smartphone software. Oracle is suing Google for using pieces of the Java software language in the Android platform, alleging copyright infringement. Such a decision regarding the intersection of copyright law …
The gerrymandering of congressional districts is a huge issue in North Carolina politics. The N.C. state legislature has exhibited a pattern of redrawing voting districts for their own political gain, sometimes subtly and at other times blatantly. In 2010 the census was taken and in 2011 maps that reflected North Carolina’s Congressional districts were redrawn. …
On January 14, 2019, a think tank composed of tech industry giants such as Google, Amazon, and Microsoft offered a “’Grand Bargain” to Congress and the American people alike. The Grand Bargain, authored by The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), states that “Congress should repeal and replace existing federal laws with a common set …
In 2018, carbon dioxide emissions in the United States rose an estimated 3.4 percent compared to previous years. Despite coal plants retiring last year, greenhouse gas emissions from “factories, planes, and trucks soared.” As climate change impacts continue to be realized both internationally and domestically, U.S. legislators are seeking innovative solutions to mitigate and account …
Despite a lagged government at the beginning of the new year, IP related claims from a variety of all industries and places are already piling up. Summarized by IPWatchDog’s “Other Barks & Bites” column, among the notable are China’s Beijing intellectual property courts that have created new formal requirements, the European Parliament members canceled meeting …
Apple faced public scrutiny when viral videos surfaced showing a glaring bug with Apple’s FaceTime feature that allowed the caller to hear conversations and even see video from the person being called before that person accepted or rejected the call. The bug appears to only appear during group chats (chats with more than 2 people), …
Daniel Chen, a professor and researcher at the Toulouse School of Economics and a member of the University of Toulouse Faculty of Law in Toulouse, France, recently suggested in a working paper that artificial intelligence has the potential to show judges how their behavioral biases inform their judicial decision-making. He begins the paper by highlighting …
As American companies expand into the markets of other countries, they are tasked with learning how to adhere to those countries’ laws and customs while preserving the integrity of their services and goals. For instance, Google has come under fire for trying to release a version of their search engine in China that complied with …
