Legal Commentary

Mainstream Science Rediscovers Neandertal (Neanderthal) Man and Surprise : It is us !

Posted on May 07, 2010
Neandertal is a location in Germany and I have been there. The popular spelling Neanderthal is incorrect. But, that is a minor matter. The Neandertal Genome right now is a blockbuster story, as headlined by the New York Times, Signs of Neanderthals Mating With Humans...

EFF: Facebook Tries to Make User Use of Aggregating Services Into Criminal Trespassing Violations

Posted on May 06, 2010
At EFF Seeks to Protect Innovation for Social Network Users: Facebook Tries to Make Violations of Terms of Use Into Criminal Violations, the Electronic Frontier Foundation writes: "The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is urging a federal judge to dismiss Facebook's claims that criminal law is violated when its users opt for an add-on service that helps them aggregate their information from a variety of social networking sites...

European Court of Justice Sets Absolute $1450 (1000 Special Drawing Rights - SDR) Liability Limit on Lost Baggage of Airline Passengers

Posted on May 06, 2010
Stephanie Bodoni at BusinessWeek.com writes that EU Airline Passengers Can?t Get More Than $1,450 for Lost Bags. The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg has issued press release 43/10, dated 6 May 2010, in the case C-63/09, Axel Walz v Clickair SA, writing at the outset: "The Court confirms that the liability of air carriers for loss of baggage is limited to ?1134...

What Not to Post on Facebook and Other Social Networks to Protect Our Privacy

Posted on May 05, 2010
In the Los Angeles Times at Internet Security 101: What not to post on Facebook Alex Pham provides us with a list of seven things which, according to Consumer Report, we should "stop doing now" on social networks to protect our privacy.

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The Great Exploiter: Facebook Moves from Social Networking to Social Exploitation: How to Opt Out of Facebook Sharing YOUR Personal Data with the Rest of the World in Order to Make Money FOR THEM

Posted on May 04, 2010
At MyFoxNY.com in Facebook to Share Your Information for Money, we discovered that Facebook is beginning to use, indeed, share with the world -- YOUR data -- in order to make money for the company, a practice totally contrary to the original social networking purpose of the Facebook website...

International and Domestic Liltigants: "Nerve Center" Test for Corporate Citizenship in the United States

Posted on May 04, 2010
We had intended - but forgot - to post about this some time ago because it is an important case both for international as well as domestic litigants: O'Melveny Secures Unanimous US Supreme Court Victory for Hertz; Court Adopts "Nerve Center" Test for Corporate Citizenship

Congress: U.S. Lawmakers Release Draft Legislation of New Online and Offline Privacy Rules as Legislators Seek to Provide Protections Afforded by e.g. European Union EU Law

Posted on May 04, 2010
New Congressional draft legislation outlining online and offline privacy rules has been released. Stephanie Clifford at the New York Times writes in Privacy Bill Finally in Draft, as Both Sides Weigh In: "A long-awaited draft of a Congressional bill would push American privacy legislation closer to the strict rules that the European Union uses, and would extend privacy protections both on the Internet and offline...

Facebook's Former Privacy Chief Criticizes Instant Personalization

Posted on May 04, 2010
Facebook has put out a new feature which is justifably incurring the wrath of the world, including ours. See Facebook's Former Privacy Chief Criticizes 'Instant Personalization'

Who Invented GPS? Is a Patent Ruckus Brewing Over the Claimed Invention of GPS Navigation Technology and the Attendant Patent 3,789,409 ?

Posted on May 04, 2010
Who invented GPS? The question is an important one because it has a disputed answer and as such throws light on the question of what kinds of things should be patentable -- or, stated more generally -- should private persons be able to patent "claimed" parts of inventions which, as a whole, were demonstrably designed by many people and financed by billion-dollar outlays by the United States government? This question applies to a lot of the government-funded research at universities which in the past has led to private persons obtaining patent monopolies by which they subsequently rip off the taxpaying citizenry and establish vast technological empires - originally paid for by Uncle Sam, as the nation itself flounders for cash while private interests swim in patent monopoly money...

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Selected World Countries per capita in U.S. Dollars at Current Prices 2009 - Source: IMF Chart Generator as adapted by LawPundit | Denmark Leads the Normal World in Income Equality

Posted on May 04, 2010
We put together the following chart for internal use recently and pass it on as a potentially useful piece of information in assessing the world economic and political situation. It is singularly remarkable that the country with the highest GDP for a "normal economy", i...

Interactive Maps of the Status of Debt in Europe -- New York Times

Posted on May 03, 2010
Take a look at this set of interactive maps in the Global Business section of the New York Times -- Debt Rising in Europe.

Gene Quinn at IPWatchDog.com has an On the Record Interview about Judging with Judge Randall Rader, who is slated to become the New Chief Judge of the Federal Circuit when Chief Judge Michel retires

Posted on May 02, 2010
Gene Quinn at IPWatchdog.com has a delightful On the Record Interview with Judge Randall Rader who is next in line to replace Chief Judge Redmond Michel as the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, who has announced that he will retire May 31, 2010...

A Contributing Cause to the Greek Government's Financial Problems : Large-Scale Tax Evasion : Analysis of GDP in Euro Area States

Posted on May 02, 2010
We generated the following chart at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) World Economic Outlook Database online for GDP, current prices, expressed in U.S. $$ for the Euro area 2009, i.e. not including all EU States (please note that we have retained the IMF original footnotes but have shortened some of the labels from the original chart to make the chart fit on LawPundit: You will find notes on the data and options to download the table below your results...

The Law and the Sun, Moon and Stars : The Religious Symbols of Mankind and Salazar v. Buono

Posted on April 30, 2010
 We refer here to our previous post on Salazar v. Buono -- i.e. the Mohave Cross case. To understand law, it helps to understand the history of law. To understand the history of law, it helps to understand the history of civilization. To understand the history of civilization, it helps to understand the history of religion...

Ann Claire Williams, Chicago Judge, On Supreme Court Short List, Says White House

Posted on April 30, 2010
Ann Claire Williams, Chicago Judge, On Supreme Court Short List, Says White House

Are "BigLaw" Law Firms at an End? HARDLY. The American Lawyer Releases the Am Law 100 of 2010 Ranking of Top Law Firms : Earnings and Compensation

Posted on April 30, 2010
The American Lawyer has released the new 2010 Am Law 100 ranking of the top law firms in the United States by revenues, profits, compensation etc. There was a lot of talk in the media in the past two years about how the financial credit crisis would substantially change the legal scene, especially at "BigLaw" law firms...

Who Will Obama Nominate for the Supreme Court Seat to be Vacated by Justice Stevens? Ann Claire Williams Looks Like a Good Possibility

Posted on April 30, 2010
What candidate is likely to be Obama's Supreme Court nomination for the seat to be vacated by Justice John Paul Stevens? Stevens is going into retirement at age 90 at the end of this term, having served on SCOTUS since December 19, 1975. Could Obama nominate a black woman to this position successfully at this point in time, or should he wait until a more opportune time - e...

Salazar v. Buono : The Right Decision Was Issued -- Narrowly: The Symbol of the Cross and the Separation of Church and State are Compatible

Posted on April 29, 2010
Some time ago, Ernie the Attorney wrote: "Ah, symbols. What would we do without our rules and our symbols?"Well, we just had an important U.S. Supreme Court decision on symbols, Salazar v. Buono - thankfully, the United States Supreme Court reached the right result in this just issued case decision by the narrowest of margins, with some members of the United States Supreme Court and lower courts -- in our opinion -- in need of taking a refresher course in the History of Western Civilization...

FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) Patents Blog

Posted on April 29, 2010
FOSS Patents is a blog by Florian Mueller that:"[C]overs how software patents threaten free and open source software (FOSS) and what action can be taken to deal with the threat."As Florian Mueller writes:"Florian Mueller is a software developer and government affairs professional...

Part I of Semantic Lawyering by Brian Harley at STLR: How the Semantic Web Will Transform the Practice of Law : The Problem of Too Much Legal Data

Posted on April 29, 2010
Brian Harley at The Columbia Science and Technology Law Review (STLR.org) presents Part I of Semantic Lawyering: How the Semantic Web Will Transform the Practice of Law and the problem of too much legal data.

Republican Candidates Have a Good Chance to Take Congressional Seats Away From the Democratic Party in the Next Election

Posted on April 29, 2010
The Obama administration is on course to implement some of the changes promised during the election campaign, a political success which has understandably ushered in a backlash of opposition in some quarters. Jeff Zeleny and Adam Nagourney at the New York Times warn that in the next election the G...

The Legal 500 2010: Europe, Middle East & Africa > Latvia - The Clients Guide to the best Law firms, top Lawyers, Attorneys, Advocates, Solicitors and Barristers in Latvia

Posted on April 28, 2010
The Legal 500 2010: Europe, Middle East & Africa > Latvia - The Clients Guide to the best Law firms, top Lawyers, Attorneys, Advocates, Solicitors and Barristers in Latvia

Techrights.org is a Wiki on Tech Rights : It Covers Things Like Software Patents

Posted on April 28, 2010
Take a look at Techrights.org, a Wiki on tech rights covering things like software patents.

Future Courtroom Seating Chart of the Supreme Court of the United States : Who Will Be the New Number Nine?

Posted on April 28, 2010
For the current seating of the Supreme Court Justices, see the United States Supreme Court seating page with the photographs of the Justices at SCOTUS and the current seating chart here. We also have a criticism of the Google search algorithm used here, which appears to be materially flawed...

Bilski v. Kappos at ScotusWiki : The Background of the Machine or Transformation Patent Test : How Will the Supreme Court Decide?

Posted on April 28, 2010
The Supreme Court decision regarding "the machine or transformation test" in patent law is pending and will be issued soon. For background, a good read is Bilski v. Kappos at the Scotus Wiki as authored by Lyle Denniston of SCOTUSblog: see Bilski v. Kappos - ScotusWiki

The Nissan Qashqai as an Electric Taxi With Switchable Batteries in a Japan Debut

Posted on April 27, 2010
Remember the August 2009 LawPundit posting where we suggested to Standardize Electric Car Batteries so that Drivers can quickly exchange Battery Units at Charging Stations rather than charge a Car's Own Batteries? Denise Ngo reports at Popular Science that Electric Taxis With Switchable Batteries Debut in Japan The car you see above in a photo linked from Popular Science is a Nissan Qashqai, a car designed in the UK, but not available for sale in the USA (probably because it is yet too small for the American size-addicted market)...

The Legal 500 UK 2009 - The Clients Guide to the best Law firms, top Lawyers, Attorneys, Advocates, Solicitors and Barristers in the UK

Posted on April 27, 2010
The Legal 500 UK 2009 - The Clients Guide to the best Law firms, top Lawyers, Attorneys, Advocates, Solicitors and Barristers in the UK

The Legal 500 2010: Europe, Middle East & Africa > Germany - The Clients Guide to the best Law firms, top Lawyers, Attorneys, Advocates, Solicitors and Barristers in Germany

Posted on April 27, 2010
The Legal 500 2010: Europe, Middle East & Africa > Germany - The Clients Guide to the best Law firms, top Lawyers, Attorneys, Advocates, Solicitors and Barristers in Germany

The US Legal 500 2009 > US - The Clients Guide to the best Law firms, top Lawyers, Attorneys, Advocates, Solicitors and Barristers in US

Posted on April 27, 2010
The US Legal 500 2009 > US - The Clients Guide to the best Law firms, top Lawyers, Attorneys, Advocates, Solicitors and Barristers in US

Is Just Yeast Justice? An Ultimate Patent Question and All About Evolution, Intelligent Design and Creation: Genes and the Human Genome

Posted on April 27, 2010
Here is an ultimate -- hypothetical -- patent question, based on the following article and gene patenting, which some observers -- in our view, erroneously -- support: If a researcher "discovers" a gene in yeast that later turns up in the human genome, can he claim patent rights to that gene in humans and elsewhere, no matter where that gene turns up? Only a view that "genes" are not and should not be patentable leads to a sane solution...

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