Balough
December 7, 2013
A company that places pop-up ads on your computer when you search for a competitor’s website is not using the competitor’s trademark, a federal appellate court ruled. 1-800-Contacts, Inc. sued WhenU.com for the company’s practice of placing pop-up ads of other contact lens companies on a computer when the user types in 1-800-Contacts. The trial […]
Balough
December 7, 2013
A company that falsely claimed to have scanned consumers’ computers and detected spyware when, in fact, no scanning occurred, has been barred from making such false claims in the future. Trustsoft, Inc., which does business as Swanksoft, SpyKiller and SpyKiller.com agreed to a preliminary injunction that bars the Texas company from engaging in deceptive advertising […]
Balough
December 7, 2013
If you are throwing away any records or an old computer with consumer personal information, you must now take reasonable steps to ensure that the information is deleted or destroyed. Under Federal Trade Commission rules effective June 1, 2005, any business that maintains or possess consumer information must take reasonable measures to prevent unauthorized access […]
Balough
December 7, 2013
People need to be careful of credit information that they give or throw away, Richard C. Balough said in an article appearing in the New York Daily News. In an article discussing what steps consumers can take to protect their credit, the Daily News cited Balough as an expert in privacy rights. Balough told the […]
Balough
December 7, 2013
It’s a hairy situation, but the Ninth Circuit has trimmed the ability of a hair replacement clinic to sue for trademark infringement. A dissatisfied customer of the Bosley Medical Institute, Inc. decided the best way to get even with what he felt was a bad restoration and replacement of his hair by the clinic was […]
Balough
December 7, 2013
Those ranchers who had a beef about paying the government for generic advertising promoting beef had their First Amendment claims butchered by the Supreme Court. In a 6-3 decision, the court said that promotions urging people to eat beef funded by a mandatory $1 a head tax on all cattle sold or imported into the […]
Balough
December 7, 2013
There is no need to authenticate emails using the internet protocol address, an Illinois appellate court has ruled. To the court, emails are no different than reply letters. The ruling came in a criminal case where a 22 year-old was found guilty of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a 16 year-old. The court found that […]
Balough
December 7, 2013
A crude and offensive letter from a prisoner to President Bush endorsing the actions of Bin Laden is protected speech, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. The letter from a prison in the Oregon State Penitentiary contained the sentence “You Will Die too George W Bush real Soon They Promissed [sic] That you […]
Balough
December 7, 2013
A Georgia statute that criminalized telephone calls that were indecent, lewd, lascivious and filthy as well as obscene has been declared unconstitutional by that state’s supreme court. In McKenzie v. State, McKenzie was convicted of violating the statute for making a telephone call to a 14-year old girl while he was in prison. McKenzie was […]
Balough
December 7, 2013
Your cheating heart may tell on you, but the spyware on the computer that captures the cheating in real time may not be admissible in court. A Florida appeals court found that spyware installed on a cheating husband’s computer by his wife resulted in an illegal intercept of communications in violation of a state law […]
