Legal Updates

Earlier this month, a power outage struck a Samsung wafer fabrication plant near Pyeongtaek, South Korea. Although the outage only lasted about half an hour, it reportedly interrupted production to a point that it damaged tens of thousands of processed wafers. The damage wiped out an estimated 3.5 percent of the global NAND flash supply…

Most people are aware of the risks post by the IoT, but few are prepared. In a report released last month, Cisco warned that supply chain attacks are “increasing in velocity and complexity,” cautioning that the attacks can “impact computers on a massive scale and can persist for months or even years.”[1] Last year, the…

In today’s legal world, a gap exists between general liability policies and cyber policies. For those who are not familiar with these two principles, policies concerning general liability typically cover bodily injury and property damage to a third party. However, many exclude damages caused by the loss of electronic data. Cyber policies, on the other…

The world is more connected than ever before. Everyday objects, such as refrigerators, microwaves, baby monitors, printers, etc. are now online. The network of these Internet-connected objects is commonly called the “Internet of Things” (also known as “IoT”), which has been celebrated as the next big technology revolution. The Business Insider predicts that by 2021,…

In recent years, the threat of ransomware attacks has become an important focus of concern, both as a national security vulnerability and as a significant business risk. In fact, this past June, the East coast was hit with a ransomware attack from a virus called Petya, which affected thousands of computers in more than 150…

The Federal Circuit has issued a significant ruling in the ongoing debate surrounding venue in patent infringement cases. As we mentioned in August, the Supreme Court’s ruling in TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Brands LLC, 581 U.S. ____, (2017) held that, for purposes of the patent venue statute, a defendant “resides” only in the…

As a matter of policy and law, California has long prohibited noncompetition agreements designed by employers to prevent their former employees from working for a competitor. Edwards v. Arthur Anderson, 44 Cal. 4th 937 (2008). But companies with headquarters outside California (so-called “foreign employers”), in states where noncompetes are legal, have sought to bind their…

In the latest example of a craft beer maker being bought out by a larger competitor, Japan’s Sapporo Holdings Ltd. has acquired San Francisco’s venerable Anchor Brewing Company. This follows a string of similar deals, including Anheuser-Busch InBev’s purchase of Wicked Weed Brewing and Heineken’s buyout of Lagunitas Brewing Co., among others. As with most…

New questions continue to arise in the fight against forum shopping by patent trolls. The Supreme Court’s recent ruling in TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC, 581 U.S. ____ (2017) appeared to undermine an important basis patent plaintiffs had used to haul defendants into remote courts. But new developments, which have arisen…