| Supreme Court Rules on
Statute of Limitations in Identity Theft Case |
11/13. The Supreme
Court of the U.S. issued its opinion
[PDF] in TRW v. Adelaide Andrews, a case regarding the
running of the two year statute of limitations governing suits
based on the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).
Background. Adelaide Andrews had her identity stolen.
An imposter obtained her name, social security number, and
other information, which she provided to a radiologist. This
imposter then used this information to apply for credit in
Andrews' name. TRW, a credit reporting agency now known as Experian, disclosed her
credit record upon each application.
Lower Courts. Andrews filed a complaint in U.S.
District Court (CDCal) against TRW alleging violation of the
FCRA. She filed her suit 17 months after learning of TRW's
disclosures, but more than two years after the disclosures.
The District Court ruled that the statute of limitations had
run. However, the U.S.
Court of Appeals (9thCir) reversed.
FCRA. The FCRA, 15
U.S.C. § 1681, et seq., requires credit reporting
agencies to maintain reasonable procedures designed to assure
maximum possible accuracy of the information contained in
credit reports, limits the furnishing of such reports to
certain statutorily enumerated purposes, and creates a private
right of action allowing injured consumers to recover any
actual damages caused by negligent violations. It further
provides that suits for violation of the Act must be brought
"within two years from the date on which the liability
arises." However, in the case of willful
misrepresentation, suit must be brought within two years of
discovery by the plaintiff.
Supreme Court. The Supreme Court reversed the decision
of the Ninth Circuit. |
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| 8th Circuit Rules on
Advertising Injury and Copyright Infringement |
11/13. The U.S.
Court of Appeals (8thCir) issued its opinion
[PDF] in GRE
Insurance v. Complete Music, a case regarding
an insurer's duty to indemnify for losses to its policy holder
resulting from copyright infringement by its policy holder.
Complete Music is a franchisor of mobile disc jockey services.
GRE Insurance sold Complete Music an insurance policy that
covered " 'advertising injury' caused by an offense
committed in the course of advertising your goods, products or
services." The policy further provided that "
'Advertising Injury' means injury arising out of one or more
of the following offenses: ... Infringement of copyright,
title or slogan."
Complete Music distributed compilation music discs produced by
another company, which was not licensed to make the discs. In
a separate action, the Recording
Industry Association of America (RIAA) sued Complete Music
for copyright infringement. Complete Music then tendered the
defense to its insurer, GRE, and asserted coverage under the
advertising injury section of the policy. GRE declined
coverage. Complete settled with the RIAA for $650,000.
In the present action, GRE filed a complaint in U.S. District Court (DNeb)
against Complete Music seeking a declaration that it has no
duty under the policy to indemnify Complete Music in the RIAA
action. The District Court ruled for GRE. The Appeals Court
affirmed.
The Appeals Court elaborated that "Complete Music failed
to establish the requisite causal connection between its
advertising activities and the copyright infringement by its
franchisees. The evidence shows that the primary objective of
its advertising activities was to induce the sale of
franchises, not copyright infringement. ... It was the playing
of the copyrighted songs that infringed, and this could have
occurred independent of Complete Music's advertising." |
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| Bush and Putin Meet |
11/13. U.S. President Bush and Russian President Vladimir
Putin issued a joint
statement regarding the U.S. Russian economic
relationship. They stated that "We declare support to
other U.S. Russian investment projects in various fields and,
above all, in high technology areas." They also stated
that both support Russia's goal of joining the World Trade Organization (WTO).
They continued that "We will work together to build
confidence in the climate for trade and investment between our
two countries. An important element of this activity is
Russia's integration into the rules based global trading
system of the World Trade Organization. We confirm our
commitment and place considerable priority to working together
in an effort to accelerate Russia's WTO accession
negotiations, based on standard conditions."
The two Presidents also issued a second
statement in which they said that "The United States
and Russia will cooperate, including through the support of
direct contacts between the business communities of our
countries, to advance U.S. Russian economic, trade, and
investment relations. The achievement of these goals requires
the removal of legislative and administrative barriers, a
transparent, predictable investment climate, the rule of law,
and market based economic reforms. To this end, it is
important to reduce bureaucratic constraints on the economy
and to combat economic crime and corruption."
The White House press office also released a statement
on Russian accession to the WTO. "The United States
strongly supports Russia's goal of World Trade Organization (WTO)
accession, and is committed to helping accelerate the
accession process at a pace acceptable to Russia. ... In order
to accede to the WTO, Russia must negotiate a 'protocol
package' of commitments with WTO Members that require reform
of its trade regime." |
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| More News |
| 11/13. The Senate
Judiciary Committee postponed its hearing to examine
homeland defense issues, focusing on sharing information with
local law enforcement. |
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| Supreme Court Denies Cert
in On Sale Bar Case |
11/13. The Supreme
Court of the U.S. denied a petition for writ of certiorari
in Robotic
Vision Systems v. View Engineering, without
opinion, thereby letting stand an opinion
of the U.S.
Court of Appeals (FedCir) regarding the on sale bar in
patent infringement actions.
On Sale Bar. 35 U.S.C.
§ 102(b) provides that "A person shall be
entitled to a patent unless ... the invention was ... on
sale in this country, more than one year prior to the date of
the application for patent in the United States."
Background. Robotic is the assignee of U.S.
Patent 5,463,227, which discloses a method of scanning the
leads on integrated circuit devices that are arranged in rows
and columns on a multi pocketed tray. The application for the
'227 patent was filed on June 24, 1992, thus making June 24,
1991 the critical date for the purpose of applying § 102(b).
Lower Court Proceedings. As soon as the patent was
granted, Robotic filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court
(CDCal)
against View alleging that its three dimensional scanning
machines infringed the patent '227 patent. View filed a motion
for summary judgment on the grounds that the patent was
invalid under the on sale bar. The District Court held that
claim 1 of the '227 patent is invalid. The District Court
applied the Supreme Court's two part test in Pfaff
v. Wells Electronics, 525 U.S. 55 (1998); the invention
was (1) the subject of a commercial offer for sale before the
critical date, and (2) ready for patenting before the critical
date, and hence, the patent is invalid. The Appeals Court
affirmed on May 7, 2001. |
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| House to Vote on CJS Bill |
| 11/13. The House Rules
Committee adopted a rule
for consideration of the conference report on HR
2500, the Commerce, Justice, State, and the Judiciary
Appropriations Act for FY 2002. This bill includes funding for
most of the technology related agencies and departments,
including the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, FCC, FTC, DOJ,
NTIA, NIST, BXA, and SEC. The rule provides that "All
points of order against the conference report and against its
consideration are waived. The conference report shall be
considered as read." |
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| House Senate Conference to
Take up Bankruptcy Bill |
There will be a conference on HR 333,
the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of
2001 on Wednesday, November 14. The House passed its version
of the bill by a vote of 306 to 108 on March 1. This is a
large and broad bill. However, some provisions relate to
online privacy. Section 231 of the House version requires the
removal of the names of children from bankruptcy filings. In
contrast, Section 231 of the Senate version of the bill,
passed on July 17, prevents the sale by the bankruptcy trustee
of personally identifiable information collected by the
debtor, if the debtor had a policy against disclosure. See, HJC
release.
The House conferees are Sensenbrenner, Hyde, Gekas, Smith
(TX), Chabot, Barr, Conyers, Boucher, Nadler, Watt (NC), Oxley,
Bachus, LaFalce, Tauzin, Barton, Dingell, Boehner, Castle, and
Kildee. The Senate conferees are Leahy, Kennedy, Biden, Kohl,
Feingold, Schumer, Durbin, Hatch, Grassley, Kyl, DeWine,
Sessions and McConnell. |
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| People and Appointments |
11/13. The Board of Directors of Novell announced the
appointment of Novell P/CEO, Jack Messman, as Chairman
of the Board. The former Chairman, Eric Schmidt,
resigned. See, release.
11/13. The Senate confirmed Edith Clement to be a Judge
of the U.S. Court of
Appeals (5thCir) by a vote of 99 to 0.
11/13. Verizon Delaware named Bonnie Metz to the newly
created position of Vice President, Government Affairs. She
will oversee legislative matters, contacts with state and
federal regulatory agencies, and community relations. See, release.
11/13. The Supreme
Court of the United States released its Order
List for November 13. It contains the following item:
"D-2270 IN THE MATTER OF BILL CLINTON Bill Clinton,
of New York, New York, having requested to resign as a member
of the Bar of this Court, it is ordered that his name be
stricken from the roll of attorneys admitted to the practice
of law before this Court. The Rule to Show Cause, issued on
October 1, 2001, is discharged." |
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information page. |
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| About Tech Law Journal |
Tech Law Journal is a free access web site and e-mail alert
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litigation, and regulation affecting the computer and Internet
industry. This e-mail service is offered free of charge to
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Notices
& Disclaimers
Copyright 1998 - 2001 David Carney, dba Tech Law Journal. All
rights reserved. |
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| Wednesday, Nov 14 |
The House will likely take up HR
2500, the Commerce, Justice, State, and the Judiciary
Appropriations Act for FY 2002 Conference Report. This
includes funding most of the technology related agencies and
departments, including the USPTO, FCC, FTC, DOJ, NTIA, NIST,
BXA, and SEC.
8:15 AM - 7:00 PM. Day one of a two day conference hosted by
the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Northwestern
University Law School titled Securities Regulation in the
Global Internet Economy. See, SEC
release. Location: Grand Hyatt Hotel, 1000 H Street NW.
8:30 AM - 4:30 PM. The Cato
Institute will host a conference titled The Future of
Intellectual Property in the Information Age. See, online
conference program. Location: Cato Institute, corner of
Massachusetts Ave. NW and 10th St., Washington DC. The agenda
is:
• 8:45 AM. Keynote address by Rep. Rick Boucher
(D-VA).
• 9:30 AM. Panel 1: What Rights Do We Have in
Our Intangible Intellectual Creations?
• 10:45 AM. Panel 2: Digital Rights Management,
Fair Use and Compulsory Licensing.
• 12:45 PM. Luncheon address by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT).
• 1:30 PM. Panel 3: The Limits of Fair Use and
Anti Circumvention.
• 3:30 PM. Panel 4: Business
Method Patents.
Day three of a three day meeting of the ICANN titled "Security
and Stability of the Internet Naming and Address Allocation
Systems". Location: Marina Beach Marriott,
Marina del Rey, California.
8:30 AM. The Bureau of National Affairs (BNA) will host a day
long event titled "Public Policy Forum: International
E-Commerce & Internet Regulation." See, online brochure. Location:
Omni Shoreham Hotel, 2500 Calvert Street NW (at Connecticut
Ave.).
9:00 AM. Day one of a two day meeting of the Bureau of Export Administration's
Information Systems Technical Advisory Committee (ISTAC). The
ISTAC advises the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Export
Administration on technical questions that affect the level of
export controls applicable to information systems equipment
and technology. Part of this meeting will be opened to the
public, and part will be closed. The items on the open session
agenda include Intel IA64 Roadmap, Applied Micro Devices (AMD)
Roadmap, ultra wide band (UWB) technology, and membership
coverage of control list categories 3 (electronics), 4
(computers), and 5 (telecommunications and information
security). Location: Hoover Building, Room 3884, 14th Street
between Pennsylvania and Constitution Avenues, NW.
10:00 The Senate
Judiciary Committee's Technology, Terrorism, and
Government Information Subcommittee will hold a hearing to
examine new technologies for terrorism prevention, focusing on
biometric identifiers. Location: Room 226, Dirksen Building.
12:15 PM. The FCBA's
Mass Media Practice Committee will host a brown bag lunch. The
speaker will be Ken Ferree, Chief of the FCC's Cable Services Bureau.
Location: NAB, ground
floor conference room, 1771 N Street, NW.
2:00 PM. FTC Chairman Timothy
Muris will participate in a panel discussion at the
American Bar Association Presidential Showcase Program titled
"Antitrust Initiatives in Europe and the United
States." Location: Willard Hotel.
3:00 PM. House Senate conference on HR
333, the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer
Protection Act of 2001. Location: Room SC-5, Capitol
Building.
3:00 - 5:00 PM. The American
Enterprise Institute (AEI) will host a panel discussion on
the book Free
Trade, Sovereignty, Democracy: The Future of the World Trade
Organization (Amazon), by Claude Barfield. Location:
AEI, Wohlstetter Conference Center, Twelfth Floor, 1150 17th
Street, NW. |
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| Thursday, Nov 15 |
Day one of a three day conference hosted by the Federalist Society titled
"Fifteenth Annual National Lawyer's Convention".
See, registration
form and agenda.
Location: The Mayflower Hotel, 1127 Connecticut Ave., NW.
8:00 AM - 5:30 PM. Day two of a two day conference hosted by
the SEC and Northwestern
University titled Securities Regulation in the Global
Internet Economy. See, SEC
release. Location: Grand Hyatt Hotel, 1000 H St. NW.
8:30 - 11:00 AM. The New Millennium Research Council will host
an event titled "The New State of Competition in the
Telecommunications Industry." For more information,
contact Violet Hobsford at 202 263-2941. Location: Murrow
Room, National Press Club, 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor.
8:45 AM. FTC Chairman Timothy
Muris will speak at the American Bar Association
Antitrust Section's Fall Forum titled "New Technologies /
New Administrators". Location: Georgetown University Law
Center.
9:00 AM. Day two of a two day meeting of the BXA's Information
Systems Technical Advisory Committee (ISTAC). Location: Hoover
Building, Room 3884, 14th Street between Pennsylvania and
Constitution Avenues, NW.
10:00 AM. The Senate
Judiciary Committee will hold a business meeting.
Location: Room 226, Dirksen Building.
10:00 AM - 12:00 NOON. The FCC's Advisory Committee 2003 for
the World Radiocommunication Conference will hold a meeting.
See, notice
in Federal Register. Location: TW-C305 (Commission Meeting
Room), FCC, 445 12th Street, SW.
12:15 PM. The FCBA's
Common Carrier Committee will host a brown bag lunch titled
"A Blast from the Past" Views from Former Common
Carrier Bureau Chiefs on Current FCC Common Carrier Policy
& Practice." Location: Wiley
Rein & Fielding, 1750 K Street, 10th Floor.
1:00 PM. The House
Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and
Consumer Protection will hold a hearing titled Cyber
Security: Private Sector Efforts Addressing Cyber Threats. Location:
Room 2322, Rayburn Building.
2:00 PM? The U.S. International Telecommunication Advisory
Committee (ITAC) will hold a meeting regarding preparations
for the 2002 World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC).
See, notice
in Federal Register.
2:00 PM. The House
Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Immigration and
Claims will hold a hearing on HR 3231, a bill to replace the
Immigration and Naturalization Service with the Agency for
Immigration Affairs. Location: Room 2237, Rayburn Building. |
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| Friday, Nov 16 |
Day two of a three day conference hosted by the Federalist Society titled
"Fifteenth Annual National Lawyer's Convention".
See, registration
form and agenda.
Ted Olson, Solicitor General, will speak at 1:45 PM.
Location: Mayflower Hotel, 1127 Connecticut Ave., NW.
10:00 AM. The House
Government Reform Committee's Government Efficiency,
Financial Management and Intergovernmental Relations
Subcommittee will hold a hearing titled Oversight Hearing
on National Identification Cards. Location: Room 2154,
Rayburn Building. |
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