by Kevin Coates | May 7, 2014 | News from around the Web
From Kluwer Competition Law Blog: Premier League fans in Europe worse off after Murphy judgment “TMC Asser Institute TMC Asser Institute When the European Court of Justice (CJ) delivered its judgment in joined cases FA Premier League v QC Leisure and others (C-403/08) and Karen Murphy v Media Protection Services (C-429/08) (Murphy), it was deemed a radical game-changer … Continue reading → • Leave a comment on Premier League fans in Europe worse off after Murphy judgment...
by Kevin Coates | Apr 24, 2014 | News from around the Web
From Law360: Competition: FCC To Introduce New Open Internet Rules “The Federal Communications Commission will reportedly propose new net neutrality rules on Thursday that would allow content creators to pay Internet providers to guarantee faster access to consumers, replacing the regulations struck down by the D.C. Circuit in...
by Kevin Coates | Apr 24, 2014 | News from around the Web
From Antitrust Law Blog: Microsoft-Nokia: China’s MOFCOM Quietly Slips Into the Debate about Injunctive Relief for FRAND-encumbered SEPs “This past November and December, the US Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and European Commission (“EC”) cleared Microsoft Corporation’s (“Microsoft”) acquisition of the bulk of the devices and services business of Nokia Corporation of Finland (“Nokia”) without any conditions. In contrast, on April 8, 2014, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (“MOFCOM”) approved the acquisition subject to … Continue...
by Kevin Coates | Apr 15, 2014 | News from around the Web
From CPI RSS: On the Relationship Between Media Plurality Legislation and Competition Law “ Recent events in the United Kingdom, including the furor surrounding the newspaper "phone hacking" scandal which led to the Leveson report, have focused attention on possible new legislation concerning media plurality. These events follow an inquiry in the European Union that is longer lasting but less likely to bear legislative fruit. Broad questions are raised in these debates, but the focus here is upon the relationship between legal provisions for media plurality and competition law and, in particular, upon such questions as: To what degree does competition law include consideration of media plurality issues? To what degree can competition law be expected to promote the goals of media plurality? Are measurement approaches used in competition law likely to be of help in measuring plurality? To what degree are there similarities between remedies applicable under competition law and remedies applicable under actual or prospective plurality legislation? Does the process by which competition law has been enacted and grown to maturity have any lessons for a similar development in the area of the case of media plurality? Although some of these questions are of general application, others can only be answered within the context of a particular country’s legal system. In the present article, that country is chosen as the United Kingdom. ...
by Kevin Coates | Apr 15, 2014 | News from around the Web
From AntitrustConnect Blog: Is the FTC Changing Its Intellectual Property Rights Policy? “Schiff Hardin LLP Schiff Hardin LLP Commissioner Josh Wright of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission certainly is the gift that keeps on giving to antitrust commentators. Rarely do many weeks go by without a Wright speech or dissenting opinion that cogently takes on … Continue reading → • Leave a comment on Is the FTC Changing Its Intellectual Property Rights Policy?...
by Kevin Coates | Apr 11, 2014 | News from around the Web
From Net neutrality in Europe: House of Commons – Letter from Ed Vaizey of 30 January on net neutrality “”
by Kevin Coates | Apr 11, 2014 | News from around the Web
From Antitrust & Competition Policy Blog: Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer at the Pen and Pad Briefing on the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission Joint Antitrust Policy Statement on Sharing of Cybersecurity Information “Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer at the Pen and Pad Briefing on the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission Joint Antitrust Policy Statement on Sharing of Cybersecurity...
by Kevin Coates | Apr 9, 2014 | News from around the Web
From Regulation Watch – Feed of all News articles: Data retention: The directive is out. Are national laws next? “ The European Court of Justice (ECJ) on April 8 declared the Data Retention Directive to be invalid. According to the judges, the directive is not in compliance with the principle of proportionality. The interference with the fundamental rights to respect for private life and to the protection of personal data is not limited to what is strictly necessary. Directive not per se incompatible with fundamental rights – ECJ’s main arguments against the directive This said, the ECJ also found the directive not to be per se incompatible with European fundamental rights. As the court states, data retention does not pertain to the essence of the related fundamental rights, as it firstly only permits the storage of meta-data, and secondly imposes certain obligations to protect and secure the stored data. There are mainly three aspects, which make it disproportionate: first, the lack of any rules of differentiation, limitation and exception of the concerned individuals; second, the absence of any substantive and procedural conditions which national authorities need to fulfil to gain access to the stored data and; third, the general requirement to store without distinction the data for at least six months. If all these points could be overcome by the EU legislator with the proposal of a new, more detailed directive, it would have to include a strong rationale justifying data retention. Linking stored data to a concrete threat to public security, albeit indirect, would for instance be necessary. Besides, the Court also focusses on the risk of abuse...
by Kevin Coates | Apr 8, 2014 | News from around the Web
From Regulation Watch – Feed of all News articles: European Court of Justice calls data retention directive off “ “Let’s see what Europe’s got,” one member of a highly nervous Twitter-community tweeted as the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg announced in its decision that the European Union’s data retention directive is just plainly and simply invalid. In its reasoning, the Court knocked down judicial arguments pro and contra to focus on the basic outcome of the instrument: mass surveillance and violation of fundamental rights. After all the considerations about how grave existing fundamental rights are limited by the EU data retention directive (2006/24) and about the reasoning of legislators on the needs for the up to 2-year storage of communication traffic and location data, the 15-judge chamber Tuesday morning dismissed the much fought over directive completely. It ruled that the EU legislature has just “exceeded the limits imposed by compliance with the principle of proportionality in the light of articles 7, 8 and 52(1) of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.” Well-meant ends do not justify all means Certainly, the judges said, the retained data was “a valuable tool for criminal investigations” and “consequently, the retention of such data may be considered to be appropriate for attaining the objective pursued by that directive,” namely the fight against terrorism and serious organised crime. Yes, the legislator was right to reject the argument of several complainants who were saying that anonymous communications would “make that measure inappropriate”. And yes, “it must be held that the fight against serious crime, in particular against organised crime and terrorism,...
by Kevin Coates | Apr 8, 2014 | News from around the Web
From Patently-O » Patent: Patenting a Data Structure? “By Dennis Crouch Digitech v. Electronics v. Imaging (Fed. Cir. 2014) Today, the Federal Circuit held oral arguments in this Section 101 case involving Digitech’s U.S. Patent No 6,128,415 that claims a “device profile” and a “method of generating a device profile.” The invention is basically the idea of tagging images with particular information about...