News and Events
Volume
5, Issue 3 is now available online! Our Winter Issue features the following
articles:
- Standardization in the European Information and Technology Sector: Official Procedures on the Verge of Being Overhauled
As the European Commission pushes for a reform of traditional procedures in the Information and Communications Technology (“ICT”) sector, the standardization process is intensely debated on the European Union level. This Article provides a concise overview of the past and future European Union policies on ICT standardization and the issues such policies raise.
- Electronic Pitfalls: The Online Modification of Ongoing Consumer Service Agreements
This Article examines the procedure for online modification of an ongoing consumer contract. It reviews the relevant case law, including Douglas v. U.S. District Court, a recent Ninth Circuit decision that calls into question the validity of changing contractual terms by merely posting the changes on the service provider’s Web site. The Article also examines the discrete components found in an effective online contract modification and provides practical pointers for contract drafters.
- The European Union’s Data Retention Directive and the United States’s Data Preservation Laws: Finding the Better Model
The European Union’s Data Retention Directive (the “Directive”) seeks to assist law enforcement officials in their efforts to combat terrorism and to standardize disparate laws regarding data retention within the European Union (EU). The Directive requires companies to retain traffic and location data that identifies a subscriber or registered user of a Web site for a period of six to twenty-four months. Implementation of the Directive takes place at the national level and poses many challenges to providers of electronic communication services. There is no analogous United States federal law mandating data retention. The United States, however, has a data preservation requirement, which pertains only to specific information requested by the United States government. This Article compares the two distinct approaches and examines which approach better balances the interests of law enforcement officials combating terrorism, and the cost to companies and consumers to comply with the laws. This Article concludes that the United States’s current legal framework of data preservation strikes a more favorable balance between these competing interests.
- The Limits of Expanding Patent Claim Scope to Provoke an Interference with a Competitor
Businesses that launch new products or services generally understand the risk of suits for patent infringement from competitors and other patent holders. Such risks are especially high when the first business (“commercializer”) holds no patents on the product or service. However, commercializers that do have patents or patent applications covering their new product or service may be less aware of another lurking risk: a competitor or other party (“challenger”) owning a separate patent application. In such a scenario, a challenger may provoke a patent interference proceeding to challenge the date of invention for the commercializer’s patent or patent application. This Article explores these potential scenarios and analyzes limitations to a challenger's ability to aggressively provoke an interference proceeding.
The Shidler Journal of Law, Commerce & Technology, is an online journal
for practicing lawyers and business managers. This innovative electronic
publication, which is written for practicing attorneys and business
professionals, features timely, concise articles on important and emerging
issues in the technology law arena. Visit the Shidler Journal of Law, Commerce & Technology at www.lctjournal.washington.edu.