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In 2012, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), U.S. government-contracted non-profit company that oversees the Domain Name System, began accepting applications for domain names coming after the “dot” (i.e., .gucci). Also known as new global top-level domains (new gTLDs), brand owners will have to act fast to protect their marks. As in-house counsel, it’s likely that you’ve had to deal with some trademark and/or cybersquatting issues. While your first reaction may be to think that ICANN is opening up a whole new (I)can of worms for you to deal with – there are many reasons why your company should consider registering for a new gTLD....

In a Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) action against the U.S. alleging that federal agents used excessive force against plaintiff, judgment for defendants is affirmed where: 1) because agents’ actions were privileged under Texas law, those actions did not constitute an assault for which the U.S. would be liable under the FTCA; and 2) the district court’s finding that the agents’ alleged negligence was not the proximate cause of plaintiff’s injuries was not clearly erroneous....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the Internet. I have a confession to make: I am addicted to my BlackBerry. Indeed, the term “CrackBerry” certainly applies in my case. Ever since my wireless signal was established years ago, I have been mainlining my BlackBerry on a relatively constant basis. There was a time that BlackBerry really was the only real PDA game in town at my firm....

Mortgage Notary Fee Assessment Action In Anthony v. Am. Gen’l. Fin. Servs., Inc., No. 08-15983, an action challenging defendant American General Financial Services’s assessment of mortgage notary fees that exceeded the statutory maximum set by OCGA section 45-17-11(b), the court affirmed the dismissal of the complaint in part where 1) the district court properly dismissed the plaintiffs’ private civil claim under the Georgia notary fee statute; and 2) the district court did not err by dismissing plaintiffs’ fraud and “money had and received” claims as filed outside the statute of limitations....

Michelle Woody, a professor of biblical counseling, has faith that her battle with the Dallas Independent School District will end well. She has been fighting for her daughter’s educational benefits for half a decade. After losing more than $13,000 of her reimbursement claim from the school district, she appealed to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals for reconsideration. The appeals court sided with her in Dallas Independent School District v....

Making time for family, traveling the world on vacation, disconnecting from the office, and keeping up your health and exercise – these are all things lawyers tend to struggle with. With the pressures of a legal career, many lawyers spend a lot more time grinding out billable hours than they spend on themselves. Of course, we all wish we had a better work/life balance, right? Well, maybe not. When it comes to perks that could make lawyers’ lives a bit more balanced, many of those perks are going unused....

Some of the biggest internet companies are not on board with Europe’s new rules to protect personal data. Regulators are questioning why. But when Facebook alone has five times more users than the population of the entire EU, is there really a question? BEUC, which represents consumer organizations in 32 European countries, says that 14 of the largest internet companies use unclear language for users to understand how the companies use their data....

An 18-year-old can appear in Girls Gone Wild, but she can’t purchase a handgun from a federally-licensed firearms dealer. If you have a problem with that, you’ll have to submit an amicus brief to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court. Thursday, a Fifth Circuit panel unanimously upheld an age restriction for handgun purchases, finding that the age threshold was “consistent with a longstanding tradition of targeting select groups’ ability to access and to use arms for the sake of public safety,” The Wall Street Journal reports....

It was 2010. It was the World Cup, and I couldn’t have cared less. Football? It’s played with an oblong brown ball by large men who do their best to permanently disable each other, not by skinny speedsters passing a soccer ball back-and-forth with their feet, but never actually scoring. Pigskin. America. [Expletive] yeah! Anyway, while I may not have been the biggest soccer fan in the world, many of my coworkers were....

As the final parades roll through New Orleans today, the State of Louisiana can celebrate more than just Mardi Gras. There’s a new Chief Justice in town, y’all. And the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals didn’t have to select her. The changing of the guard – from former Chief Justice Kitty Kimball to new Chief Justice Bernette Johnson – occurred on February 1, but it was preceded by plenty of drama....

Chevron said the 2003 litigation was full of corruption: Donziger “ghost-wrote” the impartial expert’s testimony, forged another expert report, and bribed the Ecuadorean judge. In 2011, Chevron sued Donziger in district court in New York under RICO. It also went to The Hague to get relief from the Ecuadorean judgment. They also sued Aaron and Daria Page, two attorneys who worked on the case. In the suit, Chevron sought production of documents – including privileged ones and attorney work product....

Mobile apps and the law. These are two things that you might never have thought would go hand-in-hand. But they do. What lesson can be learned from the recent spate of privacy-related lawsuits against tech companies? Well, basically one thing: high tech gadgets and software need to comply with the law. If you or one of your clients is in the midst of building a mobile app, there are some legal issues you should probably consider....

Don’t “make the perfect the enemy of the good.” That’s the motto of proponents of the most recent version of the USA Freedom Act, passed unanimously by the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. The bill, which is the first of its kind to make it out of committee, contains a number of pro-privacy reforms, including restricting the amount of data collected to “two hops” from the original target and a requirement that metadata requests be approved by a court in all but emergency cases....

The Fifth Circuit upheld an injunction blocking a Texas election law which prevented political action committees (PACs) from garnering corporate donations, reinforcing a post-Citizens United look at campaign finances. Courthouse News Service reported that the Fifth Circuit is now the fourth federal appellate court to uphold “indirect political contributions” since Citizens United, giving the win to Texans for Free Enterprise (TFE), a PAC which uses funds primarily to run campaign ads....

Sonnier v. Crain, No. 09-30186, concerned plaintiff’s appeal from the denial of a preliminary injunction seeking to enjoin enforcement of a speech policy regulating the time, place and manner, and other matters relating to speech by non-students on the campus of Southeastern Louisiana University. The court of appeals affirmed in part on the ground that given that there are instances in which the seven-day notice requirement may be necessary, the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying the preliminary injunction for the facial challenge of the seven-day notice requirement....

U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. issued an order to streamline the handling of his massive foreclosure mediation docket involving hundreds of cases. The order came after the First Circuit Court of Appeals ordered specific limits on the amount of court time and money that can be spent on handling the mediation process. Each case will get one bite at the mediation apple – and many oranges parties won’t even get that....

Ride-sharing services and their mobile apps have become popular in bigger cities where getting a cab can be difficult. They provide an alternative to public transportation or taxis. The state claims the service is essentially a taxi and should be licensed and permitted like other transportation. This case isn’t just about ride-sharing. It’s also about the difference between how startup tech companies see themselves versus how regulators see them. The ride-sharing companies say what they offer isn’t a taxi service since riders need to specify a destination, pay an amount determined by an algorithm rather than by the company, and can choose not to pay....

In Powershare, Inc. v. Syntel, Inc. No. 09-1625, the First Circuit decided an issue of whether a parties’ agreement contained a mandatory arbitration provision. In reversing the decision of the district court, the First Circuit first clarified the standard of review to be used by a district judge when reviewing a magistrate judge’s order on a motion to stay litigation pending the resolution of a parallel arbitration proceeding. The court held that, from a procedural standpoint, the district judge properly applied the “clearly erroneous or contrary to law” standard under Rule 72(a) where, as in this case, review of a non-dispositive motion by a district judge turns on a pure question of law....

After 35 hours of deliberations, a jury has convicted a friend of alleged Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev of two counts of lying to federal officers. According to prosecutors, Robel Phillipos lied about going to Tsarnaev’s dorm room at the University of Massachusetts three days after the bombings, on April 18, 2013. In reality, Phillipos and two other friends helped Tsarnaev dispose of a laptop and a backpack full of empty fireworks canisters after the bombing....

District court’s grant of government’s motion for an order permitting it to involuntarily medicate defendant to render her competent to stand trial is vacated and remanded as the government had the burden of satisfying the Sell v. US, 539 U.S. 166 (2003), standard by clear and convincing evidence, and when the current state of the record is considered with this higher standard of proof, questions arise as to whether the government carried its burden under Sell....