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FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the Internet. We all know that Facebook is the social networking beast - with approximately 1.4 billion users across the globe. Who doesn’t have a Facebook page? But if that were not enough, Facebook also is becoming an instant-messaging major player. Indeed, according to CNET, Facebook Messenger already has as many as 700 million monthly users, as reported by CEO Mark Zuckerberg at a recent company annual meeting....

Paper documents are increasingly being replaced by electronic records. And more and more firms are turning to digital mediums to replace traditional documents. There are many benefits to this shift to digital formats. Firms can cut down on the expense of finding storage areas to house client files. And, digital records are often simply easier to search and organize. What are some simple steps to move your firm from the paper age to the electronic age?...

Michelle Lee took over as head of the United States Patent and Trademark Office three months ago and has already started to effect changes. Lee, who was the first woman to hold the position of USPTO Director, promised to use her experience in tech, science, and the law to change the way the Office operates. Some of those changes are starting to go into effect, as the patent office begins to update its technology, implement open data initiatives, and to reach out beyond Washington, D....

Maybe it goes without saying that sticking out and standing out are entirely different things. But this is a blog so we’re going to say it anyway. Plus, the difference may be more subtle than you think when it comes to your law firm. Sticking out is like a thumb waiting to get hammered. It’s wearing blue and orange together. It’s, well, not standing out. Hard Work, Stay Out of Trouble When everybody else is inside, some lawyers are out standing....

William Shatner will have to start negotiating some lower prices on lawyers. Inside Counsel reports that IBM has filed a lawsuit against Priceline, OpenTable, and Kayak for infringing on four of IBM’s patents. (Priceline recently acquired both OpenTable and Kayak.) Believe it nor not, two of the patents at issue go back to something completely unrelated: the pre-Internet online service Prodigy, which started in the late 80s and died quietly in 1999....

According to information compiled by Robert Half Legal, the legal staffing and consulting firm, many legal departments don’t’ plan to hire or fire in the coming year. Looking a little more closely at the data, it appears that in-house lawyers can rejoice: legal departments don’t plan on reducing their spend too much. Only 1 percent of in-house lawyers report that their legal departments plan to eliminate jobs in the new year....

Lawyers often ask themselves what their legal legacy will be. After all, not every lawyer will set new precedent with a novel case; heck, some won’t ever even argue a case in court. But that doesn’t mean that you or your firm can’t leave behind a lasting legacy and make history. Below are a few tips on how to make sure your firm is remembered, in a good way. Give your time and your money, whenever possible, to causes you believe in....

Was a Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals decision the death knell of Rick Perry’s presidential campaign? On Tuesday, the Fourth Circuit rejected Perry’s motion to add his name to the Virginia Republican primary ballot. Thursday morning, Perry withdrew from the race and endorsed former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Coincidence? Perry claimed that the restrictions were an unconstitutional restriction on his First Amendment free speech rights and Fourteenth Amendment freedom of association rights....

In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 action claiming that defendant-city’s police performed racially discriminatory searches, district court’s denial of class certification is affirmed where plaintiff had little interest in or knowledge and understanding of the case, and appeared to be merely lending his name to the suit. Dismissal of plaintiff’s Fourth Amendment and equal protection claims is affirmed where: 1) plaintiff’s subjective beliefs were irrelevant in assessing whether a reasonable person would have felt free to terminate his encounter with the police; and 2) the city did not classify plaintiff on the basis of his race....

What’s a school’s liability for discrimination suffered by its students at the hands of other students? This was the broad legal question posed by the Fennell family in Kyana Fennell v. Marion Independent School District. Statements by students that black girls aren’t pretty enough to be cheerleaders A note with the statement “Die F*ckin’ n*****r sisters; “Whites will always rule this school!!!!” A noose alongside the printed note Et cetera. These examples are not only offensive, but fear inducing....

Are businesses (or their reputation management companies) suing fake defendants in order to get rid of negative online reviews? That’s the argument made by Eugene Volokh and Public Citizen’s Paul Alan Levy recently in the Volokh Conspiracy. The duo looked at 25 court cases that followed a suspiciously similar pattern. First, a self-represented company, often with ties to a reputation management firm, sues a defendant for a defamatory online review. Then, the defendants agree to an injunction which quickly results in a court order to take down the allegedly offending content....

Man-in-the-middle. It may sound like a child’s game, but a Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attack is where a hacker intercepts secure encrypted data by pretending to be a trusted end point, such as one’s email service, then copies or modifies the data before passing it on. These attacks are typically very difficult to pull off – unless the hacker is targeting an iPad, iPhone, iMac, MacBook, or any other Mac OS X or iOS device....

Not sure how you feel about inter partes review, the relatively new administrative process for challenging patents? Neither is the Supreme Court, who struggled during oral arguments yesterday to determine what claims construction standards the Patent and Trademark Office should use in IPR proceedings. The case, Cuozzo Speed Technologies v. Lee, could have long-lasting implications, as the use of inter partes review continues to grow. Let’s take a look at how things went....

Conviction and sentence for drug crimes and being a felon in possession of ammunition is affirmed where: 1) the district court properly denied defendant’s motion to suppress evidence seized in a search of a house as the search warrant established probable cause to conduct the search; 2) the court properly denied defendant’s motion for a hearing to contest the veracity of statements made by the officer in the warrant affidavit; 3) the evidence was sufficient to support his conviction; 4) the court did not err in admitting prior act evidence as the evidence had special relevance, and even if there was an error it was harmless in light of the other overwhelming evidence against defendant; 5) admission of recorded statements did not violate defendant’s Sixth Amendment rights under Crawford as they were admitted to provide context for the statements of defendant and for the truth of the matter asserted; 6) the court did not abuse its discretion in admitting expert testimony; and 7) defendant’s sentence did not violate the Sixth Amendment....

District court’s rejection of two regulatory barriers imposed by defendants to plans to build a Liquified Natural Gas terminal in the City of Fall River with a berth in Massachusetts coastal waters of Mount Hope Bay is affirmed where: 1)the Court has Article III jurisdiction to decide the matter; 2) district court did not err in holding that defendant’s failure to respond within six months to plaintiff’s application for federal consistency review requires there be a presumption of concurrence is the project, pursuant to 16 U....

The fallout from Wells Fargo’s fake account scandal continued this week, as California suspended its business relationships with the bank and former employers filed two class actions lawsuits, alleging that they were illegally fired for abiding by the law and not opening fake accounts in consumers names. Earlier this month, Wells Fargo agreed to pay $185 million in fines after it was revealed that the banks employees had created millions of fake accounts in order to meet internal cross-selling goals....

Personal injury attorneys, it’s time to take a good look at yourselves in the mirror. If you think a future with driverless cars and fewer accidents will kill your practice, you need to slap yourself in the face. That’s not how technology works. It’s supposed to make life better, and that includes your practice. Here’s how it’s going to work, for better or worse. Client Referrals Without clients, there is no law practice and there is no future....

Your videoconference can be hacked. And it’s surprisingly simple. Hacker HD Moore works for security company Rapid7. He spent time looking into flaws in videoconferencing security. What he found was surprising. Thousands of boardrooms across the nation are configured without safeguards. This means that confidential meetings may run the risk of harboring silent – and unwanted – listeners. Moore was readily able to hack into many systems. He got into a lawyer-client meeting room inside a prison....

Some spouses not only live together, but they work together. It’s inevitable. One of the most popular ways that couples meet is often at work. Or, there are those who end up working together because of their similar career interests. Or, well, because there’s a job opening. The bottom line is, it’s often unavoidable. If Jim and Pam could do it, then so can you and your beau. So, this is not only in celebration of the most recent SCOTUS decision declaring the federal same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional, but in preparation for hopefully a whole new slew of well-deserving, soon-to-be-happily-married couples that will tie the knot....

District court’s denial of defendant’s petition for habeas relief, convicted of armed robbery and related crimes, is affirmed where: 1) defendant has not offered clear and convincing evidence that the state established agency relationships with inmate informants who then elicited admissions from him without the presence of counsel in violation of his Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights’ 2) defendant’s due process violation claim fails; 3) defendant’s ineffective assistance of counsel claim is rejected; and 4) the issues defendant raises do not present the court with opportunity to consider his constitutional challenge to the AEDPA....