In 2012, a local rug cleaning company in Virginia, Hadeed Oriental Rug Cleaning (“Hadeed”), filed a defamation action against the authors of seven critical reviews it received on Yelp, indicating that the reviews falsely stated that Hadeed provided poor service. Hadeed allegedly could not locate the reviewers in its customer database and believed them to … Continue Reading
Last Monday, Texas’s Second District Court of Appeals partially affirmed a District Court order allowing Range Resources Corporation’s defamation and business disparagement claims against a landowner to proceed. This is the latest development in a case that gained notoriety when a video purporting to show water from the landowners’ well ignite went viral. See full blog … Continue Reading
The Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances, signed on June 26, is an attempt to harmonize the substantive IP rights of audiovisual performers across the globe. Intended to complement the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty of 1996 (the “WPPT”), which only covered audio performances, the Beijing Treaty grants audiovisual performers certain moral and economic rights in … Continue Reading
In response to threatened legal action from a Florida law firm unhappy with negative reviews posted by users of the online attorney review site LawyerRatingz.com, the site’s operator, Ratingz, Inc., filed an action in California federal court seeking declaratory relief that the site is immune from any threatened action. The declaratory judgment action, filed with … Continue Reading
