Monthly Archives: March 2020

Tattoo Dispute Fades Away

Tattooed work of art

Much like painters or musicians, tattoo artists are creators in their own right.  However, are their inked canvases considered unique designs worthy of copyright protection?  Solid Oak Sketches seemed to think so, as the company filed a lawsuit against producers of NBA 2K video games, including Take-Two Interactive Software.  In 2016, the tattoo licensing firm accused NBA 2K of embodying athletes such as LeBron James, Eric Bledsoe, and Kenyon Martin with their real-life tattoos in the video games, without properly compensating the artists who tattooed them.  That lawsuit, initially filed in a Manhattan court, was just dismissed this month. Continue reading →

Clean Up Your Marketing

Hand sanitizer awareness

As consumers flock to the grocery store shelves to retrieve their needed supplies, it is important to know that a recent lawsuit was filed against the makers of Purell hand sanitizer. For those who depend on the product’s claim that the substance within kills “99.9 percent of illness causing germs,” be aware that there are allegedly no scientific tests to back up that statement. Another advertised statistic is that “one squirt of Purell Advanced Hand Sanitizer equals two squirts of other national brands, providing 2X the sanitizing strength.”  Not only do the four plaintiffs in the lawsuit disagree or challenge this assertion, but the FDA is as equally skeptical. Continue reading →

Lawsuit to Teach a Lesson

Eliminating a monopoly

College tuition and housing is expensive enough.  But how much are textbooks?  While students may be fully aware of the cost of their education and living on campus before they commit to a particular school, they are not initially provided a breakdown of the price of their course material, per class, per semester. About ten years ago, e-books were only being introduced as a mainstream method of studying.  You could still find most students walking around campus with heavy textbooks.  Since then, textbook sales have decreased, and students are electing to bypass print in order to study material entirely online.  Despite the shift in preference, the textbook market is allegedly depleting options for obtaining needed course material.    Continue reading →

Google Runs from Lawsuit

Affecting the opinions of voters?

As the 2020 presidential election quickly approaches, former democratic candidates are coming forward to justify why they felt they could not or did not progress further in the race. Hawaii representative, Tulsi Gabbard, is one such candidate.  In July 2019, Gabbard filed a lawsuit against Google, claiming the ever-popular technology company inhibited Gabbard’s web presence by temporarily suspending her campaign ad account.  Gabbard sought damages in the amount of $50 million. Just this past week, a California Central District Court judge dismissed the case. Continue reading →

Apple Lawsuit Slows Down

How reliable is your phone?

At the end of February, a two-year-long class action lawsuit wrapped up, concerning Apple iPhones and the complaints that software updates caused function slow-down.  Owners of older iPhones, such as the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus, 7, and 7 Plus, were the victims of this system speed change. Despite the public assuming Apple’s motive was to entice iPhone users to upgrade to newer models, Apple insists that the software was meant to alleviate issues with older lithium-ion batteries. Regardless of the intent, Apple has agreed to settle the class action for a minimum amount of $310 million and a maximum amount of $500 million. Continue reading →