By Jessica Mendelson and Joshua Salinas
We previously blogged about the case of PhoneDog v. Kravitz, a Northern District of California case that called into question the ownership of Twitter followers on an employee’s professional account following the employee’s departure from the company. After over a year and a half of litigation, the parties have finally reached a settlement
Continue Reading Former PhoneDog Employee Off the Hook in Closely Watched Trade Secrets Spat
On August 9, 2012, a district court for the Western District of Michigan dismissed counterclaims of tortious interference with a business expectancy and conversion brought after the removal of a company’s Facebook page and the alleged loss of its more than 19,000 “fans.” (Lown Companies LLC v. Piggy Paint LLC, No. 11-cv–911 (W.D. Mich., Aug. 9, 2012)) .
Continue Reading Facebook Fans For Piggy Paint Not A Business Expectancy, Michigan Federal Court Dismisses Tortious Interference Claims for Facebook Page Takedown
On Monday March 26, 2012, Senators Richard Blumenthal (Connecticut) and Chuck Schumer (New York), called for federal agencies to determine whether requiring prospective hires to hand over social networking usernames and passwords violates federal law. Blumenthal and Schumer called on the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) to investigate whether such practices violate federal anti-discrimination laws and the United
By Robert Milligan and Gary Glaser
A California federal district court denied a former employee’s motion to dismiss his former employer’s claims for tortious interference with prospective economic advantage and negligent inteference with prospective economic advantage Monday in a closely watched lawsuit concerning the interplay between social media, trade secrets, and employee mobility.
We previously wrote about this case from
Continue Reading Court Allows Employer’s Interference With Prospective Economic Advantage Claims To Survive In Lawsuit Claiming Employee’s Theft of Twitter Account
By Gary Glaser
The United States District Court for the Northern District of California recently ruled that PhoneDog, an “interactive mobile news and reviews web resource,” could proceed with its lawsuit against Noah Kravitz, a former employee, who it claims unlawfully continued using PhoneDog’s Twitter account after he quit. PhoneDog v. Noah Kravitz, No. C11-03474 MEJ, 2011 U.S. Dist.
Continue Reading Social Media and Trade Secrets Collide: Whose Twitter Is It, Anyway?