View my professional biography
An interest in technology and a tendency toward early adoption led me to write a book on the iPhone 3G shortly after graduating from college. I then spent two years in Spain teaching at a public bilingual grade school. While living abroad, I noticed the stark difference in advertising and branding from country to country, more greatly appreciating the importance of the likes and cultural norms of an audience. My interest in technology then steered me towards a job with a web based data management company in Chicago. While there I began to appreciate the how law and technology interact with market forces.
Law school was a natural next step for me and I soon moved up to Minneapolis to attend the University of Minnesota Law School. While there I organized a symposium on how international law has developed to take the internet account. The symposium focused on the data security, privacy, and speech implications of new national and international legal regimes.
In my free time I enjoy cooking, biking, and music. When I’m able to take enough time off, I’m often traveling nationally and internationally, or camping (the Boundary Waters in May before all the crowds is my personal favorite).
Chipotle has certainly had a rough few weeks. With news of at least another 80 people sickened (apparently from a norovirus this time) after eating at a Boston area Chipotle (on top of at least 52 people in six states from E. coli), I can’t help but think of Jack in the Box.
For those
YouTube announced that it will “offer legal support” to a small set of videos that it thinks are “some of the best examples of fair use on YouTube” and “represent clear fair uses which have been subject to DMCA [Digital Millenium Copyright Act] takedowns.”
Many people complain of abuse of the DMCA process and intimidation
A company called WildFireWeb is suing Tinder, Inc. in the Central District of California for allegedly infringing on its TINDER mark. For those who don’t know what Tinder, Inc.’s TINDER is, it’s a dating application that offers a rather limited profile, a few photos, and few filters, like proximity. If both matched parties indicate they
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is planning to appeal a September judgment finding that GoDaddy did not violate anti-cybersquatting laws. Part of the Academy’s claim centered around the common practice of having “parked pages” which are basically placeholders sites. The practice allows a domain owner to reserve a domain until it finds
Honus Wagner (aka the Flying Dutchman) was one of early baseball’s great players. He was actually among the original five inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936 – along with Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Christy Mathewson, and Walter Johnson. In 1905 he joined with Louisville Slugger to produce the first baseball bat with
The “Made in Germany” brand has undoubtedly taken a hit in the past few weeks. The brand, along with the phrases “German engineering”, “German engineered”, etc. have made their way into just about every advertisement for goods coming from German companies. Volkswagen made the theme part of its advertising campaign, perhaps more than any other
European discount airline Germanwings has a practice it calls “Blind Booking”. The concept is straightforward. Essentially you don’t know your destination city until after you have booked the flight. But for €33 (approximately $37) each way you get pretty cheap tickets in exchange for a bit a flexibility. This is basically the airline version