Articles

05.18.17

Fyre Festival Flameout Includes False Advertising

By Jesse M. Brody, Partner, Advertising, Marketing and MediaThe Fyre Festival’s catalog of errors includes the failure to disclose sponsored promotions, according to one of the multiple class actions filed against the organizers.Touted as a one-of-a-kind destination music festival, ...


05.16.17

The Joy of Takings

"When I graduated from Washington University Law School about half-a-century ago, I never dreamed that I would spend my career studying, litigating, and teaching cutting-edge constitutional law. Yet, that has been my reality. True, it is a specialized niche of constitutional law, but it has ...


05.15.17

The California Circuit?

Like a bad penny, the idea of splitting the 9th Circuit keeps turning up. Ideas for splitting the circuit first arose in the 1960s, and the issue has waxed and waned with political interest over the past half century. One of the most vexing puzzles is precisely how to split the existing 9th ...


05.11.17

Acting Chair Ohlhausen Signals Shift in FTC Enforcement

At a recent event, Federal Trade Commission Acting Chair Maureen K. Ohlhausen shared her plans for the agency, which likely left advertisers breathing a sigh of relief.With the majority of the FTC currently vacant—Ohlhausen is joined only by Commissioner Terrell McSweeny and accompanied by ...


05.10.17

Fortunately, There Were Witnesses

Something bad happened. Fortunately, there were witnesses. Unfortunately, the witness testimony is not just inconsistent, but irreconcilably contradictory. Sounds like every case that makes it to trial, right? But readers of this column will also recognize this as the situation explored by Akira ...


05.07.17

Why a Court Ruling on Faxing Matters to the Device Industry

“Believe it or not, the fax machine is not yet extinct.”So began the split-panel decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit invalidating the Federal Communication Commission’s Solicited Fax Rule in Bais Yaakov of Spring Valley et al. v. FCC, 14-1234 ...


05.04.17

Ninth Circuit Moves Misleading Pricing Suit Forward

A misleading pricing suit against Neiman Marcus was given new life by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit when the panel reversed the dismissal of the complaint.According to plaintiff Linda Rubenstein, the national retail chain duped consumers by using price tags listing a price ...


05.01.17

Scott Gottlieb and the Goldilocks Theory of Bringing Change to the FDA

With the nomination of Dr. Scott Gottlieb to head the U.S. Food and Drug Administration headed to the Senate floor, we can expect another Goldilocks debate. Like the heroine of the classic tale who famously tested the three bowls of porridge to find one too hot, one too cold, and one “just ...


04.28.17

American Society for Testing Materials v. Public.Resource.org, Inc.

The case is the latest in a line to grapple with the issue of whether an industry code or standard established by a private organization that is then incorporated into public law by a government can be copyrightable. The lead plaintiff here develops private sector standards, while the defendant ...


04.26.17

Can Private Property Be Protected Against the Sea?

"Nature can be unforgiving. It is not unusual for wave surge to wipe out a hundred feet or more of beach that homeowners believed provided them a reasonable buffer. See, e.g., Whaler's Village Club v. California Coastal Commission, 173 Cal. App. 3d 240 (1985). The same is true of wave ...