Recent Cases
Class Action against Mobile App developer Path
In early 2012, Path was sued for alleged surreptitious collecting of mobile device address books and installation of tracking software. Path moved to dismiss the claims for lack of standing and for failure to state a claim. The court ruled that there was proper standing, but Path was successful in dismissing some of the claims. The court dismissed for failure to state a claim the plaintiff’s claims under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, Stored Communications Act, California wiretapping statute, and state common law privacy, conversion and trespass.
However, plaintiff’s claims for violations of the California Computer Crime Law, California’s Unfair Competition Law, negligence, and unjust enrichment all survived the motion to dismiss. As support for it ruling on standing, the court noted that there was a sufficient claim of injury to support the standing, namely the claim that plaintiff would have to spend $12,500 to pay a professional to remove the Path app and related data from his phone. Seems a bit of a stretch, no?
Insider Trading Lawyers Challenge Use of Wiretaps
Rajat Gupta was recently convicted and sentenced to two years in prison for leaking boardroom secrets to hedge fund titan Raj Rajaratnam. However, Rajaratnam’s attorneys plan to challenge the government’s investigation, specifically the use of a wiretap when investigating the insider trading. This decision is likely to have large implications for Mr. Gupta, who had a $5 million fine levied against him in addition to the two-year prison sentence. The judge who sentenced Gupta noted that Gupta’s sentence was less harsh than the government wanted, due in large part to Mr. Gupta’s “extraordinary devotion, not only to humanity writ large, but also to individual human beings in their times of need.”
Most legal experts believe that despite the attempt of Rajaratnam’s attorneys to discredit the government investigation, a ruling favorable to Mr. Rajaratnam is far-fetched.
Fraud Charges for Man Claiming Facebook Ownership
Paul Ceglia, a New York entrepreneur, claimed he made an agreement Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder, which would entitle him to a significant stake in Facebook. On Friday, federal authorities arrested Mr. Ceglia, charging him with a multibillion dollar fraud scheme.
Back in 2010, Ceglia claimed at least a 50 percent (originally 84 percent) share of Facebook, and federal prosecutors say that Ceglia doctored, fabricated, and destroyed evidence to support his allegations. Federal prosecutors say that Ceglia’s claims were entirely false. A government investigation of Ceglia’s hard drive led to the discovery of the original contract, which did not reference Facebook. Mr. Ceglia is expected to appear in a Buffalo courtroom later Friday.
Regional Real Estate News
Seattle’s Real Estate Market is Seventh-Best in U.S.
A recent report released by the Urban Land Institute, a non-profit research and education group, and Pricewaterhouse Coopers, marked Seattle as the seventh-best overall real estate market in the country. Seattle was number six in 2012.
The rankings are based on interviews with real estate experts across the U.S. The top ten is as follows: San Francisco, New York, San Jose, Austin, Houston, Boston, Seattle, Washington D.C., Dallas/Fort Worth, and Orange County. You can learn more about the report at the Urban Land Institute’s real estate forecast meeting on November 7 at the Sheraton in Seattle.
