The legal process is increasingly being used by incumbent industries to thwart change with that ancient mantra of obsolescent businesses, “consumer protection.”
Tech Tuesday: Litigation, Legislation and Regulatory Protectionism
Yearly Archives: 2014
Cybersecurity & Antitrust
US competition agencies say they have clarified that antitrust is, not “a roadblock to legitimate cybersecurity information sharing,” but the real story is that the risk of antitrust exposure for exchange of cyber risk information, even among direct competitors, was and remains almost non-existent.
Rockstar’s Patent Trolling Conspiracy
The collective assembly of a patent war chest by the oddly named Rockstar Consortium -— all of the otherwise competing rivals of Google in the wireless OS space — smacks of a horizontal conspiracy to raise rivals’ costs.
Four Reasons Fairsearch Is Wrong
We’ve been discussing the FTC and EU investigations of Google’s search practices for more than two years. The latest FairSearch contentions represent a transparent attempt to forestall resolution of the European process, moving the goalposts in light of the failure of their dire competitive predictions. It is time for Commissioner Almunia and the EU to close up shop, settle and move on.
Deposing Siri
Wouldn’t it be interesting if Siri, the most famous example of artificial intelligence, was deposed in litigation against Apple claiming the technology did not work as advertised?
Four Reasons Location Privacy Is A Business Issue
With recent focus on warrantless GPS tracking by government, the business community may have concluded prematurely that location privacy is of concern only to hackers and criminal enterprises. Four recent developments show that location privacy is a serious business issue, too.
War of the Worlds: The Google Settlements in America and the EU
Thirteen months after the FTC settled its antitrust investigation of Google by flatly declining to regulate the company’s search practices, the EU is poised to do just that.
Is Bazaarvoice Bizarre?
By winning the US v. Bazaarvoice trial without showing that post-closing competitive effects in the nascent market it chose to attack had not, in fact, been harmful to consumers, the Justice Department’s success may have done more damage to antitrust law — and the appropriate role for government predictions of market development — than they ever intended.
5 Industries Facing Disruption In 2014
Every new year sees a slew of top 5 and top 10 lists looking backwards. Here’s one that looks forward, predicting the five biggest disruptive technologies and threatened industries for 2014.