Lewis v. Superior Court of California, a recent California case concerning whether the state's medical board breached patient privacy when it used data from a state prescription database – (CURES) – to discipline a physician, has brought scrutiny upon privacy issues surrounding medical databases.  Safeguards for access, infringement upon patient privacy, and ownership of electronic health records are points of contention that force a closer look at how HIPAA and current privacy laws need to be strengthened or relaxed.

For years, the international community has criticized Canada’s regulatory response to counterfeit products. In response, two parliamentary committees introduced the Combating Counterfeit Products Act (“CCPA”) back in 2007. It has taken six years for the act to make it to parliament’s floor. This month however, Parliament’s third reading of the Act brought it inches from approval.

The new act’s civil, criminal, and border measures promise considerable reforms. Trademark owners can:

Colorado’s booming recreational marijuana sales to the tune of $34.1 million per month have not just attracted the attention of budding entrepreneurs. In June of 2014, they also caught the attention of Pennsylvania-based Hershey Co.. In fact, for the past five months the candy-maker has embroiled itself in a federal lawsuit against TinctureBelle LLC, a Colorado company manufacturing marijuana-infused chocolates.

The proliferation of the Internet has led to widespread globalization and commercial growth, as people are now able to share content on a much greater scale. Yet as with most things, the Internet’s exponential growth has led to a fair share of growing pains. Digitalization and sharing of online content oftentimes come with the unwanted side effect of increased costs to the many content owners whose copyrights are now easily infringed.

Just two short years after the Hague District Court’s decision to block access to The Pirate Bay (TPB), Dutch Internet Service Providers (ISPs) Ziggo and XS4ALL are able to release the iron gates, once again allowing customers direct access to the peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing site. The Hague Appeals Court determined that blocks were ineffective and easy to circumvent, causing the number of consumers illegally downloading copyrighted content to rise.

Successful social media hub Pinterest has sued upstart internet travel service pintrips.com for infringing on its trademark through the use of the term “pin.” Pintrips, an airfare comparison and collaboration dashboard launched in April 2013, has run up against a frequent litigator: this is Pinterest’s sixth foray into the legal arena to defend against other internet businesses encroaching on their “pin” term.

On February 4th, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing entitled “Privacy in the Digital Age: Preventing Data Breaches and Combating Cybercrime.” The inquiry was summoned in the wake of the widely publicized consumer data breach that occurred at Target this past December, through which an estimated 40 million credit card records and 70 million personal data records were accessed by hackers utilizing malware on the company’s point-of-sale system.

The case against Hunter Moore, deemed the “most hated man on the Internet” by Rolling Stone, has brought to light the winning tactics revenge porn victims can use to obtain the removal of sexually explicit self-depicting photos posted online without their consent. Moore and his partner, Charles “Gary” Jones, were arrested and charged for conspiracy, theft, and unauthorized access of a protected computer to obtain information in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).