China Creating Court for Intellectual Property Cases

China will set up its first specialized court to handle intellectual property cases in Beijing within two weeks as it seeks to answer criticisms the country is lax in protecting such rights. Courts dedicated to handling such trials on patents, trademarks and computer software issues will also be set up before the end of the year in two other major Chinese cities, Shanghai and southern Guangzhou, Wang Chuang, the deputy presiding judge with the IP division of China’s Supreme Court, said at a briefing.

New York Developing BitLicense Program

New York may grant transitional licenses to small virtual-currency firms and startups to let them grow before facing the full burden of new regulation, the state’s top financial watchdog said. Benjamin Lawsky, New York’s superintendent of financial services, has been developing a BitLicense this year to ensure firms dealing in bitcoins and other digital currencies protect consumers and help thwart money laundering.

Hungarian Prime Minister Drops Internet Tax Plan

Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary said that his government would abandon, at least for now, a proposed tax on Internet usage that drew tens of thousands of demonstrators to the streets. Ebullient protest organizers -- who had charged that the proposed tax was an attempt by Mr. Orban’s right-wing government to choke off one of the last sources of information not controlled by him and his allies -- called for victory celebrations across the country.

Pirate Bay Co-Founder Sentenced for Hacking

A co-founder of the Swedish file-sharing website The Pirate Bay was sentenced to three and a half years in prison, in what the prosecutor called Denmark's biggest-ever hacking case. Gottfrid Warg, 30, also known under his hacker alias "Anakata", was found guilty of hacking into the mainframe of IT provider CSC in Denmark, accessing the Danish Civil Registration System and local police's criminal register in 2012.

FBI Questions Man After In-Flight Vine Speedo Prank

Jerome Jarre, whose six-second clips of pranks have amassed him 7.5 million followers on Vine, decided while on a flight from Mexico City to Miami this week that it would be a good idea to emerge from the airplane’s bathroom wearing a yellow Speedo and carrying a large rubber duck. Jarre’s quick change alarmed a flight attendant (shocker), who called the police.

Judge Says Defendant Must Provide Fingerprint for Phone

A Circuit Court judge has ruled that a criminal defendant can be compelled to give up his fingerprint, but not his pass code, to allow police to open and search his cellphone. The question of whether a phone's pass code is constitutionally protected surfaced in the case of David Baust, an Emergency Medical Services captain charged in February with trying to strangle his girlfriend.

FCC Chair Pushing to Expand Broadband Authority

The head of the Federal Communications Commission is laying the groundwork for expanding the agency’s authority over broadband service, people familiar with his thinking say, a move long sought by advocates of stricter regulation of Internet-service providers. But the plan by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler isn’t expected to satisfy all proponents of “net neutrality” -- the principle that all Internet traffic should be treated equally -- because it would still allow broadband providers to cut deals with content companies for special access to customers.

U.S. Urges China to Approve High-Tech Trade Deal

China must move ahead with a global deal to eliminate duties on billions of dollars of technology products or risk upsetting other trade talks, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said. The United States and Europe have blamed China, the world's biggest exporter of IT products, for derailing talks on a pact on technology trade by asking for too many exemptions.

Incoming EU Official Floats Anti-Google Ideas

He’s not even officially in the job yet, but incoming European Commissioner for the Digital Economy, Germany’s Günther Oettinger, seems to be champing at the bit to curtail Google Inc.’s power on the continent. In a series of interviews with German newspapers -- themselves very receptive to cracking down on the U.S. tech giant -- Mr. Oettinger floated various anti-Google ideas that could take on a more concrete form when he takes office on Nov. 1.

Judge Calls Google Drug Settlement 'Satisfactory'

A U.S. judge said Google's plan to create a $250 million internal program to disrupt rogue online pharmacies is a fair way to end shareholder litigation over accusations the search company improperly allowed ads from non-U.S. drug sellers. Under the terms of the deal, Google also said it would make content about prescription drug abuse more visible and work with legitimate pharmacies to counter marketing by rogue sellers.

White House Computer Network Hit by Hackers

A White House computer network was hit by hackers, resulting in a series of outages and connectivity issues, a White House official said. The official, who asked not to be named discussing the security issues, would not comment on who was believed to be behind the attack, but Russian hackers were suspected, the Washington Post reported, citing unnamed sources.

CurrentC Mobile Payment System Discloses Breach

CurrentC, the fledgling mobile payment system in development by a consortium of retailers, is sending emails to people who signed up for the beta version of the app warning them "that unauthorized third parties obtained the e-mail addresses of some of you." CurrentC is backed by MCX, the Merchants Consumer Exchange, which is a group of retailers trying to create a mobile payment system.

FBI Created Fake News Article to Lure Bomb Suspect

The FBI in Seattle created a fake news story on a bogus Seattle Times web page to plant software in the computer of a suspect in a series of bomb threats to Lacey’s Timberline High School in 2007, according to documents obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in San Francisco. The EFF documents reveal that the FBI dummied up a story with an Associated Press byline about the Thurston County bomb threats with an email link “in the style of The Seattle Times,” including details about subscriber and advertiser information.

FCC Considers Rule Changes for Internet Video

The Federal Communications Commission is considering rule changes that could guarantee that Internet video providers have the same access to premium programming as cable and satellite TV providers. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler proposed rule changes regarding so-called "over-the-top" Internet video services such as those currently under development by Dish Network, Sony and Verizon that would treat them the same as cable and satellite TV providers.

FTC Sues AT&T for 'Throttling' Internet Speeds

The U.S. government filed a lawsuit against AT&T Inc., alleging the No. 2 U.S. wireless carrier sold consumers unlimited data plans but would slow their Internet down once they used a certain amount of data. The Federal Trade Commission, which filed the lawsuit, said that this "throttling" of Internet feeds was deceptive and said that in some cases the data speeds were slowed by nearly 90 percent.

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The GigaLaw Firm helps companies of all sizes protect their brands online, using domain name dispute policies – such as the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) – and other legal tools available to copyright and trademark owners on the Internet.