UPDATE: On February 24, the Colorado Senate passed House Bill 1047 with no amendments, and on March 13, 2015, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper signed this bill into law. Colorado House Bill 1047 would make internet sweepstakes cafés illegal under Colorado law. The law declares that internet sweepstakes cafés and similar establishments in…
Further to the early 2014 policy that relaxed the restrictions on the foreign equity ratio in value-added telecommunications business in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone (“Shanghai FTZ”), on January 15, 2015, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (“MIIT”) promulgated a new policy, i.e., the Opinions on Lifting Restrictions on…
Unlike New York, Kansas, and Texas, which have either published proposed regulations or formal guidance, some states, such as California, have indicated that they are still trying to determine whether Bitcoin and other virtual currency activities are subject to licensure and regulation under their money transmitter laws. On January 27th,…
The founder of Silk Road, the black market website where illegal goods were bought with bitcoin, was found guilty on all 7 counts, including money laundering, drug trafficking and computer hacking. While this is an unfortunate result for Ross Ulbricht, who faces life in prison, the enforcement against illegal uses…
On January 8, 2015, New Hampshire House Bill 356 was introduced, proposing to exempt persons using private virtual currencies for internet commerce from the licensing requirements for money transmitters. H.B. 356 would define “virtual currency” to mean ” any type of digital unit that is used as a medium of…
According to a recent study, more than 100,000 mHealth apps have already been published on Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android platforms. Market revenue is expected to skyrocket to $26 billion by 2017. mHealth app providers and all of the players in the mHealth ecosystem must be aware of the potential…
Coinbase, the self-proclaimed world’s most popular bitcoin wallet provider, announced on January 20th that it raised $75 million in a Series C financing, which brings Coinbase’s total capital raised to $106 million. The round was led by DFJ Growth, but also included three mainstream financial institutions: The New York Stock…
FinCEN issued an alert indicating that certain organizations and individuals have been circumventing various laws related to sports betting, including by permitting “third-party betting” and reminding the industry about the importance of applying a risk-based approach with respect to this issue and the need to implement reasonably designed AML programs…
In denying a motion for summary judgment of invalidity under Section 101, the court stated: “An inability to articulate an abstract idea to which claims are directed may be a clue that those claims satisfy Section 101.” The patent claims at issue related to management of online poker. Defendant challenged…
Too many companies/lawyers treat website Terms of Service (TOS) as boilerplate agreements that no one reads. Many companies simply put a link at the bottom of the homepage. This approach continues to prove ineffective, as courts are more frequently refusing to enforce TOS absent properly drafted terms and a requirement…