The Mid Lane is a rundown of developments in the world of esports.
It is no surprise that COVID-19 is impacting esports players, tournaments and the overall landscape of the growing industry. (But Facebook did something, too!)
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COVID-19, COPPA and the CCPA: Educators Face Privacy Questions as Students Move to Remote Learning
With the shelter-in-place orders imposed by the local and state governments, businesses are scrambling to transition to a virtual workforce and facilitating employees to work remotely from home. Educational institutions are no exception. School administrators and teachers have been working hard to create and implement plans to educate students at home, including maintaining a classroom curriculum through online platforms and incorporating daily or weekly interactions with the teacher and classmates through video chat or remote conferencing services.
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Innovating Your Thinking About Patents
Innovation has become seemingly synonymous with operating a successful business as the projected success of a company is measured by both its ability to innovate and its track record of innovation. Patent law is an area of law tasked by the U.S. Constitution to promote innovation. Patents and innovation should therefore ostensibly have some correlation for business.
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Keep an Eye on the Bayh-Dole Act in Regard to COVID-19-Relevant Patents
While companies in every industry are working hard to figure out the best response to this global pandemic, those in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries have been faced with some unique challenges related to the balancing of intellectual property rights with serving the public good. One particular question that such companies might face is whether parts of their patent portfolio are connected to federal funding and if so, how the Bayh-Dole Act may come into play as the government faces increasing pressure to meet public health needs.
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As a Response to COVID-19, 3D Printing Provides Some Wins … and Some Compelling Intellectual Property Questions
As the world collectively struggles to adapt to the “new normal,” it is clear that one of many challenges facing businesses and individuals is how to best adapt to supply chain disruptions. A key example of where these shortages are being reported is in the health care sector, which is experiencing a limited (or non-existent) supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) for health care workers and ventilators for patients. Not only have these shortages placed a strain on those treating patients who have fallen ill from COVID-19, but it has also frustrated efforts to fully identify who may or may not be infected. As one example, in a recent interview conducted by The Indicator podcast, it was reported that limited supplies of PPE to protect workers during patient sample collections were in turn limiting the ability of the University of Washington’s health center to test patients for coronavirus.
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The Challenge of Keeping Wellness Companies Healthy during COVID-19
One doesn’t have to look beyond Facebook posts, Twitter feeds or just text messages with family members to understand how COVID-19 is transforming established norms. With bedrock industries such as air travel, hospitality, food and beverage, insurance and traditional health care, ringing the alarm, it is easy to lose track of a trend that was gently and steadily growing and effecting real and positive change—the embrace of holistic health and wellness in the workplace. Not surprisingly, many of the wellness companies leading this change rely on congregation—in-person community-building—for their growth.
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Esports and Gaming in the Time of COVID-19
March often marks a new beginning—not just by Mother Nature—but also in sports. In the U.S., March brings the excitement of the NCAA tournament, Spring Training for Major League Baseball, and the ever-tightening playoff races for the NBA.
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Court Docket Trumps COVID-19 Concerns, at Least in One Court
Think COVID-19 constitutes good cause to extend imminent court deadlines? Don’t be so sure. Last Thursday, the Hon. Rodney Gilstrap, Chief Judge in the Eastern District of Texas, denied a joint motion to extend discovery cut-off and opening expert reports by 30 days in the face of COVID-19 concerns.
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Fighting Financial Wrong-Doing with the Power of AI
We’ve discussed before the potential of AI to detect financial crimes like money laundering. On March 23, colleague Deborah Thoren-Peden will explore the growing nexus between artificial intelligence and the detection and prevention of financial misdeeds.
In “Leveraging AI to Combat Financial Crimes,” Thoren-Peden will be joined by Sam Small (ZeroFox) and Tim Mueller (GuideHouse) to discuss how AI is being integrated into RegTech solutions for enhanced AML compliance and screening, and how AI is being used to monitor insider trading, market manipulation and other suspicious market activities. In addition, they will identify best practices from law enforcement and financial institutions where AI is being successfully deployed to curb financial criminal activity.
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The FTC, Kidfluencers and the Looming Challenge of Child-Proof Disclosures
By now, most people know that advertising on social media requires certain disclosures so as to avoid the ire of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which is tasked with protecting consumers from fraudulent, deceptive and unfair business practices. FTC rules concerning advertising on social media track the basic rules of traditional advertising law. For example, advertising must be truthful and not misleading, advertisers must have evidence to back up their claims (a.k.a., “substantiation”), and advertisements cannot be unfair.