March 2010

Jurors are causing mistrials by conducting their own Web research, but it's apparently OK for judges to base their rulings on material they find online.

In a ruling issued today, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals said that judges can use search engines to help them render decisions. "With so much information at our fingertips (almost literally), we all likely confirm hunches with a brief visit to our favorite search engine that in the not-so-distant past would have gone unconfirmed," the court wrote in the case. The ruling stemmed from a proceeding against Anthony Bari, who was released from prison in May of 2008 after spending 13 years incarcerated for bank robbery. In September of 2008, Bari became a suspect in a new bank robbery. Rather than bring a new criminal case against him, the government sought to revoke his release on the theory that he had committed a new bank robbery. The strongest evidence against him was that the perpetrator of the September robbery was videotaped wearing a yellow rain hat similar to one found in the garage of Bari's landlord. At his release revocation hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin said that it was "just too much of a coincidence" that the bank robber would wear what appeared to be the same type of hat that was found in Bari's landlord's garage. To support his point that the similarity wasn't coincidental, Chin said his chambers conducted a Google search for yellow rain hats and found many different types.

Ten public interest groups and library associations wrote to U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk Monday voicing concern about some provisions in a leaked version of the anti-counterfeiting trade agreement being negotiated by the United States and other countries.

A "recent leak of a full text [of ACTA] heightens our concern that this negotiation is not primarily about counterfeiting or piracy; nor is at all about trade law," according to the letter signed by such groups as the American Library Association, Association of Research Libraries, the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge. "The public rationale that the treaty would not impinge on domestic law has been placed in doubt - particularly when one considers whose domestic law would be endangered."

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has published draft versions of testing methods to guide vendors in how to make sure that their electronic health record products meet technical requirements and standards for sharing information.

The test methods will be used by labs for certification of EHRs for meaningful use. The first of four groups of testing methods are for recording and modifying patient problem, medication and allergy lists. The procedures also include testing the system capability to conduct computerized provider order entry, calculate patient body mass index, plot and display growth charts and keep smoking status current. NIST continues to receive public comment on the test methods, even as they are being rolled out incrementally starting last month.

A landmark ruling at Europe's highest court on Tuesday will determine whether advertisements that pop up alongside Internet search results when consumers search for brand names such as Louis Vuitton violate European trademark laws.

The court will also rule whether Internet giant Google Inc. can be held liable for any breaches of trademarks in advertisements that appear on its Web site. A finding against Google will have wide implications for the multibillion dollar Internet search industry where Google, Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Inc.'s Bing and other search engines generate valuable revenue by enabling advertisers to tag their ads to particular search words, often famous brands. The ruling will also set out for the first time in the EU how far trademark owners can restrict online use of their brands.