On February 2, 2003, many online retailers in the U.S., including Amazon.com and retailers hosted by Amazon.com, began collecting sales taxes in the state where the consumer made the order. For some of these companies, this new practice is part of an amnesty agreement with 38 states and the District of Columbia which agreed not to charge for back taxes owed, if the companies began voluntarily collecting the taxes. | MORE 

In the recent case of Bowers v. Baystate Technologies, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has upheld a lower court’s finding for the plaintiff’s copyright infringement and breach of contract claims and rejected the defendant’s patent invalidity claim. | MORE 

George Radwanski, Canada’s Privacy Commissioner, has criticized several government security initiatives in his Annual Report to Parliament. | MORE 

Recently, a Seattle Small Claims Court held that online retailer, Amazon.com, did not have to honour a sale price mistakenly listed on its website. A customer had purchased a television that had been listed for $99.99. However, the correct sale price was $849.99. The customer received an e-mail confirming the transaction and providing a shipping date upon completing the order. Two days later, the online retailer notified the customer of the mistake and canceled the order. The customer’s credit card had not yet been charged since Amazon.com does not charge for purchases until the item enters the shipping process. | MORE 

On January 28, 2003, the U.S. Court of Appeals (9th Circuit) released its decision in a trademark infringement case regarding Al Jardine’s use of the name “Beach Boys”. The dispute in Brother Records v. Jardine arose when Jardine began touring with his own band under various names that used the “Beach Boys” trademark. Brother Records Inc. (“BRI”), which had been formed by members of the band to hold and administer the intellectual property rights for the Beach Boys, commenced a trademark infringement action alleging that Jardine had used the trademark without a license. Jardine counterclaimed, alleging that the company had breached a lifetime employment and license agreement. | MORE 

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) has announced that it will no longer reserve dot.ca Internet domain names of Canadian municipalities. | MORE 

In EF Cultural Travel v. Zefer Corporation, the U.S. Court of Appeals (1st Circuit) affirmed the District Court’s preliminary injunction prohibiting the Zefer Corporation (“Zefer”) from using a “scraper tool” to collect pricing information from EF Cultural Travel BV’s (“EF”) website. In an earlier decision, the Appeals Court upheld the injunction against co-defendant Explorica Inc. (“Explorica”). | MORE 

On January 29, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit overturned a decision of a District Court that Infineon (a group of related companies) did not infringe four of Rambus Inc.’s patents. The Court revised the claim construction performed by the District court judge and remanded the case for further consideration under the revised construction. | MORE