Thursday, April 8, 2021
The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed a district’s court denial of sovereign immunity under the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act (FSIA) and remanded the case to be dismissed with prejudice, holding that France was immune from a trademark infringement claim in the United States brought by the former owner of the domain name France.com.
France.com, Inc. v. The French Republic, Case No. 20-1016 (4th Cir. Mar. 25, 2021) (Motz, J.)
Jean-Noel Frydman and his company France.com, Inc. (collectively, Frydman) purchased and registered the domain name France.com and trademarked the name in the United States and in the European Union. In 2015, the Republic of France (RoF) intervened in an ongoing lawsuit between Frydman and a third party, asserting the exclusive right to the use of the term “France” commercially. The RoF also insisted that the use of “France” by a private enterprise infringed on its sovereignty. The Paris District
Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG), have joined
Facebook Inc’s (NASDAQ: FB) legal efforts against Israeli surveillance company NSO Group Technologies Ltd.
What Happened: Microsoft, Google-parent Alphabet,
Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ: CSCO),
Dell Technologies Inc (NYSE: DELL), and Washinton-based Internet Association argued in a legal brief filed before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and other U.S. laws make it illegal to access a computing device without proper authorization.
The brief acknowledged that NSO is seeking immunity under the common law of foreign sovereign immunity to cover the actions of private companies at the behest of foreign government customers.
what does it say to you that they re going forward with this case involving this company own by a foreign country. it s an important case. believe it or not, this arises in a context that the supreme court has never considered. so it s not wholly surprising that it s taking this case. specifically, we have a law called the foreign sovereign immunity act. this is complicated. let me try to boil it down. beak a sovereignen government has immunity from civil lawsuits against it, but there s a list of exceptions to that immunity. one of them is when a sovereign government engages in or owns another entity that engages in commercial activities. so that kind of activity is at the core of this dispute. what we re dealing with here is a state-owned enterprise, in other words, a company that is owned by a sovereign government and so they re saying we belong
let s discuss, jack quinn, garrett graff, the author of the threat matrix, inside robert mueller s fbi and the war on global terror. gentlemen, good evening to both of you. hope you had a good new year. happy new year. the supreme court is very selective which cases it takes. what does it say to you that they re going forward with this case involving this company own by a foreign country. it s an important case. believe it or not, this arises in a context that the supreme court has never considered. so it s not wholly surprising that it s taking this case. specifically, we have a law called the foreign sovereign immunity act. this is complicated. let me try to boil it down. beak a sovereignen government has immunity from civil lawsuits against it, but there s a list of exceptions to that immunity. one of them is when a sovereign government engages in or owns