Technology

Evolving technologies face unprecedented challenges that call for the experienced, innovative approaches we offer. Our representations include:

• Snap in federal multi-district litigation and coordinated state court proceedings alleging that social media applications cause addiction and mental health harms to minors.
• Google and YouTube in a lawsuit filed by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who asserted First Amendment claims against Google for taking down his videos questioning the safety of COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy’s claims were rejected by a district court and a Ninth Circuit panel.
• Lyft in multiple cases asserting that drivers using Lyft’s service should be treated as employees, including at trial of claims brought by the Attorney General of Massachusetts. MTO successfully defended multiple preliminary injunction motions seeking immediate classification of drivers as employees.
• Airbnb in obtaining an injunction enjoining a Boston ordinance requiring Airbnb to remove listings to operate in Boston and turn over private user data without any legal process.
• A toy manufacturer in a class action alleging that operators of YouTube channels aimed at children collected personal information from users under the age of 13, in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and other laws.
• An online service provider in several matters against parties using bots or other technologies to scrape the provider’s website, create fake or unauthorized accounts, or otherwise disrupt its platform.

We work with clients to resolve pressing legal and regulatory matters with an eye on their business priorities. Our representations include:

• Electronic Arts in nationwide products-liability cases regarding allegedly addictive video games, in which the defendants defeated a petition to consolidate the cases before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation.
• Activision Blizzard as co-counsel in reaching a $54 million settlement agreement in litigation with the California Civil Rights Department (CRD) after a years-long investigation of alleged sex discrimination, sexual harassment and retaliation against female employees. MTO’s litigation strategy persuaded CRD to drop its pattern-and-practice claims of sexual harassment, limit the period for individual claims and settle for approximately half of what comparable companies facing similar claims had paid.
• Disney, Lucasfilm, Fox, Marvel and other studios in winning a $62.4 million jury verdict in a copyright infringement and circumvention action against the streaming service VidAngel.
• Activision Blizzard in obtaining dismissal with prejudice claims brought by former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega alleging that his depiction as a minor character in the Call of Duty game violated his right of publicity and California’s unfair competition statute and seeking a portion of profits from the game.

We help clients achieve their goals and avoid legal pitfalls, even in new technology areas where the law is unsettled. Our representations include:

• Grayscale Investments in securing a significant appellate victory when the D.C. Circuit vacated a Securities and Exchange Commission order denying Grayscale’s bid to launch the first spot bitcoin exchange-traded product (ETP) in the United States.
• Block in dismissing or compelling to arbitration two class actions brought under the Unruh Act by gun store owners and bankruptcy attorneys challenging restrictions in Square’s terms of service.
• An NFT marketplace in obtaining dismissal of claims in one of the first of its kind cases seeking several million dollars in damages arising from stolen NFTs.
• An online payment platform in obtaining a dismissal of all statutory damages claims in a privacy class action alleging that the company improperly collects financial and other information from consumers using the payment form and subjects them to future tracking and profiling.

We have guided hardware clients through complex transactions and litigation to achieve their business goals. Our representations include:

• Intel Corporation in its agreement to sell its NAND flash memory solid state drive and wafer businesses to SK Hynix, a South Korean semiconductor manufacturer, for $9 billion USD through an unconventional, two-close structure.
• Kyocera Corporation in state and federal court in Michigan relating to long-term supply agreements for polysilicon used for solar panel manufacturing. We won on appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
• Applied Materials in a federal criminal case and a civil lawsuit against former executives who conspired to misappropriate Applied trade secrets and two companies started by one of the executives. In the civil case, we successfully argued the matter should move ahead as a unified proceeding and resisted efforts to compel it to arbitration.