Kelly Mennemeier

The global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is disrupting industry on an enormous scale, and its effects are likely to be significant and long-lasting. In response to shelter-in-place orders around the country, businesses are closing, sales of “non-essential” goods and services are declining, and many parties find themselves unable to meet their contractual obligations to business partners or incapable of receiving the benefit of contracted-for goods or services. Such businesses are turning to their contracts in search of provisions that might excuse breaches of contract under these circumstances. These contracts can include IP licenses. These licenses often contain agreements with sales minimums or royalty agreements that may be difficult, if not impossible, to meet during this time of interrupted business and sales. Licensees and licensors both have options under common licenses to either enforce, or excuse, provisions due to COVID-19.

News coverage abounds about the latest breakthroughs in facial recognition technology. But, while this technology is an amazing technical achievement, it is not without potential drawbacks to privacy for those unwittingly subject to facial recognition in public. This includes the recent emergence of facial recognition technology paired with the large amounts of data available on the internet and social media through the scraping of images from numerous internet sources to provide an unusually powerful tool for uncovering the identity – including name, address and interests – of an individual through the use of just a single photograph. In response to these burgeoning technological advances in the field, cities and states have begun developing an array of legal approaches to regulate facial recognition technology, some scrambling to limit or prohibit its use, others enthusiastically embracing it. In this patchwork legal landscape, it can be challenging to know where and when the technology can be used – and for what purposes.