From left, Jeffrey M. Rosenfeld, Ginny Sanderson and Karl S. Kronenberger
outdated laws to new technologies, finding seldom-used intersections in the law.
Last year the six-attorney firm won what is believed to be the first ever "revenge
porn" jury verdict in California, taking home $250,000 for a plaintiff whose intimate
photos were posted online without consent.
The firm is currently suing Google Inc. and Waze Inc., the GPS navigation company
formed in Israel that Google acquired in 2013.
Partner Jeffrey M. Rosenfeld said the firm's client, PhantomAlert Inc., which created
a rival GPS navigation app, had information stolen from its database and appropriated
by Waze. Both applications incorporate user data, relying on drivers to report the
location of cops, speed cameras or traffic slowdowns.
Rosenfeld said the two companies discussed a possible data-sharing collaboration but
ultimately PhantomAlert declined to participate.
"Sometime later, at PhantomAlert the CEO realized that Waze had basically taken their
entire points of interest database wholesale, copied it and installed it into their
own database and application," Rosenfeld said. "The way they realized this was because
they had seeded their own database with some fictitious points of interest and fake
speed cameras where speed cameras don't exist."
Karl S. Kronenberger, a former Navy Judge Advocate General (JAG) litigator who founded
the firm in 2003, said the client discovered the problem by utilizing an age old mapping
technique.
"A lot of map makers would create fake roads in their roads," he said. "So if another
mapmaker copied the map they would have proof."
"They're called 'trap streets,'" said Ansel Halliburton, an associate at the firm
and former software engineer.
While at Stanford, Halliburton worked on the Stanford Intellectual Property Litigation
Clearinghouse, a project that eventually spun off and became Lex Machina, an intellectual
property litigation data analytics shop.
Rosenfeld said the firm asserted claims for copyright infringement and conversion
and the defendants have yet to respond.
"But they are going to be represented by Durie Tangri so they brought in the big guns
to defend it."
The firm is also bringing unique litigation against private business jet provider
Netjets Inc., alleging the company violated the Railway Labor Act, which was passed
in 1926.
"It dealt with a lot of old time union busting techniques, where a company would send
spies in to the union," Kronenberger said.
The twist is that the firm alleges Netjets violated the act by surreptitiously gaining
access to an online union message board and impersonating employees electronically.
Leaders at Netjets were gathering confidential communications between union members
and created fake blogs and twitter accounts to keep the ruse going, Kronenberger said.
He said the company "impersonated union members and tried to bait them into violating
the law in order for the company to get leverage because they could then threaten
to sue the union."
The case generated headlines because Netjets is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway
Inc.
"People are asking Warren Buffett about it all the time at press conferences. He's
really annoyed when he has to answer questions about it," Kronenberger said.
-JOSHUA SEBOLD
#261320
For reprint rights or to order a copy of your photo:
Email
Jeremy_Ellis@dailyjournal.com
for prices.
Direct dial: 213-229-5424
Send a letter to the editor:
Email: letters@dailyjournal.com