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Attention Harvard Law School 1Ls and 2Ls:  clinical registration for the 2022-23 academic year takes place on Wednesday March 30, 2022 and Thursday March 31, 2022! If you are interested in exploring issues at the nexus of technology, law, policy, and social justice, while gaining real-world law practice experience, we strongly encourage to you to join us in the Cyberlaw Clinic in fall 2022 or spring 2023. Detailed information about clinical registration is available through the HLS Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs. →

On Monday, January 10, 2022, the Cyberlaw Clinic filed an amicus brief (.pdf) in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in support of Forbes Media, LLC (“Forbes Media”). The Clinic filed this brief on behalf of Restore the Fourth, Inc., a non-partisan non-profit focused on issues of privacy, surveillance, and the Fourth Amendment. The brief supports Forbes Media in seeking a reversal of a Northern District of California opinion that denied the disclosure of non-identifying portions of law enforcement All Writs Act (“AWA”) requests.

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Public.Resource.org, working with Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic, has advanced its mission to enhance public access to government information by challenging states that improperly claim copyright protection over model jury instructions used by litigants in state courts. By making model jury instructions available to the public, and by encouraging states to remove barriers to access, Public.Resource.org aims to enhance access to justice and promote engagement with the judicial process.  →

On Friday, December 17, the Cyberlaw Clinic filed an amicus brief in the United States Supreme Court on behalf of Engine Advocacy (“Engine”), the Public Interest Patent Law Institute (“PIPLI”), and ACT | the App Association. The brief supports Apple’s petition for a writ of certiorari in the case, Apple v. Qualcomm. Apple is asking that the Supreme Court review a decision of the United States Court of Appeals or the Federal Circuit, which held that Apple lacked standing to challenge the validity of patents that it licensed from Qualcomm. →

Yesterday, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court heard oral arguments in Commonwealth v. Perry, a case about the constitutionality of cell tower dumps. The Cyberlaw Clinic was honored to represent the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project as amici in this important case. S.T.O.P.’s brief (pdf) argues that cell tower dumps are an unreliable and unconstitutional form of dragnet surveillance.

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On October 15, 2021, the Cyberlaw Clinic submitted a Comment on behalf of the Public Interest Patent Law Institute (PIPLI), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to ensuring that the patent system promotes innovation and benefits the public. The Comment responded to the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO’s) Request for Information seeking opinions on the current state of patent eligibility jurisprudence. That jurisprudence — including a quartet of Supreme Court decisions in Bilski, Mayo, Myriad, and Alice — reinforced the importance of baseline standards that the USPTO and federal courts should apply in determining whether a patent application involves eligible subject matter. →

On August 27, 2021, the Cyberlaw Clinic filed an amicus brief on behalf of the Center for Investigative Reporting, the Media Law Resource Center, and the MuckRock Foundation in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The case, ACLU v. ICE (Second Circuit No. 21-1233), raises questions about how database design choices affect the availability of public information under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”). The amicus brief argues that technical, legal, and public policy factors all weigh in favor of using databases to facilitate, rather than hinder, the public right of access to government records.

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As we gear up for the fall semester, the Cyberlaw Clinic could not be more excited to welcome Alejandra Caraballo to the Clinic’s teaching team! Alejandra is a graduate of Brooklyn Law School and has been a staff attorney at both the New York Legal Assistance Group and the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund. Alejandra brings to the Clinic deep expertise as a civil rights and civil liberties attorney, with extensive practice experience focused on advancing the rights of LGBTQ people in a variety of legal contexts. Alejandra has a passion for all manner of tech law and policy issues (including intellectual property, encryption, and quantum computing). We expect that she will support projects in many of the Clinic’s existing practice areas while also taking us in some new and exciting directions. We are thrilled to be starting up the new academic year with Alejandra on board!