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Libbie Canter

Libbie Canter represents a wide variety of multinational companies on privacy, cyber security, and technology transaction issues, including helping clients with their most complex privacy challenges and the development of governance frameworks and processes to comply with global privacy laws. She routinely supports clients on their efforts to launch new products and services involving emerging technologies, and she has assisted dozens of clients with their efforts to prepare for and comply with federal and state privacy laws, including the California Consumer Privacy Act and California Privacy Rights Act.

Libbie represents clients across industries, but she also has deep expertise in advising clients in highly-regulated sectors, including financial services and digital health companies. She counsels these companies — and their technology and advertising partners — on how to address legacy regulatory issues and the cutting edge issues that have emerged with industry innovations and data collaborations.

As part of her practice, she also regularly represents clients in strategic transactions involving personal data and cybersecurity risk. She advises companies from all sectors on compliance with laws governing the handling of health-related data. Libbie is recognized as an Up and Coming lawyer in Chambers USA, Privacy & Data Security: Healthcare. Chambers USA notes, Libbie is "incredibly sharp and really thorough. She can do the nitty-gritty, in-the-weeds legal work incredibly well but she also can think of a bigger-picture business context and help to think through practical solutions."

In response to recommendations by the mHealth Task Force, the Federal Communications Commission has launched a new website to serve as a central repository for the FCC’s health care-related work and is searching for a new position to coordinate the agency’s health care technology-related initiatives.   Chairman Genachowski convened the FCC’s first mHealth Summit earlier this year to discuss the “promise of mobile devices to improve health care and lower costs. “   Participants in the summit formed an independent mHealth Task Force, which made a number of policy recommendations to the FCC, including the the appointment of a Director of Health Care Initiatives.  The Commission is now seeking to fill that position, which it says is an important step in the FCC’s ongoing mission to expand access to health care applications through wired and wireless broadband.   The mHealth Task Force report also recommended that the Commission comprehensively reform and modernize the Rural Health Care Program.

According to the FCC, the Director of Health Care Initiatives will spearhead the following health-related initiatives for the FCC:Continue Reading FCC Begins Implementing mHealth Task Force Recommendations

The Federal Communications Commission yesterday released a Smartphone Security Checker, a tool designed to help consumers secure their smartphones against mobile security threats.  The tool provides consumers with tips that are customized for four different mobile operating systems.  Many of tips focus on security-related topics.  For instance, the tool recommends that consumers set a
Continue Reading FCC Provides Consumer Tips On Mobile Privacy And Security

Earlier this week, Google Inc. and Rosetta Stone Inc. settled their dispute over whether the sale of Rosetta Stone’s name to third parties for search-engine advertising constitutes an infringing use of Rosetta Stone’s trademark.  Google’s AdWords advertising platform permits third parties to purchase “sponsored links” that are shown to users whose online searches include certain keywords.  Rosetta Stone filed suit in 2009, alleging both direct and secondary trademark infringement based on Google’s sale of its name as a keyword used for this purpose.  Although the terms of the settlement have not been made public, Rosetta Stone announced that they will work together with Google to “meaningfully collaborate to combat online ads for counterfeit goods and prevent misuse and abuse of trademarks on the Internet.” 

In 2010, the Eastern District of Virginia granted Google summary judgment in the dispute, but the Fourth Circuit vacated that decision earlier this year.  In evaluating the direct infringement claim, the Court focused on the question of whether Google’s actions were likely to cause consumer confusion.  Even though Google itself was not passing off any goods or services as Rosetta Stone’s, the Fourth Circuit  concluded that a reasonable trier of fact could find that Google “intended to create confusion” based on “knowledge that confusion was very likely to result from its use of the marks.”  The court also cited evidence that consumers had in fact purchased counterfeit Rosetta Stone software from sponsored links that they mistakenly believed were authorized by Rosetta Stone.  The Fourth Circuit further held that evidence that Google allowed known infringers and counterfeiters to bid on Rosetta Stone’s marks as keywords was sufficient to withstand summary judgment on the contributory infringement claim.
Continue Reading Google Settles Search Engine Advertising Litigation With Rosetta Stone—But Sponsored Advertising Disputes Will Likely Persist

A recent study conducted by the Online Publishers Association and Frank N. Magid Associates, Inc. studied how consumers were accessing content, such as video and news information, and otherwise spending time on their smartphones.  “A Portrait of Today’s Smartphone User” reached the following conclusions:

  • There are approximately 107 million smartphone users in the


Continue Reading Study Profiles Smartphone Users

Cable operators are turning to federal courts of appeal to challenge Federal Communications Commission activity relating to Section 616 of the Communications Act, which — along with the FCC’s implementing rules — prohibits vertically integrated cable operators  from discriminating against unaffiliated cable networks.  

Comcast Appeals Carriage Decision to D.C. Circuit

Comcast has filed a petition for review to the D.C. Circuit in connection with its carriage dispute with the Tennis Channel.  In a decision that marked the first time an independent cable network has prevailed under Section 616 since the statute was passed two decades ago, the Commission concluded earlier this year that Comcast discriminated against Tennis Channel in favor of its wholly-owned networks, Golf Channel and Versus (now re-named the NBC Sports Network), in violation of Section 616.  The Commission ordered Comcast to carry Tennis Channel “on the same distribution tier, reaching the same number of subscribers, as it does Golf Channel and Versus.”  It declined, however, to order Comcast to carry Tennis Channel on a channel position “very close” to Golf Channel and Versus.  Comcast is now appealing the decision, and while the FCC denied a motion filed by Comcast to stay its order, a separate motion to stay is pending before the D.C. Circuit.  Covington represented Tennis Channel in this proceeding.

Second Circuit To Consider Challenge To Program Carriage Rule Changes

Separately, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association and Time Warner Cable, Inc. have filed reply briefs to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in their consolidated challenge to changes to the FCC made to its implementing rules (known as the “program carriage rules”) in 2011.  The Second Circuit has tentatively scheduled oral argument in the case for the week of October 1. 

Last year, the FCC changed its program carriage rules last year in several respects:Continue Reading Cable Operators Challenge FCC On Program Carriage Decision And Rule Changes

Last week, the Seventh Circuit found that copyright owners are unlikely to establish that a social bookmarking service is liable for contributory copyright liability, overturning a preliminary injunction granted by the district court.  In an opinion by Judge Richard Posner, the court concluded that merely referring or linking users to an online location containing infringing material is not sufficient to trigger contributory liability. 
Continue Reading Seventh Circuit Reverses Contributory Copyright Liability Ruling

Last week, a federal district court declined to enjoin Aereo’s “Watch Now” streaming service pending the outcome of a full trial in the copyright infringement law suit filed by the major networks and broadcast stations serving the New York DMA against Aereo. The parties sought to enjoin Aereo from streaming their programming for the duration of the trial because, they argued, they were likely to succeed on the merits. The court’s denial of their request for a preliminary injunction means that Aereo is free to continue with it service for the duration of the trial. The decision adds to the confusion around the degree to which broadcast signals may be streamed online and to mobile devices.

In last week’s decision, the court agreed with Aereo that its “Watch Now” streaming service works much like the remote storage DVR (“RS-DVR”) service offered by Cablevision and which the Second Circuit upheld against claims of copyright infringement in a separate decision last year. The RS-DVR service at issue in that case stored programming designated by consumers for recording on servers maintained remotely by Cablevision. Consumers could playback those programs through their home television sets using a remote control and a standard cable box equipped with the RS-DVR software. Key to the finding that the RS-DVR did not infringe upon copyright was the fact that when a consumer selected a program to be recorded to the RS-DVR, a “unique copy” of the program was saved for the consumer on the RS-DVR server. It was that “unique copy” which in turn was played back to the consumer when he or she requested it ― meaning there was no infringing “public performance.”  The Second Circuit’s decision is legally binding in New York, Vermont, and Connecticut.Continue Reading District Court Declines To Shut Down Video Streaming Service