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The Firewall
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The Firewall
Seventh Circuit Narrows TCPA Liability for Marketing Texts, but Other Claims and a Circuit Split Remain
By Matthew T. Hays, Jennifer Dickey
On July 14, 2026, the Seventh Circuit became the first federal appellate court to hold that text messages are not “telephone calls” under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act’s (“TCPA”) private…
The Firewall
Northern District of California Allows Trademark Claims Against AI To Proceed
By Jennifer Fraser, Diego Freire
Takeaways Use in commerce: AI-generated outputs containing third-party marks may constitute use in commerce even when the reproduction is unintentional, particularly where the AI tool competes with the trademark owner’s…
The Firewall
Activity in Oklahoma, Alabama, and Maine Signals a Privacy Deregulatory Trend
By Matthew T. Hays, Alida Babcock
Takeaways The enactments of Alabama’s and Oklahoma’s comprehensive privacy legislation are not remarkable in and of themselves. However, the passage of these business-friendly statutes, in contrast with the defeat of…
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The White House AI Framework for Fair Use and Why the Courts May Get There First
By Matthew T. Hays, Diego Freire
On March 20, 2026, the Trump Administration released its National AI Legislative Framework, a seven-section policy document covering children’s safety, energy infrastructure, intellectual property, censorship, innovation, workforce development, and federal…
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AI Code Leak Exposes the Fault Lines of Copyright
By Diego Freire
One of the most valuable AI companies in the world may have just accidentally given away one of its crown jewels and immediately turned to copyright law to limit the…
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The Curious Case of Executive Order 14365’s Impact on AI Regulation
By Matthew T. Hays, Jennifer Dickey
A status check on the state of artificial intelligence regulation in the U.S. Takeaways Executive Order 14365 has so far not brought any clarity or consistency to U.S. artificial intelligence…
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New CCPA Regulations: Culture Change and the Rise of the ex ante Framework
Takeaways The CCPA Dives Into Internal Governance. The new amendments introduce three major regulatory pillars: new requirements for Automated Decision-Making Technology (ADMT), mandatory annual cybersecurity audits, and a requirement for…
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The Minnesota Consumer Data Privacy Act Is the Next Evolution in Consumer Privacy Rights
By Matthew T. Hays, Jennifer Dickey
Key Takeaways: The Minnesota Consumer Data Privacy Act (the “Act”) follows established trends regarding transparency, data minimization, and required assessments, but represents the next evolution in consumer rights under U.S.…
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Status Check: Support Is Quickly Eroding for the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework
By Matthew T. Hays, Michelle Mayfield
Takeaways Increased federal deregulation and related actions are further destabilizing the already tenuous foundation of the Data Privacy Framework (DPF). European privacy regulators have been issuing guidance indicating that they…
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Close Enough Is Not Good Enough When It Comes to Consumers’ Privacy Rights
By Matthew T. Hays, Alida Babcock
We’re not playing horseshoes here, folks. It’s time to review your consumer privacy rights forms and mechanisms. Key Takeaways The fields relating to requests to opt-out of sale/sharing and requests…