Silicon Valley is the heart of Palo Alto, Calif.-based Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati’s legal business, and IP work for tech clients has been key to the firm’s success.
Last year was no different. Partner David Kramer helped Google Inc. win a dismissal of a lawsuit brought by Gary Black and Holli Beam-Black in California, who sued the Web giant over what they considered a defamatory post about their roofing business posted by a user on Google Places. If successful, the Blacks’ case could have had major ramifications for social-media companies, since much of their content is user generated. Kramer argued that Google was protected by a section of the Communications Decency Act that gives Internet companies immunity for hosting content posted by third parties. In November, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the dismissal.
