Week 9: Media Ethics/Media Law

http://blog.internetcases.com/category/first-amendment/

In this case, the University of Illinois sued Micron for patent infringement because he sent an email to several professors that read in part:

"Because Micron remains a defendant in a patent infringement lawsuit that [the University] filed against Micron in Federal court in Illinois on December 5, 2011, effective immediately, Micron will no longer recruit [University] students for open positions at any of Micron’s world-wide facilities."

So from this, the university asked the court to order Micron to make no future contact with any of University employee. But the court denied the motion because:

• "the term “harassing” was vague and therefore the requested injunction would violate Rule 65(d)’s requirement that the injunction describe in reasonable detail the acts to be restrained"
• "the prior restraint of speech would likely violate Micron’s First Amendment rights"
• "the sought after preliminary injunction did not pertain to the injury alleged in the complaint"

I found that this case to be a good example of the first amendment.