Joseph P. Cutler

Internet Enforcement—Facebook and Amazon

Provide ongoing management of a complete enforcement program for Facebook and Amazon to enforce their terms; combat fraud; prosecute spammers, hackers and phishers; and to investigate and refer illegal behavior to law enforcement.

Privacy Assessments

Conducted thorough assessments of the privacy and data security practices of various clients that collect and process personal data. Clients include a major wireless telecommunications provider, a rural telecommunications provider, a speech recognition software provider, a major medical and optical device manufacturer, an automated kiosk provider and a video game manufacturer. The assessments consisted of extensive interviews with client personnel, reviews of contracts with third parties and production of a report with recommended improvements.

Information Governance

Provide counsel related to the structure and content of information governance policies and procedures. Develop and implement comprehensive information management frameworks, including drafting information governance policies, related privacy and security programs, and implementation procedures. Also have experience tailoring these frameworks to applicable standards (NIST, ISO, etc.). Clients include a large gaming company, international technology backbone provider, large medical and consumer optical device manufacturer, and retail kiosk provider.

Counseling: Security Breach Notification Laws

Supervised the revision of the security breach notification laws chart, which surveys the state laws that require notification in the event of security breaches involving the loss of personal data. Assisted numerous companies to respond appropriately to actual and suspected data breaches, including system intrusion, lost laptops, compromised data centers and rogue employee disclosures.

Counseling: International Transfers of Personal Data

Provide counsel to clients regarding the EU Directives on privacy, data protection, e-commerce and electronic communications services; specifically focused on methods of transferring personal data collected in the EU to other countries that are not deemed adequately protected by EU data protection authorities. Work with clients to structure transfer agreements and arrangements to comply with EU data protection laws.

EU Privacy Shield Certifications

Developed a due diligence worksheet and guide for clients applying for certification in the U.S. Department of Commerce's EU Privacy Shield Program. Ongoing compliance counseling regarding Privacy Shield obligations. Clients successfully certified include a major video game manufacturer, an online visual charting service, e-commerce retailers and a complex transaction between a major technology manufacturer and its subsidiaries for human resource data and an international web technology company.

Counseling: Consumer Protection

Provide counsel to clients regarding compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, including amendments requiring full implementation of Red Flag identification programs to combat identity theft and amendments addressing affiliate sharing of data for marketing purposes. Provide counsel regarding appropriate collections practices under the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act to a major wireless carrier.

Counseling: Money Transmission and Anti-Money Laundering

Provide comprehensive counseling regarding compliance with state and federal money transmission laws as they relate to emerging payment systems, and in particular blockchain, cryptocurrency and digital assets ventures. Develop and implement anti-money laundering programs, conduct related risk assessments and represent clients before state and federal regulators like FinCEN and state departments of financial services. Working with several large digital currency exchanges to obtain their state money transmitter licenses. Helped CoinMe, a bitcoin kiosk company, obtain the first money transmission license issued by the State of Washington. Presented multiple companies to the Washington Department of Financial Institutions and other state regulatory agencies.

Advising Government on Blockchain

Advised 15 U.S. House Representatives and Senators on ways to integrate blockchain technology into government functions to reduce bureaucracy. Co-chairing the state working group for the Chamber of Digital Commerce. Testified before Washington State House and Senate legislative committees considering legislation related to blockchain and cryptocurrency. Testified in opposition to a Washington State legislative bill that would ban the use of virtual currency in cannabis transactions.

Twitch v. Bouchouev

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
Helped lead Twitch’s multi-defendant suit aimed at stopping programmers from utilizing “viewbots” to artificially boost the number of “viewers” in Twitch broadcaster streams.

MTACC Inc. v. Benjamin Lawsky and the New York Department of Financial Services

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington
Represented MTACC Inc. in a declaratory judgment action seeking to clarify the scope of New York’s money transmission statute as it applied to MTACC.

Facebook Inc. v. Martin Grunin

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
Helped successfully prosecute and obtain a $415,000 judgment against an individual who had abused Facebook’s advertising services and breached Facebook's Terms of Use.

Facebook Inc. v. Adscend Media, LLC, et al.

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
Represented Facebook in prosecution of an affiliate advertising network that had paid for and encouraged its affiliates to breach of Facebook's Terms of Use by spamming its users.

Facebook Inc. v. Steven Richter

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
Successfully prosecuted and obtained a $175,000 stipulated judgment against Steven Richter for abusing Facebook’s trademarks and running a deceptive spamming advertising campaign.

Facebook Inc. v. Jason Swan

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
Represented Facebook in prosecution of an individual who created deceptive websites and advertising campaigns that breached Facebook's Terms of Use, and spammed its users.

Facebook Inc. v. Maxbounty, Inc.

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
Represented Facebook in prosecution of an affiliate advertising network that had paid for and encouraged its affiliates to breach of Facebook's Terms of Use by spamming its users.

Facebook Inc. v. Jeremy Fisher; Philip Porembski; Ryan Shimeall, et al.

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
Successfully prosecuted and obtained a $360.5 million judgment against Philip Porembski for running a major phishing and spamming attack on Facebook users.

Facebook Inc. v. Banana Ads, et al.

Helped bring suit against more than 20 defendants who registered and used domain names incorporating Facebook’s trademarks or deliberate misspellings of Facebook’s trademarks (cybersquatting or typosquatting). The client obtained default judgments awarding statutory damages of $2.8 million and requiring transfer of dozens of infringing domain names to Facebook.

Facebook Inc. v. Power.com, et al.

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
Represented Facebook in prosecution of an aggregation website for copyright and trademark infringement as well as breach of Facebook's Terms of Use.

Facebook Inc. v. Sanford Wallace, et al.

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
Successfully prosecuted and obtained a $711 million judgment against Sanford Wallace, the self-proclaimed "Spam King," for initiating a major phishing and spamming attack on Facebook users.

Facebook Inc. v. Istra Holdings, et al.

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
Represented Facebook in prosecution of an adult entertainment website operator to prevent computer fraud and abuse, SPAM and tortious interference with Facebook's business interests.

In re A. B.

Board of Immigration Appeals
Represented a juvenile asylum-seeker from Mexico in successful appeal before the Board of Immigration Appeals; successfully secured adjustment to long-term permanent resident status.

In re N. O.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Citizenship and Immigration Services
Represented an asylee from Somalia in successful application to adjust her status to long-term permanent resident.

T-Mobile USA Inc. v. AccuSearch Inc.

King County Superior Court (Washington)
Represented T-Mobile in prosecution of "pretexting" action; successful TRO, settlement and permanent injunction.

T-Mobile v. First Revenue Assurance

Represent T-Mobile in recovery of outstanding collections agency remittances.

Wisconsin Electric Power Company v. United States

U.S. Court of Federal Claims
Pre-trial briefing for major government contracts dispute involving the disposal of spent nuclear fuel from power plants.

Telus Communications Company v. Doe

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
Represented plaintiff in action to identify perpetrators of phishing scheme.

Think Computer Corp. v. Dwolla, Inc., et al.

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
Obtained dismissal for CoinLab from case alleging unfair competition, unjust enrichment and gross negligence for allegedly failing to obtain a money transmitter license in California.

Rural Cellular Corporation Custom Model License Agreement

Developed and negotiated confidentiality and security clauses for custom model license agreement with consumer reporting agency.