In a blockbuster ruling, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed startup hiQ Labs, Inc.’s preliminary injunction (PI) against LinkedIn granted by Judge Edward Chen of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in August 2017. The PI prevents LinkedIn from restricting hiQ’s access to publicly available LinkedIn profile information and allows hiQ to continue serving its clients.

“This case presented issues of first impression and the ruling sets an important precedent for data analytics companies who rely on access to publicly available data for the services they provide,” said Farella Partner Brandon Wisoff, who argued the appeal on behalf of hiQ. “While the ruling was on the preliminary injunction issues and not on the merits per se, the court’s analysis should send a message that large companies cannot use the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act with impunity as a tool to stifle competition from innovative startups.”

The Farella team representing hiQ also included Deepak Gupta, Rebecca Stephens, and Jeffrey Lau.

Read the opinion, here.