California

  • July 29, 2025

    Jack Daniel's Toy TM Win Violates Free Speech, 9th Circ. Told

    The maker of a dog toy parodying Jack Daniel's iconic whiskey bottle has urged the Ninth Circuit to reverse a finding that its "Bad Spaniels" toy tarnishes Jack Daniel's mark, arguing the ruling constitutes unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination over "mild poo jokes" that weren't similar to famous Jack Daniel's marks.

  • July 29, 2025

    Calif. Panel Rejects Stricter Standard For Resisting Arrest

    A California appellate court panel has upheld a man's conviction for resisting arrest, refusing his invitation to overturn case law and make it harder to prove "willful" resistance.

  • July 29, 2025

    REIT Shareholders File 'Improper Lending' Suit Against Execs

    Two Arbor Realty Trust Inc. shareholders hit several of the real estate investment trust's executives, including its president and CEO Ivan Kaufman, with a derivative suit on Tuesday alleging they made the REIT use "improper lending practices" that saddled the company "with a severely distressed loan portfolio."

  • July 29, 2025

    Mexican Media Co. Wants Fox's Soccer Licensing Suit Tossed

    A Mexican media company facing contract breach claims from Fox Cable Network Services LLC over soccer broadcasting rights called on a California federal judge Monday to dismiss the case, asserting that the U.S. media giant's case is too thin and that litigation already underway in Mexico should take precedence.

  • July 29, 2025

    Brokerage Owner Says NAR Dues Policy Hurts Competition

    The owner of a Modesto, California, residential sales brokerage urged a California federal court to not toss his antitrust suit challenging dues created by the National Association of Realtors and enforced by affiliated Realtor associations, arguing that he has Article III standing for his claims and that he was significantly harmed by the dues policy.

  • July 29, 2025

    Convicted Crypto CEO Tied To Abramoff Gets 7-Year Sentence

    A California federal judge Tuesday sentenced a cryptocurrency company founder who committed a multimillion-dollar fraud in a scheme also involving disgraced ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff to seven years imprisonment — less than the 17 years prosecutors sought — in light of the man's childhood trauma, mental health and lack of criminal history.

  • July 29, 2025

    Ford Settles Proposed Class Action Over Emissions Warranty

    Ford has settled a putative class action accusing it of violating the unfair competition law by failing to provide an emissions warranty for Golden State drivers whose vehicle transmissions weren't covered for seven years or 70,000 miles, according to a notice filed in California federal court.

  • July 29, 2025

    Some OpenAI Defenses Nixed In 'Over-Litigated' Musk Suit

    A California federal judge briefly took Elon Musk and OpenAI to task on Tuesday, in an order summarily nixing some of the ChatGPT-maker's affirmative defenses against the billionaire's lawsuit challenging plans to change its corporate structure.

  • July 29, 2025

    Calif. Privacy Agency Fines Data Broker For Skirting Registry

    The California Privacy Protection Agency on Tuesday announced its latest enforcement action under a groundbreaking state data deletion law, imposing a more than $55,000 fine on a Washington-based data broker on allegations it failed to fulfill its registration obligations last year. 

  • July 29, 2025

    22 States Sue To Block Defunding Of Planned Parenthood

    California and more than 20 other states on Tuesday launched their own legal challenge to budget legislation that halts federal Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood, alleging the measure illegally targets the organization and violates its First Amendment rights.

  • July 29, 2025

    State & Local Tax Atty Rejoins Pillsbury In San Francisco

    Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP continues expanding its tax team, welcoming a state and local tax expert who worked several years as a solo practitioner back to the firm as a partner in its San Francisco office.

  • July 29, 2025

    9th Circ. Won't Revive Drag Queen's Likeness Claims

    The Ninth Circuit has affirmed Netflix's win in a case brought by a famous Los Angeles drag queen who sued over use of her likeness in an adult animation show, saying it had not been shown that Netflix used that likeness as a mark rather than some other expressive function. 

  • July 29, 2025

    Authors Fight Anthropic's Appeal Of Fair Use Ruling

    Authors battling artificial intelligence firm Anthropic over its use of their books to train a large language model have urged a California federal judge to disallow a mid-case appeal of his ruling that Anthropic could use books it bought legally, but not the millions it purportedly lifted from online libraries of pirated works.

  • July 29, 2025

    Justices Can Fix Circuit Split On Compassionate Release

    The First Step Act drastically reduced the mandatory minimum sentences for certain federal crimes, but it will be up to the U.S. Supreme Court to settle a 6-4 circuit split over whether courts can consider those changes when weighing a prisoner's compassionate release, attorneys tell Law360.

  • July 29, 2025

    Insurer Says Misrepresentations Void Real Estate Co.'s Policy

    Material misrepresentations in a commercial real estate firm's insurance renewal application mean the insurer has no duty to defend the firm or a former director against a $6.5 million claim related to the sale of a client's properties, the insurer told an Indiana federal court.

  • July 29, 2025

    Calif. Allows Retroactive Tax Exclusion For Solar Property

    California will allow the purchaser of a new property a three-year window to apply for a property tax exclusion for solar energy systems under a bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

  • July 29, 2025

    9th Circ. Clarifies Kickback Boundaries For Referral Bonuses

    A Ninth Circuit opinion affirming a California man's fraud conviction provides some clarity — and a warning — to the owners of medical testing laboratories wondering what sales tactics are allowed under a 2018 kickbacks law.

  • July 28, 2025

    Authors Want Court To Reject Anthropic's Bid To Delay Trial

    A group of authors urged a California federal court Monday to reject Anthropic PBC's request to pause their copyright case while Anthropic appeals the court's recent class certification order, arguing that the company has "no basis for a stay" and is trying to deprive them of their day in court.

  • July 28, 2025

    9th Circ. Wants More Info On Trump Admin's Arrest Policy

    A Ninth Circuit panel doubted Monday the government's request to lift a ruling blocking the Trump administration from relying on people's perceived ethnicity or job to stop individuals amid immigration raids, with one judge ordering the government to submit more details on whether it has a 3,000 arrests per day quota.

  • July 28, 2025

    Cadence To Pay $140M For Illegal Chip Design Exports To China

    Semiconductor technology company Cadence Design Systems agreed to pay over $140 million and plead guilty to criminal conspiracy to commit export control violations to resolve charges that it exported semiconductor design tools to a restricted Chinese military university, U.S. Department of Justice officials announced Monday.

  • July 28, 2025

    Calif. Court Overturns HIV Test Order In Sex Assault Case

    A California appellate court on Monday vacated a trial court judge's order requiring an HIV test for a man convicted of sexually assaulting two teenagers, saying there was insufficient evidence to establish probable cause that the defendant transferred bodily fluids to his victims.

  • July 28, 2025

    Tesla Defends Autopilot Technology At Trial Over Fatal Crash

    Tesla vehicles with autopilot engaged reported fewer crashes than those without, a Tesla corporate representative told jurors Monday in a trial over a fatal Florida Keys crash.

  • July 28, 2025

    Perplexity's TM Infringement Confuses Its Own AI, Comet Says

    Software company Comet ML asked a California federal judge to tighten up a preliminary injunction in its trademark infringement dispute with Perplexity AI to protect against consumer confusion, saying the artificial intelligence company's own chatbot confuses the two companies' services.

  • July 28, 2025

    Birthright Call Cited In Push To Keep TPS For Venezuelans

    The TPS Alliance is arguing to a Ninth Circuit panel that another Ninth Circuit panel's affirmation of a nationwide injunction on President Donald Trump's executive order limiting birthright citizenship weighs in favor of preserving a California federal judge's decision blocking the administration's attempt to end temporary protected status for Venezuelan immigrants.

  • July 28, 2025

    CREXi Wants CoStar's Copyright Claims To Wait

    Commercial Real Estate Exchange Inc. is asking to put CoStar's copyright infringement claims against it on hold so they can be tried alongside its recently revived antitrust claims against the property listing rival.

Expert Analysis

  • What To Know About Bill Aiming To Curb CIPA

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    A bill pending in the California Assembly would amend the California Invasion of Privacy Act to allow for the use of website tracking technologies for commercial business purposes, limiting class actions seeking damages under the act for industry standard practices, say Katherine Alphonso and Avazeh Pourhamzeh at Kaufman Dolowich.

  • Preparing For Trump Pushback Against State Climate Laws

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    An April executive order from President Donald Trump mandated a report from the U.S. attorney general on countering so-called state overreach in climate policy, and while that report has yet to appear, companies can expect that it will likely call for using litigation, legislation and funding to actively reshape energy policy, say attorneys at Bracewell.

  • Tips For Managing Social Media And International Travel Risks

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    Employers should familiarize themselves with the legal framework governing border searches and adopt specific risk management practices that address increasing scrutiny of employees’ social media activities by immigration enforcement, say attorneys at Thompson Hine.

  • DOJ Actions Signal Rising Enforcement Risk For Health Cos.

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    The U.S. Department of Justice's announcement of a new False Claims Act working group, together with the largest healthcare fraud takedown in history, underscore the importance of sophisticated compliance programs that align with the DOJ's data-driven approach, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • Brand Protection Takeaways From OpenAI Trademark Case

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    The ongoing battle between IYO and OpenAI offers critical lessons on diligent trademark enforcement and proactive risk management for startups and established players alike navigating branding in the rapidly evolving artificial intelligence sector, say attorneys at Dykema.

  • How Attys Can Use AI To Surface Narratives In E-Discovery

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    E-discovery has reached a turning point where document review is no longer just about procedural tasks like identifying relevance and redacting privilege — rather, generative artificial intelligence tools now allow attorneys to draw connections, extract meaning and tell a coherent story, says Rose Jones at Hilgers Graben.

  • How McKesson Ruling Will Inform Interpretations Of The TCPA

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    Amid the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates v. McKesson, we can expect to see both plaintiffs and defendants utilizing the decision to revisit the Federal Communications Commission's past Telephone Consumer Protection Act interpretations and decisions they did not like, says Jason McElroy at Saul Ewing.

  • Series

    Calif. Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q2

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    The second quarter saw California become a more active protector of consumers in response to federal regulatory pullback, with regulators proposing a licensing framework for digital asset businesses, ending an enforcement exemption and otherwise signaling further expansions of oversight and enforcement, say attorneys at Stinson.

  • Navigating Court Concerns About QR Codes In FLSA Notices

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    As plaintiffs attorneys increasingly seek to include QR codes as a method of notice in Fair Labor Standards Act collective actions, counsel should be prepared to address judicial concerns about their use, including their potential to be duplicative and circumvent court-approved language, say attorneys at Shook Hardy.

  • Justices Rethink Minimum Contacts For Foreign Entities

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    Two recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, Devas v. Antrix and Fuld v. Palestine Liberation Organization, suggest that federal statutes may confer personal jurisdiction over foreign entities that have little to no contact with the U.S. — a significant departure from traditional due process principles, says Gary Shaw at Pillsbury.

  • Examining TCPA Jurisprudence A Year After Loper Bright

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    One year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Chevron deference in Loper Bright v. Raimondo, lower court decisions demonstrate that the Telephone Consumer Protection Act will continue to evolve as long-standing interpretations of the act are analyzed with a fresh lens, says Aaron Gallardo at Kilpatrick.

  • Gauging The Risky Business Of Business Risk Disclosures

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    With the recent rise of securities fraud actions based on external events — like a data breach or environmental disaster — that drive down stock prices, risk disclosures have become more of a sword for the plaintiffs bar than a shield for public companies, now the subject of a growing circuit split, say attorneys at A&O Shearman.

  • Series

    Playing The Violin Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Playing violin in a string quartet reminds me that flexibility, ambition, strong listening skills, thoughtful leadership and intentional collaboration are all keys to a successful legal practice, says Julie Park at MoFo.

  • DOJ Enforcement Trends To Watch In 2nd Half Of 2025

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    Recent investigations, settlements and a declination to prosecute suggest that controlling the flow of goods into and out of the country, and redressing what the administration sees as reverse discrimination, are likely to be at the forefront of the U.S. Department of Justice's enforcement agenda the rest of this year, say attorneys at Baker Botts.

  • 'Top Gun' And 'Together' IP Suits Spotlight Similarity Issues

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    The outcome of recent lawsuits revolving around the films "Top Gun: Maverick" and "Together" may set meaningful precedents for how courts analyze substantial similarity in creative works, say attorneys at Greenspoon Marder.

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