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Food & Beverage
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May 20, 2024
Justices Reject Hearst's 'Discovery Rule' Petition In Pics Case
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review a Fifth Circuit decision that found Hearst Newspapers liable for infringing copyrighted photos of Ireland's "Guinness Castle," even though the suit was filed past the three-year statute of limitations.
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May 20, 2024
High Court Skips Fight Over 'Impossible' TM Name
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined a cert petition from Illinois-based marketing consulting firm Impossible X LLC, which had asked the justices to review a Ninth Circuit ruling that revived a trademark complaint against it from veggie-burger maker Impossible Foods Inc.
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May 20, 2024
Red Lobster Hits Ch. 11 Reeling From Endless Shrimp Deals
The Red Lobster seafood restaurant chain has filed for Chapter 11 protection in a Florida bankruptcy court with $294 million in debt and sale plans, saying its problems included its equity owner and shrimp supplier possibly pushing it into a disastrous all-you-can-eat shrimp offer.
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May 17, 2024
Kirkland-Led Hotpot Chain Sizzles In US Listing Debut
Shares of Super Hi International Holdings Ltd. rallied in debut trading Friday after the Singaporean hotpot restaurateur priced a $53 million U.S. initial public offering, represented by Kirkland & Ellis LLP and underwriters' counsel Paul Hastings LLP, marking the latest of several cross-border listings in the U.S. pipeline.
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May 17, 2024
Co-Lead Counsel Named In Baby Food Toxins MDL
A California federal judge has tapped attorneys from Wisner Baum LLP and the Wagstaff Law Firm PC to lead multidistrict litigation alleging products from baby food manufacturers and distributors, including Walmart Inc. and Gerber Products Co., contain toxic metals and caused children to develop autism spectrum disorder and other conditions.
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May 17, 2024
Zero Duty Doesn't Address Exporter's Benefits, Calif. Biz Says
A juice wholesaler's attorney argued Friday that the U.S. Department of Commerce ignored the relationship between a Brazilian lemon juice exporter and its supplier, while calling for higher duties to account for benefits the Brazilian company may have received.
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May 17, 2024
Home Distillers Tell Feds Ban Fails Under Spirit Of The Law
The Hobby Distillers Association said the federal government is exceeding its constitutional powers and treading on states' rights by banning homemade liquor under its taxing authority, as the group laid out its position Friday at the request of a Texas federal judge.
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May 17, 2024
Koch-Tied Group Says Transparency Law Offends Federalism
The Corporate Transparency Act is unconstitutional because it does not regulate interstate commerce yet mandates that state-registered entities disclose personal information, a conservative group affiliated with the billionaire Koch brothers told the Eleventh Circuit on Friday.
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May 17, 2024
EEOC Sues Smithfield Foods In Ga. For Age Discrimination
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed suit against Smithfield Foods Inc. and Smithfield Fresh Meats Sales Corp. in Georgia federal court on Friday for age discrimination, alleging the companies violated federal law by firing a senior sales employee because of her age.
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May 17, 2024
DOL Fails To Win Order Barring Retaliation On Pork Workers
A Tennessee federal judge rebuffed a request from the U.S. Department of Labor to bar a pork producer from retaliating against workers providing information about wages, ruling that the department had failed to show that any retaliation had occurred.
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May 17, 2024
$5M Candy Recall Coverage Dispute Moved To Texas Court
An insurer's lawsuit disclaiming coverage for a candy manufacturer over a near $5 million recall over metal fragments found in certain gummy candies belongs in Texas, a New York federal judge has ruled, finding that the action was "filed preemptively to deprive the natural plaintiff of its choice of forum."
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May 17, 2024
Nestle Assistant GC Joins Mayer Brown's IP Practice In LA
Mayer Brown LLP has hired Nestle's U.S. head of brand intellectual property as counsel for its global IP practice in Los Angeles.
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May 17, 2024
Tilray To Raise Money For Deals Amid US Pot Policy Change
Cannabis lifestyle and consumer packaged goods company Tilray Brands Inc. on Friday said it plans to raise money to fund future acquisitions and expansion, in an announcement that comes just one day after President Joe Biden revealed that his administration is formally relaxing restrictions on marijuana.
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May 17, 2024
Kitchenware Cos. Seek Duties On Chinese Disposable Pans
A group of domestic companies that produce disposable aluminum pans is pushing for tariffs on Chinese imports, telling U.S. trade officials that its overseas rivals are using unfair trade practices to get ahead of the competition.
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May 16, 2024
Albertsons Sued Over 'Naturally Flavored' Fruit Bar Labels
Albertsons Cos. Inc. was hit with a proposed class action Wednesday in California federal court by a shopper who alleges the grocer falsely labels its breakfast cereal bars as containing natural flavors even though they're made with artificial ingredients derived from petrochemicals.
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May 16, 2024
FTC Can't Make Albertsons, Kroger Produce Divestiture Docs
An administrative law judge on Thursday denied the Federal Trade Commission's "premature" bid to compel Kroger and Albertsons to fork over documents related to negotiations for the companies' expanded divestiture plan amid the commission's in-house challenge to the grocers' merger.
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May 16, 2024
Fed. Circ. Grills Sherwin-Williams, PPG On Coating Patents
The judges of the Federal Circuit had tough questions for both sides Thursday as Sherwin-Williams Co. appealed a jury verdict that its beverage can coating patents are invalid due to earlier patents issued to PPG Industries Inc., which was accused of infringement.
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May 16, 2024
Whirplool, Others Must Face Trimmed Gas Stove Safety Suits
Whirlpool Corp., Samsung Electronics and BSH Home Appliances Corp. must face trimmed claims in a trio of proposed class actions accusing them of failing to disclose to consumers the pollutant risks associated with natural gas stoves, a California federal judge ruled.
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May 16, 2024
Deals Rumor Mill: Shein IPO, Kraft Heinz, Cinven-Jaggaer
Online fashion giant Shein is shifting IPO plans from the U.S. to London amid resistance from U.S. lawmakers and Chinese regulators, Kraft Heinz wants to sell its Oscar Mayer business, and private equity firm Cinven hopes to divest software firm Jaggaer for $3 billion. Here, Law360 breaks down these and other notable deal rumors from the past week.
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May 16, 2024
11th Circ. Tries To Untangle Aftermath Of Judge's Early Exit
An Eleventh Circuit panel on Thursday quizzed attorneys for rival breeders of disease-resistant shrimp about whether a $10 million trade-secrets jury verdict should be overturned after a federal magistrate judge presided over the trial's ending because a federal district judge had to catch a flight, with one of the panel judges saying the parties had been put "in a very difficult position."
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May 16, 2024
Burger King Franchisee Seeks BIPA Coverage Quick Win
A Burger King franchisee asked an Illinois federal court to rule that due to precedent and policy ambiguities, its umbrella insurer must defend it in a class action claiming it violated Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act by nonconsensually collecting fingerprint data.
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May 16, 2024
Biden Admin Proposes To Loosen Restrictions On Marijuana
President Joe Biden on Thursday announced that his administration has formally recommended relaxing restrictions on marijuana, marking the most significant federal policy shift on cannabis since the drug was criminalized more than 50 years ago.
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May 15, 2024
'Law And Order' Star Sues Instacart Over Dog's Shooting
"Law & Order" actor Angie Harmon has filed a lawsuit against Instacart and a delivery driver who she claims shot and killed her dog while delivering groceries to her home, according to the complaint lodged in North Carolina state court.
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May 15, 2024
Water Co. To Pay $8.5M Criminal Fine Over Accounting Claims
Wastewater treatment company Evoqua Water Technologies Corp. has reached an $8.5 million agreement with federal prosecutors allowing the company to avoid criminal charges for allegedly inflating the company's revenue by $36 million.
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May 15, 2024
2nd Circ. Calls Starbucks' Union Discovery Order 'Overbroad'
The Second Circuit on Wednesday revived the National Labor Relations Board's suit seeking to halt Starbucks' alleged labor violations nationwide, finding that the lower court erred in tossing the suit for noncompliance with its "overbroad" discovery order granting the coffee chain's subpoenas seeking confidential union intel and workers' communications.
Expert Analysis
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A Rainbow Of Lessons From Fruity Pebbles' TTAB Loss
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s January decision to deny Post Foods' bid to register a trademark on its Fruity Pebbles cereal brand underscores the importance of the interplay among mark description, mark drawing and goods identification when seeking protection for trade dress, say Troy Viger and Jenevieve Maerker at Finnegan.
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Assessing FDA Pathways For Genome-Edited Plant Foods
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's recent clarification of the regulatory pathways for foods produced from genome-edited plants seeks to strike a balance between public health and innovation, and may hold broader significance for developers of novel human foods subject to voluntary notification programs, say Emily Marden and Diane McEnroe at Sidley Austin.
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TTAB Ruling May Broaden Alcohol Trademark Analysis
A February U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board decision that wine is inherently related to bars and cocktail lounges for trademark protection purposes appears to broaden the scope of exclusivity, highlighting that the more similar the marks, the less related the products must be for the TTAB to refuse registration, says William Borchard at Cowan Liebowitz.
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Opinion
Judicial Independence Is Imperative This Election Year
As the next election nears, the judges involved in the upcoming trials against former President Donald Trump increasingly face political pressures and threats of violence — revealing the urgent need to safeguard judicial independence and uphold the rule of law, says Benes Aldana at the National Judicial College.
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Document Retention Best Practices To Lower Litigation Risks
As new technologies emerge and terabytes of data can be within the purview of a single discovery request, businesses small and large should take four document management steps to effectively minimize risks of litigation and discovery sanctions long before litigation ensues, says Kimbrilee Weber at Norris McLaughlin.
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Series
Riding My Peloton Bike Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Using the Peloton platform for cycling, running, rowing and more taught me that fostering a mind-body connection will not only benefit you physically and emotionally, but also inspire stamina, focus, discipline and empathy in your legal career, says Christopher Ward at Polsinelli.
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Spartan Arbitration Tactics Against Well-Funded Opponents
Like the ancient Spartans who held off a numerically superior Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae, trial attorneys and clients faced with arbitration against an opponent with a bigger war chest can take a strategic approach to create a pass to victory, say Kostas Katsiris and Benjamin Argyle at Venable.
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CSA Case Could Shift Intrastate Commercial Cannabis
In Canna Provisions v. Merrick Garland, cannabis companies argue that the Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional as applied to intrastate commercial cannabis activity; the Massachusetts federal court's eventual decision will be important to the cannabis industry for several reasons, including that the threat of federal enforcement would disappear overnight, says Hilary Bricken at Husch Blackwell.
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What Recent Study Shows About AI's Promise For Legal Tasks
Amid both skepticism and excitement about the promise of generative artificial intelligence in legal contexts, the first randomized controlled trial studying its impact on basic lawyering tasks shows mixed but promising results, and underscores the need for attorneys to proactively engage with AI, says Daniel Schwarcz at University of Minnesota Law School.
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Legal Considerations For Circular Economy Strategies
As circular economy goals — generating revenue at multiple points in a product's life cycle — become nearly ubiquitous in corporate sustainability practices, companies should reassess existing strategies by focusing on government incentives, regulations, and reporting and disclosure requirements, say Rachel Saltzman and Erin Grisby at Hunton.
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Preempting Bottled Water Microplastics Fraud Claims
Food products like bottled water are increasingly likely to be targets of consumer fraud complaints due to alleged microplastics contamination — but depending on the labeling or advertising at issue, the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act can provide a powerful preemption defense, say Tariq Naeem and Brenda Sweet at Tucker Ellis.
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Business Litigators Have A Source Of Untapped Fulfillment
As increasing numbers of attorneys struggle with stress and mental health issues, business litigators can find protection against burnout by remembering their important role in society — because fulfillment in one’s work isn’t just reserved for public interest lawyers, say Bennett Rawicki and Peter Bigelow at Hilgers Graben.
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The Challenges Of Measuring Harm In Slack-Fill Cases
A recent California federal court partial class certification ruling was a rare victory for plaintiffs in a case over slack-fill empty space in packaged products, indicating that damages arguments may be important at the certification stage, say Sushrut Jain and Valentina Bernasconi at Edgeworth Economics.
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Series
Skiing Makes Me A Better Lawyer
A lifetime of skiing has helped me develop important professional skills, and taught me that embracing challenges with a spirit of adventure can allow lawyers to push boundaries, expand their capabilities and ultimately excel in their careers, says Andrea Przybysz at Tucker Ellis.
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Think Like A Lawyer: Forget Everything You Know About IRAC
The mode of legal reasoning most students learn in law school, often called “Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion,” or IRAC, erroneously frames analysis as a separate, discrete step, resulting in disorganized briefs and untold obfuscation — but the fix is pretty simple, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.