Analysis

Universities May Want To Put NPE Clauses In IP Licenses

By Dani Kass

The Federal Circuit's holding on Monday that a patent license between Texas A&M University and a failed startup remained active after the company became a patent assertion entity will require universities to determine early on how they want their patents used, attorneys say.

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Auto Lender OKs $709.5M Multistate Deal Over Subprime Loans

By Brian Steele

The subprime auto lender Credit Acceptance Corp. has agreed to provide $709.5 million in cash and debt relief as part of a 40-state settlement to resolve allegations that it originated loans to borrowers who could not afford them, attorneys general announced Thursday.

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Amway And Affiliates To Pay $225M Over Deceptive Scheme

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

The Federal Trade Commission and the State of Washington have reached a $225 million settlement with health and beauty company Amway and two of its affiliates to resolve allegations that they ran an unfair and deceptive multilevel marketing scheme in which independent business owners and their recruits purchased products for "reasons other than genuine demand for them in a near-futile effort to make money while faking their customer sales."

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9th Circ. Revives Laos' $5M Enforcement Bid In Casino Case

By Caroline Simson

The Ninth Circuit on Thursday revived the government of Laos' bid to enforce some $5 million in arbitral awards against an entrepreneur who was not party to an underlying arbitration stemming from an ill-fated casino venture, saying a lower court should have taken a closer look at the government's arguments.

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Ex-YPF Investors Take Argentina To ICSID Over 2012 Seizure

By Joyce Hanson

The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes has picked up a bid for arbitration by investors in Argentine oil and gas exploration company YPF SA, making good on their statement to a New York federal judge that they will arbitrate their claims over Argentina's nationalization of YPF.

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CORRECTION: DC Judge Cuts Proud Boys Atty's Bill To Researcher

By Jared Foretek

A D.C. federal judge reduced the amount an attorney who represented Proud Boys members in their Jan. 6 criminal trial owes to a researcher who sued him over unpaid work, dropping a jury's award of $77,000 to just $30,000. Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the jury's finding.  

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Brief

GE Vernova, Vineyard Wind Drop Dispute Over Payment

By Julie Manganis

Vineyard Wind I LLC and a GE Vernova subsidiary have dropped their legal dispute over a $300,000 bill for work on turbines off the Massachusetts coast, according to Wednesday court filings.

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Trader Joe's Faces Lawsuits Over Sugar Labeling

By Celeste Bott

Two proposed class actions filed in Illinois federal court Wednesday accuse Trader Joe's of misleading consumers by labeling its Sweet & Sour Gummy Worms and dark chocolate chips as containing zero sugar and no added sugar, respectively, when both products contain an ingredient classified as a sugar under federal labeling rules.

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Joe Gibbs Racing Demands Sanctions For Deleted Texts

By Hayley Fowler

Joe Gibbs Racing LLC wants its former competition director sanctioned for allegedly failing to preserve key evidence after he deleted text messages with the owner of a rival NASCAR team where he is now employed as chief motorsports officer.

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Fla. Tech Co. Says Ex-Execs Stole Web Browser Code

By David Minsky

A technology company has brought a Florida federal lawsuit accusing its former executives of quitting and running off with its trade secrets, alleging they went on to form a business that builds a competing web browser with stolen computer code. 

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Justices Told Fed. Circ. Erred In Veterinary Software Feud

By Adam Lidgett

A healthcare consulting services company wants the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Federal Circuit's refusal to revive its copyright and contract claims in a fight over rights to healthcare software for a U.S. Army veterinary records system.

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NC Sports Agency Aims To Sink Rival's Poaching Suit

By Alex Lawson

A North Carolina sports agency has urged a Michigan federal judge to throw out a lawsuit from a rival company over the alleged poaching of a sought-after college athlete, saying the claims are too thin to proceed.

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NFL Agent Blocked From Defending Poaching Suit, 3rd Circ. Told

By P.J. D'Annunzio

Counsel for NFL agent Todd France told a Third Circuit panel Thursday that his client was deprived of the opportunity to fight allegations that he poached another agent's client, asking the court to vacate an $810,846 arbitration award against him.

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Sonic Wins Appeal Bid To Arbitrate Suit Over Worker's Death

By Gina Kim

The mother of a Sonic employee who was fatally shot in 2023 must arbitrate her wrongful death suit against the restaurant, Texas appellate justices said Thursday, finding that she didn't meet her burden showing Sonic substantially invoked the court process in a way that conflicted with its right to compel arbitration. 

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Skycom Engineer Says Huawei Was His Real Boss In Iran

By Stewart Bishop

A Tehran-born engineer who has since become a U.S. citizen on Thursday testified that he worked for Huawei on projects for the Iranian government, despite technically being employed by what prosecutors say was a thinly veiled subsidiary that the Chinese telecommunications company used to evade U.S. sanctions.

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Texas Judge Won't Block Voting Rule For Rick Perry's AI Co.

By Katryna Perera

A Texas business court judge has denied billionaire businessman Toby Neugebauer's bid to block a corporate governance measure at the artificial intelligence infrastructure company co-founded by former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, finding, among other things, Neugebauer has not shown he would suffer an injury absent relief.

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SpaceXAI, Apple Must Show Texas Judge Antitrust Deal Terms

By Dorothy Atkins

A Texas federal judge has ordered Elon Musk's companies and Apple Inc. to provide him with a copy of their recent settlement for in-camera review after OpenAI Inc. demanded to look over the agreement and argued its terms may undermine the antitrust allegations SpaceXAI LLC is still pursuing against OpenAI.

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Rail Giants Point To Shipper Support For $85B Merger

By David Aaro

Droves of companies that rely on freight in their daily business have recently thrown their support behind Union Pacific Corp.'s planned $85 billion merger with Atlanta-based Norfolk Southern Corp. in filings with a federal board being asked to approve the tie-up.

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2nd Circ. Pauses Nielsen Order In Cumulus Tying Case

By Nadia Dreid

The Second Circuit has put on hold a preliminary injunction ordering the Nielsen Co. to offer its national ratings data separate from its local offerings after the company argued that the lower court changed the terms of the injunction after the Second Circuit approved it the first time.

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Appeals Court Skeptical Biz Court Is Wrong Place For Perot Suit

By Spencer Brewer

Texas appellate judges seemed skeptical Thursday of a Dallas businessman's claim that the Texas Business Court doesn't have jurisdiction over his multimillion-dollar suit against Ross Perot Jr., saying the money at stake seems to make the case a fit for the Business Court.

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Cannabis Co. Owners Ask To Toss $2M Investment Suit

By Jonathan Capriel

The entrepreneurs behind a Chicago dispensary urged a federal judge to end a lawsuit accusing them of defrauding investors out of nearly $2 million, arguing the claims have no business being heard in Ohio, belong in arbitration and are legally insufficient.

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How FTC's $20B Amazon Suit May Shake Up Ad Enforcement

Gonzalo Mon at Kelley Drye discusses the significance of the Federal Trade Commission's recent suit against Amazon for allegedly overcharging advertising customers more than $20 billion, the company's potential defenses, and the context of rapidly evolving digital advertising technology.

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How Boards, Lenders Can View ABC Bankruptcy Alternative

The broader adoption of the Uniform Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors Act, including Delaware's recent statute, gives boards and lenders a clearer framework for a familiar middle-market problem: companies too small to justify Chapter 11 economics but too complex for an unmanaged shutdown, says Jon Labovitz at Sherwood.

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Senate Confirms Kirkland Partner To Texas Federal Bench

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate voted 49-45 on Thursday to confirm Kasdin Miller Mitchell, a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, to serve as a U.S. district judge for the Northern District of Texas.

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Analysis

Sue To Stop AI Armageddon? Not So Fast, Attys Say

By Y. Peter Kang

As executives at leading artificial intelligence companies increasingly assert that their own technology could one day pose an existential threat to humanity, a natural question follows: If the risk is real, can anyone sue to stop it before disaster strikes?

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Clancy Atty Denies Malpractice Claim By Man Serving Life

By Julie Manganis

A prominent Massachusetts criminal defense attorney best known for representing Lindsay Clancy has been accused in a separate case of "abandoning" a client who is serving life sentences for second-degree murder and home invasion, allegations the lawyer denies.

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AI Flubs, More Secure PACER Get Judiciary Forum Spotlight

By Jeff Overley

Misuse of artificial intelligence tools and a "state-of-the-art" revamp of electronic dockets in federal cases were among the hottest topics Thursday at a major meeting of judiciary leaders, who also heard a lawmaker warn of eroding trust in the U.S. Department of Justice.

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Analysis

For Single-Party FTC, Easier Suits May Come With A Cost

By Bryan Koenig

The Federal Trade Commission has ditched its historical multimember, multiparty ethos for a one-party regime in which fewer dissents might make it easier for Chairman Andrew Ferguson to pursue his agenda, but it also forecloses the potential "moderating influence" that comes with winning broad buy-in from commissioners of two parties.

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Immigration Attorney Wants SEC Sanctioned In EB-5 Case

By Tom Lotshaw

An immigration attorney and her firm asked a New York federal judge to sanction the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for failing to reasonably investigate an allegedly bogus unregistered securities claim it brought against them in an EB-5 immigrant investor case.

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Weaponization Fund Plaintiffs Say Discovery Ruling Was Right

By Jared Foretek

Plaintiffs suing over the Trump administration's once-proposed "anti-weaponization fund" are telling a Virginia federal judge to reject the U.S. Department of Justice's objections to a magistrate judge's discovery order, accusing the administration of stonewalling their requests and urging prompt discovery production.

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