ESPN Wins Arbitration Of Disney+ User's Meta Privacy Claims

By Aaron Keller

A Disney+ user must arbitrate his claim that ESPN Inc. gave his viewing data to Facebook's parent company Meta without his permission, a Pennsylvania federal judge has ruled, saying federal arbitration law preempts a Pennsylvania Superior Court decision that applied higher standards to private dispute resolution contracts.

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M.I.A. Says Kid Cudi Fired Her To Boost Tour Ticket Sales

By Lauren Berg

British-Sri Lankan artist M.I.A. claims in a new lawsuit that American rapper Kid Cudi used controversial statements she made on stage as an excuse to kick her off his tour in an effort to increase ticket sales, costing her a $2.8 million contract with Live Nation.

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'Sauce For The Goose': X Can't Limit Apple, OpenAI Depos

By Bonnie Eslinger

A Texas federal judge on Friday ordered Elon Musk's X Corp. to offer up 20 of its employees for extra depositions in its antitrust suit against Apple and OpenAI, saying that since the court granted X more depositions, "sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander."

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EPA Beats States' $7B Solar Grant Cancellation Suit In Wash.

By Rachel Riley

A Washington federal judge sided with the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday in a multistate challenge of the U.S. government's cancellation of a Biden-era solar energy grant program, concluding she cannot resolve the dispute because it involves contractual questions that the Tucker Act delegates to the Court of Federal Claims.  

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GE Can't Change Judge's Mind On Vineyard Wind Work Order

By Carolyn Muyskens

A Massachusetts state court has refused to lift an order requiring a GE Vernova subsidiary to continue work on the Vineyard Wind offshore wind farm, finding none of the information GE presented changed the reality that the company remains vital to the project's commercial success.

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Emory Says Insurer Shirked Coverage For COVID Tuition Row

By Hope Patti

Emory University said its insurer must cover $1.2 million in defense costs and costs incurred to settle a proposed class action over the school's switch to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, telling a Georgia state court the insurer improperly denied coverage based on a False Claims Act exclusion.

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Boeing, Rolls-Royce Say Claims Still Fail In Osprey Suit

By Mike Curley

The Boeing Co., Bell Textron Inc. and Rolls-Royce Corp. are again asking a California federal court to throw out breach of contract and fraudulent concealment claims in a suit over the deaths of five Marines in the June 2022 crash of a V-22 Osprey aircraft, saying the latest amended complaint does not save the claims.

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Abbott Labs Spinal Cord Device Causes Shocks, Suit Claims

By Emily Field

A New Jersey man said in a suit filed in Garden State federal court on Friday that Abbott Laboratories' spinal cord stimulator system was manufactured with defects that were never truly resolved because of Abbott's mischaracterization of the issue, which caused him painful electric shocks.

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AI Mapping Co. Says Rival's Copyright Suit Is Too Vague

By Rachel Konieczny

An artificial intelligence mapping software company sought to throw out a competitor's lawsuit accusing it of copying thousands of the firm's property maps, telling a Colorado federal judge the competitor never identified which maps had allegedly been infringed.

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TriZetto, Infosys Fight Each Side's CEO Deposition Bids

By Ivan Moreno

Cognizant TriZetto Software Group and Infosys Ltd. have filed dueling motions to block depositions of each other's top executives in a trade secret lawsuit over allegations that Infosys misused confidential access to TriZetto's healthcare software to build competing products.

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Ex-Real Estate Sales Directors Barred From Using Secrets

By Abigail Harrison

Former sales directors, accused by a real estate broker serving the South of participating in a corporate raid and trade secret heist that siphoned millions in sales volume, agreed Monday in North Carolina Business Court not to use or disseminate any of its confidential information or trade secrets.

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Cere Founder Says Sale Pact Bars $13M Crypto Fraud Suit

By Joyce Hanson

Cere Network's founder and others targeted in a $13 million suit over a purported cryptocurrency fraud scheme involving the decentralized data cloud platform have asked a California federal judge to send the dispute to arbitration in San Francisco.

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DOJ Says Ohio Health System Can't Duck Antitrust Case

By Matthew Perlman

The U.S. Department of Justice defended its antitrust case accusing OhioHealth Corp. of blocking competition through its contracts with insurers, telling an Ohio federal court the health system is depriving consumers of lower-cost health plans.

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Real Estate Co. Opposes CoStar Bid To Pause Antitrust Suit

By Grace Dixon

A real estate brokerage asked a Virginia federal court to allow proceedings to continue in its antitrust case against CoStar, noting that, although the parties agree that similar cases should be consolidated with the Virginia case, the suit need not be frozen in the meantime.

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Roundup

NC Biz Court Bulletin: Referee Tapped, CEO To Be Deposed

By Hayley Fowler

The North Carolina Business Court rounded out May by appointing a discovery referee in a healthcare antitrust class action and ordering the deposition of a top executive in a trade secrets battle, in addition to fielding a new complaint alleging unpaid capital contributions for a captive insurance company.

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4 Mass. Rulings You May Have Missed In May

By Julie Manganis

A bankruptcy trustee may continue to pursue claims that a lender violated an oral amendment to a loan agreement, a former executive for a Dunkin' franchisee cannot push his case to Delaware, and a law firm hired to represent an investment fund is not responsible for the revocation of a visa for one of the fund's co-founders after he was terminated, judges in Suffolk County's Business Litigation Session concluded in May.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court this past week handled disputes involving merger litigation, startup financing battles, cryptocurrency contracts, investor oversight claims and corporate governance challenges, while also issuing notable rulings in cases tied to World Wrestling Entertainment Inc., cybersecurity company KnowBe4 Inc. and biotechnology firm Ayala Pharmaceuticals Inc.

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Justices Turn Away Lebanon Cell Network Challenge

By Caroline Simson

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned down a petition asking it to take a second look at a Sixth Circuit decision refusing to revive litigation against Libya over its cellular network tender process, a case that was originally dismissed more than two decades ago on sovereign immunity grounds.

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Md. Judge Pauses Shipowner's Baltimore Bridge Civil Trial

By Linda Chiem

A Maryland federal judge has pressed pause on a civil trial that was expected to start Monday to address sweeping liability and damages claims against the owner and the manager of the cargo carrier that slammed into Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge and triggered its collapse.

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Texas Ruling Leaves Key Oil Royalty Question Unresolved

The Texas Supreme Court's recent decision in Fasken Oil and Ranch v. Puig clarifies that royalty reservations containing “free of cost forever” language do not bar deduction of post-production costs — but it leaves open whether prices producers report to royalty owners should reflect what unaffiliated buyers would pay, says Robert Foss at Hinds Feat Advisors.

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AI Practices To Protect Trade Secrets Amid Unstable Case Law

Amid recent diverging district court approaches to whether inputting proprietary information into artificial intelligence tools could constitute a failure to take reasonable measures to safeguard secrets, trade secret owners must adapt their confidentiality practices to keep trade secrets secure, says Fitz Collings at MoFo.

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Ill. Passes Bill To Restrict Outside Investment In Legal Sector

By Emma Cueto

The Illinois state Legislature has passed a bill that aims to stop attorneys from fee sharing with non-lawyer-owned firms in other states and from accepting outside investment via a managed service organization structure.

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Bonus Spotlight

Hueston Hennigan To Pay Summer Bonuses Up To $35K

By Tracey Read

Trial firm Hueston Hennigan is the second boutique to announce it will dole out midyear bonuses to associates.

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As Judicial AI Use Gains Steam, Training Lags

By Emily Sawicki

Court systems around the country are emerging bullish on the use of generative artificial intelligence by judicial officers, but implementation, training, resources and overall regulations remain scattershot, giving rise to concerns that a learning gap could lead to missteps.

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Roundup

The Top In-House Hires Of May

By Michele Gorman

Legal department hires during the past month included high-profile appointments at Chevron, Barclays and Topgolf. Here, Law360 Pulse looks at some of the top in-house announcements from the last full month of spring.

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Plaintiffs' Counsel In Tylenol MDL Agree To $50K Donation

By Gianna Ferrarin

A plaintiffs' attorney and law firm sanctioned in multidistrict litigation alleging prenatal exposure to acetaminophen can cause autism agreed to donate $50,000 to maternal health organization March of Dimes in lieu of paying attorney fees, according to a letter filed Monday in New York federal court. 

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DOJ Will Obey Order Freezing $1.8B 'Slush Fund'

By Courtney Bublé

The U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday it will abide by a federal judge's decision to temporarily pause the $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" fund, adding that it disagreed with the ruling.

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Kia, Hyundai Workers' Attys Get $3.45M Fee Award In Visa Suit

By Benjamin Morse

A Georgia federal court on Monday awarded $3.45 million in attorney fees and costs to lawyers for workers who reached an $11.5 million settlement over claims that a Hyundai supplier, a Kia plant and staffing agencies recruited skilled Mexican engineers for production work and underpaid them.

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Roundup

Hub Hires: Foley Hoag, Holland & Knight, Paul Hastings

By Julie Manganis

The rapidly expanding gaming and sports betting industry brought more legal industry players to the table in Massachusetts in May, with two firms beefing up their bench in that area, while other local attorneys made midcareer leaps into new roles.

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Titan Of The Plaintiffs Bar: Labaton Keller's Michael Canty

By Allison Grande

When Labaton Keller Sucharow LLP partner and general counsel Michael Canty decided to pursue a legal career, he had no doubt about what type of lawyer he wanted to be. 

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