Paramount Judge Won't 'Rubber Stamp' States' Merger Deal

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge questioned state enforcers Thursday about the details of their proposed settlement to resolve antitrust litigation challenging Paramount Skydance's planned $110 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery, telling counsel, "The court isn't a rubber stamp," and "I've got questions, and I'm not the only one."

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Trump's Antitrust Pick Advances Amid Independence Worries

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump's pick to lead the antitrust division at the U.S. Department of Justice advanced to the Senate floor on Thursday, despite Democratic concerns about agency independence.

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Apple Pay Antitrust Class Wins Cert. In Wallet Monopoly Suit

By Hailey Konnath

A California federal judge Wednesday certified a class of thousands of financial institutions in a suit accusing the company of monopolizing mobile wallet technology for its devices, even though some of the lead plaintiffs said they weren't going to pass transaction fees off to consumers.

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Thriving Rivals Disprove Hillrom Antitrust Suit, 3rd Circ. Told

By Matthew Santoni

Hill-Rom Holdings Inc. told the Third Circuit on Thursday a Pennsylvania hospital had no evidence the equipment supplier illegally sidelined competitors from the hospital bed market, noting its deals tying discounts to exclusivity hadn't put multiple rivals out of business.

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Texas Utility Commission Looks To Quash Coal Subpoena

By Matthew Perlman

The Public Utility Commission of Texas is pushing back against a subpoena issued by BlackRock in a suit from Republican state attorneys general accusing asset managers of driving up coal prices by pressuring producers to lower their output to meet emission reduction goals.

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Medical School Application Fee Antitrust Claim Moves Ahead

By Matthew Perlman

A D.C. federal court issued an order on Thursday trimming several claims from a class action accusing the Association of American Medical Colleges of inflating medical school application fees, but allowed one of the antitrust claims to move ahead.

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RICO, Antitrust Suit Over Pa. Sen's Ph.D. Scholarship Culled

By Bryan Koenig

A Pennsylvania politician's lawsuit against the University of New Brunswick, its officers and a former Ph.D. candidate is down to a single claim, against the doctoral candidate, after an Oklahoma federal judge rejected the other allegations focused on suggestions of academic fraud in the politician's own Ph.D. scholarship.

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Analysis

PE Funds Use AI To Tailor Strategies Amid Heavy Competition

By Al Barbarino

Almost all U.S. private equity firms expect artificial intelligence to fundamentally change their investment strategies, according to a new BDO survey, as funds apply the technology across every stage of the deal cycle, from deal sourcing to diligence.

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CAT Says £56M Cartel Distribution Plan Maximizes Take-Up

By Isabel Jackson

The Competition Appeal Tribunal has said a plan to distribute a £56 million ($74 million) class action settlement is a "fair, reasonable and practical mechanism" for compensating consumers and businesses affected by a vehicle-shipping price-fixing cartel.

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Building Co. Fined For Hiding Evidence In CMA Inspection

By Laura Stewart Liberty

The U.K.'s competition regulator said Thursday that it has fined a construction company and two employees a total of £50,000 ($66,000) for hiding evidence amid an investigation into 12 companies suspected of bid-rigging.

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Game Publishers Eye Doc Request In Valve Antitrust Case

By Joyce Hanson

Video-game publishers accusing Valve Corp. in a federal antitrust lawsuit of manipulating arbitration pacts with gaming customers have questioned the gamers' bid for access to the publishers' purportedly protected materials as the gamers fight a separate case against the digital content company.

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Eli Lilly Hit With $90M Verdict In Nektar's Rezpeg Breach Suit

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal jury on Thursday found Eli Lilly breached the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing in an agreement to co-develop Nektar Therapeutics' autoimmune-disease drug Rezpeg, awarding Nektar $90 million — a considerable sum that fell short of the $1 billion the clinical-stage biotech company had sought.

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Novartis Beats Patent Listing Suit Over Entresto

By Bryan Koenig

A New York federal judge gave Novartis permanent relief from a proposed class action alleging it monopolistically delayed generic competition for its blockbuster heart failure drug Entresto, concluding that the drugmaker properly used a patent to ensure exclusivity.

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Buzzkill For Big Sipz As BuzzBallz Gets Big Domain Row Win

By Craig Clough

A California federal judge tossed Big Sipz maker Patco Brands' remaining counterclaims against rival BuzzBallz on Thursday, finding that its "Big Sipz" trademark was not distinctive when BuzzBallz acquired two related web domains and redirected visitors to its own site.

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RICO Suit Claims CH Robinson, TQL Are Using Illegal Carriers

By Linda Chiem

Family-owned trucking companies have accused two of North America's largest freight brokers, C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc. and Total Quality Logistics LLC, of steering long-haul shipments to illegal "fly-by-night" or "chameleon" carriers, muscling out legitimate trucking firms, according to a suit filed in Texas federal court.

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Tata Ordered To Pay $15M In Fees In Trade Secret Case

By Elliot Weld

A Texas federal judge has ordered Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. to pay $15.3 million in attorney fees to Computer Sciences Corp., saying that amount accounts for a reasonable rate and that Tata should be "thankful" the court wasn't ordering it to pay for fees incurred from document review.

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Court Urged To Trim TM Claim From Fake Google Charger Suit

By Elliot Weld

An accessories company has asked for dismissal of part of a suit brought by Google accusing it of trademark infringement by selling counterfeit charging devices with an imitation of Google's logo, arguing that the registrations don't cover the types of cables at issue.

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Brief

Default Sought After Racing Team Didn't Reply To Counterclaims

By Ganesh Setty

A former Joe Gibbs Racing LLC competition director and a rival NASCAR racing team where he currently works asked a North Carolina federal court on Thursday to enter default judgment against Joe Gibbs Racing after it accused them of trade secrets theft.

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FTC Eyes Tech Cos.' Profits In Fight Against Online Scam Ads

By Sarah Jarvis

The Federal Trade Commission said Thursday it wants input on whether it should update rules for preventing impersonation scams online, homing in on ad optimization tools that have helped scammers net billions from consumers while allowing tech companies to "internalize the revenue but externalize the risk."

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Series

Playing Bid Whist Makes Me A Better Lawyer

As a child, I viewed bid whist as a family tradition and a source of friendly card game competition, but as a lawyer, I see it as a tool that has helped me cultivate skills like communication, teamwork, risk assessment and composure, says Keyonn Pope at Riley Safer.

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Litigation Spending To Keep Climbing While Biz Risks Mount

By Ryan Boysen

Big companies will increase their litigation budgets yet again next year, as navigating legal risk is now an essential element of achieving strategic business goals, according to a new report.

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Seyfarth Failed To Guard Client Data From Hack, Suit Alleges

By Lauren Berg

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on Thursday was hit with a proposed class action in Illinois federal court accusing it of failing to protect its current and former clients' personal information after the Chicago-based law firm this month disclosed a recent data breach.

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PACER Experiences Outages Of Some Court Dockets

By Matt Perez

PACER, the online public repository of federal court documents, experienced technical errors on Wednesday and Thursday preventing some users from accessing certain court dockets.

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New Eastern La. Judge's 5th Circ. Bid Goes To Full Senate

By Courtney Bublé

U.S. District Judge Anna St. John of the Eastern District of Louisiana, who was confirmed to her current post in March, is one step closer to being elevated to the federal appeals bench.

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Fla. Judge To Get Reprimand For Remark On Shooting Attys

By Madison Arnold

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a public reprimand of a state district court judge for "intemperate and caustic" comments about shooting attorneys during a hearing.

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Congressional Probes Raise Legal, 'Reputational' Risks

By Phillip Bantz

An array of companies and executives may face investigations over their dealings with the Trump administration if Democrats take control of Congress, raising the possibility that some may refuse to comply. But experts say holding out hope for a mass pardon or expecting the Justice Department not to pursue contempt charges is a risky bet.

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Analysis

5 Circuit Splits To Watch At The High Court

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court has been deciding fewer and fewer cases over the past three decades, with its caseload reaching a historic low just last term. While attorneys believe several factors have contributed to that trend, they say one of the most consequential is the court's apparent declining interest in resolving circuit splits. 

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Sen. Hyde-Smith's Opponent Seeks Blue-Slip Transparency

By Courtney Bublé

Four years ago, Scott Colom — the son of the first African American elected to the chancery bench in her region of Mississippi — was nominated for a federal judgeship. Now he's running for Senate against the senator who blocked his confirmation.

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Ed. Dept. Committee Sidesteps ABA Accreditation Issue

By Ryan Boysen

A key U.S. Department of Education committee on Thursday declined to weigh in on whether an American Bar Association council should remain a federally recognized accreditor of law schools, a day after the panel deadlocked on different proposals over the hot-button issue.

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