Panini Gets Claims From Fanatics Trimmed In Card Dispute

By Matthew Perlman

A New York federal court trimmed a pair of claims accusing Panini of interfering with Fanatics' licensing deals, in a dispute that also includes allegations that Fanatics monopolized the sports trading card market.

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2nd Circ. Panel Won't Revive Ivy League Players' Antitrust Suit

By Aaron Keller

The Second Circuit on Thursday affirmed the dismissal of proposed class claims accusing the Ivy League and eight member universities of stifling competition by agreeing to refrain from offering athletic scholarships to academically gifted student athletes, saying they fell short of antitrust law pleading standards.

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Protests To $44M Realtor Fee Deal 'Ring Hollow,' Judge Says

By Chart Riggall

A Georgia federal judge gave final approval to a $44 million settlement with real estate brokerages over fee inflation claims similar to those that drove a landmark $1.8 billion verdict in Missouri several years ago, rejecting claims from out-of-state plaintiffs that the Peach State attorneys accepted a lowball offer.

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FTC Warns About Ending Tenn. Oversight Of Ballad Health

By Matthew Perlman

Federal Trade Commission staff has warned Tennessee legislators about the potential harm to patients if they pass a proposal to end the state's oversight of Ballad Health while the hospital system still has a monopoly.

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Nexstar Slams DirecTV's 'Speculative' $6.2B Merger Challenge

By Dorothy Atkins

Broadcast giants Nexstar and Tegna urged a California federal judge on Thursday to allow their $6.2 billion merger to proceed as state attorneys general and DirecTV challenge the tie-up, arguing that their allegations of harm are "generalized and speculative" and that DirecTV is merely trying to maximize its leverage in future negotiations.

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Amazon's Bot Ban Aims To Stifle AI Rivals, 9th Circ. Told

By Dorothy Atkins

Perplexity AI has urged the Ninth Circuit to scrap an injunction blocking the startup's artificial intelligence tool Comet from purchasing items on Amazon.com, arguing the lower court made numerous errors, and Amazon is trying to stifle competition to promote its own AI tools and "bombard" users with ads.

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Resume Market Is 'Bold, Bold or Bold,' Antitrust Suit Alleges

By Rae Ann Varona

Silicon Valley-based resume template company Rocket Resume Inc. on Thursday accused a competitor in California federal court of unlawfully monopolizing the U.S. market for online resume-building platforms, saying it is being unfairly pushed out of jobseekers' sight by its rival's "massive portfolio of fraudulent brands."

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Altenar Sues Sportradar In US, UK Over Data Monopoly

By Joanne Faulkner

Software company Altenar has filed two "multimillion-dollar" claims against Sportradar in the U.S. and U.K., accusing the data giant of competition breaches by refusing to provide it with access to live official sports data.

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Schneider Wallace Fights Uphill For Bigger Cut Of $75M Fees

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal magistrate judge appeared skeptical Thursday about Schneider Wallace Cottrell Kim LLP's bid to increase its cut of a $75.4 million fee award for representing plaintiffs in a $228.5 million Sutter Health antitrust deal, saying lead counsel Constantine Cannon LLP's allocation of $1.4 million to Schneider Wallace seems fair.

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Energy Drink Co. Founder Told Not To Sell Fla. Keys Property

By David Minsky

A bankruptcy judge in Florida on Thursday blocked the founder of Bang Energy drinks from selling an island property and using proceeds to fund litigation, saying the court must determine whether the initial purchase used fraudulently procured funds. 

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Gibbs Racing Wants Ex-Employee's Alleged Deleted Texts

By P.J. D'Annunzio

Joe Gibbs Racing LLC has asked a federal judge for permission to access cellphone records that would unearth purportedly erased communications between its former competition director and the owner of a rival team that hired him, with the Gibbs team expressing urgency to preserve the messages as crucial evidence in the trade secrets case.

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Lego Gets Win On Copyright, TM Claims In Suit Against Rival

By Adam Lidgett

A Connecticut federal judge Thursday found that Lego competitor Zuru infringed Lego's copyright and trademark rights for its Minifigure line, rejecting Zuru's arguments that the registrations were invalid.

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Brief

Teva $35M Delayed Generic Inhalers Deal Gets Initial OK

By Kellie Mejdrich

A Massachusetts federal judge Thursday granted initial approval to a $35 million deal that Teva Pharmaceuticals agreed to pay to resolve claims from a coalition of union healthcare funds that say the company schemed to delay generic competition for its QVAR asthma inhalers.

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Gov't Must Insist On EU Satellite Market Access, Feds Told

By Christopher Cole

As the European Union looks to tighten rules on the space and satellite industries, the U.S. government needs to ensure American companies can participate in European markets, a think tank told the Federal Communications Commission.

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Series

Ultramarathons Make Me A Better Lawyer

Completing a 100-mile ultramarathon was tougher, more humbling and more rewarding than I ever imagined, and the experience highlighted how long-distance running has sharpened my ability to adapt to the evolving nature of antitrust law and strengthened my resolve to handle demanding, unforeseen challenges, says Dan Oakes at Axinn.

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ABA, Ex-Judges And Many More Back BigLaw In EO Appeal

By Dorothy Atkins

Numerous bar associations, 239 former judges, 21 states, lawmakers and dozens of other amici curiae have thrown their weight behind BigLaw firms in the Trump administration's consolidated D.C. Circuit appeal seeking to revive executive orders targeting the firms, broadly arguing that the orders are an affront to foundational constitutional rights.

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Legal Sector Lost 700 Jobs In March, Ending Hiring Streak

By Tracey Read

The legal sector began to slow down in March after a year and a half straight of gains, with 700 fewer people employed in lawyer, paralegal and other law-related professional roles last month than in February, according to seasonally adjusted data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Progressive Org. Rolls Out $3M Anti-Trump High Court Push

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump does not have any vacancies on the U.S. Supreme Court, but a progressive court advocacy organization is not waiting for a justice's departure to launch a multimillion-dollar campaign opposing a possible Trump pick.

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Brief

Justice Alito Treated For Dehydration After Federalist Event

By Courtney Buble

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito felt ill during a Federalist Society event last month and was seen by a doctor "out of an abundance of caution," the high court announced on Friday.

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6th Circ. Axes Atty For 'Inexcusable' AI 'Transgressions'

By Rae Ann Varona

An attorney committed "inexcusable transgressions" by relying on Westlaw's internal CoCounsel artificial intelligence platform for appellate filings and by failing to catch erroneous AI-generated content, the Sixth Circuit said Friday and removed the lawyer from further representing a man who pled guilty to drug trafficking charges.

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Analysis

'Political' Deals Pit DOJ Against State AGs, And Not Just Dems

By Bryan Koenig

Controversial U.S. Department of Justice settlements with Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Live Nation, along with the approval of Nexstar's purchase of Tegna, are increasingly inspiring state attorneys general to strike out on their own as antitrust enforcers, often in direct challenge to a federal government that Democrats have cast as "corrupt."

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Florida Gov., AG Face Criticism For Judge Impeachment Push

By Rose Krebs

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Attorney General James Uthmeier faced pushback this week from some in the state's legal community for calling for the impeachment of a judge for releasing a man who went on to allegedly kill his five-year-old stepdaughter, with critics blasting those calls as being politically motivated and "unethical."

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Analysis

DOJ's New Corporate Enforcement Policy May Eclipse SDNY's

By Sarah Jarvis

The U.S. Department of Justice has put to use for the first time its new corporate enforcement policy of declining prosecutions when companies self-report potential criminal violations, but experts say the new, department-wide initiative has rendered a more business-friendly approach by the Southern District of New York moot.

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Ex-DOJ Official Wants Epstein-Talk Suit Kept In District Court

By Emily Sawicki

A former U.S. Department of Justice acting deputy chief who was fired last year after a hidden-camera video of him discussing the Epstein files was posted online has told a D.C. federal judge his due process case must survive in district court because the Trump administration now controls federal oversight agencies.

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Trump Seeks 13% Boost In DOJ Funding

By Courtney Bublé

The White House budget request for fiscal 2027, released on Friday, seeks $40.8 billion in discretionary funds for the U.S. Department of Justice, a 13% increase from the current year level.

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Judge Stands By Block Of DOJ Subpoenas In Powell Probe

By Jon Hill

A Washington, D.C., federal judge on Friday rejected a U.S. Department of Justice attempt to revive subpoenas from its investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, saying the government hadn't "come close" to giving him a reason to rethink blocking them.

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Schneider Wallace Loses Bid For Bigger Piece Of $75M Fee

By Lauren Berg

A California federal magistrate judge on Friday rejected Schneider Wallace Cottrell Kim LLP's bid to increase its cut of a $75.4 million fee award for representing plaintiffs in a $228.5 million Sutter Health antitrust deal, saying lead counsel Constantine Cannon LLP's allocation of $1.4 million to Schneider Wallace was fair.

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

PayPal was hit with a proposed investor class action that claims the payments giant hid slowing growth for its critical branded checkout business. In the meantime, a Shopify lawyer encouraged his peers during a webinar to make sure their outside counsel have "met the moment" by leveraging artificial intelligence in smart ways. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Alliance Defending Freedom, Pearman Law Firm PC and attorney Barry Arrington lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Colorado ban on therapy intended to change a minor's sexual orientation or gender identity amounts to viewpoint discrimination against a Christian therapist.

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In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

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