General Mills, Mars Allege Sugar Price-Fixing Scheme

By Craig Clough

General Mills, Kellanova, Mars and Little Debbie maker McKee Foods are suing several major U.S. sugar producers in Illinois federal court, accusing them of conspiring to inflate granulated sugar prices for years by secretly sharing sensitive pricing, sales and supply information through an intermediary.

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US Bans Canadian Alcohol, Motorcycles After Tariff Retaliation

By Jack McLoone

President Donald Trump continued the U.S. trade offensive against Canada after its northern neighbor's retaliatory tariffs went into effect, announcing a ban on Canadian imports of certain alcohol, dairy products and motorcycles starting this month.

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Sugar Buyers Want Paul Weiss DQ'd From Price-Fixing MDL

By Dorothy Atkins

Hershey, J.M. Smucker and other food makers urged a Minnesota federal judge Tuesday to disqualify Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP from representing Domino Foods in sugar price-fixing multidistrict litigation, arguing the firm is conflicted out because it saw their confidential sugar-purchasing data when it was being considered as plaintiffs' counsel.

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Judge Denies Validity Redo After $38M Verdict Partly Revived

By Dani Kass

Bottler Shibuya Hoppmann and dairy company HP Hood are not entitled to a new trial on the validity of Steuben Foods' bottle sterilization patents after the Federal Circuit partly revived a $38 million infringement verdict against them, a Delaware federal judge said Wednesday.

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Bikini Barista Owner Owes Class $1.8M Over Wage Violations

By Ben Adlin

The owner of Seattle-area "bikini barista" company Beehive Espresso is on the hook for more than $1.8 million after a Washington state judge found him liable for numerous pay violations, including tip theft, limits on moonlighting, improper sick leave accounting and failure to pay minimum wage.

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Rise Brewing Urges Justices To Let Juries Weigh TM Strength

By Ivan Moreno

RiseandShine Corp. urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday to reject what it called the Second Circuit's outlier rule allowing judges to decide the strength of a trademark, arguing in its opening merits brief that the question belongs to juries because it hinges on how ordinary consumers perceive a mark.

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Conn. Farmers Can't Point To Hemp Law Injury, Judge Says

By Jonathan Capriel

Connecticut hemp farmers and processors failed to overturn state laws that cracked down on the sale of intoxicating hemp products, after a federal judge ruled that they failed to show how they were concretely harmed by statutes that do not directly regulate cultivation.

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Aramark Worker Fights To Keep Parent Company In Wage Suit

By MJ Koo

A Seattle concessions supervisor has pushed back against a food services company's bid to exit from a wage and hour lawsuit, arguing in Washington federal court that the company's centralized control over employee handbooks, payroll, human resources and scheduling policies is enough to hold it liable as a joint employer under state wage law.

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Brief

5-Hour Energy Rival Takes Antitrust Fight To 6th Circ.

By Nadia Dreid

A rival of 5-Hour Energy is taking its beef with the energy shot maker to the Sixth Circuit after a Michigan federal judge refused to revive its claims that the company was keeping competitors out of the market by inking deals that require its products be displayed at checkout counters.

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Brief

Latest $1.5M Turkey Price-Fixing Deal Gets Early OK

By Celeste Bott

An Illinois federal judge Wednesday gave his initial sign-off to a $1.5 million deal Prestage Farms has inked to resolve certain buyers' claims in sprawling turkey price-fixing antitrust litigation.

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Wine Label Makers Spar Over Injunction In Trade Secret Fight

By Elliot Weld

A California federal judge on Wednesday weighed whether to grant a wine label company's motion for a preliminary injunction against rivals in a case accusing them of using trade secrets allegedly brought over by a former employee.

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DOJ Says Berkeley Law Is Racially Biased In Admissions

By Craig Clough

The U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Education said Wednesday that the University of California, Berkeley School of Law discriminated against white and Asian applicants in its 2024 and 2025 admissions cycles by preferring Black applicants because of their race, violating federal civil rights law and recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

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Murdaugh Murder Retrial Venue Shift Fueled By Bias Concern

By Emily Sawicki

A South Carolina trial court has approved a request to move Alex Murdaugh's murder retrial to a different county, finding the disgraced attorney could not expect a fair trial in Colleton County, where his wife and son were killed and where he was previously convicted for the crimes.

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Virginia Law Prof Says He'll Take USPTO General Counsel Job

By Jack Rodgers

A University of Virginia School of Law professor who has taught tort, administrative, patent and international intellectual property law there for more than 15 years recently said he plans to become the new general counsel of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

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Hogan Lovells Partner Tapped For Mass. Judgeship

By Julie Manganis

A Hogan Lovells Cadwalader senior partner has been nominated to a seat as an associate justice on the Massachusetts Superior Court, the governor's office announced Wednesday.

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Kilpatrick Atty Tapped For Yakima County Bench In Wash.

By Ben Adlin

Washington's governor appointed Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP litigator Bree R. Black Horse to the Yakima County Superior Court bench on Wednesday, filling the first new position added to that court in nearly three decades.

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