Starbucks Coffee Labels Draw Court's Scrutiny In Buyers' Suit

By Rachel Riley

A Washington federal judge pushed back Tuesday against Starbucks' bid to dismiss a deceptive labeling lawsuit, suggesting the coffee giant's allegedly misleading commitment to 100% ethical sourcing — paired with statements on the back of coffee bags referencing supplier certification standards — was potentially enough to dupe an ordinary consumer.

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Mallet Wins Injunction On Release Of Baking Product Secrets

By Elliot Weld

Baking product company Mallet & Co. was granted a permanent injunction Tuesday to stop a rival from accessing or disclosing its trade secrets after a federal judge ordered the rival to pay $11.4 million in legal bills for sharing copied goods in publicly accessible court documents.

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Trader Joe's TM Fraud Claims Lack Detail, Smucker Says

By Adam Lidgett

Smucker has urged an Ohio federal court not to throw out its trademark registrations for crustless peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that it accused Trader Joe's of infringing, hitting back at the grocery store chain's claims that the snack brand defrauded the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

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Celsius Sued Over Claims That Energy Drink Burns Fat

By Jonathan Capriel

The makers of Celsius energy drink falsely imply that their beverage "burns body fat" while hiding in "tiny, hidden text" on the cans' reverse side qualifiers, and largely concealed the fact that their marketing claims stem from a company-funded study, according to a federal lawsuit that accuses the company of "healthwashing."

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5-Hour Energy Sellers Ask 9th Circ. To Revive Antitrust Fight

By Dorothy Atkins

Family-owned wholesalers urged the Ninth Circuit to revive antitrust claims Tuesday alleging 5-Hour Energy violated price discrimination law by providing Costco with disproportionate promotional support, arguing the court wrongly applied an "extremely narrow view of antitrust injury."

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Amazon Says 'Net Impression' Can't Support Seafood Suit

By Mike Curley

Amazon.com is asking a Washington federal judge to throw out a suit alleging that it misleads consumers about the sustainability of seafood products sold on the platform, saying the plaintiffs cannot base their suit on a "net impression" of claims Amazon never made.

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IHOP Franchisee Settles Ex-Employee's Disability Bias Suit

By Patrick Hoff

The former training and development director for an IHOP franchisee has wrapped up his lawsuit alleging he was fired for missing work after his manager promised to tell human resources he'd entered an alcohol treatment program, according to a filing Tuesday in Georgia federal court.

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7th Circ. Revives Bakery's Suit Over Business License Denial

By Celeste Bott

A bakery owner who was refused a business license after hosting an event featuring "infused" treats can revive her constitutional lawsuit against officials of a Chicago suburb, the Seventh Circuit ruled Monday, finding that a lower court wrongly concluded the suit was barred because she had previously challenged the denial in state court.

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Republic National Gets OK For Liquidation Plan

By Rick Archer

A Texas bankruptcy judge Tuesday approved alcohol distributor Republic National Distributing's Chapter 11 liquidation plan, overruling arguments from the U.S. Trustee's Office that the plan contained nonconsensual third-party releases.

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DOJ Directive Gives Contractors A Fraud Risk Road Map

For government contractors, the 10 factors described in the U.S. Department of Justice's recent corporate fraud enforcement directive function as a de facto scoring rubric for internal audits that mirrors what prosecutors will prioritize, say attorneys at Spencer Fane.

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Judge Hellerstein, Gruff Moderator Of Major Cases, Dies At 92

By Pete Brush

Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, a former litigator and sometimes impatient Manhattan federal jurist who presided over decades of high-profile cases that often came under close appellate scrutiny, died Wednesday at the age of 92.

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Texan Claims Austin Firm Hasn't Alerted Him To Data Breach

By Andrea Keckley

Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson LLP, an Austin, Texas-based law firm focused on collecting debts and taxes for public-sector clients, failed to protect its clients' personal information from a data breach, the plaintiff in a proposed class action claimed in Texas federal court Tuesday.

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BakerHostetler Malpractice Case To Expand With RICO Claim

By Emily Johnson

A Georgia federal judge has allowed a trustee who has accused BakerHostetler and an Atlanta-based attorney of legal malpractice to file an amended complaint after the trustee asked to add claims of Georgia RICO Act violations.

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Weil To Wind Down As Top Attorneys Abandon Firm

By Daniel Moritz-Rabson, Alex Wittenberg and Aebra Coe

Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP, the restructuring powerhouse that led Lehman Brothers, Enron and General Motors through bankruptcy, told Law360 Pulse Wednesday that the firm is preparing to wind down operations.

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NJ Atty Mishandled Property Damage Dispute, Court Told

By Hope Patti

A man told a New Jersey federal court that he was forced to pay excessive and avoidable fees to an attorney hired to represent him in a property damage dispute after the attorney mishandled the case by failing to advise him to tender the claim to his homeowners insurer.

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BigLaw Tip Middleman To Admit Role In $3.5M Trading Scheme

By Chris Villani

An alleged middleman in a sweeping scheme to trade off of deal information stolen from major law firms has agreed to plead guilty and potentially faces a prison term of nearly a decade, according to a plea agreement filed Wednesday in Massachusetts federal court.

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Mich. Judge Weighs Toshiba Legal Bills Discovery Fight

By Melanie Dorsey

A Michigan federal judge on Wednesday questioned whether she needs to review specific objections to DTE Electric Co. and Consumers Energy Co.'s multimillion-dollar attorney fee request before deciding whether Toshiba Corp. must disclose its own legal bills and litigation expenses following a nearly $394.4 million jury verdict over a botched power plant overhaul.

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Analysis

Albright Left Key Issue In Billion-Dollar IP Fight Unanswered

By Dani Kass

In May 2025, then-U.S. District Judge Alan Albright watched a jury hold that VLSI Technology is controlled by Fortress Investment Group, but by the time he left the bench in August 2026, the judge had yet to decide whether that ownership would let Intel avoid billions of dollars in patent infringement verdicts.

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Proskauer, Reddit Attys Called To Testify In Data-Scraping Suit

By Bryan Koenig

A New York federal judge on Wednesday called for live testimony from two Proskauer Rose LLP attorneys and Reddit's deputy general counsel as he weighs the law firm's bid to represent Perplexity AI in a lawsuit from Reddit, the firm's former client, over alleged data scraping.

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SC Gov.'s Counsel Still In The Running For Federal Judgeship

By Courtney Bublé

The chief legal counsel for South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster is "being actively considered" for a federal judgeship, according to the White House, but it's not a done deal yet.

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