Warner Bros. Discovery said Tuesday it has rejected an acquisition proposal from Paramount Skydance but will engage in further talks to determine whether the bidder can submit a binding offer that tops WBD's agreed merger with Netflix.
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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2026 Law360 iOS App Law360 Android App Follow Law360 on Facebook Follow Law360 on LinkedIn Follow Law360 on Twitter

TOP NEWS

Warner Bros. Rejects Latest Paramount Bid But Talks Resume

By Al Barbarino

Warner Bros. Discovery said Tuesday it has rejected an acquisition proposal from Paramount Skydance but will engage in further talks to determine whether the bidder can submit a binding offer that tops WBD's agreed merger with Netflix.

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FCC's Equal Time Stance Blasted As Colbert Tanks Interview

By Christopher Cole

Progressives called the Federal Communications Commission's rollout of equal-time policies against late-night talk shows slanted after Stephen Colbert blamed the FCC for being forced to move an interview with a Democratic Senate candidate off the air.

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Sick Juror Delays Meta Trial Ahead Of Zuckerberg Testimony

By Craig Clough

The first bellwether trial over thousands of claims that social media companies harm young people's mental health was delayed Tuesday due to a juror being hospitalized with an illness, although the California state judge in the case said the trial will resume one way or another on Wednesday, when Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg is scheduled to testify. 

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Valve Jury Says Rothschild, Atty Broke Anti-Patent Troll Law

By Rachel Riley

Inventor Leigh Rothschild, his companies and his former attorney broke Washington state's anti-patent trolling law by making a bad faith assertion of patent infringement against video game developer Valve Corp., and Rothschild and his companies breached an intellectual property licensing deal in the process, a Seattle federal jury found on Tuesday. 

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OpenAI's Video App Can't Use 'Cameo' As TM Case Proceeds

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking OpenAI from using the word "Cameo" to refer to a component of its Sora AI video generator app in litigation brought by a personalized video provider of the same name, which argued that its consumer reputation was threatened by the artificial intelligence company.

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Musk Can't Be 'Tried On His Political Beliefs,' Judge Says

By Bonnie Eslinger

A certified class of former Twitter investors accusing Elon Musk of tanking the social media platform's stock during acquisition negotiations can't bring up the billionaire's political beliefs during the trial scheduled to start next month if it's outside the 2022 time period at issue, a California federal judge ruled Tuesday.

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INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Fox's $5.8M IP Win Unaffected By New Email Service Ruling

By Alex Lawson

A recent Second Circuit decision barring email process service will not disturb a New York federal court's $5.8 million award to Fox Corp. in its feud with Mexican media companies after the judge on Tuesday drew key distinctions between the cases.

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Funkadelic Member's Estate Beats Clinton's Sanctions Bid

By Gina Kim

A Michigan federal judge denied Parliament-Funkadelic bandleader George Clinton's bid to sanction the estate of the band's former keyboardist in their royalty dispute over works recorded before 1976, ruling Tuesday that there's no evidence of bad faith by the estate to pursue its claims, even if they were untimely.

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Judge Trims Moderna's Defenses In COVID Patent Suit

By Elliot Weld

A federal judge sitting in Delaware on Tuesday ruled that Moderna could not use obviousness to defend itself from patent claims brought by a rival vaccine developer since it already used that as a defense in related Patent Trial and Review Board proceedings, saying that Moderna had offered expert opinions to support a defense that the patents don't sufficiently teach about the claimed invention.

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PRIVACY & CONSUMER PROTECTION

FTC, States Urged To Halt Meta's Plan For Face ID In Glasses

By Allison Grande

A consumer advocacy group is pushing the Federal Trade Commission and nearly a dozen state enforcers to shut down Meta's reported plans to add facial recognition capabilities to its smart glasses, arguing that the feature would pose "a grave risk to privacy, safety and civil liberties."

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COMPETITION

Betting Tech Rivals Settle Antitrust, Patent Row

By Elaine Briseño

Sports technology company Panda Interactive has settled its patent dispute with its rival Sportradar and asked a Texas federal judge to stay all activity in the case for 30 days while the parties finalize the agreement.

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CoStar Rival Urges High Court To Reject Antitrust Appeal

By Matthew Perlman

A rival accusing CoStar of blocking competition for commercial real estate listing services is urging the U.S. Supreme Court not to review a ruling that revived the rival's counterclaims, saying that CoStar just disagrees with how the appeals court viewed the allegations.

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EMPLOYMENT

Ex-IRS Official Drops Suit Over Private Info Leak

By Asha Glover

The former commissioner of the IRS' Large Business and International Division asked a D.C. federal court to drop her suit accusing the agency of unlawfully leaking information on her employment status to the media, according to a filing.

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SECURITIES & WHITE COLLAR

Reddit Fights Investor Suit Over Google AI Impact

By Sydney Price

Reddit wants out of a proposed investor class action accusing it of downplaying the impact that Google's artificial intelligence-generated search results have had on the forum website's traffic and ad revenues, arguing it has always been up-front with the public about the potential competition from Google.

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TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Brief

FCC Threatens To Nix Mich. Radio Licenses Over Unpaid Fees

By Nadia Dreid

The Federal Communications Commission said it will yank the licenses for seven Michigan radio stations if the company that holds the licenses fails to pay the regulatory fees it has been delinquent on for several years.

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AI's Needs Outpace Broadband Infrastructure, Report Says

By Nadia Dreid

The "artificial intelligence boom" is going to mean slower internet speeds for consumers if Congress doesn't do something to make commercial spectrum less scarce, according to a new report from a conservative-leaning policy group.

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FCC Investigating Possible Lifeline Fraud In Calif., Beyond

By Nadia Dreid

Lifeline providers in states that were allowed to opt out of the federal verification process might soon find themselves in the hot seat, as the Federal Communications Commission revealed Tuesday it has launched investigations into certain providers from three states.

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Aviation, Wireless Biz Work On 'Consensus' For C-Band

By Christopher Cole

Federal aviation experts are working closely with the wireless industry to develop a "consensus framework" for next-generation aircraft safety gear to avoid congestion of 5G and flight signals in the C-band, a carriers' group says.

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TAX

Goldstein Tax Trial Heads To Closing Args As Defense Rests

By Jared Foretek

Jurors in SCOTUSblog founder Thomas Goldstein's tax fraud trial will hear closing arguments Wednesday, after the final two witnesses in the monthlong proceeding took the stand, and new emails regarding Goldstein's efforts to conceal poker debts came to light Tuesday.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

Latham Adds Ex-FCC Commissioner As Partner In DC

By Jack Rodgers

Geoffrey Starks, who stepped down from the Federal Communications Commission last year after 10 years at the agency, has joined Latham & Watkins LLP as a partner, where he'll advise clients on a range of communications matters such as broadband policies, data security and artificial intelligence.

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State High Court Chiefs To Review Law School Accreditation

By Ryan Boysen

State supreme court leaders said Wednesday they will conduct a thorough review of law school accreditation practices this year, a move that comes after state justices in Texas and Florida recently ended the American Bar Association's longstanding accreditation monopoly in those states.

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Judges' Neutrality Must Extend Beyond Courtroom, ABA Says

By Emily Sawicki

The American Bar Association's ethics committee is guiding judges to maintain the same level of neutrality and impartiality in working with court staff that they exercise when presiding in the courtroom, according to its latest formal opinion on Wednesday.

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Crowell & Moring Antitrust Leader Jumps To Sidley In NY

By Jack Rodgers

Sidley Austin LLP said Wednesday it had hired the chair of Crowell & Moring LLP's New York antitrust practice.

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Senators Push For Transparency In Litigation Funding

By Courtney Bublé

Lawmakers are trying again to rein in third-party litigation financing, a multibillion-dollar industry that critics argue allows foreign entities to assert control of the U.S. legal system.

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Texas County Seeks Removal From Witness-Tampering Suit

By Parker Quinlan

A county in eastern Texas has asked a federal judge to dismiss it from a lawsuit because it is not responsible for a telephone call from a local justice of the peace who was trying to convince a defendant to plead guilty in a criminal case.

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Conn. Justice Tackles Precedent, AI In Renomination Hearing

By Aaron Keller

Answering a question about abortion rights during a renomination hearing Wednesday, a cautious Connecticut Supreme Court justice said courts must be mindful when overruling past decisions, questioning whether the doctrine of stare decisis, or allowing past opinions to stand, could become "not much of a doctrine at all."

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Promo that reads 2025 Practice Groups of the Year

COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

AT&T Inc.

Accenture PLC

American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc.

American Bar Association

American Property Casualty Insurance Association

Arbutus Biopharma Corp.

British Broadcasting Corp.

CTIA

Canon Inc.

CoStar Group Inc.

Electronic Privacy Information Center

EssilorLuxottica

Fox Corp.

Gelman, Rosenberg & Freedman

Google LLC

Instagram Inc.

LinkedIn Corp.

Meta Platforms Inc.

Moderna Inc.

NFL Enterprises LLC

National Basketball Association Inc.

National Insurance Crime Bureau

Netflix Inc.

OpenAI OpCo LLC

Paramount Global

Patent Asset Management

Reddit Inc.

Skydance Media LLC

Snap Inc.

Sportradar Group AG

Stanford University

The Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

TikTok Inc.

Twitter Inc.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Valve Corp.

Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.

X Corp.

YouTube Inc.

LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Beasley Allen

Bryan Cave

Byron Raphael LLP

Cahill Gordon

Cotchett Pitre

Covington & Burling

Crowell & Moring

DNL Zito

Dickinson Wright

Edelsberg Law

Ellis George

Flowers Davis

Goodwin Procter

Kiesel Law

Kilpatrick Townsend

Kirkland & Ellis

Lanier Law Firm

Latham & Watkins

Mark S. Zaid PC

Meyler Legal

Morgan Lewis

Morris Nichols

Morrison & Foerster

Munger Tolles

Nassiri & Jung

Panish Shea

Pullman & Comley

Quinn Emanuel

Rothschild & Rothschild

Scharf Appellate Group

Schenk & Bruetsch

Shamis & Gentile

Shaw Keller

Sidley Austin

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP

Sullivan & Cromwell

Wagstaff & Cartmell

Williams & Connolly

Wilson Sonsini

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

California Public Utilities Commission

City of New York

Connecticut General Assembly

Federal Aviation Administration

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Communications Commission

Federal Election Commission

Federal Trade Commission

Florida Supreme Court

Internal Revenue Service

Los Angeles Superior Court

Texas Supreme Court

U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of the Treasury

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware

U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington

U.S. Senate

U.S. Supreme Court