ABC Sues FCC To Stop License Renewal 'Retaliation'

By Nadia Dreid

ABC sued the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday, accusing the Trump administration of using the agency to threaten the Disney-owned network's licenses in a bid to stop it from broadcasting anything displeasing to the president.

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Lady Gaga Beats Surf Brand's 'Mayhem' TM Infringement Suit

By Rae Ann Varona

A California federal judge Tuesday granted Lady Gaga's bid to toss a surf and lifestyle brand's lawsuit accusing her of infringing a "Mayhem" mark on her merchandise, saying the brand failed to sufficiently allege that the pop star's use of the mark explicitly misled consumers.

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Netflix Says Tyra Banks Signed Away Editorial Control Of Doc

By Craig Clough

Netflix and the producers behind a docuseries about "America's Next Top Model" asked a California federal judge to dismiss Tyra Banks' defamation lawsuit, arguing her allegations are nothing more than "complaints about ordinary editorial decisions" that are protected by free speech laws.

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Sofia Vergara's Underwear Co. Moves To Nix AI Deepfake Suit

By Gina Kim

EBY urged a California federal judge to dismiss a content creator's suit alleging that, while she agreed to be a brand ambassador, the underwear company used AI to create a "deepfake" version and publish a video where she appeared partially nude, arguing Monday that the video is not "pornography" as commonly understood.

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PE Music Rights Co. Sues Anthropic, Suno Over AI Training

By Bonnie Eslinger

Private equity music publisher Round Hill Music has sued Anthropic, Suno and web-scraping provider Bright Data in separate federal lawsuits in California, accusing the companies of "rampant commercial copying" of thousands of its copyrighted songs and lyrics without permission to build and train artificial intelligence systems.

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OnlyFans Creator Sues MrBeast, Amazon For Bogus Rules

By Jonathan Capriel

A staffer for the 2024 MrBeast Games allegedly told a contestant she must delete her OnlyFans, which netted $60,000 a year, or be kicked out of the $5 million competition despite no one else being forced to do this, according to a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Court that seeks damages from the show and Amazon.

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Feds Bring New Charges Over $3.4B Iran-Backed Cybertheft

By Stewart Bishop

Manhattan federal prosecutors on Tuesday announced new charges against a group of Iranians accused of running a global, state-backed hacking campaign against private companies, government agencies and universities, in a wide-ranging cybertheft conspiracy that stole at least $3.4 billion in academic data and intellectual property.

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Brief

DSW, Sony Strike Deal In Social Media Music Copyright Fight

By Ivan Moreno

Sony Music Entertainment and DSW's parent company, Designer Brands, have reached a settlement in principle in a copyright infringement suit accusing the shoe retailer and related companies of using more than 100 copyrighted songs in social media advertising without authorization, according to a notice filed in California federal court.

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'Profits Won': States Say Meta Targeted Kids As Trial Opens

By Dorothy Atkins

An attorney for more than two dozen states told a California federal jury during opening statements Tuesday that Meta hid what it knew about social media's mental health harms and prioritized profits over safety in a yearslong effort to hook kids on its platforms, while Meta defended its safety practices as best-in-class.

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Zuckerberg Waved Off Filter Criticism, Tenn. Jury Hears

By Cara Salvatore

A former Meta executive overseeing responsible innovation testified Tuesday that Mark Zuckerberg iced out her thoughts regarding the harm to teens of cosmetic surgery image filters, but said generally the company's employees are well intentioned when it comes to user safety.

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Attys In Ebay Harassment Suit Seek Lion's Share Of $15M Fee

By Julie Manganis

Counsel for a Massachusetts couple who recently reached a $55.7 million settlement over a harassment campaign by former eBay employees have asked a state court judge to find the couple's original attorney is entitled to no more than 5% of the fees in the case.

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NJ Justices Signaled Likely End To Daniel's Law, Experts Say

By George Woolston

First Amendment experts said the New Jersey Supreme Court likely doomed the state's judicial privacy law when it found that the statute did not require those seeking damages to establish mental state, a decision that the Third Circuit hinted could result in the measure being struck down.

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Snap Says Pixel Suit Refiled To Avoid Skeptical Calif. Judge

By Allison Grande

Snap is pushing to move a proposed pixel-tracking class action from federal court in Los Angeles to San Francisco, arguing that the dispute "bears all the hallmarks of strategic forum selection designed to avoid" litigating in front of a Northern District of California judge who's called the state's wiretap statute "a total mess."

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2nd Circ. Lets Stand Cumulus' Nielsen Data Unbundling Order

By Matthew Santoni

The Second Circuit declined Tuesday to reconsider a ruling that Nielsen cannot tie together sales of its local and national radio data, sustaining a win for the troubled Cumulus Media New Holdings Inc. even as the company tries to enforce the lower court's order against the ratings giant.

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Publishers Target Google's 'Fake Privilege' In Ad Tech MDL

By Bryan Koenig

A group of website publishers targeting Google's advertising placement technology dominance in a wider multidistrict litigation asked a New York federal judge Monday to force discovery into corporate policies allegedly hiding evidence that have continuously haunted the technology giant across antitrust cases from government and private plaintiffs.

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Ex-Meta Worker Says His EB-2 Letter Concerns Got Him Fired

By Carla Baranauckas

A former Meta Platforms Inc. product design manager sued the social media giant and his former supervisor in New Jersey federal court, claiming that he was fired after refusing to sign an immigration support letter for a colleague because he believed it contained inaccurate or unsupported facts.

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House GOP Still Pushing For Broadband Permit Bill This Year

By Christopher Cole

Despite months of delays, Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives are still pressing for legislation that would compel local governments to act faster on broadband permit applications, a top congressional aide said Tuesday.

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7th Circ. Rejects Ex-Cushman GC's Defamation Revival Bid

By Lauraann Wood

Cushman & Wakefield's former general counsel cannot pursue an Illinois defamation claim over a Law.com article and subsequent revision he claims improperly linked his departure to subpoena deadline mismanagement in a Trump Organization property tax probe, the Seventh Circuit said Tuesday.

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Video Gaming Arena Co. Seeks OK Of $7.7M Arbitral Award

By Joyce Hanson

The operator of a chain of competitive video gaming arenas in the United Kingdom has asked a New York federal judge to enforce a $7.7 million arbitral award it won against a Delaware-based esports company and related subsidiary following a dispute over a collaboration deal.

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Journalist Sues DHS, CBP Over Phone Seizure After Iran Trip

By Hailey Konnath

An American journalist says the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection violated his constitutional rights and federal privacy law when agents seized his phones at Dulles Airport after returning from a reporting trip to Iran, according to a suit filed Monday in Virginia federal court.

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Sandy Hook Families Say Alex Jones Co. Can't Dodge Bond

By Aaron Keller

Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre victims' families have asked the Texas Supreme Court to dissolve an appeals court order blocking a receiver from deploying the assets of Alex Jones' Free Speech Systems LLC, saying the company is stalling a $1.3 billion judgment collection effort without posting the required bond.

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Ex-Loeb & Loeb RE Pro Joins Greenberg Traurig In NYC

By Isaac Monterose

Greenberg Traurig LLP has hired former Loeb & Loeb LLP real estate partner Brian L. Helweil as a shareholder for its global real estate practice team in New York City, the firm has announced.

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SCOTUSblog Founder Goldstein Seeks Release During Appeal

By Rachel Rippetoe

SCOTUSblog founder Thomas Goldstein on Tuesday asked to be released from federal custody while he appeals his 12 tax and mortgage fraud convictions and a six-year prison sentence, saying he is not a flight risk and it would be a "grave injustice" for him to begin a sentence he believes will eventually get axed.

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Q&A

Nutter Leader Eyes Fla. Growth, AI-Driven Billing Shift

By Chris Villani

After overseeing Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP's expansion into New York City, California and Hawaii, co-managing partner Michael Scott is setting his sights on extending the firm's footprint into Florida within the next year and leveraging the power of artificial intelligence to lower clients' bills.

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Atty, Ex-Mentor Settle After Harassment, Bias Suit Dismissed

By Melanie Dorsey

An attorney whose sexual harassment and employment discrimination suit against her former mentor was thrown out last month for repeated discovery violations has reached a settlement resolving the remaining claims and counterclaims in the case.

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Atty, Son Charged In Probe Of Alleged Penn State Drug Ring

By Rose Krebs

An equity partner based in Meyer Darragh Buckler Bebenek & Eck PLLC's Pittsburgh office has been charged with tampering with evidence and obstructing an investigation in connection with an alleged cocaine ring at Penn State University that allegedly involved his son, according to news reports.

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Fed. Circ. Rejects Patent Marking Immunity For NPEs

By Dani Kass

Nonpracticing entities hoping for presuit damages can't get out of Patent Act requirements to mark products with patent information just because licensees don't believe their products infringe, the Federal Circuit held Wednesday.

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Jackson Walker Says US Trustee Can't Claw Back Legal Fees

By Clara Geoghegan

Jackson Walker said this week that the U.S. Department of Justice's bankruptcy watchdog is beyond the bounds of its authority in a yearslong effort to force the firm to return millions of dollars in legal fees over an undisclosed relationship between a former partner and a Texas bankruptcy judge.

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Ex-US Attys Protest Trump's Swift Firing Of Rogoff In Seattle

By Rachel Riley

Thirty former U.S. attorneys backed Roger Rogoff's bid for reinstatement as Seattle's top federal prosecutor after President Donald Trump fired him on the heels of his court-ordered appointment, arguing Tuesday that Trump is trying to "sidestep the Senate's advice-and-consent role and sideline the judiciary" by letting unappointed individuals play such roles.

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Sinema Says Brief Signal Chat Can't Anchor NC Affair Suit

By Hayley Fowler

A single exchange on the encrypted messaging app Signal became the focal point of former Arizona U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's testimony on Wednesday as she sought to convince a North Carolina federal judge that she cannot be hauled into court in the Tar Heel state over an affair — which she declined to characterize as a "passionate" romance — she had with her married security guard.

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Polsinelli Can't Rep Doctor In 'Bad Faith' IP Suits, Cos. Say

By Lauren Berg

Two medical device companies suing Polsinelli PC and its longtime client, a patent-holding doctor, for allegedly pursuing "bad faith" infringement claims asked federal courts in Tennessee and Mississippi to disqualify the firm from defending the doctor in the lawsuits, citing their "diverging interests and liabilities."

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Davis Wright Vets Scolded: Don't Tell Foes 'How To Run Firm'

By Jeff Overley

Davis Wright Tremaine LLP veterans have failed to dodge six-figure sanctions in a prominent discovery donnybrook, and a California magistrate judge added invective to the financial injury, lambasting "troubling" omissions in case citations and heavy-handed "nitpicking" akin to commandeering an adversary's law firm.

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USPTO Says Patent Atty's Suit Shouldn't Stop Discipline Case

By Theresa Schliep

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has said an Ohio federal court shouldn't pause professional discipline proceedings against an attorney while he sues the agency, saying he's likely to fail with his suit challenging the fact that a judge from another agency is overseeing his discipline case.

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