Trump-IRS Deal To Create $1.8B 'Anti-Weaponization' Fund

By Jack McLoone

The U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday that it will create a $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization fund" with the proceeds of a settlement between President Donald Trump and the IRS over the leaks of his tax information.

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OpenAI Beats Musk Suit Over For-Profit Restructuring

By Dorothy Atkins

In an advisory decision Monday, a California federal jury cleared OpenAI and executives Sam Altman and Greg Brockman of allegations they breached the nonprofit's charitable trust by converting to a for-profit, handing billionaire Elon Musk a defeat in a closely watched three-week trial that threatened to shake up the artificial intelligence industry.

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Spain To Pay Shakira €60M After Tax Fraud Acquittal

By Josh White

The Spanish government must pay Shakira over €60 million ($70 million), including interest, after a Madrid court acquitted the Colombian singer of allegations of tax fraud in a long-running dispute over her residency status, the court announced Monday.

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Game Co. Seeks Damages Boost To $1.4B In False Ad Case

By Elliot Weld

A mobile game company that won a $420 million jury verdict in April against a rival over its use of bots and representations that its games relied on skill has urged a New York federal judge to order an increased disgorgement of $1.4 billion, arguing it was "hard to imagine a civil case with a worse defendant."

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NYT, Tribune Say Perplexity Can't Fault Users For Bot Outputs

By Ivan Moreno

The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune on Friday urged a New York federal judge to reject Perplexity AI's bid to pare down their copyright and trademark lawsuits, arguing the company cannot blame users for allegedly infringing outputs generated by a system Perplexity itself built with copied news content.

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NYT Attacks Pentagon's Media Escort Policy In New Suit

By Gina Kim

The New York Times filed a second lawsuit in D.C. federal court on Monday challenging the Department of Defense's interim policy requiring reporters to be accompanied by an official escort while on Pentagon premises, arguing that it revives vacated prohibitions on newsgathering that were already found to be unconstitutional.

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Wachtell Lipton Guides Publicis On $2.2B LiveRamp Deal

By Al Barbarino

France's Publicis Groupe has agreed to acquire data collaboration platform LiveRamp at an enterprise value of nearly $2.2 billion, in a deal steered by Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP.

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MLB's Cubs Seek Quick Win In TM Battle With Bar Owner

By Isaac Monterose

The Chicago Cubs told an Illinois federal court to grant them a quick win in the Major League Baseball team's trademark infringement suit against a bar owner who, among other things, allegedly kept using the team's trademarks even after his licensing agreement with it expired.

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Musk's XAI Opposes Anonymity In Deepfake Suit

By Mike Curley

Elon Musk's xAI is asking a California federal court to force the use of the real identities of a group of women suing over Grok-generated deepfake images of them in sexual situations, saying they haven't shown that proceeding under pseudonyms is necessary to protect their privacy.

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Calif. High School Athletes Say State's NIL Ban Exploits Them

By David Steele

High school athletes told a California federal judge that state regulations unfairly limit their name, image and likeness opportunities, contrary to the state governing body's claim that the rules exist to protect amateurism and keep transfers reasonable.

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P-Funk Founder Sues UMG For $1.1M In Frozen Royalties

By Susan Smiley

Parliament-Funkadelic frontman George Clinton filed suit Friday in Michigan federal court alleging that music industry giant UMG has illegally withheld more than $1.1 million in royalty payments because of a separate lawsuit pending between Clinton and the estate of Clinton's keyboardist in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court this past week handled a broad mix of celebrity estate litigation, merger disputes, investor suits, record demands, sanctions fights and questions over corporate moves away from Delaware.

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Calif. Kicks Off Rulemaking For Social Media Addiction Law

By Allison Grande

California Attorney General Rob Bonta is seeking public comment on a new set of proposed regulations for complying with the age determination and parental consent aspects of a looming law that restricts social media platforms from using algorithms to deliver addictive feeds to children.

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Fla. Court Tosses Pricing Suit Against Textbook Publishers

By David Minsky

A Florida court tossed a qui tam action alleging that McGraw Hill and another educational publisher billed Sunshine State schools for educational materials at disparate costs in violation of the "best pricing" statute, ruling that the law only applies to interstate sales. 

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Fla. Hospitals Seek $10.5M In Fees In Safety Rating Fight

By Danielle Ferguson

Community hospitals owned by Tenet Healthcare Corp. sought $10.5 million in fees they said were warranted in their successful Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act case against hospital ratings nonprofit Leapfrog, while the nonprofit called the request "grotesquely inflated" and premature.

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Disneyland Illegally Collects Visitors' Face Scans, Suit Says

By Gina Kim

Disneyland guests hit the entertainment behemoth with a proposed class action in New York federal court Friday alleging it gathered facial recognition data of children who enter its parks without a meaningful way for them to opt out, arguing "the onus of privacy rights should not be on the victim."

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Okla. AG Says Roblox Fails To Stop Child Predators

By Mike Curley

The Oklahoma attorney general is suing Roblox, saying the massive online gaming platform has failed to take steps to protect its minor users from sexual predation and exploitation from child predators.

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Calif. AG Previews Live Nation Remedies At Democratic Forum

By Courtney Bublé

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, one of the state attorneys general of a coalition of states that recently won a jury verdict finding Live Nation illegally established a monopoly over the live music industry, said Monday the next step is a structural overhaul of the conglomerate.

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Ad Buyers Want To Depose Nexstar CEO In Price-Fixing Case

By Nadia Dreid

Nexstar's CEO can't skip out on being deposed by advertisers who claim that the broadcast behemoth and its competitors in the TV industry came together to fix the price of advertisements, those ad buyers have told the judge overseeing the multidistrict litigation.

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NY Times Editor Wants To Expand EEOC Race Bias Suit

By Patrick Hoff

The white New York Times editor at the center of a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sex and race discrimination case asked a federal court to let him enter the lawsuit, saying he wants to add state and local claims that can't be leveled by the bias watchdog.

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Brief

Celebrity-Owned NY Entertainment Venue Settles Wage Suit

By MJ Koo

Tiger Woods and Justin Timberlake's New York sports bar told a federal judge on Monday that it has agreed to settle a wage and hour lawsuit brought by two bartenders who alleged the celebrity-owned venue stole their tips and shorted them on overtime pay.

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Ex-FCC Official Urges Agency To Bring USF Billing In-House

By Christopher Cole

A former top Federal Communications Commission official says it's time for an overhaul of how the agency runs the Universal Service Fund with reforms that should include bringing the program's billions of dollars in yearly revenue collections in-house.

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FCC Told It's Obligated To Answer Petition On Fox Philly

By Nadia Dreid

The D.C. Circuit recently said that the Federal Communications Commission has a "non-discretionary obligation" to respond to applications for review, and an advocacy group that's spent almost three years pushing to strip a Fox affiliate station of its license on allegations it aired election conspiracy theories says that obligation applies to it as well.

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Brief

FCC Commish Focuses On Spectrum In Trips Around Globe

By Christopher Cole

Commissioner Olivia Trusty of the Federal Communications Commission has kept global spectrum policy at top of mind, and her travel schedule shows it.

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Brief

AT&T Seeks FCC's OK To Change Covered Routers

By Nadia Dreid

AT&T is asking the Federal Communications Commission to greenlight hardware changes to foreign-made routers, which the agency recently placed on the covered list, arguing the artificial intelligence boom has created a shortage that makes getting replacements difficult.

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Live Nation, Club Hit With $50M Suit Over Wrong-Way Death

By Julie Manganis

Employees of the House of Blues Boston over-served alcohol to a patron who subsequently hit and killed another driver in a wrong-way crash, a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit filed Monday in Massachusetts state court alleges.

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Iowa Aligns With Boosted Fed. Tax Gambling Reporting Level

By Zak Kostro

Iowa aligned with a higher threshold under federal tax law for determining when state income tax must be withheld on gambling winnings as part of a bill signed by the governor.

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Feds Want Research Coalition's Visa Censorship Suit Tossed

By Tom Lotshaw

The Trump administration told a D.C. federal judge that a technology research coalition's lack of injury should doom a suit challenging its new visa restriction policy targeting noncitizens who help foreign governments censor protected expression by American citizens and tech companies.

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Holland & Knight Taps Wiley Leader As Telecom Chair

By Jack Rodgers

Holland & Knight LLP announced Monday it has hired the former co-chair of Wiley's wireless practice in Washington to take the reins of the Tampa, Florida-headquartered firm's telecommunications, media and technology team as chair.

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Nielsen Appeal Tests Antitrust Limits Of Pricing And Bundling

In Cumulus v. Nielsen, the Second Circuit is considering a structural pattern in which a monopolist exploits upstream market power to foreclose downstream competition, which could potentially offer broad insight into how courts will assess exclusionary bundling and pricing defenses under antitrust law, says Luke Hasskamp at Bona Law.

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Series

Judges On AI: How Courts Can Survive The Tech Revolution

Colorado Supreme Court Justice Maria Berkenkotter and Colorado Court of Appeals Judge Lino Lipinsky de Orlov discuss how artificial intelligence has already fundamentally altered the legal system and offer tips for courts navigating deepfakes, hallucinations and a gap in access to AI tools.

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Murdaugh Sues Ex-Court Clerk Who Tried To Sway The Jury

By Jack Karp

Disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh is suing the court clerk whose attempt to influence the jury in his murder trial led the South Carolina Supreme Court to overturn his murder conviction.

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Morgan & Morgan Atty Barred From Harvard Suit Over AI Error

By Chris Villani

A Massachusetts judge on Monday said a Morgan & Morgan PA attorney may not appear before him in a suit against Harvard University over the theft of body parts donated to its medical school, saying the lawyer did not learn his lesson after signing off on briefs in another case with fake case law generated by artificial intelligence.

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Trump Seeks Circuit Seats For 2 Judges He Appointed

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump's recent picks for the Eighth and Tenth Circuits mark the first time in his second administration that he's seeking to elevate judges he appointed in his first term.

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Health Co. Wants Kirkland Off IP Case For 'Cardinal Sin'

By Elliot Weld

A healthcare company suing medical technology company Commure Inc. over alleged trade secret theft has said Kirkland & Ellis LLP should be disqualified from representing Commure because the healthcare company had tried to retain Kirkland prior to filing the suit and shared confidential information before anyone asked who the defendant was going to be.

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Wyoming Prosecutor Confirmed Despite Misconduct Rebuke

By Courtney Bublé

Just a few days ago, federal judges tossed nine criminal indictments after President Donald Trump's pick to lead the U.S. attorney's office of Wyoming was accused of prosecutorial misconduct. On Monday evening, he was confirmed to permanently lead the office.

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Analysis

Half The Nation's Bar Apps Could Remove Rape Questions

By Cara Bayles

By next year, it's possible that about half of U.S. jurisdictions will have amended character and fitness questions to avoid dredging up aspiring lawyers' sexual trauma. But while advocates hail the reforms as progress, concerns linger about the patchwork this could create across the country.

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Ex-Willkie Atty Banned By SEC For Insider Trading

By Emily Sawicki

A former Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP mergers and acquisitions attorney who earlier this month admitted to taking part in a widespread BigLaw insider trading scheme will be barred from representing a client before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a minimum of four years, according to an order the agency issued Monday.

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NY Judge Largely Halts Manhattan Immigration Courts Arrests

By Rae Ann Varona

A New York federal judge Monday largely barred U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from conducting arrests at three Manhattan immigration courthouses, finding there was no good reason why "unfettered discretion" by ICE officers was better than a policy with arrest limitations.

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