Paramount Wants AGs, WGA To Pay $1.9B Merger Suit Bond

By Bryan Koenig

Paramount Skydance Corp. put a price tag Monday on waiting until next year to close its planned $110 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery, asking a California federal judge to impose an approximately $1.9 billion bond requirement on the Democratic attorneys general and the Writers Guild of America challenging the deal.

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Analysis

Young Athletes Are Wising Up, But Attys Say They're Still Kids

By Theresa Schliep

As the name, image and likeness industry grows and billions of dollars pour into college sports, attorneys who represent student-athletes say that while they're not as green as their youth suggests, they're still vulnerable to bad actors and need to clear business decisions with mom and dad.

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Justices Again Deny Review Of $5M Carroll Verdict

By Cara Salvatore

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied President Donald Trump's request to rehear his challenge to a $5 million verdict finding he sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll.

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DOI Settles 'Peanuts' Music Infringement Claim For $20K

By Hailey Konnath

The U.S. Department of the Interior has agreed to pay $20,000 to the steward of the "Peanuts" television and film music catalog to put to rest claims that the government used music from "A Charlie Brown Christmas" on its social media pages without permission, according to an announcement made Monday.

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Ex-ABC Producer Accuses CBS Correspondent Of Harassment

By Craig Clough

A former ABC News producer accused CBS News chief correspondent Matt Gutman of sexual harassment in a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court that also accuses her former network of wrongful termination. 

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Morgan & Morgan Sues Fla. Bar Over Celebrity Ad Ban

By Carolina Bolado

Personal injury giant Morgan & Morgan PA has sued the Florida Bar, claiming a bar rule that bans any use of a celebrity's voice or image in lawyer advertising violates the First Amendment.

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Apple Hit With Derivative Suit Over AI Copyright Infringement

By Hailey Konnath

Apple executives and directors are facing a stockholder derivative action claiming they've been knowingly using copyrighted materials to develop Apple's artificial intelligence services — an unlawful business strategy they knew could lead to litigation from copyright holders, the plaintiff told a California federal court.

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Pornhub To Pay $120M To End Child Abuse Content Cases

By Dorothy Atkins

The companies behind adult entertainment website Pornhub have agreed to make extensive policy changes and pay $120 million to end certified class claims in California and Alabama by child sex trafficking and sexual abuse material survivors who allege the website profited from crimes committed against them.

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Google To Pay $10M For Spirit Airlines Data To Help AI Models

By Alex Wittenberg

Technology giant Google LLC has won an auction for Spirit Airlines' emails, chats, spreadsheets and other data, offering $10 million for anonymized information it will use to improve its large language models and other products, according to a notice filed Friday in New York bankruptcy court.

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Meta Loses 'Hail Mary' Sanctions Bid On Eve Of AGs' Trial

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge Sunday denied Meta's request for spoliation sanctions against state attorneys general that would've barred a Meta whistleblower from testifying in the upcoming high-stakes social media addiction bellwether trial, ruling that Meta's request was an "obvious" "Hail Mary attempt to eliminate a strong witness" before trial.

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Meta Exec Can't 'Rule Out' Addiction But Doubts It, Jury Told

By Cara Salvatore

A Meta safety executive admitted Monday to a Tennessee jury that she cannot "rule out" that addiction may occur with Instagram but said she believes that so far there is no evidence to identify anything beyond "problematic use."

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Standing Flaw Sinks Chrysler Website Tracking Row, For Now

By Allison Grande

A California federal judge has tossed, with leave to amend, a proposed class action accusing automaker FCA of illegally divulging Chrysler website visitors' personal information to a data broker, finding that the plaintiff had failed to establish the type of concrete injury necessary to sustain her wiretap and privacy claims.

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Calif. AG Pans Bid To Pause Social Media Algorithm Limits

By Craig Clough

The California attorney general urged a federal judge to deny requests from TikTok, Meta and Google to block enforcement of a state law barring them from using algorithms to deliver feeds to children, saying the court already denied a preliminary injunction and should not grant one pending the companies' appeal.

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Fox Says News Anchor Fired Over Outbursts, Retained Laptop

By Susan Smiley

Detroit's WJBK-TV has responded to allegations of sex discrimination and retaliation by former news anchor Taryn Asher and filed a counterclaim alleging she never returned a company laptop despite repeated requests.

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Experts See Looming Legal Disputes Over FCC Party Balance

By Christopher Cole

The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision to ditch case law shielding independent federal agency members from presidential removal is unlikely to resolve ongoing controversy over White House control of the Federal Communications Commission, experts said Monday.

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Justices Won't Reconsider Verizon's $47M FCC Fine

By Nadia Dreid

The U.S. Supreme Court is not interested in reconsidering how it worded its June opinion upholding the Federal Communications Commission's authority to issue monetary penalties, despite Verizon arguing that the ruling left it between a rock and a hard place concerning the $47 million fine it already paid.

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FCC Turns Down Bid To Revisit Campaign Ad Pricing Policy

By Nadia Dreid

The Federal Communications Commission declined a petition asking it to reconsider guidance the agency put out earlier this year about political ads, saying the "central premise" of the request was "wrong many times over."

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'Act Now' To Save FCC School Subsidy, Group Urges Public

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

School and library broadband advocates are urging communities that depend on the E-Rate subsidy that supports high-speed connectivity in learning environments to file public comments in support amid a push by the Federal Communications Commission to dismantle it.

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Broadband Co. Says It's Catching Up After Rural Fund Delays

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

Broadband provider Brightspeed told the Federal Communications Commission that it is on track to meet its obligations under a rural development fund despite ongoing delays.

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2nd Circ. Says Public Can Film Police And Their Stations

By Brian Steele

The Second Circuit said Monday it has joined "a growing chorus of our sister circuits" in finding a constitutional right to record law enforcement activity in public, as well as police buildings, but still turned away a self-described First Amendment auditor's lawsuit over his arrest while filming the exterior of a Connecticut police station.

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Whiskey Business: Parsing The 9th Circ. Jack Daniel's IP Toss

The Ninth Circuit's recent ruling in VIP Products v. Jack Daniel's, holding a toy did not tarnish the whiskey maker's trademarks, gives fact-finders great latitude by showing that there may exist no categories of per se tarnishing content, says attorney Sara Gold.

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How Does In-House Pay Compare? Take The Law360 Survey

How do in-house salaries vary across industries, roles, and organizational revenue? What compensation tools are companies using to lure top talent? Help Law360 Pulse answer these questions and more in this year's In-House Compensation Survey.

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White House Aims To Shield Advisers Behind Law Firm EOs

By Emily Sawicki

The Trump administration and Justice Department "strongly object" to an Aug. 3 discovery order requiring them to name individuals involved in drafting and approving executive orders targeting law firms, amid their repeated refusal to hand over certain communications in a suit brought by the American Bar Association.

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Troutman Sidelined Associate After Heart Attack, Suit Says

By Patrick Hoff

Troutman Pepper Locke LLP derailed an associate's career because he took medical leave to recover from a heart attack and spoke up about senior attorneys' fraudulent billing practices, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in New Jersey federal court.

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Trump Names 9 Judicial Picks Across 6 States

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump announced nine nominees Tuesday for judicial spots in Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Alaska. 

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Bot Errors Doom Expert's Credibility In Tainted-Supplement Suit

By Rachel Riley

A Washington federal judge Tuesday disposed of a U.S. Army nurse's lawsuit claiming supplement maker Thesis Nootropics sold products tainted with amphetamines, concluding that a key expert destroyed his credibility by submitting a report containing bot-generated false citations — much like errors for which the plaintiffs' counsel was recently sanctioned.

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Big Tech, PTAB Attys Urge Justices To Fix USPTO Power Grab

By Dani Kass

The Federal Circuit's refusal to curb the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office director's power over instituting Patent Trial and Appeal Board challenges has allowed leaders to "wreak havoc" without accountability, top tech companies have warned the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Quill & Arrow Says Ford Can't Rehash Lemon Law Fee Fights

By Linda Chiem

Quill & Arrow LLP has asked a California federal judge to dump a "retaliatory" lawsuit alleging the personal injury firm saddled Ford Motor Co. with high-priced legal bills for work purportedly handled by virtual assistants overseas or nonlawyers, saying the automaker is trying to chill product liability litigation.

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​​​​​​​Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court last week tackled disputes involving multibillion-dollar mergers, corporate oversight, founder control, SPAC litigation, commercial contracts and attorney fees.

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