Disney, Cameron Get 'Avatar' Sequels IP Suit Nixed, For Now

By Rae Ann Varona

A California federal judge Thursday tossed an author's suit accusing the Walt Disney Co., film director James Cameron and Cameron's production company of ripping off the author's work to create "Avatar" movie sequels, saying any substantial similarities between the works should be better fleshed out should the writer amend his complaint again.

1 document attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Netflix Sued For $105M For 'Mishandling' Stolen Nic Cage Film

By Rae Ann Varona

The producer behind an unreleased World War II spy movie starring Nicolas Cage has sued Netflix for $105 million in California federal court alleging a copy of the film was stolen from Netflix's Hollywood office, while Netflix accused the law firm representing the movie's producer of trying to "extort" $165 million.

Complaint attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

DA Says Trump's NY Hush Money Conviction Must Stand

By Frank G. Runyeon

New York prosecutors told a state appellate court that President Donald Trump's 34-count felony conviction for falsifying business records is "unaffected" by the U.S. Supreme Court's watershed presidential immunity decision and should be upheld.

Brief attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

XAI Can't Unmask Jane Does In Deepfake Suit, Judge Says

By Gina Kim

A California federal judge on Thursday declined to order a group of women suing xAI Corp. over Grok-generated deepfakes of them in sexual situations to reveal their identities and allowed them to proceed pseudonymously, finding their fears of threatened harm and retaliation from having to disclose their real names were reasonable.

Order attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Minn. Social Media Mandate Muzzles Sites, Says Tech Group

By Jonathan Capriel

Tech trade group NetChoice is urging a federal court to reject Minnesota's bid to keep alive its new law requiring social media companies to display mental health warning labels at the login page, arguing the statute forces these companies to become "mouthpieces" for the state, violating the First Amendment.

Memorandum attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Instagram Could Easily Disrupt User Permascrolling, Jury Told

By Cara Salvatore

A Silicon Valley tech guru and theorist testified on Thursday in Tennessee's trial against Meta that, for him, it took "less than 10 lines of code" to create a time delay that broke the grip of a hard-to-resist design feature he released to the world in 2006, infinite scroll.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Valve Scores Quick Appeal In Gamer Arbitration Clause Fight

By Rachel Riley

A Seattle federal judge on Thursday granted Valve Corp.'s bid for a quick appeal of an order declining to halt antitrust arbitrations brought by hundreds of individual gamers, pausing the litigation for the video game developer to seek the Ninth Circuit's input on whether the arbitrations can proceed under its subscriber terms.  

Order attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

DOJ Wants Rethink On Apple's Peek Into Feds' Phone-Buying

By Bryan Koenig

The U.S. Department of Justice has asked a special master to rethink his New Jersey federal court mandate giving Apple a look into how the Pentagon, CIA, State Department and other federal agencies purchase smartphones, arguing that the retired federal judge applied the wrong legal standard in the antitrust case.

Motion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

T-Mobile Says WCO Spectrum Can't Fix Antitrust Claims

By Matthew Perlman

T-Mobile has told a California federal court that WCO Spectrum has admitted it does not have what it needs to state a viable antitrust counterclaim in the mobile carrier's case accusing the spectrum-buying company of racketeering.

1 document attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Europe Soccer Group To Boycott FIFA Over Investor Sale Plan

By David Steele

The soccer federation representing 55 European countries announced Thursday that it will boycott World Cup competition in protest of FIFA's plan to sell billions of dollars in shares of the sport's premier international tournament to private investors.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Ease Broadband Buildout To Fuel AI Boom, Lawmakers Urged

By Christopher Cole

Lawmakers must put an end to delays in broadband deployment and renew a federal cybersecurity statute if they hope to feed the artificial intelligence boom while curtailing safety concerns, U.S. senators heard Thursday.

4 documents attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

FCC Says EchoStar Can't Use Trust Fund To Pay Itself

By Nadia Dreid

The Federal Communications Commission is not pleased that EchoStar is trying to convince a bankruptcy court to let it use a trust fund created to pay contractors to build its now-abandoned 5G network to instead pay a loan one EchoStar subsidiary made to another.

1 document attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

AT&T's Copper Network Retirement Needs Review, FCC Told

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

The Communications Workers of America, rural counties in California and a consumer advocacy group for affordable utilities urged the Federal Communications Commission to reverse its automatic approval of AT&T's request to retire copper-line networks in California, saying that significant public interest concerns have to be addressed first.

1 document attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Consider 4.4GHz Band To Expand 5G, 6G, Report Says

By Nadia Dreid

As the federal government eyes a pair of bands for the expansion of 5G and 6G, a spectrum researcher has released a report saying that the 4.4 gigahertz band is the best option.

Report attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Brief

FCC Official Calls E-Rate Review 'Long Overdue'

By Christopher Cole

A top official at the Federal Communications Commission said the agency's review of the E-Rate fund for schools and libraries will be a much-needed reexamination of a 30-year-old telecom program.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Series

Teaching SEC Investigations Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Instructing a law school course on U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigations has made me a more thoughtful, deliberate practitioner because it requires me to continually reassess and challenge what I know about securities law enforcement, how I know it and how best to explain it, says David Chase at Miami Law.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Law360 Names 2026's Top Attorneys Under 40

Law360 is pleased to announce the Rising Stars of 2026, our list of more than 160 attorneys under 40 whose legal accomplishments belie their age.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

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.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Andrea Keckley

Two Texas personal injury firms lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions for their work securing a $604 million verdict against a freight broker and logistics company for their roles in a deadly 2021 highway collision.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Goldstein Launches Appeal Of Tax, Mortgage Fraud Case

By Jared Foretek

Imprisoned SCOTUSblog founder Thomas Goldstein is formally launching a Fourth Circuit appeal challenging his 12 convictions for tax and mortgage fraud, as well as his six-year prison sentence and the $3.1 million restitution judgment against him, according to a new filing from his attorneys.

Motion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Judges Rip DHS GC's 'Worst' Posts As Intimidation Campaign

By Jake Maher

Sitting federal judges on Friday blasted the general counsel of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for "painting a target" on judges' backs in a recent series of social media posts attacking judges who ruled against the Trump administration in immigration cases and called on him to take them down.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

NY Public Defense Org. Denies Union's ULP Claims

By Andrea Keckley

The Neighborhood Defender Services of Harlem's leadership on Friday denied allegations from the union representing its more than 100 employees that it has offered unlawful incentives to break its ongoing strike.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Laura Stewart Liberty

The past week in London has seen George Michael's estate bring an intellectual property claim against the late star's friend over footage shared online, collapsed law firm Axiom Ince sue the U.K. branch of State Bank of India and Ryanair face a group claim from 262 people. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Hub Hires: Pierson Ferdinand, Biogen, FisherBroyles

By Chris Villani

While not as sizzling as the temperatures or the Red Sox, the Boston legal market remained hot through the month of July, with Hogan Lovells Cadwalader adding a mergers and acquisitions partner, Pierson Ferdinand snagging a veteran litigator and Foley & Lardner hiring a finance attorney.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

There has been a wave of cases alleging employers and their insurance brokers violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, and experts say this marks an increasing litigation trend. In the meantime, the American Bar Association is eyeing the elimination of the first of multiple diversity-related law school standards. These are among the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »