Paramount Gets Viewers' Deal Challenge Tossed Again

By Matthew Perlman

A California federal court has tossed a case from consumers challenging Paramount's merger with Skydance and completed purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery, finding for a second time that the case fails to properly allege any harm from the deals.

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9th Circ. Affirms Verdict Clearing Shyamalan Of Infringement

By Elliot Weld

The Ninth Circuit on Thursday upheld a jury's decision clearing Apple Inc. and filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan of allegations that they stole an independent filmmaker's work for the Apple TV show "Servant," rejecting arguments of improper jury instructions.

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Getty Images Gets $85M DIP As Ch. 11 Case Kicks Off

By Alex Wittenberg

Getty Images secured a Delaware bankruptcy judge's approval on Thursday to borrow $85 million in Chapter 11 financing from a Koch family affiliate, funds it will direct to senior lenders and use to support its business during the bankruptcy case.

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Elsevier Beats Defamation Suit Over Air Purifier Article

By Hayley Fowler

An indoor air quality company failed to prove academic publisher Elsevier acted with malice in printing an article questioning the effectiveness of its air purification technology sufficient to sustain a claim for defamation, a North Carolina federal judge ruled Thursday.

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Ex-Eminem Employee Cops To Selling Unreleased Music

By Elliot Weld

A former employee of Detroit rapper Eminem pled guilty Thursday to taking and selling music the artist had not released for about $50,000.

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Music Co. Accuses Anthropic Of Training Claude On Catalog

By Elliot Weld

A music holdings company has alleged that Anthropic trained its large language model Claude on copyrighted music by pirating songs from the internet and removing their copyright management information.

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Conn. Firm Botched Suit Over Keith Haring Art, Ex-Client Says

By Aaron Keller

Shuttered Connecticut law firm Whitman Breed Abbott & Morgan LLC and one of its former attorneys have been accused of professional negligence by a client being asked to pay $805,000 in legal fees to a gallery he sued in 2023 for allegedly selling a poorly documented Keith Haring drawing.

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'Deb' Producers Accuse Rebel Wilson Of Evidence Destruction

By Craig Clough

A California judge indicated Thursday that he is unlikely to grant the producers of the film "The Deb" terminating sanctions in their defamation suit against its director Rebel Wilson over allegations she repeatedly lied under oath and destroyed evidence, though he appeared open to considering lesser relief.

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Takeaways From Meta's $25B Data Privacy Trial Loss

By Cara Salvatore

As Meta Platforms Inc. digests Wednesday's $25 billion trial bill for repeatedly misrepresenting its privacy practices to New Mexicans, observers say there are lessons to take away — beyond the fact that it's believed to be the largest commercial verdict in nominal dollars in U.S. history.

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States Ask DC Circ. To Ban Google From Paying To Be Default

By Nadia Dreid

If the D.C. Circuit doesn't ban Google from paying to be the default search engine on people's cellphones after it was found to have illegally maintained a monopoly, state enforcers say the tech titan will remain "free to buy tomorrow's defaults with the fruits of yesterday's anticompetitive conduct."

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Live Nation Details Woodward, Trump Role In DOJ Deal

By Bryan Koenig

Live Nation Entertainment Inc. has offered new details on the involvement of the White House and senior Justice Department officials in its controversial midtrial settlement Democrats have cast as corrupt, confirming that Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr.'s office was also involved.

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Fla. College Settles Ex-Employee's Suit Over Kirk Posts

By Patrick Hoff

Trustees at a Florida college have agreed to settle a former employee's lawsuit alleging she was unlawfully fired for posting on social media about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, according to a filing in federal court.

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OneTaste's Fraud Claim Against Ex-Worker Faces Questioning

By Rae Ann Varona

A California state judge considering OneTaste's claim that a former employee fraudulently induced it into settling her hostile work environment accusations pressed the sexual wellness company Thursday on whether it lodged its claim too late.

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Ex-Brooklyn Nets Exec Says Parental Leave Got Him Fired

By MJ Koo

A former Brooklyn Nets cybersecurity executive has sued the team and his former boss in New York federal court, saying he was fired 16 days after returning from parental leave following the birth of his son.

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NBA Bettor Pleads Out, Rozier And Pal Seek Separate Trials

By Stewart Bishop

A Missouri gambler accused of conspiring to rig prop bets and to rip off unsuspecting players in mafia-backed poker games with basketball luminaries admitted guilt in both cases Thursday, while former Miami Heat player Terry Rozier and his childhood friend and co-defendant are seeking separate trials in the betting action.

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2 Firms To Lead Roblox Age-Verification Investor Action

By Mike Curley

A California federal judge has appointed Johnson Van Kwawegen LLP and Grant & Eisenhofer PA as co-lead counsel of a consolidated proposed class action filed by investors who allege they lost $48 million to a stock drop driven by Roblox Corp.'s age verification system.

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Ex-FCC Leaders Slam Carr Poll Threats

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

A bipartisan group of former high-ranking Federal Communications Commission officials has released a statement condemning FCC Chair Brendan Carr's recent comments to broadcasters over their reporting on political polls.

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FCC Approves Starlink's Bid To Take Over Tristar Licenses

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

The Federal Communications Commission has approved SpaceX's Starlink satellite group's bid to take over three licenses held by a subsidiary of Tristar License Group to expand Starlink's direct-to-device service.

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Brief

FCC Exempts Specific Routers, Robots From Covered List

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

The Federal Communications Commission has granted conditional approval for specific routers and advanced robotic devices that will exempt them from the Covered List, which restricts foreign-made devices for national security reasons.

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Brief

FCC Bans 2 Foreign Devices Containing Surveillance Chips

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday blocked two devices from the U.S. market that the agency says are embedded with surveillance chips made by a Huawei subsidiary.

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X Wins Reversal Of $8.3M Boulder Office Rent Judgment

By Zach Dupont

A Colorado Court of Appeals panel unanimously reversed an $8.3 million judgment against social media company X Corp. in favor of its former landlord after the panel found Thursday that the lower court incorrectly interpreted a contract provision outlining the distribution of a nearly $5.8 million tenant improvement allowance.

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AG Watch: Minnesota Takes Action To Secure Child Safety

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has built one of the most aggressive and structurally coherent child protection enforcement programs in the country, targeting consumer-facing sectors that his office has concluded prey on minors, such as tobacco and nicotine, social media platforms, and artificial intelligence, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

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Series

Being In The Peace Corps Made Me A Better Lawyer

When I served in the Peace Corps, the people of the West African village where I was stationed helped me acclimate to my new surroundings and enabled me to develop problem-solving, teamwork and empathy skills that have bolstered my legal practice far beyond the ability to offer technical advice, says Brian Bewley at McGuireWoods.

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New Weil-Willkie Domains Add To Merger Speculation

By Marialuisa Taddia

Two domain names that combine the names of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP and Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP have been registered, fueling speculation about a potential merger between the two prominent Wall Street law firms.

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Bonus Spotlight

Hueston Hennigan Bumps Clerkship Bonus To $205K

By Lynn LaRowe

Trial boutique Hueston Hennigan is offering a $205,000 bonus to lawyers who have completed one or more federal clerkships, the firm confirmed Thursday.

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'Grave Errors': 5th Circ. Boots Judge After AI 'Botch Job'

By Jeff Overley

A Mississippi federal judge's careless use of artificial intelligence tools led to "sloppy edicts" riddled with "falsehoods and fabrications," the Fifth Circuit held in a Thursday night opinion removing the judge from litigation over an anti-DEI law in the Magnolia State because of his "extraordinarily grave errors."

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Texas Judge Probe Shows Lack Of Mental Impairment Process

By Jack Karp

Fifth Circuit officials have done a reasonable job of handling a rare situation involving a Texas federal judge who appears to be undergoing a mental health crisis, but the episode highlights that a more standardized way of dealing with federal judges experiencing mental impairment needs to be established, experts and scholars say.

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Jackson Walker Hits Back At Fee Clawback Sanction Move

By Vince Sullivan

Law firm Jackson Walker said Wednesday that it should not be sanctioned for failing to bring to a Texas federal judge's attention additional cases involving an undisclosed romantic relationship between a bankruptcy judge and one of its attorneys because the U.S. Trustee already investigated those cases and didn't take action.

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GOP Reps. Seek Probe Of Fla. Judge's Sanctions Order

By Courtney Bublé

Top Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee asked the Judicial Conference Thursday to investigate a Florida federal judge for potential misconduct with an order she issued in the case involving the leak of President Donald Trump's tax returns.

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JPMorgan, Ex-Frank Execs Clash Over $2.1M In Legal Fees

By Jarek Rutz

JPMorgan Chase & Co. faced renewed demands in the Delaware Chancery Court on Thursday to pay about $2.1 million in withheld legal fees for convicted Frank founder Charlie Javice and former executive Olivier Amar, as their lawyers accused the bank of using repeated billing objections to delay funding for their criminal defenses.

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Roundup MDL Atty Fund 'Cries Out' For Review, 9th Circ. Told

By Dorothy Atkins

Plaintiffs' firms urged the Ninth Circuit to reverse a ruling Thursday requiring them to contribute 8% of their recovery fees to a common benefit fund in multidistrict litigation over Monsanto's Roundup weed killer, arguing the judge ignored a special master's recommendation and the issue "cries out for some appellate supervision."

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