The Ninth Circuit on Tuesday overturned the permanent injunction Jack Daniel's secured against VIP Products in their decade-long trademark fight, ruling in a precedential opinion that the whiskey maker failed to prove the poop-themed "Bad Spaniels" dog toy was likely to tarnish its famous marks.
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THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 2026 Law360 iOS App Law360 Android App Follow Law360 on Facebook Follow Law360 on LinkedIn Follow Law360 on Twitter

TOP NEWS

9th Circ. Tosses Jack Daniel's Win In 'Bad Spaniels' Fight

By Ivan Moreno

The Ninth Circuit on Tuesday overturned the permanent injunction Jack Daniel's secured against VIP Products in their decade-long trademark fight, ruling in a precedential opinion that the whiskey maker failed to prove the poop-themed "Bad Spaniels" dog toy was likely to tarnish its famous marks.

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Full 11th Circ. Says Fla. Can Enforce Drag Show Law

By David Minsky

A full panel of Eleventh Circuit judges on Tuesday handed a win to Florida and issued a split opinion vacating an order halting enforcement of a state law prohibiting children at drag shows, finding it wasn't unconstitutionally vague and that the lower court lacked authority to issue a broad injunction.

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TikTok Settles 3 Teen Addiction Suits Before Bellwether Trials

By Craig Clough

The company behind TikTok settled three lawsuits brought by young people alleging the social media platform caused them mental health harm, a lawyer for the plaintiffs said Tuesday, although three other social media companies are still scheduled to go to trial in Los Angeles on the claims in October.

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WWE Says It Will Pay $105M Toward Merger Suit Settlement

By Jarek Rutz

World Wrestling Entertainment expects to contribute $105 million toward a proposed settlement of Delaware shareholder litigation challenging its 2023 merger with UFC parent Endeavor, with most of that amount covered by insurance, according to a quarterly filing by parent company TKO Group Holdings Inc. filed Monday.

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Paramount-Warner Merger Challenges Get March 2027 Trial

By Lauren Berg

The California federal judge overseeing challenges of Paramount Skydance Corp.'s planned $110 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery set a trial date for March 2027.

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Paramount CEO Says Warner Challenge Is About Politics

By Matthew Perlman

Paramount Skydance Corp. CEO David Ellison said Tuesday that a challenge of the company's planned purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery from state enforcers is really about CNN and concerns that his politics could impact news coverage.

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Raskin Warns Of House Probe Into FCC Chief's ABC Actions

By Christopher Cole

Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin has signaled that congressional probes of the Federal Communications Commission could be on the way if the agency staff continues down a path of potentially revoking the licenses of eight Walt Disney Co.-owned ABC stations.

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RISING STAR

Rising Star: Covington's Mike Hill

By Adam Lidgett

Michael Hill of Covington & Burling LLP has made a career out of working for major sports organizations like the National Football League on massive distribution deals, including a package allowing NFL games to be seen on both digital and traditional television, earning him a spot among the media and entertainment law practitioners under age 40 honored by Law360 as Rising Stars.

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DEALS

Latham, Willkie Steer Bending Spoons' $1.3B Airtable Deal

By Al Barbarino

Italian technology company Bending Spoons SpA said Tuesday it has agreed to acquire U.S.-based software company Airtable in an all-cash transaction that values the target at an enterprise value of $1.285 billion.

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INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Brief

Udio Can't Shake Off Copyright Suit, But Gets It Moved To NY

By Adam Lidgett

Artificial intelligence music platform Udio has lost its bid to dismiss a proposed class action from a group of songwriters accusing it of copyright infringement, but will now face the claims in New York instead of Chicago.

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PRIVACY & CONSUMER PROTECTION

State Privacy Enforcer Consortium Adds Vermont To Ranks

By Allison Grande

Vermont's attorney general has become the 12th member of a bipartisan collective of U.S. regulators launched last year to collaborate on implementing and enforcing their states' data privacy regimes, the group announced Tuesday. 

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Wyden Presses States To Tackle Data Privacy Law Evasion

By Hailey Konnath

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., has asked a handful of state regulators to issue clear guidance on their data privacy laws and band together and go after companies that are selectively ignoring consumers' requests to opt out of the sale of their data.

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COMPETITION

Search Rival, Advocates Back DOJ Against Google In DC Circ.

By Bryan Koenig

Academics, policy experts, advocacy groups and several rivals lent their voices Tuesday to the U.S. Department of Justice's defense of its monopolization win over Google, while urging the D.C. Circuit to strengthen the "relatively modest remedies" they say leave Google able to dominate both search and artificial intelligence.

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AGs Can't Yet Get Discovery Into Live Nation's DOJ Deal

By Craig Clough

A New York federal judge on Tuesday rejected a request by some state attorneys general for discovery into the Justice Department's antitrust settlement reached midtrial with Live Nation, ruling that the scope of the request is "unclear" but the AGs can try again with "narrow and targeted requests."

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Ex-Team Owner Says PR Baseball League Can't Escape Suit

By Alex Lawson

The former owner of a Puerto Rican baseball team is looking to keep his antitrust suit against the league afloat, telling a federal judge that the league's efforts to snuff out the case are premature.

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Google Accused Of Antitrust Behavior In Ad Tech Practices

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

A rival technology company has accused Google of violating antitrust law by restricting competition in digital advertising markets.

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TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Wash. State Says FCC's High-Cost Overhaul Plan Is Flawed

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

Washington state officials are pushing back against some aspects of a plan being considered by the Federal Communications Commission to overhaul the program that helps fund broadband deployment to rural and other "high cost" areas.

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Commerce Targets Dec. Restart For Digital Equity Grants

By Nadia Dreid

The U.S. Department of Commerce should be ready to start accepting applications for the reinstated Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program, the Trump administration has told a D.C. federal judge after he struck down part of the law behind the grant as unconstitutional.

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Brief

Milwaukee Radio Licensee Resolves FCC Probe For $8K

By Christopher Cole

A Milwaukee radio station licensee reached a consent decree with the Federal Communications Commission for $8,000 to end an investigation into whether it failed to properly clear a transfer of control with the agency.

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Brief

Tech Cos. Say FCC Must Keep Unlicensed Device Framework

By Nadia Dreid

The FCC plans to vote later this week to open up 200 megahertz of unlicensed spectrum for satellite use, but Broadcom Inc., Intel Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. think there are a few ways the agency could better "emphasize" its point that the current spectrum framework shouldn't be undermined.

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TAX

Ex-Booz Allen Worker Says Sen. Scott's Tax Leak Claims Late

By Zak Kostro

A former employee of federal contractor Booz Allen Hamilton asked a Florida federal court to toss claims against him by Sen. Rick Scott over the leak of his personal tax returns, saying the suit was filed too late and in the wrong jurisdiction.

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PERSONAL INJURY & MEDICAL MALPRACTICE

Fla. High Court Won't Touch Reversal Of $213M 'Maya' Award

By Carolina Bolado

The Florida Supreme Court said Tuesday it would not hear the appeal of a decision that reversed a $213 million judgment against a Florida hospital in favor of Maya Kowalski, the subject of the Netflix documentary "Take Care of Maya."

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PEOPLE

TikTok Regulatory Chief Joins Pillsbury's New Tech Practice

By Christine DeRosa

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP announced that it has launched an emerging technology laws and litigation practice, adding TikTok's head of North America regulatory to serve as the practice's co-leader.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

CIPA Tech Tracking Suits Highlight Uncertain Legal Ground

Alexandra Samofalova at Spencer Fane discusses the state of California Invasion of Privacy Act website tracking litigation, why credible defendants choose to settle and how the businesses best positioned to face this uncertain legal landscape are the ones treating data practices as a legal compliance matter to address today.

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AI, Prediction Markets Lead Securities Developments In 2026

Securities class actions tied to artificial intelligence and the battle over prediction market regulation both raise novel questions that courts are only beginning to address and that will continue to resonate throughout the second half of the year, say attorneys at Skadden.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

Brown Rudnick Adds 34 Attys, Will Open Silicon Valley Office

By Daniel Moritz-Rabson

Brown Rudnick LLP announced on Wednesday that it had lured a 34-attorney intellectual property litigation group from Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer LLP and would be opening a Silicon Valley office with many of those lawyers.

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Law Grad Employment Remains High As BigLaw Drives Hires

By Aebra Coe

Class of 2025 law school graduates posted near-record high employment rates, with large law firms hiring more graduates than any other industry category as federal government hiring experienced a significant decline, according to new data released Wednesday.

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Analysis

These Firms Are Picking Up The Most PTAB Work

By Theresa Schliep

Intellectual property heavyweight Fish & Richardson PC remains the busiest firm in front of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, as it again secured the top spot on a list of firms with the most PTAB trials over the past three years.

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Murdaugh Loses Jury Tampering Suit Against Ex-Court Clerk

By Jake Maher

A South Carolina federal judge on Wednesday dismissed disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh's jury tampering suit against a former court clerk who was found to have interfered in his murder trial, ruling there was no connection between his alleged damages and the ex-clerk's misconduct.

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New Mexico Joins States With Alternative Atty License Paths

By Jack Karp

Law school graduates will soon be able to earn their license to practice in New Mexico by working under an attorney's supervision and demonstrating their legal skills rather than by taking the bar exam, the state's Supreme Court chief justice told Law360 Pulse on Wednesday.

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New Mexico Says Blanche, DOJ Blocked Epstein Ranch Probe

By Lauren Berg

The state of New Mexico asked a Washington, D.C., federal court Wednesday to force the U.S. Department of Justice to hand over unredacted Jeffrey Epstein investigative files, saying it needs the materials for its own investigation of alleged crimes at the late sex offender's Santa Fe County ranch.

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Texas Firm Lands $150M HHS Services Deal For Migrant Kids

By Britain Eakin

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said it has entered into a $150 million contract with a small Texas law firm to provide legal services to unaccompanied immigrant children, raising concerns from former subcontractors about the firm's experience with immigration matters.

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Simpson Thacher Witness Takes Aim At PIPE Stocks Claim

By Madison Arnold

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP wrapped up its defense Wednesday to a Florida state malpractice suit from the founder of Patriot National Inc. over the firm's handling of a private investment in public equity transaction, with a stock market expert testifying that short selling stock allowed under the deal didn't lead to the insurance services company's downfall.

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Conn. Atty To Fork Over $3,500 For AI Errors In Taco TM Beef

By Brian Steele

A Connecticut federal judge imposed a $3,500 fine on a defense attorney who submitted two motions riddled with AI-generated mistakes in a taco restaurant's trademark battle, finding that although the lawyer expressed remorse and promised to make changes to his verification process, he still showed "subjective bad faith."

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Sierra Leone Isn't Responding To Its Own Attys, Judge Told

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

A second law firm now says it is being iced out by the government of Sierra Leone in a yearslong legal battle that began over the country's dispute with a U.K.-based mining company.

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NY Legal Aid Union Averts Strike After 4 Months Of Talks

By Andrea Keckley

Another New York legal aid union has reached a deal with its organization's management, averting the possibility of a strike after its contract and those of four other unions expired at the end of June.

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CREXi Wants 9th Circ. To Undo Quinn Emanuel CoStar Row DQ

By Bryan Koenig

Commercial Real Estate Exchange Inc. doesn't want to replace Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP after a California federal judge disqualified the firm from defending a copyright infringement suit by CoStar, seeking Ninth Circuit intervention and a pause on the district court case.

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COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

AOL

Airtable

AlixPartners LLP

Alphabet Inc.

Amazon.com Inc.

American Economic Liberties Project

Amica Center for Immigrant Rights

Apple Inc.

Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp.

Brightcove Inc.

Broadcom Inc.

Brooklyn Defender Services

Burke Inc.

ByteDance Ltd.

CBS Interactive Inc.

Cable News Network Inc.

Center for Family Representation Inc.

Center for Justice

Cisco Systems Inc.

CoStar Group Inc.

DuckDuckGo Inc.

ESPN Inc.

Endeavor Operating Company LLC

Eventbrite Inc.

Expedia Group Inc.

Ferrari SpA

Ford Motor Co.

Fordham University

Gerald Holdings LLC

Google LLC

Instagram Inc.

Intel Corp.

Jack Daniel's Properties Inc.

Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital

Lex Machina Inc.

LexisNexis Legal & Professional

LinkedIn Corp.

Live Nation Entertainment Inc.

Los Angeles Times

Major League Baseball Inc.

Major League Soccer LLC

Marriott International Inc.

Meta Platforms Inc.

Microsoft Corp.

Mozilla Corp.

NBCUniversal Media LLC

NFL Enterprises LLC

Nasdaq Inc.

National Association for Law Placement Inc.

Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem

Netflix Inc.

Patriot National Inc.

Public Counsel

RELX PLC

Reddit Inc.

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.

Seattle University

Skydance Media LLC

Snap Inc.

Spectrum Management Holding Co.

StubHub Inc.

The Bronx Defenders

The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

The Walt Disney Co.

TikTok Inc.

Trump Organization Inc.

Twitter Inc.

Ultimate Fighting Championship Ltd.

United Auto Workers

United States Tennis Association Inc.

Vimeo Inc.

Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.

Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

World Wrestling Entertainment Inc.

Yelp Inc.

YouTube Inc.

ZoomInfo Technologies Inc.

LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Apollo Law LLC

Ashurst Perkins

Banker Lopez

Beasley Allen

Berchem Moses

Bernstein Litowitz

Block & Leviton

Bradley Arant

Brown Rudnick

Buell & Elligett

Burns Charest

Butler Snow LLP

Cohen & Gresser

Cohen Seglias

Colón Ramírez

Conrad & Scherer

Covington & Burling

Cozen O'Connor

Cravath Swaine

Crowell & Moring

Cuneo Gilbert

Dickinson Wright

Farmer Brownstein

Finnegan

Fish & Richardson

Fried Frank

Goodell DeVries

Griffin Humphries

Gunster Yoakley

HSF Kramer

Hill Ward Henderson

Jenner & Block

Kellogg Hansen

Kiesel Law

Kirkland & Ellis

Lanier Law Firm

Latham & Watkins

Loevy & Loevy

Messner Reeves

Milbank LLP

Morris Nichols

Munger Tolles

O'Melveny & Myers

Peifer Hanson

Pillsbury Winthrop

Potter Anderson

Proskauer Rose

Quinn Emanuel

RM Law PC

Richard A. Harpootlian PA

Robbins LLP

Ropes & Gray

Russ August

Shinder Cantor

Sidley Austin

Simonsen Sussman

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett

Skadden Arps

Spencer Fane

Stearns Weaver

Sterne Kessler

Wilkinson Stekloff

Williams & Connolly

Willkie Farr

Willson Jones

Wilson Sonsini

Winston Taylor

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

California Attorney General's Office

California Department of Justice

California Privacy Protection Agency

California Supreme Court

Commodity Futures Trading Commission

Delaware Court of Chancery

Federal Communications Commission

Florida Supreme Court

Ingham County Circuit Court

Internal Revenue Service

International Trade Commission

Los Angeles Superior Court

National Telecommunications and Information Administration

New Mexico Attorney General's Office

New Mexico Department of Justice

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit

U.S. Department of Commerce

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Department of the Treasury

U.S. District Court for the Central District of California

U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut

U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey

U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico

U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia

U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida

U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. Supreme Court

Vermont General Assembly

Washington Attorney General's Office