Google Defeats News Publishers' Antitrust Suit Over AI Tools

By Dorothy Atkins

A D.C. federal judge tossed Friday an antitrust suit by digital newspaper owners accusing Google of effectively operating as a monopoly through its generative artificial intelligence search features and other practices, finding that the publishers lack standing and haven't plausibly alleged Google has monopoly power in the online news market.

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Social Media Atty Sanctioned For 'Most Shameful Moment'

By Craig Clough

A California judge on Monday sanctioned an attorney for the plaintiff in a bellwether trial alleging Meta Platforms and Google's social media platforms harm children's mental health, fining him $1,100 and keeping him off the plaintiffs' steering committee for violating court rules by twice filming inside the courthouse.

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Sotomayor Rips Cert Denial In Texas Journalist's Arrest Suit

By José Luis Martínez and Spencer Brewer

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to take up a citizen journalist's suit alleging Laredo, Texas, police violated her free speech rights by arresting her for asking for undisclosed details of a suicide and vehicle crash, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor's dissent of the denial calling the decision a "grave error."

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Justices Won't Review Antitrust Counterclaims Against CoStar

By Matthew Perlman

The U.S. Supreme Court refused on Monday to review a ruling that revived antitrust counterclaims lodged against the commercial real estate platform CoStar in its case accusing a rival platform of large-scale copyright infringement.

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Justices Reject Case Alleging Google-Apple Search Pact

By Bryan Koenig

The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to review rulings from a California federal judge and the Ninth Circuit dismissing a lawsuit accusing Google of anticompetitively paying Apple not to produce its own search engine.

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Cosby Liable For '72 Sex Assault, Accuser Awarded $59M

By Rae Ann Varona

A California jury Monday awarded $59.25 million in damages, including $40 million in punitive damages, to an 84-year-old woman who accused Bill Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting her in 1972 after taking her to one of his comedy shows.

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Jurors Say Christian Songwriter Did Not Copy Liturgical Song

By Ivan Moreno

An Oregon federal jury has found that a Christian music songwriter and her publisher did not infringe the copyright of another songwriter's liturgical song, rejecting claims that the defendants copied the plaintiff's work after the Ninth Circuit said last year jurors should resolve the dispute.

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Social Media Jurors Say They Are Deadlocked On A Defendant

By Craig Clough

A California jury considering claims Meta and Google harm children's mental health through their social media platforms reported Monday that it is deadlocked as to one of the defendants, but it wasn't clear if the jury is stuck on the question of liability or on potential punitive damages.

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DOD Schools' Can't Escape Suit Over Book And Lesson Ban

By Madeline Lyskawa

The U.S. Department of Defense must face litigation seeking to restore hundreds of books and lessons on race and gender that were pulled from the DOD school system under the Trump administration after a Virginia federal judge refused to dismiss the case.

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Full Fed. Circ. Won't Save Patent Suit Over Nintendo Switch

By Theresa Schliep

The full Federal Circuit on Monday declined to take on Gamevice Inc.'s arguments that Nintendo Co. Ltd. made a "heads I win, tails I also win" argument to defeat patent infringement claims targeting its Nintendo Switch system, letting stand a panel decision siding with the Japanese video game company.

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Judge Sanctions Atlanta Media Co. For Lack Of Counsel

By Rose Krebs

A Georgia federal judge on Monday imposed sanctions on an Atlanta media company for failing to hire legal representation in a suit over alleged infringement of social media content, and also struck counterclaims lodged by the company because they were submitted without counsel.

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Fox's Bid To Detain Mexican Exec In TM Dispute Denied

By Adam Lidgett

Fox Corp. on Monday lost its bid to detain a Mexican media executive for misusing the company's sports broadcast trademarks after a New York federal judge said it was not the right move despite the executive's attempt to evade sanctions.

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NCAA Accuses DraftKings Of Infringing 'March Madness' TMs

By Elliot Weld

The National Collegiate Athletic Association has hit sports gambling company DraftKings Inc. with a trademark infringement suit in Indiana federal court claiming DraftKings has been using trademarks affiliated with the marquee "March Madness" basketball tournament.

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Meta Ends WhatsApp Security Head's Retaliation Suit For Now

By Gina Kim

A California federal judge dismissed, for now, a retaliation claim by a former Meta employee who claimed he was fired after reporting cybersecurity shortfalls concerning WhatsApp, finding the plaintiff's complaints aren't protected under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act since his cybersecurity violation reports don't relate to internal accounting controls.

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SeaWorld Nixes Bait-And-Switch Service Fee Suit, For Now

By Gina Kim

A Florida federal judge dismissed, for now, a putative class action alleging SeaWorld deceptively tacked on mandatory service fees for park admission ticket purchases, ruling Monday the suit is barred by the voluntary payment doctrine, since the plaintiff acknowledges she knowingly and voluntarily paid the fee.

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Teens Are Meta's 'Collateral Damage,' Jury Hears In Closings

By Cara Salvatore

New Mexico on Monday closed out its trial against Meta over allegedly undisclosed mental health harms, telling a jury the social media giant openly committed to "move fast and break things" but hid that minors "are the collateral damage, what's broken when Meta moved fast."

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Snap Says Texas Child Harm Suit Would Limit DHS, FDA Work

By José Luis Martínez

Snap Inc. has moved Texas' lawsuit over Snapchat's alleged harms to minors into federal court, arguing that the case targets conduct tied to its work with federal agencies to deliver public health and safety messaging to teens.

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Google Can't Escape Mobile Search Antitrust Case

By Matthew Perlman

A Texas federal court has refused to dismiss a case from Branch Metrics, accusing Google of blocking competition from its Android search product, after finding the company does not have to make a general search engine to have standing for its antitrust claims.

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2nd Circ. Cautious About Unsealing Ex-Twitter Exec's Award

By Caroline Simson

The Second Circuit appeared uncomfortable Monday with the New York Times' argument that a confidentiality agreement between two parties to an arbitration might not outweigh the public's right to view court records, as the paper looks to unseal an arbitral award issued to a former Twitter executive.

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SEC Must Give Video Of Elon Musk Interview To Oscar Winner

By Rae Ann Varona

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission must release a video interview of Elon Musk from its civil fraud investigation of the billionaire to a film company led by Oscar-winner Alex Gibney, a D.C. federal judge ruled Monday, saying the SEC already has publicized the interview's contents through a transcript.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court's docket this past week featured high-stakes disputes involving major consumer brands, a reinstated video game executive, revived noncompete and compensation claims and fresh allegations of corporate misconduct in the healthcare sector.

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FCC Urges Justices To Reject Repeal Of Penalty Power

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to keep the agency's monetary penalty powers intact, saying the agency's current practice does not deny targets of fines their right to a jury trial and is not binding until a court orders payment.

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DC Circ. Told It Must Put A Stop On Nexstar-Tegna Merger

By Nadia Dreid

The Federal Communications Commission broke the law when it waived the 39% ownership cap that limits broadcasters to a certain share of the national market in order to approve Nexstar's $6.2 billion acquisition of Tegna, according to two new appeals.

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Brief

FCC Adds Foreign Routers To Nat'l Security Risk List

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission on Monday added foreign-made routers to a list of consumer electronics gear that cannot be sold on the U.S. market without specific authorization.

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Musk Escapes Claim He Implied Jewish Student Was Neo-Nazi

By Mike Curley

A Texas appeals court has freed Elon Musk from a defamation suit alleging that he falsely implied a Jewish student at the University of California was a neo-Nazi involved in a fight in Portland, Oregon, saying his social media posts on the subject are protected opinion.

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Arts Groups May Post DOGE Deposition Videos, Court Says

By Lauren Berg

Scholarly groups seeking the reversal of $175 million of Trump administration cuts to grants for writers can repost online videos of depositions they took of former Department of Government Efficiency personnel, a federal judge in Manhattan ruled Monday, saying the depositions centered on "public officials acting in their official capacities."

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How 2 Decisions Reframed Witness-Centered Trials

The recent Maryland federal jury verdict in U.S. v. Goldstein and the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Villarreal v. Texas suggest that the traditional paradigm of American civil trial practice, with its emphasis on witness performance and assertive advocacy, may not reflect the ideal approach for the modern courtroom, says Joshua Robbins at Crowell & Moring.

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Labor & Employment Head Named Next Morgan Lewis Chair

By Tracey Read

Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP announced Monday that the global leader of its labor and employment practice was unanimously elected as the firm's next chair to take over for Jami McKeon, who will retire at the end of the year.

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NJ Judges Name US Atty In Apparent End To Leadership Fight

By Jake Maher

The New Jersey federal court on Monday appointed a career federal prosecutor to serve as U.S. attorney for the Garden State in what appears to end a lengthy standoff between district judges and the U.S. Department of Justice over leadership of the office.

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Immigration Judges To Challenge Their Firing At Fed. Circ.

By Britain Eakin

Attorneys for a pair of fired immigration judges said Monday they will ask the Federal Circuit to review a federal panel ruling that stripped them of civil service protections, warning of a dramatic expansion of presidential authority over the civil workforce.

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Day Pitney Fights DQ Over Ex-Justice's Time On Case He Heard

By Aaron Keller

Day Pitney LLP has apologized after former Connecticut Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard A. Robinson, now a firm partner, billed 15.7 hours for reviewing a since-remanded case he heard years ago as a justice, but the firm said the "error" should not disqualify its other lawyers from advancing the litigation. 

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Reed Smith Pushes To Continue Atty Depo In NJ Bias Suit

By Jake Maher

Reed Smith LLP is urging a New Jersey state trial court to allow it to resume its deposition of a former attorney suing it for gender discrimination years after the last deposition date in the wake of an appeals court decision widely expanding the scope of discovery.

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Ramey IP Attys, Client Must Pay $107K Fees In Bad-Faith Suit

By Emily Sawicki

A San Francisco federal judge has ordered three sanctioned attorneys, including Texas intellectual property lawyer William Ramey III, together with their client, to cover $107,389 in attorney fees stemming from three identical patent suits the lawyers launched and withdrew in 2024, also ordering Ramey to show cause why he should not face further sanctions.

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Roundup

Injury Law Roundup: Meta Atty Uses Jane Doe Plaintiff's Name

By Y. Peter Kang

A Meta attorney's gaffe and Mark Zuckerberg's testimony in the closely watched social media addiction bellwether trial, and an announced $7.25 billion settlement by Bayer over Roundup weedkiller claims, lead Law360's Injury Law Roundup.

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