Google Wants Justices To Pause Petition Pending Epic Deal

By Matthew Perlman

Google asked the U.S. Supreme Court to put its petition seeking review of the antitrust case from Epic Games over the distribution of apps on Android devices on hold while the district court considers a potential settlement.

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USPTO Gets Earful On Plan To Restrict Patent Reviews

By Ryan Davis and Theresa Schliep

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's proposed new rules to limit America Invents Act patent reviews have generated scores of forceful comments, with supporters saying the proposal will curb redundant challenges and opponents arguing it would bar legitimate reviews and exceed the office's power.

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Hagens Berman Must Give Apple, Amazon Ethics Pros Docs

By Bryan Koenig

Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP must give Apple and Amazon all the communications it shared with outside ethics experts as the firm fought allegations that it hid a consumer plaintiff's desire to exit an antitrust case, a Washington federal judge has ruled.

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OpenAI Can't Scrap Injunction In TM Suit Over 'IO' Name

By Gina Kim

OpenAI can't undo an injunction won by IYO Inc. that temporarily blocked it from using the "IO" trademark in certain circumstances involving acquired competitor IO Products, after the Ninth Circuit concluded on Wednesday that the parties' marks only differ by one letter and sell similar AI-related products.

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Judge Rejects X's Early Attempt To Block Minn. Deepfake Law

By Elliot Weld

A Minnesota federal judge has denied X Corp.'s request for a favorable ruling in its challenge to a Minnesota state law curtailing the dissemination of "deepfakes" aimed at influencing elections, saying X had not shown that it could be harmed by the law in a manner that would give it standing to block it.

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Meta Accused Of Stealing Swedish Label's Music A 2nd Time

By Gina Kim

A Swedish music label has once again accused Meta of copyright infringement, saying the social media giant has not stopped encouraging users to insert its recordings into Reels and other videos on Facebook and Instagram without proper licensing since its first suit was filed. 

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State AI Law Ban Cut From Defense Bill As Fight Continues

By Allison Grande

The renewed push to block states from enacting laws to regulate emerging artificial intelligence technologies is unlikely to make it into a defense funding bill expected to pass by the end of the year, the House's second highest-ranking Republican has confirmed, although he stressed that the proposal was still active and could resurface elsewhere. 

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House Panel OKs Shot Clocks On Broadband Project Reviews

By Christopher Cole

House Republicans pushed a contentious bill through committee Wednesday to require state and local governments to act within certain timeframes on applications for new broadband projects, or the permits would be deemed granted regardless.

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FCC OKs $1B UScellular Deal After AT&T Drops DEI Policies

By Nadia Dreid

AT&T got the Federal Communications Commission's approval for its $1 billion UScellular deal Wednesday, following in the wake of rivals Verizon and T-Mobile and becoming the latest of the big three mobile carriers to agree to do away with its diversity, equity and inclusion policies.

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FCC Jettisons More Than 2,000 'Dormant' Dockets

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission Wednesday closed out more than 2,000 pending dockets involving regulatory issues that FCC officials say have long since gone by the wayside.

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Dish Fights Clawback Of Millions In Broadband Subsidies

By Nadia Dreid

Dish Network says the private entity that administers many of the FCC's subsidy programs is trying to "shirk its own responsibilities to verify eligibility" for those programs and force telecoms to return millions of dollars they used to provide service to people previously deemed eligible.

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Brief

FCC Won't Extend COVID-Era Lifeline Rule Waiver

By Nadia Dreid

The Federal Communications Commission has finally decided for good whether a COVID-era waiver of a Lifeline program rule ended on the last day of April in 2021 or the first day of May, concluding Wednesday it does not have to pay out an extra month of benefits.

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Fed. Circ. Backs Axed Claims In Heart Rate Monitor Patent

By Adam Lidgett

The Federal Circuit on Wednesday upheld a Utah federal court's decision that claims in a wireless heart rate monitor patent owned by Finnish sports tech company Polar Electro Oy were invalid under the U.S. Supreme Court's Alice test.

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3rd Circ. Suggests COVID Loan Law Vexed By 'Vagueness'

By Carla Baranauckas

The Third Circuit on Wednesday flagged ambiguities in the federal law governing pandemic relief for businesses in the case of an IT services company seeking forgiveness of a $7.2 million loan for payroll costs, with one judge suggesting the "vagueness and confusion" resulted from hasty policymaking during the COVID-19 emergency.

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Mich. Judge Tosses Crypto Cos' $6.8M Travelers Fire Suit

By Danielle Ferguson

A Michigan federal judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit from two cryptocurrency mining companies that alleged Travelers Insurance Co. and Northfield Insurance Co. exacerbated their building's fire loss through the claim handling process, finding the issues in this case were fully litigated in a separate action in which the insurance policy was deemed void.

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ITC Judge Finds Innoscience Infringes 1 Of 2 Infineon Patents

By Adam Lidgett

A U.S. International Trade Commission judge has found that China-based chipmaker Innoscience infringed upon a patent owned by semiconductor manufacturer Infineon Technologies, though Innoscience says the finding doesn't block it from selling its gallium nitride technology products.

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Binance User Gets New Shot At Suit Over 1,400 Bitcoin Theft

By Katryna Perera

A Florida state appeals court Wednesday reversed the dismissal of a suit brought against Binance by a Dubai resident claiming the cryptocurrency exchange failed to take adequate steps to stop the theft of 1,400 bitcoin in a phishing scam.

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Citibank Says Developer Can't Blame It For $45M Wire Scam

By Joyce Hanson

Citibank NA has urged a California federal judge to toss a suit by a real estate developer who accidentally wired $45 million in home-purchase funds to a fraudster after receiving spoofed escrow emails.

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Kevin O'Leary, Company Execs Fight Patent Forgery Suit

By Rachel Konieczny

A livestock technology company and several of its executives and investors, including Kevin O'Leary of "Shark Tank," have asked a Colorado federal judge to throw out the lawsuit against them by the company's founder, who claims the defendants stole her company and intellectual property.

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Brief

Fanatics, NFT Co. Strike Deal To Settle Ex-Exec's FMLA Suit

By Vin Gurrieri

Fanatics and a digital collectibles company struck a settlement with a former executive to end a suit alleging he was fired for seeking parental leave, according to a New York federal court order Wednesday.

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2 Firms Advise As Marvell Inks Up To $5.5B Celestial AI Deal

By Al Barbarino

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC and Latham & Watkins LLP are advising Marvell Technology and Celestial AI, respectively, on an up to $5.5 billion deal that will expand Marvell's position in high-speed connectivity for artificial intelligence data centers.

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Ares Plugs $350M Into MGT, Valuing Biz At $1.25B

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Technology and advisory solutions firm MGT on Wednesday announced that it secured a $350 million investment from private equity giant Ares Management Corp., sending the company's valuation soaring to $1.25 billion.

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Home Contractor Platform Changes Hands In $190M Deal

By Nate Beck

California technology company QuinStreet Inc. said Wednesday it will pay a total of $190 million to acquire HomeBuddy, a homeowner-focused digital marketplace for home improvement contractors.

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Judge To OK $16.5M 23andMe Insurer Buyback Deal In Ch. 11

By Emily Lever

A Missouri bankruptcy judge Wednesday agreed to approve a $16.5 million settlement between genetic testing company 23andMe and its insurers, in which the carriers proposed to buy back the unused portion of their cyber coverage.

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Fee Dispute Stalls Rhodium Ch. 11 Plan

By Ben Zigterman

Bitcoin miner Rhodium Encore's confirmation hearing will extend to a second day after a dispute over counsel fees for Lehotsky Keller Cohn LLP's work as special litigation counsel remained unresolved.

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Calif. Privacy Agency Hits Marketer For Broker Registry Lapse

By Allison Grande

A Nevada-based marketing firm that builds custom audience lists for fitness and wellness brands has become the latest target of the California Privacy Protection Agency's efforts to police data brokers, with state officials announcing Wednesday the company had agreed to pay a $56,600 penalty for failing to register as a data broker.

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FTC Focus: Amazon's $2.5B Pact Broadens Regulatory Span

Amazon's $2.5 billion deal with the Federal Trade Commission offers takeaways for counsel managing risk across both consumer protection and competition portfolios, including that design strategies once evaluated solely for conversion may now be scrutinized for their competitive effects, say attorneys at Proskauer.

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How Large Patent Damages Awards Actually Play Out

Most large verdicts in patent infringement cases are often overturned or reduced on appeal, implying that the Federal Circuit is serving its intended purpose of correcting outlier outcomes, and that the figures that catch headlines and dominate policy debates may misrepresent economic realities, says Bowman Heiden at Berkeley School of Law.

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State, Federal Incentives Heat Up Geothermal Projects

Geothermal energy can now benefit from dramatically accelerated permitting for development on federal land as well as state-level renewable energy portfolio standards — but operating in the complex legal framework surrounding geothermal projects requires successful navigation of complex water rights and environmental regulations, say attorneys at Holland & Hart.

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Minn. Financial Abuse Law Should Prompt Operational Review

A new Minnesota law targeting the financial exploitation of vulnerable adults with an order-for-protection mechanism will affect multiple functions across banking organizations, and in the time remaining in 2025, banks should take action to update any needed workflow and documentation protocols, say attorneys at Winthrop & Weinstine.

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Series

Law School's Missed Lessons: Practicing Client-Led Litigation

New litigators can better help their corporate clients achieve their overall objectives when they move beyond simply fighting for legal victory to a client-led approach that resolves the legal dispute while balancing the company's competing out-of-court priorities, says Chelsea Ireland at Cohen Ziffer.

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Bonus Spotlight

High Billers At McKool Smith To Pocket Extra Bonus Money

By Tracey Read

McKool Smith is the latest BigLaw firm to announce extra cash for attorneys who went above and beyond with billable hours in 2025, according to an internal memo obtained by Law360 Pulse.

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Wilson Sonsini To Switch Leaders For 1st Time Since 2012

By Andrea Keckley

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC announced plans for its first top leadership transition in more than a decade on Wednesday, tapping a Palo Alto, California-based litigator and a New York-based corporate lawyer to begin co-leading the firm at the start of next August.

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Ex-Bernstein Litowitz Atty Starts Firm After Contentious Exit

By Adrian Cruz

A former Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP partner known for handling high-profile stockholder cases has led the launch of a boutique focused on corporate disputes and securities litigation after the firm says he was fired for misconduct.

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LA Atty Accused Of Using AI 'Hallucinations' Sanctioned

By Rae Ann Varona

A California state appeals court has ordered an attorney accused of including artificial intelligence "hallucinations" in a client's opening brief to pay $7,500 to the court, saying in a published opinion that the attorney is subject to sanctions for inaccuracies, regardless of whether they were the result of AI.

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FTC Backs Nixing ABA Role As 'Gatekeeper' For Texas Bar

By Lynn LaRowe

The Federal Trade Commission has endorsed a proposal from the Texas Supreme Court to abandon a rule requiring graduation from a law school approved by the American Bar Association for admittance to the state bar, saying the organization's "accreditation monopoly" hurts competition and consumers.

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Virginia Bar Declines To Investigate Interim US Atty Halligan

By Ryan Boysen

The Virginia State Bar has declined to investigate whether Lindsey Halligan should face discipline over her scandal-plagued tenure as the interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, just days after a federal judge ruled she was not properly appointed to that post.

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Trump Would Prefer Jack Smith Testify In Public

By Courtney Bublé

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, subpoenaed former counsel Jack Smith on Tuesday for a closed-door deposition, to which President Donald Trump said he would rather see a public testimony.

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1st Circ. Doubts Ex-BigLaw Atty's Campaign Finance Appeal

By Chris Villani

The First Circuit on Wednesday expressed misgivings about a former BigLaw attorney's argument that a jury that convicted him of a campaign finance scheme during a failed run for Congress should have been required to unanimously find that each specific transaction was illegal.

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Archegos Founder Says Davis Polk Job Offer Taints Restitution

By Lauren Berg

Archegos founder Bill Hwang, who is serving an 18-year sentence for defrauding banks out of billions of dollars in loans used to manipulate the market, asked to vacate his restitution order because the presiding judge's clerk accepted a job with Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, which represents victim-bank Morgan Stanley.

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Troutman Atty Is 3rd NC Federal Judge Confirmed This Week

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate voted 57-41 on Wednesday to confirm Matthew Orso, a partner at Troutman Pepper Locke LLP, to the Western District of North Carolina as a federal district judge.

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Fed. Circ. Pushes DC Circ. Not To Rethink Newman Decision

By Adam Lidgett

The Federal Circuit has urged the D.C. Circuit to ignore Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman's request to rehear a decision upholding the dismissal of her suit against the colleagues who suspended her, saying the judiciary has the right to police its own internal matters.

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