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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'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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6th Circ. Weighs Ford's $13M Trade Secrets Verdict

By Melanie Dorsey

A panel of the Sixth Circuit on Thursday questioned whether Ford should have to surrender $13.2 million in profits from a vehicle interface module after a jury found the automaker misappropriated a supplier's trade secrets, pressing attorneys on whether the award improperly included profits generated by features unrelated to the disputed technology.

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Anthropic Can't Get 'Claude Mythos' TMs Yet, USPTO Says

By Theresa Schliep

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued initial denials of Anthropic PBC's request to register the term "Claude Mythos" for its artificial intelligence products, preliminarily finding that the term would likely be confused with an existing registration.

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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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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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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

EU, Canada Aim To Finalize Digital Trade Deal

By Dylan Moroses

Canada and the European Union are nearing conclusion of a digital trade agreement following recent efforts by both sides to strengthen economic ties, the bloc's top trade official said Thursday.

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Full 9th Circ. Won't Review Surgical Robot Antitrust Fight

By Gina Kim

The full Ninth Circuit declined to reconsider an appellate panel's recent decision reviving a surgical repair company's antitrust suit alleging Intuitive Surgical blocked third parties from supplying parts for its popular da Vinci surgery robot, according to an order issued Thursday.

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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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Fed. Circ. Won't Overrule Sending IP Cases From Va. To Ill.

By Adam Lidgett

The Federal Circuit on Thursday said it won't send back to Virginia federal court a trio of suits accusing fleet vehicle telematics company Xirgo Technologies of infringing more than a dozen patents, keeping the cases in Illinois federal court.

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Voltage Can't Keep Shoals ITC Appeal Alive At Fed. Circ.

By Theresa Schliep

The Federal Circuit on Thursday allowed Shoals Technologies Group LLC to drop its appeal of a U.S. International Trade Commission decision that Voltage LLC didn't infringe its solar power patent after prevailing in another case, even though Voltage opposed the dismissal request.

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Transpo Tracker: CH Robinson Verdict, Tesla Class Action

By Linda Chiem

In our latest Law360 Transportation Tracker, a Dallas County judge confirmed a blockbuster $604 million verdict against freight broker C.H. Robinson, while the Ninth Circuit dismantled a certified class action accusing Tesla of misleading consumers about its cars' self-driving capabilities.

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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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Zimmer Biomet Can't Slip Sales Rep Kickback Claims

By Carolyn Muyskens

A Massachusetts federal judge has ruled that Zimmer Biomet can't avoid a whistleblower's claims that commissions it paid to independent contractors to sell orthopedic products to surgeons were unlawful kickbacks.

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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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Fontainebleau Wins Access To Some Of Rabbi's AI Chats

By Andrea Keckley

A Florida magistrate judge ruled Wednesday that Miami Beach hotel Fontainebleau may obtain some of rabbi and media personality Shmuley Boteach's AI chats about the five-star hotel and its personnel, saying they could help determine punitive damages in the defamation suit against him by showing whether he intended to harm the company.

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10x Genomics Ends Patent Fight Against Parse In Delaware

By Adam Lidgett

10x Genomics has told a Delaware federal judge it will no longer pursue a patent case against Parse Biosciences Inc. over methods of analyzing genetic information, a move following the Federal Circuit's refusal to revive the remaining three patents-at-issue.

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Investors Say AST Hid Failures, Made $277M In Insider Sales

By Nadia Dreid

AST SpaceMobile has been hit with a lawsuit accusing the satellite designer and manufacturer of misleading shareholders about the company's prospects amid mounting competition from Starlink, resulting in a drop in the stock's value.

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Skechers Accused Of Using Tariffs To Shortchange Investors

By Jessica Corso

Skechers USA Inc. is facing a lawsuit in California federal court accusing it of overstating the impact that tariffs would have on its business in order to defraud investors into agreeing to a $9.4 billion take-private transaction.

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2 Ex-Siemens VPs Claim Layoff Targeted Older Execs

By George Woolston

Two former vice presidents for Siemens Financial Services Inc. alleged in New Jersey state court that the company used a May 2026 reduction in force as pretext to get rid of older employees and those with serious medical conditions in violation of the state's discrimination law.

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Deals Rumor Mill

PE Giants In Talks With NFL As Nscale Gets Heat Over IPO

By Al Barbarino

Blackstone and Apollo are in talks with the NFL about potential investment in teams, Nscale is working on a potential $45 billion deal to provide Anthropic with compute power as the data center developer faces questions over its lofty IPO valuation, and private equity-backed financial technology company IntraFi could be up for sale valued at more than $10 billion. 

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Brief

Southwest Pilots Oppose Spirit's $10M Ch. 11 Data Sale

By Vince Sullivan

A union representing pilots at Southwest Airlines objected late Wednesday to the proposed $10 million sale of employee data by bankrupt airline Spirit Aviation, saying the deal would adversely affect flight crews by sharing training and employment information.

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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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Notice Flaws Sink Malawi Bid To Enforce $8.6M Award

By Tom Lotshaw

A New Jersey federal judge refused to confirm an $8.6 million arbitral award a Malawi telecommunications regulator secured against Precisely Software Inc. after finding that it failed to do enough to notify the U.S. company of the arbitration proceedings.

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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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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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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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DLA Piper Hires Shook Hardy Product Liability Partner

By Jack Rodgers

DLA Piper has hired a former Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP product liability partner in San Francisco who has decades of experience defending companies in high-stakes disputes involving hundreds of millions of dollars.

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Wiley Adds Ex-FCC Engineer To Telecom Practice

By Jack Rodgers

Wiley Rein LLP has hired a former Federal Communications Commission senior electrical engineer, who is joining the firm as a senior engineering adviser with its telecom, media and technology practice, the firm recently announced.

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Managing Employer Risk Under Calif.'s No Robo Bosses Law

California's No Robo Bosses Act marks the state's first statutory limit on using artificial intelligence in employee discipline and termination decisions, creating exposure for employers through its corroboration and notice requirements, burden-shifting framework, and potential reach under the Private Attorneys General Act, say attorneys at Reed Smith.

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How NRC's New Rules Alter Foreign-Financed Reactor Deals

New Nuclear Regulatory Commission rules for reactor licensing open U.S. nuclear projects to foreign capital, presenting new considerations for structuring governance, diligence and approvals to secure and maintain eligibility, says J. Brin Gibson at Spencer Fane.

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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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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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