Analysis

Stakes Are High In Meta Bellwether Social Media Trial

By Bonnie Eslinger

A potential trillion-dollar bellwether trial slated to begin Wednesday over states' claims that Meta's social media platforms harm the mental health of children and are intentionally designed to be addictive puts a lot on the line, with one legal expert calling the fight "existential" to the social media industry.

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FedEx Urges Justices To Assess Limits On PTAB RPI Appeals

By Theresa Schliep

FedEx Corp. has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to scrutinize a Federal Circuit decision declining to review whether Qualcomm complied with real-party-in-interest requirements in petitions challenging FedEx patents, despite the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office conceding an error in the case.

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Netflix Presses 10th Circ. To Leave 'Tiger King' Ruling Intact

By Ivan Moreno

Netflix Inc. has urged the Tenth Circuit to reject a bid to revisit its ruling that the streaming giant made fair use of a 66-second funeral clip in its "Tiger King" docuseries, arguing the panel faithfully applied U.S. Supreme Court precedent and did not create special fair use protection for documentaries.

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Meta Spoiled Evidence In Facebook Scam Ad Suit, Judge Says

By Craig Clough

A California federal judge has sanctioned Meta, finding the company failed to preserve key evidence in a lawsuit by Australian businessman Andrew Forrest over fraudulent Facebook advertisements that falsely used his name and likeness to promote cryptocurrency and investment scams, saying the spoliation prejudiced Forrest's case.

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X.AI Says Suit Against Mother Of Musk's Child Should Go On

By Spencer Brewer

X.AI LLC asked a Texas federal court Monday to keep intact a lawsuit against the mother of one of Elon Musk's children, saying Ashley St. Clair violated the terms of service she signed when she sued the company in New York federal court and that the lawsuit belongs in Texas.

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Analysis

IP Notebook: 'Iceman' Logjam, Gemini Fight, Stealth Bot Bill

By Ivan Moreno

A crowded trademark race over the "Iceman" nickname and a clash over Google's efforts to expand its Gemini AI brand top this edition of Law360's look at emerging copyright and trademark issues.

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USPTO Simplifies Entry To Patent Bar For Biomedical Grads

By Theresa Schliep

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published guidance Tuesday that elevates biomedical science degrees to a list of degrees that earn a person eligibility to take the patent bar exam, saying the move will help with "expanding the admission criteria of the patent bar."

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911 Providers Push FCC For Uniform Next-Gen Framework

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

Emergency response organizations are urging the FCC to let 911 authorities drive interoperability between state systems rather than impose stand-alone federal testing mandates.

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NJ Gov. Sherrill Signs 3 Social Media Child Safety Bills

By George Woolston

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed three bills into law Tuesday aimed at protecting the state's children online and addressing the potentially harmful effects of social media on children.

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Brief

FCC Again Weighs Carrier Status For Tribal Utility

By Nadia Dreid

The Federal Communications Commission is again thinking about designating a telecom owned by the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe an eligible telecommunications carrier, which would open the door for the company to receive federal telecom aid.

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RealPage Points To 2nd Circ. Ruling In NY Pricing Law Case

By Matthew Perlman

RealPage told a New York district court that a recent Second Circuit ruling backs up its challenge to a state law prohibiting landlords from using software to set residential rental rates, because the appeals court found that a New York City law requiring delivery apps to share customer data with restaurants went too far.

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Meta Must Produce Collaborator Metadata In Addiction Suits

By Hailey Konnath

A California federal magistrate judge Monday ordered Meta Platforms Inc. to produce the "collaborator" and "viewer" metadata for dozens of trial exhibits ahead of a potential trillion dollar bellwether trial in social media addiction multidistrict litigation.

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Corteva Gets More Counterclaims Tossed In Seed Patent Suit

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

A federal judge dismissed two more counterclaims from plant breeding startup Inari Agriculture Inc. in the company's patent dispute with Corteva Agriscience LLC.

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Video Tech Co. Advances IP Suit Against Ex-Business Partner

By Ivan Moreno

A New York federal judge has allowed a video production technology company to pursue trade secret claims accusing a onetime business partner of using confidential information behind its robotic camera system to develop competing technology.

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Deal Ends Patent Case After WDTX Verdict Clearing Cisco

By Ryan Davis

Cisco Systems Inc. and prominent patent licensing company Brazos Licensing and Development have notified a Western District of Texas judge that they have agreed to dismiss a patent suit, more than a year after a jury cleared Cisco of infringing router patents.

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Domino's Franchisee, IRS Near Deal In Penalty Dispute

By Zak Kostro

A Domino's Pizza franchisee and the federal government have mostly agreed in principle on a deal to settle the franchisee's suit alleging the IRS owes it $1.6 million in tax refunds for penalties related to failures to report its employee health coverage plan, the company told a Hawaii federal magistrate judge.

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Cognizant Investor Seeks OK For $5.5M Derivative Case Deal

By Sarah Jarvis

A Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. shareholder has urged a New Jersey federal court to give its final approval for a $5.5 million deal to settle derivative claims that board members of the technology and consulting services company damaged the company and exposed it to liability by paying bribes in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

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XAI Fights OpenAI's $1 Million Trade Secrets Fee Bid

By Craig Clough

XAI on Monday urged a California federal judge to reject OpenAI's bid for more than $1 million in attorney fees, arguing its unsuccessful trade secret lawsuit was based on evidence that former employees took confidential company information and therefore was neither frivolous nor brought in bad faith.

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Google Boosts Scraping Suit, Cites IP Safeguard Agreements

By Rae Ann Varona

Google is seeking to revive its lawsuit that accuses search engine scraping company SerpApi of circumventing Google's anti-bot system to access its search results, saying in a newly filed amended complaint that SerpApi is scraping content that copyright holders licensed to Google and authorized it to safeguard.

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Microsoft Fights Gamer Suit Over 'Garden-Variety' Valve Deal

By Rachel Riley

Microsoft has urged a Washington federal judge to toss PC gamers' proposed class action accusing the tech giant of forging an illegal price-matching pact with video game developer Valve Corp., saying the plaintiffs' counsel has spent years arguing contrary claims that Valve bullied publishers into accepting its terms.

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Viks Ask Conn. Justices To End Deutsche Bank's 2nd Lawsuit

By Aaron Keller

Alexander Vik and his daughter have asked the Connecticut Supreme Court to spare them from a revived Deutsche Bank AG lawsuit that claims they disrupted a Norwegian software company's share sale designed to partially satisfy a $243 million English court judgment, arguing a lower appeals court ruling was flawed.

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Class In Photo Hack Case Seeks $61M Deal With Conn. School

By Brian Steele

A class of Connecticut students whose intimate photos were hacked by an information technology worker has offered to end a state court lawsuit against the prestigious Kent School for a $61.25 million payment.

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Microsoft Heads Accused Of Lying To Investors On AI Strategy

By Ben Adlin

Microsoft leadership routinely touted the success of the company's artificial intelligence products and its multibillion-dollar partnership with OpenAI even as the tech giant violated copyright laws to train its large language models and fell behind other AI developers, according to a shareholder stock-drop suit filed Monday in Washington federal court.

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AI Voice Co. Execs Sold $19M In Inflated Stock, Investor Says

By Ben Adlin

Top executives at voice recognition and synthesis firm SoundHound AI Inc. lied about the company's performance in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission disclosures, alleges an investor's derivative lawsuit filed Monday in California federal court, and that allowed the leaders to sell their stock holdings at "artificially inflated" prices.

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Brief

Calif. Subclass Added To Fox Rothschild Data Breach Suit

By Emily Sawicki

A California resident seeking to represent a subclass of Golden State data breach victims on Tuesday asked to add a new California Consumer Privacy Act claim to a proposed Pennsylvania class action first filed against Fox Rothschild LLP in June, after prominent ransomware group Silent Ransom Group targeted the firm.

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Nvidia, 6 Partners Plan $500B In AI Infrastructure Financing

By Isaac Monterose

Nvidia has partnered with Goldman Sachs, KKR, Apollo Management, BlackRock, Brookfield and Blackstone to spend more than $500 billion in "third-party capital" on building artificial intelligence infrastructure, the technology company announced.

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Canadian Banks Selling Moneris To Francisco For $1.4B

By Al Barbarino

Toronto-based payments company Moneris Solutions Corp. has agreed to be acquired by Francisco Partners Management LP for about CA$2 billion ($1.44 billion), as joint owners Bank of Montreal and Royal Bank of Canada look to exit the business while keeping commercial ties, the companies said Monday.

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FCC Revokes Odyssey's Drone Authorization

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

The Federal Communications Commission revoked Odyssey Robot LLC's equipment authorization for a drone and its remote controller, citing allegedly false claims by the company that its products were made in the U.S.

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FTC Tells DC Circ. No Harm From Dropped NewsGuard Probe

By Matthew Perlman

The Federal Trade Commission told the D.C. Circuit that NewsGuard has not shown irreparable harm from a subpoena that was later withdrawn, or from the terms of a merger settlement, in a case accusing the commission of retaliating against the news rating group.

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Pennsylvania AG Joins TikTok Child Harm Enforcement Blitz

By Matthew Santoni

Social media app TikTok misrepresented its safeguards and content in order to be rated suitable for children as young as 13, according to a lawsuit announced Tuesday by Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday.

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Calif. Agency Reveals 1st Privacy Action Against Data Broker

By Allison Grande

The California Privacy Protection Agency continued to expand its scrutiny of the data broker industry Tuesday, announcing a settlement with an Iowa data broker that allegedly both failed to register and violated the state's data privacy law by requiring consumers to provide unnecessary information to exercise their opt-out rights.

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SEC, CFTC Sue Goliath Over $400M Crypto Ponzi Scheme

By Carolina Bolado

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission sued bankrupt cryptocurrency investment firm Goliath Ventures Inc. and its founder Tuesday claiming they orchestrated a $400 million cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme.

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SEC Claims Netcapital Juiced Revenue With Fake Deals

By Carolyn Muyskens

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has accused fintech company Netcapital Inc. of securities fraud by inflating earnings through "sham" consulting deals with Napster co-founder John Fanning that didn't actually generate revenue.

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Mich. Appeals Panel Restores Ethnic Threat Jury Standard

By Susan Smiley

Semantics matter, a Michigan Court of Appeals panel said in an unpublished opinion Monday, reversing a trial court's order regarding jury instruction language used in an ethnic intimidation trial.

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Kilpatrick Adds 3rd Reed Smith IP Litigator In San Francisco

By Adrian Cruz

Months after adding two Reed Smith LLP intellectual property attorneys in San Francisco, Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP announced Tuesday that the firm has hired another Reed Smith IP litigator to further expand its patent litigation team in the Bay Area.

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Managing Data Center Power Issues, Public Pushback

The many risks associated with data center construction include power availability, government regulations and public opinion, and contractual disputes — but these can be mitigated with careful project controls, planning and targeted contract drafting, say Randa Adra and Lily Geyer at Crowell & Moring, and Natasha Dahl at Ankura.

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USPTO Practitioner Roster Reflects A More Veteran Workforce

An analysis of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Office of Enrollment and Discipline practitioner roster reveals a widening demographic imbalance between new practitioners and those with more experience, but despite this trend, an expected falloff in practitioner numbers has yet to arrive, says Ian Schick at Paximal.

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AI Data Mining Is Changing FCA Enforcement

With False Claims Act investigations increasingly emerging from statistical anomalies identified by data miners, companies need to consider what conclusions an outsider armed with artificial intelligence might draw from public-facing data and be ready to explain any anomalies if questions arise, say attorneys at Cohen & Gresser.

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3 Rulings Show High Court's Transnational Litigation Stance

The U.S. Supreme Court's most recent term closed with three consequential decisions for transnational litigation that illustrate the court's readiness to enforce a Congress-created cause of action for overseas conduct and unwillingness to create this liability itself, say attorneys at WilmerHale.

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4 Tips For Using AI To Max Fee Awards In NY Lease Disputes

As New York's new artificial intelligence court filing rule takes effect, lawyers handling commercial lease disputes should set up an efficient billing structure, verify AI-generated research and calculations, and align fee requests to improve recoveries and avoid sanctions, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

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How Does In-House Pay Compare? Take The Law360 Survey

How do in-house salaries vary across industries, roles, and organizational revenue? What compensation tools are companies using to lure top talent? Help Law360 Pulse answer these questions and more in this year's In-House Compensation Survey.

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9th Circ. Would Lose 5 States In Latest Reorganization Bid

By Courtney Bublé

Republicans are once again trying to break up the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which has long been dominated by judges appointed by Democratic presidents.

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Goldstein Unveils Cooley Appeal Team

By Jared Foretek

Thomas Goldstein has unveiled an experienced lineup of appellate lawyers he'll turn to in his bid to overturn 12 tax and mortgage fraud convictions, featuring several attorneys with extensive U.S. Supreme Court experience.

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Texas Firm Withdraws From $150M Deal To Rep Migrant Kids

By Madeline Lyskawa

A Texas law firm has withdrawn from consideration for a $150 million award from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to provide legal services to unaccompanied migrant children in government custody.

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Missed Step Could Vex Ex-Duane Morris Client's Appeal

By P.J. D'Annunzio

A Pennsylvania Superior Court panel on Tuesday quizzed counsel for a businessman accusing Duane Morris LLP of legal malpractice in a trade secrets case on whether documents he claimed were privileged had been properly put before the trial judge for consideration.

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Ogletree Says Equinox Owes $1.4M In Unpaid Legal Bills

By Hailey Konnath

Ogletree said Monday that fitness company Equinox owes nearly $1.4 million in fees and expenses for the firm's work representing it in an employment matter in Los Angeles, according to a complaint filed in California federal court.

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DOJ Says Executive Privilege May Apply To Private Advisers

By Emily Sawicki

The president's communications with outside advisers may be shielded by executive privilege, so long as they are confidential and relate to official decision-making, the U.S. Department of Justice said in its latest advisory opinion.

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