How States' 'Perry Mason Moment' Led To $17B Meta Deal

By Dorothy Atkins

A recent landmark $17.1 billion settlement with Meta Platforms Inc. may have never happened if it weren't for a quick-thinking trial attorney and his close-knit team of lawyers representing 29 states, who worked together to swiftly shift strategies midtrial.

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Salesforce Must Face Claims Over Customer Data Breach

By Corey Rothauser

A California federal judge has largely denied Salesforce's bid to dismiss a proposed class action alleging security weaknesses in its cloud platform allowed hackers to steal the personal information of customers and employees of Allianz, Farmers Group and TransUnion.

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Meta Beats Proposed Privacy Class Action Over 'Voiceprints'

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge tossed on Tuesday a proposed class action claiming Meta's messaging platforms secretly and unlawfully capture Facebook users' "voiceprints" and related biometric information, finding the plaintiff agreed to let Meta use his personal data when he signed up for an account.

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OpenAI Wants To See Details Of SpaceXAI's Deal With Apple

By Craig Clough

OpenAI filed an emergency motion Tuesday in Texas federal court seeking the details of a settlement SpaceXAI inked this week with Apple over claims that Apple's deal to integrate ChatGPT into the iPhone violated antitrust law, saying the terms of the deal may undermine the antitrust allegations SpaceXAI is still pursuing against OpenAI.

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Databricks, Authors Trade Jabs Over Use Of Books To Train AI

By Elliot Weld

Artificial intelligence firm Databricks and a group of authors suing for copyright infringement are trading arguments over why a California federal court should rule their way on the issue of whether using books to train AI can count as fair use.

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Anthropic, CEO Ask Judge To Narrow Music Publisher IP Suit

By Theresa Schliep

Anthropic and its CEO, Dario Amodei, have urged a California federal court to carve off parts of a $3 billion copyright infringement lawsuit lodged by major music publishers, taking issue with their claims against Amodei and their arguments about chatbot outputs.

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Meta's Data Collection From DMV Is Invasive, Calif. Drivers Say

By Bonnie Eslinger

Golden State drivers seeking to certify two classes over claims that Meta unlawfully obtained information from the state Department of Motor Vehicles' website told a California federal judge Tuesday that they have standing to sue under the Driver's Privacy Protection Act because the collection was invasive, even if it wasn't embarrassing or sensitive.

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UMG Says DistroKid Is Copyright-Infringing 'AI-Slop Pipeline'

By Craig Clough

UMG Recordings sued music distributor DistroKid in Delaware federal court Tuesday, calling it an "AI-slop pipeline" that uses copyright infringement and deceptive practices to flood popular streaming platforms with mass-generated artificial intelligence content.

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Cruz Delays FCC Nom's Hearing Amid Calls To Add Dem Pick

By Christopher Cole

A bevy of civil rights organizations said Tuesday the U.S. Senate should hold off on confirming another Republican to the Federal Communications Commission unless a sitting FCC Democrat is renominated to her post.

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AG Pushes Data Center Rates To Protect NC Customers

By Elaine Briseño

The attorney general of North Carolina urged the state's Utilities Commission to create a new rate class for Duke Energy's data center customers, saying it would ensure they pay their fair share of energy use.

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Brief

US Finalizes Duties Rates For 3 Asian Countries' Solar Cells

By Jack McLoone

The U.S. Department of Commerce on Tuesday finalized steep duty rates for imports of certain solar cells from India, Laos and Indonesia after the department found they are being sold at less than fair value and with the benefit of government subsidies.

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Fed. Circ. Keeps Samsung, Apple Wins Over Alt Browser IP

By Theresa Schliep

The Federal Circuit on Tuesday issued a one-word order backing Patent Trial and Appeal Board decisions that invalidated claims in patents covering ways to access the internet without a browser, declining to take on the patent owner's challenge to the board's obviousness determinations.

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NYC Asks 2nd Circ. To Greenlight Uber, Lyft Deactivation Law

By Dorothy Atkins

New York City has urged the Second Circuit to lift an injunction blocking a municipal ordinance prohibiting Uber and Lyft from "deactivating" drivers without formal notice and investigation, arguing that the lower court wrongly found that the companies would likely win their contract claims.

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No Pause Needed In Daniel's Law Cases, 3rd Circ. Told

By George Woolston

Atlas Data Privacy Corp. urged the Third Circuit to reject a bid to pause discovery in consolidated litigation over New Jersey's judicial privacy law as the appeals court considers a First Amendment challenge to the statute, arguing the defendant data brokers failed to show irreparable harm.

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Hotels, Amadeus Defend Info Exchange Win At 7th Circ.

By Matthew Perlman

Luxury hotel chains and software provider Amadeus IT Group are telling the Seventh Circuit a lower court was right to toss a case accusing the hotels of exchanging sensitive information, saying the allegations are based entirely on the use of a lawful benchmarking service.

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FCC Seeks Input On Disputed Political Ad Rate Policy

By Christopher Cole

Federal Communications Commission staff on Tuesday sought comment on whether to set aside earlier guidance calling for the "lowest unit" rate for committee-backed political ads as the Fourth Circuit considers a Democratic bid to force the commission to review the policy.

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Comcast Can't Relitigate Invalidity Issue In Patent Suit

By Adam Lidgett

A Pennsylvania federal judge said Monday that Comcast was attempting to rehash its already-rejected argument that a voice recognition technology patent a jury found it infringed was invalid in light of an earlier patent, months after the telecommunications giant was hit with a $240 million infringement verdict.  

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BlackBerry Settles Former Exec's Retaliation Suit Over Firing

By Patrick Hoff

BlackBerry has resolved a former executive's lawsuit alleging she was fired for reporting that the company's CEO sexually harassed her before assuming the top job, according to a filing in California federal court.

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ITC To Eye Part Of Judge's Decision In Medical Dilation Row

By Adam Lidgett

The full U.S. International Trade Commission is set to look at parts of an agency judge's ruling in favor of medical technology company Stryker Corp. in a fight against imports it said infringed its patents on balloon dilation products used in ear, nose and throat procedures.

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TikTok Pay Scale Suit On Pause Pending Wash. Appeal

By MJ Koo

A Washington state court has extended a stay in a proposed class action accusing TikTok of omitting salary information from job postings, keeping the case paused while an appeals court considers whether a key provision of the state's pay transparency law applies retroactively.

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Uber Says MDL Bellwether Plaintiff Can't Show Reliance

By Mike Curley

Uber Technologies Inc. is urging a California federal judge to throw out claims in a bellwether suit from multidistrict litigation over sexual assaults of its passengers, saying the plaintiff here cannot show she relied on any of the company's representations or features on the night she was allegedly assaulted.

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Workers Look To Lock In Sweeping Workday AI Bias Class

By Patrick Hoff

A group of rejected job applicants asked a California federal court to grant class status to their lawsuit alleging Workday's artificial intelligence tools discriminated against workers because of their age, sex, disability and race, arguing the expense and complexity of the case would make individual litigation unrealistic.

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Golf Developer Fights Dutch Co.'s Bid To Arbitrate Tech Row

By Isaac Monterose

A golf course developer asked a Louisiana federal court to reject a Dutch golfing technology company's arbitration request for the developer's suit, which accuses the company of wrongfully trying to enforce a terminated purchase and service agreement for what it alleges is the company's faulty automated hole-in-one recording system.

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Disney Wants Kids' Data Privacy Claims Tossed For Good

By Hailey Konnath

Disney on Monday asked a California federal court to once again throw out a proposed class action claiming it allowed advertisers to illegally collect minors' personal information, pressing for the dismissal of a new version of the complaint just days after YouTube said it had reached a settlement in the case.

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​​​​​​​Aftership Hit With Class Action Over Hidden 'Protection' Fees

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

Aftership Inc. has been hit with a proposed class action accusing it of misleading consumers into believing pre-selected "Aftership Protection" fees added to online orders were mandatory shipping costs instead of optional add-ons that needed to be declined.

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Lego Accused Of Infringing Interactive Toy Patents

By Adam Lidgett

An Israeli patent owner on Tuesday hit Lego with a lawsuit in Texas federal court accusing the toymaker's Smart Play interactive building system of infringing patents covering motion-sensitive toys that communicate wirelessly and respond with lights and sounds.

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Chinese Search Engine Co. Overstated AI Value, Investor Says

By Sydney Price

China-based search engine operator Baidu Inc. was hit with an investor's proposed class action accusing the company of misleading investors about the extent to which its AI offerings would compensate for the losses in its marketing services segment.

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Fintech Co. Says Nuvei Bungled Mastercard Transactions

By Gina Kim

Chicago-based fintech and futures prop trading firm Topstep has sued Nuvei Technologies in Arizona federal court, alleging the payment processor concealed a system error that bungled 189,000 Mastercard transactions and then tried to improperly resubmit them, leaving Topstep's customers "blindsided with unexpected charges" and resulting in reputational harm to Topstep.

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PSG Equity Wraps €4.4B Europe-Focused Fund

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Growth equity firm PSG Equity on Tuesday revealed that it wrapped its third Europe-focused fund with €4.4 billion ($5.1 billion) of investor commitments.

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3 Firms Advise On DoorDash's $300M Campus Dining App Buy

By Al Barbarino

DoorDash said Tuesday it has agreed to purchase food technology platform Wonder Group Inc.'s Grubhub Campus Dining business for $300 million, and it has also made a $125 million investment in Wonder's Series D fundraising round. 

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Michael Best Beats DQ Bid In Agtech Biz Receivership Row

By Rose Krebs

A Delaware Chancery Court magistrate has denied a bid to bar a Michael Best & Friedrich LLP attorney from representing HerdDogg Inc. in litigation filed by its founder seeking to place the agricultural technology company into receivership, saying the founder hasn't shown a conflict exists to warrant disqualification.

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Orrick Hires CFO From Paul Hastings, Tech Leader From KKR

By Tracey Read

Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP announced Tuesday that the firm has two new C-suite executives, both of whom will be based in New York.

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Burford Exec, Holland & Knight Adviser Open AI-Native Firm

By Andrea Keckley

Two veterans of the legal industry announced on Wednesday that they have teamed up to launch FairPlay Law, an AI-native firm based in Manhattan and focused on representing employees.

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Michael Best Combines With NY-Based Kane Kessler

By Kevin Penton

Michael Best & Friedrich LLP announced Wednesday that it is combining with New York-based firm Kane Kessler PC, adding 36 attorneys and a Big Apple presence to a firm that ranked 143rd on Law360's list of the nation's largest law firms.

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Protesters Say Feds' Fight Shows Need For Misconduct Probe

By Lauraann Wood

The U.S. government's opposition to a special investigation of prosecutorial misconduct that "poisoned" a now-dismissed criminal conspiracy case suggests Chicago prosecutors are still shielding critical details regarding the extent of official communications preceding the prosecution, underscoring the probe's necessity, protesters argued Tuesday.

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Apple Backs Its $132K Fee Ask Over 'Bad Faith' Subpoenas

By Bonnie Eslinger

Apple has urged a California federal magistrate judge to grant its $132,700 attorney fee request as a sanction against plaintiff consumers' lead lawyer in antitrust litigation claiming Google muscles out rival search engines, but said Apple's counsel doesn't want to disclose their "highly and competitively sensitive" negotiated legal rates.

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Newman Saga Prompts Bill To Limit Judicial Suspensions

By Courtney Bublé

The long-running saga over Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman's fitness to remain on the court has exposed "major flaws" in the judicial accountability system, according to a Republican member of the House who introduced a bill Wednesday to reform it.

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Brief

Senate Panel Weighs 6 Trump Judicial Picks From Red States

By Courtney Bublé

Six nominees for U.S. district judge appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday for their nomination hearing.

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