Microsoft Exec Backed OpenAI Deal Amid Concerns, Jury Told

By Dorothy Atkins

Microsoft's chief technology officer testified in a California federal jury trial Wednesday over Elon Musk's challenge to OpenAI's for-profit conversion, recalling that he proposed Microsoft invest significant resources into OpenAI's for-profit arm to stay competitive despite his initial concerns over whether OpenAI's nonprofit donors had agreed to the for-profit partnership.

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Judge Asks If Musk Is Getting Special Treatment In SEC Deal

By Jared Foretek

A D.C. federal judge said Wednesday she would not simply "rubber-stamp" a deal to abruptly end the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's lawsuit against Elon Musk over his initial purchase of Twitter Inc. stock in 2022, asking at a status conference if Musk was getting special treatment.

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Judge Says X Can't Make Tim Cook Custodian In ChatGPT Suit

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas federal judge shot down a request by X Corp. to make Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook a custodian in a sprawling antitrust lawsuit X launched last year, but said Wednesday that it could depose Apple's head of software.

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Apple Targets Hagens Berman 'Gamesmanship' In ICloud Suit

By Bryan Koenig

Apple has lashed out at Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP for trying to withdraw a named plaintiff from an iCloud antitrust case in California federal court without discovery into any directions she received to preserve now-deleted emails, raising concerns that the withdrawal is meant to "paper over lost evidence."

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Oversight Bill For FCC's High Cost Program Signed Into Law

By Nadia Dreid

The Rural Broadband Protection Act, which aims to establish a vetting process for internet service providers who are taking part in the Federal Communications Commission's "high cost" program, has finally made it into law after being filed several times over the last couple of years.

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Rural Wireless Group Criticizes EchoStar Spectrum Deals

By Ganesh Setty

A trade group representing rural wireless providers said it opposes the Federal Communications Commission's recent approval of EchoStar's sales of spectrum to AT&T and SpaceX totaling roughly $40 billion, saying rural providers and consumers will likely suffer.

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Brief

FCC Ramps Up Focus On Cybersecurity In Telecom Biz

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission will kick off a pair of public workshops this week aiming to find ways to elevate cybersecurity in the telecom space.

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Samsung Secures Indemnity Win In IP Case At Fed. Circ.

By Adam Lidgett

The Federal Circuit on Wednesday backed a California federal judge's ruling that a contract under which Finelite buys LED chips from Samsung does not require Samsung to indemnify Finelite in a patent suit by Seoul Semiconductor.

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Split 6th Circ. Affirms $1 Damages In Touch Screen Tech Case

By Elliot Weld

A split panel of the Sixth Circuit has upheld a $1 damages award that a Michigan federal judge gave to electronics manufacturer Oldnar Corp., with two judges saying they agreed that Oldnar had not proved higher damages with reasonable certainty.

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Fed. Circ. Sides With Roku Over Axed Remote Patent

By Elliot Weld

A decision from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board that invalidated a patent covering remote control technology asserted against Roku Inc. was affirmed by the Federal Circuit on Wednesday.

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Fed. Circ. Backs Google PTAB Wins That Moot $12M Verdict

By Dani Kass

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board properly invalidated all claims of the five Flypsi Inc. telecom patents Google LLC was found to infringe, the Federal Circuit said Wednesday.

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Entertainment Website 'Tester' Can Proceed With Tracking Suit

By Allison Grande

A California federal judge has refused to toss a proposed class action accusing Anschutz Entertainment Group of illegally using tracking tools that transmitted website visitors' data to third parties, finding that two of the plaintiff's three wiretap and privacy claims could move forward and that her status as a website "tester" did not preclude her from pressing the suit.

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NC Personal Injury Firm Blasts 'Baseless' Claims In DQ Bid

By Hayley Fowler

A personal injury law firm in North Carolina is rebutting allegations that it engaged in nefarious activity on the dark web to solicit plaintiffs for a data breach class action, saying it received the data legally from a cybersecurity consulting expert and should not be disqualified from the suit.

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Nvidia, SK Hynix, Kioxia Face Memory Patent Litigation

By Adam Lidgett

A Texas-based technology company has launched new patent infringement suits at district courts in the Lone Star State and Delaware as well as at the U.S. International Trade Commission, targeting companies such as Nvidia Corp., Corsair Gaming and Western Digital.

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Toyota Foundation Accused Of 'Ugly Injustice' In IP Theft Suit

By Rae Ann Varona

A Toyota mobility systems foundation stole trade secrets from a small Zimbabwean social enterprise by inducing the enterprise to share its proprietary mobility solutions through a joint venture agreement before excluding the enterprise from a "Smart Village" program they collaborated on, the enterprise has alleged in California federal court.

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Roblox Exploits Kids' Labor To Build Games, Action Claims

By Jonathan Capriel

A Georgia mother accused gaming giant Roblox Corp. of turning her 13-year-old son into an unpaid game developer who worked more than 40 hours weekly, funneling him and millions of other children into a virtual currency system designed to trap their labor, according to a proposed class action filed in New York federal court.

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Apple Stiffed Call Center Workers On Boot-Up Time, Suit Says

By MJ Koo

Apple Inc. requires its hourly call center employees to boot up computers, log in to security networks and open multiple software programs before clocking in — and doesn't pay them for any of it, a former tech support adviser alleged in a proposed class and collective action filed in California federal court.

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Super Micro Hit With Investor Suit Over China Chip Sales

By Zak Kostro

A Super Micro Computer Inc. investor says he suffered losses as a result of a secret and illegal sale of servers embedded with Nvidia chips to China and the company's misleading statements, leading to a drop in its stock price, according to a proposed class action in California federal court.

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Zillow Sues Compass, MLS Over Private Listing 'Backup Plan'

By Nate Beck

Zillow has accused property brokerage Compass and a Chicago-area multiple listing service provider of hatching a "backup plan" to protect a private home sales network, even after the online real estate marketplace company established a rule last year banning home listings from its platform that have appeared elsewhere for more than a day.

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Tesla Shareholders Appeal Suit Dismissal Tied To Texas Move

By Sydney Price

Tesla shareholders, whose breach of fiduciary duty suit against Elon Musk and the automaker's directors was dismissed last month following the company's move to Texas, appealed the dismissal to the Delaware Supreme Court on Wednesday.

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Brief

Fed. Circ. OKs Lululemon Win On Nike Fitness Tracking Patent

By Elaine Briseño

A Federal Circuit panel on Wednesday, in a one-line order, affirmed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's determination that Nike's infringement claims against Lululemon Athletica Inc. related to fitness-tracking technology were invalid.

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Latham, Davis Polk Lead AI Chipmaker Cerebras' $5.6B IPO

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Artificial intelligence computing company Cerebras Systems Inc. raised roughly $5.6 billion in its blockbuster initial public offering that priced above range late on Wednesday, representing the largest IPO this year.

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Defense Tech Startup Anduril Raises $5B At $61B Valuation

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Military technology company Anduril, led by Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian LLP, on Wednesday announced it reached a $61 billion valuation after raising $5 billion in its latest funding round.

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Latham Guides Geothermal Startup Fervo's Upsized $1.9B IPO

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Geothermal energy developer Fervo Energy hit the public markets on Wednesday after raising $1.9 billion in its upsized initial public offering.

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Simpson Thacher-Led Blackstone REIT Prices $1.75B IPO

By Nate Beck

A Blackstone real estate investment trust focused on data centers is set to begin trading Thursday after raising $1.75 billion in an initial public offering, advised by Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP and underwriters' counsel Paul Hastings LLP.

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E-Commerce Co. Hits Ch. 11 In Texas After $11M Judgment

By Emily Lever

E-commerce platform Society Pass has filed for Chapter 11 protection in Texas bankruptcy court with more than $10 million in liabilities and less than $10 million in assets, on the eve of a hearing Wednesday in New York state court to put the business into receivership.

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Shutterstock Inks $35M Deal In FTC's Autorenewal Suit

By Gina Kim

Shutterstock Inc. will pay $35 million to resolve the Federal Trade Commission's lawsuit alleging it knowingly deceived customers about its subscription plans' autorenewal policies, with one executive noting in internal communications they could "hopefully get away with it" when they saw competitor Adobe Inc. sued over its subscription practices in 2024.

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Meta Must Share Option Costs Post-Altera, IRS Says

By Molly Moses

The Ninth Circuit's 2019 ruling against Altera Corp., which upheld rules requiring companies to share the cost of employee stock options with foreign affiliates, means that Meta's income for 2017-18 should be increased by roughly $3 billion, the IRS told the U.S. Tax Court.

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Data Center Insurance Boom May Obscure Claims' Difficulty

The rush of carrier capital into the data center space should not obscure a distinct and evolving set of policyholder risks that existing insurance products were not designed to address, along with the further complexity of layered claims for the extremely valuable properties, says Carlton Wilde at Bracewell.

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How 'Bundling' Enforcement Is Parsing Efficiency, Access

Recent antitrust enforcement actions have taken a selective view of companies' bundling of products or services — challenging it when it shuts out rivals, but tolerating it when it creates efficient scale — making the real test now less about lower prices than about whether competition is being blocked, says attorney Alan Kusinitz.

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Key Tronic Case Shows SEC Isn't Ignoring Controls Violations

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's first nonfraud enforcement action against a public company during Chairman Paul Atkins' tenure reflects the commission’s willingness to bring enforcement actions that charge books and records and internal controls violations, despite deviating from policing technical violations, say attorneys at Cooley.

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Series

The Biz Court Digest: Georgia Court Has Business On Its Mind

Thanks to recent legislation, the Georgia State-wide Business Court will soon offer business litigants greater access to the court than ever before, further enhancing the court's emphasis on efficiency, predictability and accessibility for sophisticated commercial disputes, says former GSBC judge Walt Davis at Jones Day.

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Murdaugh Murder Conviction Overturned By SC High Court

By Parker Quinlan

The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned a double murder conviction and ordered a new trial for disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh, finding the jury in his first trial was biased by a clerk of court who allegedly sought a guilty verdict in a ploy to juice sales of her book about the trial.

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Texas Atty Must Pay $5M For Groping Opposing Counsel

By Lynn LaRowe

A Texas state appellate court on Wednesday refused to disturb a $5 million jury verdict against a San Antonio lawyer for grabbing the buttocks of opposing counsel at the courthouse where they were arguing a family law proceeding in 2019.

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DOJ Goes After DC Bar, Courts For Discipline Of Ex-DOJ Atty

By Hailey Konnath

The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday sued the D.C. Office of Disciplinary Counsel, D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility, D.C. Court of Appeals and the District of Columbia, claiming that they were "punishing" a former Trump administration DOJ official and trying to "control the executive branch."

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DOJ Fraud Division Set To Shake Up White-Collar Enforcement

By Phillip Bantz

President Donald Trump's administration created the U.S. Department of Justice's National Fraud Enforcement Division with a narrow focus on combating government program fraud, but a move to retain federal prosecutors focused on other types of fraud could signal a wider scope with potential ripple effects across white-collar enforcement.

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Arbitrators See Global Stakes In Trump BigLaw EO Fight

By Caroline Simson

Ahead of a D.C. Circuit hearing on Thursday in the Trump administration's effort to revive executive orders imposed against four BigLaw firms, an official at the College of Commercial Arbitrators told Law360 this week there are several things arbitrators are going to be watching for.

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Michigan Federal Judge Gets Probation For Drunken Driving

By Susan Smiley

Michigan federal Judge Thomas L. Ludington was sentenced by a state judge on Wednesday to six months' probation and fined $1,175 after pleading no contest to a misdemeanor drunken-driving charge last month in Emmet County.

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6th Circ. Says Kentucky Judicial Hopefuls May Tout Ideology

By Emily Sawicki

Kentucky judicial hopefuls are cleared to discuss their political leanings on the campaign trail, according to a precedential ruling by the Sixth Circuit, which permanently enjoined the state's Judicial Conduct Commission from pursuing an enforcement action against two candidates who described themselves as "conservatives" and "Republicans" amid the 2022 election season.

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Judge Says LegalForce Must Pay $93K After Losing TM Suit

By Elliot Weld

A California federal judge on Wednesday ordered LegalForce RAPC Worldwide PC to pay nearly $93,000 in fees and costs to the company that operates LawFirms.com, finding the case to be exceptional because LegalForce alleged facts it knew were false and took steps to obscure other facts that showed its case was meritless.

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CORRECTED: Senate Advances 13 US Attorneys In En Bloc Vote

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate voted 46-45, along party lines, to advance the nomination of 13 U.S. attorneys on Monday as part of a larger nominations package. Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the status of the nominees in the Senate.

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