US Chamber Sues To Block Trump's $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee

By Jared Foretek

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce sued the Trump administration on Thursday to block a planned increase in the cost of highly coveted H-1B visas, saying the proposed $100,000 fee would have a "devastating effect" on American businesses, particularly those in the tech, healthcare, higher education and manufacturing sectors.

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Music Giants Say Cox Case Isn't About Grandma Losing Wi-Fi

By Ivan Moreno

Leading music publishers have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to affirm that internet service providers can be contributorily liable for their customers' piracy if they fail to take action, saying a jury verdict against Cox Communications that led to a $1 billion award showed that the company "made a deliberate and egregious decision" to put profits first.

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USPTO Says Fed. Circ. Should Skip 'Settled Expectations' Case

By Adam Lidgett

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office wants the Federal Circuit to reject a challenge to the way the agency has denied review of patents based on the owner's "settled expectations," saying Thursday it has full discretion on whether to review patents or not.

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Fed. Judge Keeps X's Suit Against Apple, OpenAI In Texas

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas federal judge told X Corp, Apple and OpenAI that they ought to move their headquarters to Fort Worth if they like litigating in Cowtown so much, opting Thursday to keep X and xAI's sweeping antitrust suit against Apple and OpenAI in the Lone Star State.

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NetChoice Fights Colo. 'Cigarette-Style' Social Media Law

By Rachel Konieczny

A lawyer for an internet trade association urged a federal judge Thursday to block a Colorado law set to take effect next year, comparing its requirement for social media platforms to display warnings for minors to the mandated warning labels on tobacco products.

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Unions Challenge Feds' AI Surveillance Of Noncitizens' Views

By Rae Ann Varona

Three labor unions sued the Trump administration in New York federal court Thursday to stop a surveillance program they allege scours online activity for viewpoints the administration doesn't like and leverages the threat of immigration enforcement to coerce silence.

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Authors Say Salesforce Used Pirated Books To Train Its AI

By Theresa Schliep

A pair of authors accused Salesforce of improperly training its artificial intelligence models on copyrighted works, telling a California federal court Wednesday that the cloud-based software company used their pirated books in "its acts of massive copyright infringement."

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Songwriters Claim Udio AI Was Trained On Copyrighted Music

By Elliot Weld

A group of songwriters is suing artificial intelligence company Udio AI, claiming its music-generating AI models were trained using copyrighted music scraped from the internet.

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Privacy Compliance Needs 'Kindergarten Rules,' Atty Says

By Craig Clough

Panelists at a Los Angeles conference on the intersection of technology and entertainment tackled the issue of privacy and data laws Thursday, with one participant telling the crowd that helping clients avoid legal entanglements in those areas involves applying "kindergarten rules."

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High Court's FCC Broadcast Rulings Criticized As 'Outdated'

By Christopher Cole

A think tank called for overturning two U.S. Supreme Court rulings from decades ago that gave the Federal Communications Commission authority to regulate broadcast speech, saying the decisions don't match the realities of today's economy.

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FCC Republican Calls Upper C-Band Rework Critical To 6G

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission is wasting no time gearing up for a potential spectrum overhaul in the upper C-Band, with the approach of 6G wireless being a big motivator, according to an agency Republican.

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Fed. Circ. Won't Revive Gesture Patent After Reexam

By Adam Lidgett

The Federal Circuit on Thursday backed a Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision that tossed claims in a motion sensor patent owned by Gesture Technology Partners LLC, the latest development in a larger patent dispute involving the company.

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Musk, Twitter Investors Denied Early Wins In Fraud Suit

By Katryna Perera

Elon Musk and investors of X, formerly known as Twitter, are headed toward trial in a class action suit accusing the billionaire of intentionally tanking the social media platform's stock price, after a California federal judge denied the parties' cross-motions for an early win in the case.

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Tech Co. Gets Ex-Employee's Bias Suit Shipped To Texas

By Patrick Hoff

An information technology services company must face a Black former employee's lawsuit claiming she was fired for complaining about a supervisor's racist remarks, an Illinois federal judge ruled, but said the case should be sent to Texas based on the worker's employment agreement.

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6 Firms To Lead Aflac Data Breach Suit In Georgia

By Chart Riggall

A Georgia federal judge said Wednesday he's tapping six attorneys from as many firms to lead a proposed class action that was consolidated this summer out of nearly two dozen suits filed over an alleged data breach at Aflac Inc.

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Insurer Didn't Owe Coverage To IT Co. In BIPA Violation Suit

By Hope Patti

An insurer had no duty to defend or indemnify an information technology company in a class action alleging violations of Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act, a state appeals court affirmed, finding that underlying events occurred before the claims-made policy's retroactive date.

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US Bank Wants Out Of Ex-AI Chief's Race Bias Suit

By Sydney Price

U.S. Bank has doubled down on its efforts to escape a race bias suit brought by the former head of its artificial intelligence efforts, saying he waited more than 100 days too long to file a charge of discrimination with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

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Chubb Unit Challenges Tech CEO's Claim For Living Expenses

By Hope Patti

A Chubb unit urged a California federal court to rule that it needn't pay a software company CEO and his wife millions of dollars for living expenses related to a 2017 water damage claim, saying the couple made misrepresentations regarding the habitability of their Beverly Hills estate.

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Consumer Group Seeks Role In Nationals' Hidden Fees Suit

By Elaine Briseño

A national consumers group asked a Washington, D.C., federal court for permission to intervene as a plaintiff in what it called a "copycat" proposed class action against the MLB's Washington Nationals over hidden ticket fees so it can request a stay and protect the progress it has made in its own state court lawsuit.

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Amazon Claims Calif. Lawyer, Chinese Firms Pulled IP Scheme

By Ben Adlin

Amazon is suing a California lawyer and four Chinese companies, among others, over an alleged scheme to fraudulently register thousands of trademarks with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and then wrongfully report infringement by other Amazon sellers.

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Tech Group Aims To Ax Texas' App Store Age Verification Law

By Allison Grande

A new Texas law that requires app store owners to verify users' ages and block minors from downloading apps or making in-app purchases without parental consent unconstitutionally imposes a "broad censorship regime" on the entire mobile app ecosystem, a tech industry trade group argued in a lawsuit Thursday seeking to strike down the measure.

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Wall Street Giants Sued Over Alleged Stock Manipulation

By Emilie Ruscoe

An investor in Israeli chipmaker Eltek Ltd. has sued Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC and Interactive Brokers Group Inc., alleging they had a role in a complex stock price manipulation scheme that played out over years, causing trading prices for the tech company's shares to be "irrationally depressed."

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Research Exec Faked Data, Worked For Rivals, $10M Suit Says

By Julie Manganis

A Massachusetts marketing and political research firm that has done work for Snapchat, Paramount and the government says its co-founder and former chief analytics officer falsified data and used its resources on projects for competitors, and is seeking at least $10 million in damages in a recently launched lawsuit.

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Macy's, Discount Tire Co. Hit With Wash. Anti-Spam Suits

By Ben Adlin

Macy's and Discount Tire Co. are the latest businesses targeted by a wave of proposed class actions in which consumers claim the companies broke a Washington state law outlawing commercial emails with false or misleading subject lines.

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Brief

Fans Drop Biometric Privacy Suit Against Chicago Cubs

By Jonathan Capriel

Baseball game attendees who accused the Chicago Cubs of collecting, without consent, the biometric data of millions of fans at Wrigley Field have agreed to drop their proposed class action claims against the team and others.

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HR Biz Deel Valued At $17.3B After $300M Funding Round

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Human resources and payroll platform Deel, advised by Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, on Thursday revealed that it hit a $17.3 billion valuation after closing its latest funding round with $300 million in investor commitments.

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Electric Aircraft Startup Beta Technologies Targets $750M IPO

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Electric aircraft and propulsion system manufacturer Beta Technologies has unveiled plans for an estimated $750 million initial public offering, with Kirkland & Ellis LLP advising the company and Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP advising the underwriters.

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ADNOC's Covestro Buy To Get EU Nod, Plus More Rumors

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Abu Dhabi oil giant ADNOC is expected to get a stamp of approval from European regulators for its €14.7 takeover of German chemicals company Covestro; Spanish grid operator Enagas is debating buying a minority stake in French gas operator Terega; and private equity giant Apollo has submitted another bid to acquire pizza chain Papa John's.

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Amazon Ruling Marks New Era Of Personal Liability For Execs

A Washington federal court's recent decision in FTC v. Amazon extended personal liability to senior executives for design-driven violations of broad consumer protection statutes, signaling a fundamental shift in how consumer protection laws may be enforced against large public companies, say attorneys at Orrick.

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USPTO Panel's Reversal Signals A Shift On AI Patents

A recent patent ruling from a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office panel shows that artificial intelligence technologies remain patent-eligible when properly framed as technical solutions, and provides valuable drafting lessons for counsel, say attorneys at Butzel Long.

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3 New Cyberinsurance Rulings Aid In Policy Interpretation

Although the cyberinsurance market has exploded, there is no standardized cyber language or form and only a few court decisions thus far interpreting cyberinsurance policy language, making these three recent rulings key for guiding policyholders, insurers and brokers, say attorneys at Haynes Boone.

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FTC's Consumer Finance Pivot Brings Industry Pros And Cons

An active Federal Trade Commission against the backdrop of a leashed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will be welcomed by most in the consumer finance industry, but the incremental expansion of the FTC's authority via enforcement actions remains a risk, say attorneys at Hudson Cook.

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Series

Traveling Solo Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Traveling by myself has taught me to assess risk, understand tone and stay calm in high-pressure situations, which are not only useful life skills, but the foundation of how I support my clients, says Lacey Gutierrez at Group Five Legal.

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Loan Forgiveness Overhaul May Chill Legal Aid Work

By Alison Knezevich

Civil legal services groups and public defenders say the Trump administration's proposed change to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program would politicize the initiative and make it harder to recruit attorneys to jobs that pay less than the private sector.

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UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Max Austin

This past week in London has seen Johnson & Johnson hit with a £1 billion ($1.34 billion) claim for allegedly selling contaminated baby powder, Carter-Ruck bring a claim against the Solicitors Regulation Authority, and Hewlett Packard file a probate claim against the estate of Mike Lynch.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

Exxon was hit with a proposed class action alleging its new program to enable automated proxy voting for retail investors is intended to stifle shareholder dissent. Meanwhile, a new survey found that nearly two-thirds of in-house legal departments think they will rely less on outside legal service providers because of generative artificial intelligence. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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NY Court Orders Hearing On Counsel Conflict In Drug Case

By Elizabeth Daley

A man who pled guilty to gun and drug charges and was sentenced to 12 years in prison can argue for a new trial due to ineffective counsel after a similarly culpable co-defendant got a light sentence allegedly due to cooperation between their attorneys, a New York state appeals court said in a reversal.

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Utah Fires Motley Rice From Opioid Case

By Jack Karp

The state of Utah has fired Motley Rice LLC from representing it in long-running litigation over the opioid crisis, a spokesperson for the Utah attorney general's office confirmed to Law360 Pulse on Friday.

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Ga. Judge Resigns After DUI Arrest Outside Fla. Strip Club

By Chart Riggall

A Georgia Superior Court jurist who led the state's Council of Superior Court Judges stepped down from the bench Thursday after his driving under the influence arrest last week outside a Jacksonville, Florida, strip club.

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UC Law School Can Drop Hastings Name, Appeals Court Says

By Andrea Keckley

California is allowed to drop Serranus Clinton Hastings' name from the University of California's San Francisco-based law school, a state appeals court has ruled, backing a trial judge's decision to toss a lawsuit filed by the former chief state Supreme Court justice's descendants and various school alumni.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Caldwell Cassady & Curry PC and Miller Fair Henry PLLC lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a California federal jury found Samsung must pay nearly $445.5 million for infringing four wireless communication patents.

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Liberty Mutual Attys Face Sanctions Bid Over Citation Errors

By Emily Sawicki

A St. Louis federal court is weighing whether to sanction Liberty Mutual Personal Insurance Company's lawyers after they submitted a motion containing citation errors and then, after a warning, "somehow" submitted a second motion with the same types of mistakes.

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Federal Courts To Scale Back Operations Amid Shutdown

By Ryan Boysen

The federal court system has run out of money and will scale back operations beginning Monday as a result of the ongoing government shutdown, possibly leading to case delays.

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Robbins Geller To Steer REIT Investors' Suit Over $787M Deal

By Sydney Price

Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP will lead a proposed class of investors in real estate investment trust Broadmark Realty Capital Inc. who claim they were misled by executives from the REIT ahead of a $787 million merger with Ready Capital Corp. in 2023.

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