OpenAI Joins Anthropic In Confidentially Filing IPO Plans

By Hailey Konnath

OpenAI said Monday that it had confidentially submitted a proposed initial public offering to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, an announcement that comes a week after artificial intelligence rival Anthropic said it had done the same.

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Analysis

How A Texas Pastor Beat Mark Zuckerberg In Landmark Trial

By Craig Clough

Jurors who reached a landmark $6 million verdict in March finding Meta Platforms Inc. and Google liable for harming a teen's mental health didn't find Mark Zuckerberg credible, an impression that the plaintiff's attorney Mark Lanier credited to putting the well-prepared executive off his guard.

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Trump's $100K H-1B Fee Is Unauthorized Tax, Judge Rules

By Britain Eakin

A Massachusetts federal judge ruled Monday that President Donald Trump's $100,000 H-1B visa payment constitutes a tax that Congress did not authorize the president to impose, declaring the fee unlawful and vacating it in its entirety.

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Calif. Judge Sides With Apple In Screen Sliding Patent Fight

By Lauren Berg

A California federal judge on Monday sided with Apple's assertion that a Swedish smartphone company's swipe-to-unlock patent lacks a valid written description, invalidating the patent owner's infringement claim.

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Shoals Solar Patent Dispute Kept Alive By NC Court

By Adam Lidgett

A North Carolina federal court has refused to find that three Shoals Technologies Group solar energy patents were unenforceable in the company's infringement suit but said the court would keep certain issues in mind should the case result in a damages verdict.

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Meta Tries Again To End Mass. Instagram Addiction Case

By Julie Manganis

Meta Platforms is again asking a judge to toss a complaint by Massachusetts over its allegedly addictive Instagram platform, saying any purported harms to teens are caused by third-party content rather than its own features, which it says are shielded by the First Amendment and federal law.

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Bankman-Fried Seeks Trump Pardon On FTX Fraud Conviction

By Dorothy Atkins

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence, has asked President Donald Trump to pardon him for defrauding customers who placed billions of dollars with the fallen cryptocurrency exchange, according to the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of the Pardon Attorney.

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Analysis

USPTO Clamping Down Reexam Bids After IPR Denials

By Ryan Davis

A U.S. Patent and Trademark Office decision denying a request for ex parte reexamination of a patent because it reused arguments from an inter partes review that was discretionarily denied sends a clear message that the office wants challengers to pick one of the two options, attorneys say.

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FCC Considering 120-Day Deadline For Permit Approvals

By Nadia Dreid

The Federal Communications Commission plans to propose telling states and municipalities that they have four months to act on applications before it will presume they've "effectively prohibited the provision of wireline telecommunications services," as part of a push to reduce what it perceives as barriers to broadband deployment.

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AT&T Pushes Feds To Preempt Calif. Copper Network Rules

By Christopher Cole

AT&T continues to press the Federal Communications Commission to declare that agency policy favoring the phaseout of copper wire networks should supersede California rules that make them harder to remove.

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FCC Needs To Clarify Router Ban's Scope, Tech Retailers Say

By Christopher Cole

Retailers are worried about the effect of a Federal Communications Commission effort to clamp down on foreign-made routers sold to consumers, saying the agency needs to better define the range of products covered by the new restrictions, which are aimed at reducing device security risks.

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Conn. Expands Solar Energy System Tax, Limits Exemption

By Zak Kostro

Connecticut expanded the scope of a tax on solar energy systems and limited a property tax exemption for solar energy facilities under a bill signed by the governor.

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Ariz. Authorizes Special Tax Districts To Fund Infrastructure

By Zak Kostro

Arizona authorized the formation of special taxing districts to fund infrastructure projects with revenue from property taxes and other sources under a bill signed by the governor.

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Brief

CenturyLink Waited 1 Year To Report Copper Theft Outage

By Nadia Dreid

CenturyLink might be in hot water with the Federal Communications Commission after taking more than a year to file the requisite paperwork with the agency following an outage in Washington state caused by copper theft.

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Fed. Circ. Upholds Apple PTAB Win In Voice Recognition Case

By Adam Lidgett

The Federal Circuit on Monday refused to revive claims in a Zentian Ltd. patent related to voice recognition technology, backing a split Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision in favor of Apple.

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Seattle Fights Uber, Instacart Bid To Undo 9th Circ. Gig Ruling

By Benjamin Morse

The city of Seattle urged the Ninth Circuit not to revisit a panel decision backing its app-based worker deactivation ordinance against a First Amendment challenge from Uber and Instacart, arguing the companies are trying to turn an ordinary worker protection law into a speech case.

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Epic Games Skirts TM Suit Over Fortnite Messaging Tech

By Abigail Harrison

A North Carolina federal judge ended a patent dispute between a California technology company and Fortnite-maker Epic Games Inc., finding that patent claims related to the game's player-to-player messaging options were directed to an "abstract idea" under U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

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Archer Can't Ditch Trimmed Joby Air Taxi Trade Secrets Suit

By Linda Chiem

A California federal judge has said Joby Aviation can forge ahead with a pared-down lawsuit alleging rival electric air taxi developer Archer Aviation misappropriated its trade secrets, but has tossed Archer's "shotgun pleadings" counterclaims alleging Joby misclassified imports to evade tariffs and concealed its China ties.

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Game Co. Calls Out Rival's $1.4B Damages Enhancement Bid

By Elliot Weld

Mobile game company Papaya Gaming Ltd. has asked a Manhattan federal judge to deny rival Skillz Platform Inc.'s request for a $420 million jury verdict based on false advertising claims to be boosted to $1.4 billion, saying the amount is unprecedented and far greater than Papaya's profits over the entire period relevant to the case.

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Kaiser Member Seeks Class Cert. In Microsoft Site Tracker Suit

By Rachel Riley

A Kaiser Permanente member has called on a federal judge in Seattle to greenlight a series of national classes and California subclasses in her privacy lawsuit accusing Microsoft and Qualtrics of secretly intercepting millions of patients' private health information through tracking technologies embedded in the healthcare system's website.

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States Preparing To Challenge Paramount-Warner Bros. Deal

By Matthew Perlman

The New York Attorney General's Office is among state enforcers preparing to file a lawsuit challenging Paramount Skydance Corp.'s $110 billion deal for Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., the office confirmed to Law360 Monday.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Sydney Price

At the Delaware Chancery Court, a trial over World Wrestling Entertainment Inc.'s $21.4 billion merger with Ultimate Fighting Championship's parent company has been canceled, and a Reddit investor has filed a suit claiming the company used artificial intelligence to challenge his grievance about a charter provision.

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Brief

ITC Probing Amazon Smart Devices For AI Patent Infringement

By Jack McLoone

The U.S. International Trade Commission will investigate claims by artificial intelligence company Cerence AI that Amazon's smart devices infringe a collection of patents and thus should be subject to a limited exclusion order.

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White & Case, Reed Smith Lead $1.2B Space SPAC Deal

By Jarek Rutz

Spacecraft developer Quantum Space LLC said Monday it plans to go public through a merger with Inflection Point Acquisition Corp. VI, a special purpose acquisition company, in a deal that values the combined company at about $1.2 billion and would give the business new funding to build out its national security-focused spacecraft platform.

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Brief

Freshfields-Led Arcline Bids $535M For Continental Aerospace

By Nate Beck

Freshfields LLP advised private equity firm Arcline Investment Management on a proposed acquisition of aircraft parts maker Continental Aerospace Technologies in a $535 million deal.

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CEO Was 'Central' To Sham Revenue Scheme, SEC Says

By Emilie Ruscoe

The former CEO of Lottery.com should not escape U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission claims he was a "central actor" in a scheme to cook the company's books, the regulator argued, telling a Manhattan federal judge that its enforcement action "extensively" details its fraud allegations against the executive.

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Brief

Adviser AI Use Under Scrutiny In NJ Securities Review

By George Woolston

New Jersey financial regulators said Monday that the state's annual examination of investment adviser business practices this year will take a hard look at how artificial intelligence is used in the construction of investment portfolios or recommendations to clients.

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Womble Bond Adds Alston & Bird Patent Atty To IP Team

By Emily Johnson

Womble Bond Dickinson has brought on an Alston & Bird LLP partner to its Atlanta office, strengthening its patent prosecution and litigation practice.

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Green Card Memo Warps Long-Standing Adjustment Process

A recent policy memorandum that treats a nonimmigrant visa holder’s decision to seek adjustment of status in the U.S., rather than at a U.S. consulate, as an adverse factor reinterprets existing discretionary frameworks, compounds risks for applicants required to apply abroad and changes practitioner approaches to application preparation, says attorney Jack Jrada.

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Gibson Dunn, PE Firm Pay Charity $1M For Knicks VIP Seats

By Dorothy Atkins

Gibson Dunn and private equity firm Veritas Capital split the $1 million winning bid for two "Celebrity Row" seats in a Knicks fundraiser ahead of Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs, the team's parent company announced Monday.

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Groom Law Joins Firms Matching New Milbank Associate Pay

By Tracey Read

Washington, D.C.-based Groom Law Group is the latest firm to match a new pay scale for associates that was set earlier this month by Milbank LLP, according to media reports Monday.

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9th Circ. Judge Faces Inquiry, Charges After Idaho Altercation

By Lauren Berg

The Ninth Circuit on Monday identified a judicial misconduct complaint against U.S. Circuit Judge Ryan D. Nelson after he was charged with misdemeanor battery stemming from an argument in an Idaho Falls parking lot that ended with him allegedly stomping a man's eyeglasses on the asphalt.

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King & Spalding May Be Sanctioned In $300M Fraud Lawsuit

By Aaron Keller

Two King & Spalding LLP partners face a sanctions hearing in a $300 million fraud lawsuit to determine whether they violated a rule requiring candor to the tribunal by falsely claiming attorneys for other parties were copied on letters to two Connecticut jurists, according to two state court orders.

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Another Lawmaker Joins Impeachment Push For Ga. Judge

By Courtney Bublé

A Republican House member on Monday introduced articles of impeachment for U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross of the Northern District of Georgia after she was reprimanded for having sex with a police officer in her chambers within earshot of staff.

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Colorado Gov. Signs Bill Banning Fee Sharing With Non-Attys

By Emma Cueto

Colorado has enacted a ban on lawyers sharing fees with nonlawyer-owned firms, such as alternative businesses in Arizona, as well as a prohibition on deals with managed services organizations that involve paying a percentage of firm income.

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Brief

Todd Blanche Officially Nominated To Be AG

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump on Monday officially nominated Todd Blanche to be attorney general.

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Trump Taps DC Appeals Court Picks To Fill Final Vacancies

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump has announced two picks for the D.C. Court of Appeals, which will fill the remaining vacancies on the District of Columbia's top court.

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Mich. Dems Back Trump Judicial Pick After Blue-Slip Review

By Courtney Bublé

Michigan's Democratic U.S. senators, Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin, announced on Monday they've returned their blue slips for the nomination of Michael Martin, a veteran career prosecutor, to be a judge in the Eastern District of Michigan.

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Chapman Law School Dean Says He Was Fired For Being Gay

By Hailey Konnath

The former dean of Chapman University's Dale E. Fowler School of Law says the university unlawfully fired him because he's gay and married to a man, according to a complaint filed in California state court.

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NJ Senators Advance Litigation Funding Disclosure Bill

By Carla Baranauckas

New Jersey state senators on Monday advanced legislation that would require disclosure of third-party litigation funding agreements over the objections of trial lawyers and litigation finance representatives, who warned that the bill could discourage funding for plaintiffs involved in costly cases.

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Law Student's Kirk Comment Discipline Stays During Appeal

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas federal judge on Monday kept intact a reprimand against a law student who allegedly celebrated following the death of Charlie Kirk during an appeal, saying that the student "again seeks the wrong remedy" in her request.

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100+ Ex-Prosecutors Question Chicago US Atty's Leadership

By Celeste Bott

More than 100 former Illinois federal prosecutors issued a statement Monday saying there's been a "failure of leadership" in the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago and that "once-forbidden political considerations are infecting prosecutorial decisions" in the wake of an Illinois federal judge accusing the office of mishandling grand jury proceedings in a case against six immigration activists.

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SCOTUSblog Founder Goldstein's Sentencing Delayed To July

By Jared Foretek

A Maryland federal judge has agreed to push SCOTUSblog founder Thomas Goldstein's sentencing to July, after federal prosecutors speculated that his defense attorneys might come to the previously scheduled June hearing and declare that they aren't ready to proceed.

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Titan Of The Plaintiffs Bar: Lieff Cabraser's Elizabeth Cabraser

By Emily Field

When Elizabeth Cabraser began working with Robert Lieff as a clerk at his small practice in Northern California in the late 1970s, fresh out of law school, her job was to help him dispose of his remaining cases so he could retire early and become a winemaker.

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