Deepfake Mocks Judge Spearheading Judiciary Deepfake Rule

By Jeff Overley

The New York federal judge developing policies for phony audiovisual materials revealed Thursday firsthand experience with the subject: an artificial intelligence video on social media that depicts him as a maniacal Nazi who recently sentenced a private equity executive to prison "for being a Republican."

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Justices Say FCC Fines Can Stand Without Jury Trial

By Christopher Cole

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Federal Communications Commission's authority to issue monetary penalties Thursday, knocking down challenges to nearly $200 million in fines against the Big Three wireless carriers for failing to protect consumer data privacy.

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Ecobee's $11.5M Thermostat IP Trial Loss Erased By Fed. Circ.

By Adam Lidgett

The Federal Circuit on Thursday threw out an $11.5 million award against Ecobee Technologies in a smart thermostat patent infringement suit from Ollnova Technologies, citing problems with the verdict form and how jurors were instructed to look at the patents.

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5th Circ. Unblocks Texas App Age-Check Law During Appeal

By Lauren Berg

The Fifth Circuit on Thursday paused an injunction halting a 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, saying the state will likely succeed in showing the district court erred in blocking the law.

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Meta Says Section 230 Foils Social Media Addiction Verdict

By Rae Ann Varona

Meta urged a Los Angeles judge on Thursday to toss a landmark verdict against the social media giant and Google for harming a young woman's mental health, saying it deserves a total victory under Section 230 because the plaintiff was addicted to third-party content, not the platforms themselves.

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Trump Era Worse Than McCarthy For Speech, Law Dean Says

By Bonnie Eslinger

The dean of UC Berkeley's law school told an audience of lawyers and artists on Thursday that America is experiencing "an unprecedented assault on the Constitution, on the First Amendment, and on freedom of speech," comparing the country under President Donald Trump unfavorably to the McCarthy era.

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Draft House Bill Aims To Set Federal AI Regulatory Standard

By Allison Grande

A bipartisan pair of House members Thursday released a draft proposal to create a federal framework for AI governance that would require large developers to take steps to address and disclose "catastrophic" risks while prohibiting states from crafting or enforcing laws "targeting the development of AI models" for three years.

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USPTO Mulling Certain Patent Apps After 'Atypical' Case

By Adam Lidgett

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is asking why it should keep reviewing patent applications that would not end up giving their owners rights to assert against alleged infringers, following a Federal Circuit decision in what the appellate court called an "atypical" appeal.

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NTIA Chief Presses To Close 'Gap' In Gov't Spectrum Fund

By Christopher Cole

The head of the U.S. Department of Commerce agency that manages federal spectrum pushed Thursday to change a legal provision that could delay the transfer of government-held airwaves to the private sector.

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Fed. Circ. Solidifies Google, Oath Wins In Arendi Patent Suits

By Adam Lidgett

The Federal Circuit on Thursday upheld Google LLC and Oath Holdings Inc.'s wins over Arendi SARL's lawsuits that accused them of infringing various data system patents, agreeing with a Delaware federal court that the patents weren't valid to begin with.

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Flyers Ask Full 5th Circ. To Rehear CrowdStrike IT Outage Suit

By Linda Chiem

Airline passengers have asked the full Fifth Circuit to review a panel decision rejecting their proposed class action alleging the cybersecurity firm behind 2024's crippling global IT outage should be held liable for stress and physical injuries they suffered while stranded by delayed or canceled flights.

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Meta Says 9th Circ. Needn't Revisit Facebook Genocide Ruling

By Mike Curley

Meta Platforms Inc. is fighting a petition from two women asking the Ninth Circuit for a full court rehearing of their suit alleging that Facebook's 2009 algorithms contributed to the destruction of their villages during the genocide of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, saying the circuit's interpretation of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act doesn't need revisiting.

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Judge Trims 2 Patents From Website Incentives Case

By Elliot Weld

A judge sitting in Delaware federal court has trimmed two out of three patents asserted by engagement agency BI Worldwide against Kobie Marketing Inc. that cover incentives offered by websites, ruling that they did not pass muster under the U.S. Supreme Court's Alice test.

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MAC Must Face Customer's Makeup Try-On BIPA Suit

By Lauraann Wood

A MAC Cosmetics customer can pursue Biometric Information Privacy Act allegations targeting virtual makeup try-on technology the company uses in store and online because she has plausibly alleged that the technology's face scans can be used to identify consumers, an Illinois federal judge said Thursday.

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Al Jazeera Beats DMCA Claim, For Now, In Storm Video Suit

By Ivan Moreno

A California federal judge has dismissed videographers' claim that Al Jazeera falsified copyright attribution on weather footage posted to YouTube, finding the plaintiffs failed to plausibly allege the network acted with intent to facilitate infringement, while giving them a chance to amend their complaint.

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Judge Won't Rethink Insurer's Duty To Cover Data Center Row

By Isaac Monterose

A California federal judge refused to allow Navigators Specialty Insurance Co. to file a reconsideration motion for a prior ruling that dismissed the insurer's claims in its coverage suit against a client company taken into arbitration over a California data center project.

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Tech Co. Settles Fired Worker's Sex Harassment Suit

By Grace Elletson

An ultrasonic technology company has agreed to settle a former employee's suit claiming she was fired after she rejected her boss's ongoing romantic advances and began looking into legal action against him, according to New York federal court filings.

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Texas Judge Shields Some ChatGPT Chats As Work Product

By José Luis Martínez

A Texas Business Court judge shielded from discovery some of a party's personal ChatGPT conversations in car dealership buyout litigation, saying that the chats were protected work product and that using the OpenAI tool did not itself waive that protection.

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Zillow Says Compass Won't Detail Talks With MLS

By Matthew Perlman

Zillow told an Illinois federal court that real estate brokerage Compass and a Chicago-area multiple listing service are refusing to document their communications with each other, even though they're accused of conspiring to block listings on Zillow's platform.

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PayPal Brass Sued Over Branded Checkout Disclosures

By Sydney Price

PayPal executives and directors were hit with a shareholder's derivative suit in Delaware federal court accusing them of damaging the company with positive comments about the growth potential of the company's branded checkout segment that were walked back earlier this year.

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Parking Cos. Face Privacy Class Action Over Plate Readers

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

Four private parking operators and technology vendors in Maryland are facing a proposed privacy class action after five drivers accused them of illegally pulling their personal information from the state DMV to send them invoices with exorbitant fees.

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ERMI Failed To Protect Patient Health Data, Class Action Says

By Kelcey Caulder

A medical services provider is facing a proposed class action in Georgia federal court over a 2025 data breach that allegedly exposed the protected health information of its patients, including diagnostic treatment information and provider names.

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JD Power Claims Chime's Bogus '#1' Banking Ads Rip Off TMs

By Dorothy Atkins

J.D. Power has hit Chime Financial Inc. with a lawsuit in New York federal court, accusing the fintech company of willfully infringing J.D. Power's trademarks to support a "widespread, multi-channel" deceptive advertising campaign falsely suggesting that the data analytics firm rated Chime "America's #1 Choice for Banking."

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Cannibas Co. Dutchie Is Biased Against Men, Suit Claims

By Jonathan Capriel

A project manager sued Oregon-based cannabis software company Dutchie on Thursday in Iowa federal court, saying he was paid less than a less-qualified female colleague and fired just days after complaining about the disparity.

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US Middle Market PE Surge Expected After Strong 2025

By Al Barbarino

U.S. middle market private equity dealmakers are signaling renewed optimism, with the vast majority expecting a meaningful jump in buyout activity over the next two years after a robust 2025, according to survey results published on Thursday. 

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Latham, Davis Polk Lead Quantinuum's Upsized $1.7B IPO

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Quantum computer developer Quantinuum hit the public markets on Thursday after raising $1.7 billion in its initial public offering steered by Latham & Watkins LLP and Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP.

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Brief

Simpson Thacher, Davis Polk Lead Liftoff Mobile's $437M IPO

By Nadia Dreid

AI-powered advertising platform Liftoff Mobile Inc. hit public markets Thursday, raising $437 million in its initial public offering that was steered by Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP and Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP.

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Inotiv Gets Cash Access To Pursue Ch. 11 Prepack Track

By Vince Sullivan

Bankrupt drug research and development company Inotiv Inc. received interim approval on Thursday to access a $25 million bankruptcy loan as it pursues a prepackaged balance sheet restructuring in Texas court.

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Live Nation Remedies Discovery To Wait On New Trial Motions

By Bryan Koenig

A New York federal judge said that state attorneys general will have to wait on discovery to bolster their bid for a Live Nation Entertainment Inc. breakup, preferring to first tackle the live music giant's bid to upend jury findings faulting the company for monopolizing the industry.

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Texas AG Says ActBlue 'Fraud' Outweighs Free-Speech Concern

By Julie Manganis

Counsel for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton urged a skeptical Massachusetts federal judge on Thursday not to block an enforcement action against Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue, arguing any "incidental" infringement of the group's First Amendment rights is outweighed by alleged evidence that it violated a Texas consumer protection law.

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DOJ Says Meta And Others Froze $3.8M Tied To Crypto Fraud

By Sydney Price

The U.S. Department of Justice announced that private sector corporations, including Meta Platforms Inc. and Google LLC, voluntarily froze over $3.8 million in stolen cryptocurrency during an event known as "Disruption Week."

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Compass Under Antitrust Probe After $1.6B Anywhere Deal

By Nate Beck

New York state has launched an antitrust investigation into Compass Inc. after the country's biggest real estate brokerage announced last year that it would acquire Anywhere Real Estate, the second-largest brokerage, in a $1.6 billion deal.

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Product-Or-Content Question Is Pivotal In AI Litigation

A growing range of civil cases against OpenAI address the question of whether the output of a generative artificial intelligence system is a product, subject to traditional tort doctrine, or third-party content — and the framing courts adopt will shape software liability well beyond AI, says David Meldofsky at Lawsuit Informer.

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FTC Sweep Signals Increased 'Made In USA' Claim Scrutiny

After the Federal Trade Commission's recent enforcement sweep targeting allegedly deceptive "Made in USA" claims, companies should expect continued scrutiny of both traditional and digital marketing channels, coupled with sustained focus on supply chain transparency and claim substantiation, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

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2nd Circ.'s Embedded Video Ruling May Protect Publishers

The Second Circuit's recent decision in Richardson v. Townsquare, dismissing an infringement claim arising from an embedding of a YouTube-hosted interview, reaffirms a potent defense for publishers who regularly use social media platforms' embed functionality, says Amanda Harris at Jassy Vick.

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Citron Founder Verdict Tests Reach Of 'Half-Truth' Fraud

A California federal jury's conviction this week of Citron founder Andrew Left may be remembered less as a conventional manipulation prosecution than as a case about how far the "half-truth" doctrine can reach when applied to modern market speech, says Elisha Kobre at Sheppard.

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Series

Competing At Poker Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Playing poker in male-dominated rooms taught me to treat skepticism as background noise when my opponents seem to underestimate me, to apply pressure when it matters and to adapt without losing strategic discipline — skills that are all indispensable in restructuring and insolvency matters, says Alexis Gambale at Pashman Stein.

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Quinn Emanuel, Texas Boutique Match Milbank Associate Pay

By Kevin Penton

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP and a Texas-based litigation boutique are the latest firms to match Milbank LLP's pay hikes for associates, with annual increases of $10,000 to $20,000 that top off at $455,000.

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Blanche's AG Bid Could Face Rocky Path In Senate

By Courtney Bublé

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche will be tapped for the permanent role, but he might not have a smooth path to confirmation.

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Goldstein Seeks Sentencing Delay, Citing New Tax Claims

By Jared Foretek

SCOTUSblog founder Thomas Goldstein renewed his push Wednesday in Maryland federal court for a delayed sentencing, saying prosecutors blindsided his defense by including additional uncharged years of alleged tax avoidance in the government's sentencing memorandum.

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Georgia Fed. Judge Facing Impeachment Threat, New DQ Bid

By Emily Johnson

A Georgia federal judge reportedly disciplined for having sexual intercourse in her chambers and attending a political event is facing renewed pressure, as a former UPS employee seeks her disqualification from his dismissed racial discrimination lawsuit and a Georgia congressman drafts articles of impeachment to remove her from the bench.

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Analysis

'Parallel' DOJ, SEC Investigations Not So Parallel Anymore

By Phillip Bantz

The level of coordination between the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has decreased under the Trump administration, resulting in disjointed investigatory efforts and misaligned timing in parallel investigations, experts say.

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'Kentucky Hammer' Tries To Control Attys, PI Market, Suit Says

By James Boyle

The principal attorney of personal injury firm Isaacs & Isaacs PCS, who advertises as the "Kentucky Hammer," has been accused by a former attorney at the firm of bullying his employees into signing unfavorable contracts and attempting to monopolize the local personal injury market.

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Baker Donelson Seeks 'No Recovery' Ruling In Ponzi Fallout

By Emily Sawicki

Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz PC on Thursday asked a Mississippi federal court to issue a single check-box form ruling that states the firm does not owe a monetary judgment stemming from a jury's verdict finding it committed negligent supervision amid a timber company's nine-figure Ponzi scheme, which was perpetrated in part by two of the firm's then-partners.

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Calif. Bar Accuses More Attys In Unlicensed Practice Scheme

By Lauren Berg

Three more attorneys at the Los Angeles personal injury firm facing investigation for its involvement in a record $4 billion sex abuse settlement against Los Angeles County are facing disciplinary charges by the State Bar of California, alleging the firm illegally practiced law outside the state.

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NY AG Must Preserve Cohen Docs In Trump's Civil Fraud Case

By Frank G. Runyeon

The New York state trial court judge overseeing President Donald Trump's civil fraud case granted his request to preserve notes from private meetings between state litigators and Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen after the key witness said he felt "pressured" to testify.

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SEC Disgorgement Powers Stay Intact After High Court Fight

By Jessica Corso

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday said that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission could collect ill-gotten gains from alleged fraudsters without having to identify victims who were financially harmed by the fraud, declining to place further limits on the agency's disgorgement powers six years after it last did so.

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Titan Of The Plaintiffs Bar: Robbins Geller's David Knotts

By Sydney Price

Right after graduating from Cornell University Law School, David Knotts, a native of Kansas City, Missouri, landed at one of the world's largest corporate defense firms.

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