DOJ Ad Tech Judge Won't Break Up Google's Biz

By Bryan Koenig

A Virginia federal judge on Wednesday refused to break up Google's advertising placement technology business, opting instead to grant the U.S. Department of Justice a litany of behavioral fixes aimed at limiting the search giant's ability to boost itself and the ads running through its own servers over ads from rival ad tech providers.

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Analysis

Online Embedders May Like 5th Circ.'s Pivot On Server Test

By Ivan Moreno

The Fifth Circuit last week rejected a 2007 copyright test that publishers have long criticized, but attorneys say the court's replacement may still leave news aggregators and apps that embed third-party content in a strong position while putting more pressure on rights holders to restrict content they don't want embedded elsewhere.

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DOJ Backs OpenAI, Microsoft Fair Use Defense In NYT IP Case

By Bonnie Eslinger

The federal government is weighing in on the sprawling copyright litigation against OpenAI Inc. and Microsoft Corp. in New York federal court brought by The New York Times and others, telling the judge that using copyrighted texts to train generative tools shouldn't expose developers to broad infringement liability.

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Fed. Circ. Backs Micron's PTAB Wins Over Netlist

By Dani Kass

Micron took home a series of wins at the Federal Circuit on Wednesday in its multifaceted patent battle against Netlist, with the court upholding invalidations of five computer memory patents.

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YouTube Ducks Music Co.'s Song Monetization Monopoly Suit

By Rae Ann Varona

A New York federal judge has tossed a content-creation music label's lawsuit accusing YouTube LLC of cornering an automated monetization services market for sound recordings, saying the label filed suit too late and otherwise failed to state a legally sufficient monopolization claim.

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Analysis

Trump Foreign Equipment Order Perplexes Power Cos.

By Keith Goldberg

The U.S. power industry is scrambling to make sense of President Donald Trump's sweeping executive order restricting imports of equipment used for the electricity grid, and attorneys say complying with the directive could ultimately make projects more expensive and take them longer to build.

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Analysis

FCC Staff Are Making Big Decisions, But The Tactic Isn't New

By Christopher Cole

When an arm of the Federal Communications Commission that deals with broadcast competition waived one of the country's signature media ownership rules without a full FCC vote this year, it wasn't the first time agency staff had been entrusted with a major decision by the FCC's politically appointed chair.

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Dems Call Subpoenas' Secrecy Request 'Abuse Of Authority'

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

Democratic lawmakers Sen. Ron Wyden, Ore., and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Wash., have called for an investigation into subpoenas issued from federal law enforcement to private companies that contain nondisclosure provisions and carry threats of legal consequences for noncompliance.

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USPTO Policies Spur Reps To Float Conditions On Fee Power

By Ryan Davis

Several lawmakers expressed concern at a hearing Wednesday about recent U.S. Patent and Trademark Office policies, including increased denials of patent reviews, and questioned if Congress should respond by putting conditions on the office's power to set its own fees.

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Lutnick Says Semiconductor Tariffs Are Coming, With Carveouts

By Jack McLoone

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Wednesday said the U.S. is looking to issue a broad tariff on semiconductors, though he also said it would be structured such that companies that commit to U.S. manufacturing would be exempt.

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FCC Backs Alaska Telecom GCI's Plan To Serve 10K More

By Nadia Dreid

Improvements in broadband infrastructure mean that Alaskan telecom GCI Holdings will be able to provide hybrid fiber-cellular service to 10,000 more people in the state, the telecom has told the Federal Communications Commission.

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FCC Floats 'Scorecard' To Deal With Robocall Deluge

By Christopher Cole

As the flood of robocalls continues, Federal Communications Commission leaders are considering a "scorecard" to let consumers rate their voice service providers as to how effectively they are blocking unwanted calls.

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GAO Says FCC Needs To Ease Broadband Map Issues

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

A U.S. Government Accountability Office report to congressional committees is recommending that the Federal Communications Commission work with smaller communities and providers in completing the challenge process to determine the accuracy of its mapping data.

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AT&T Asks To Cut Copper-Based VoIP Service In 20 States

By Nadia Dreid

AT&T is continuing with its plans to end its legacy copper-line telephone service across the United States, asking the Federal Communications Commission for permission to cut services that rely on copper wires in certain areas in 20 states.

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Wireless Provider Claims Utility Slowing Idaho Projects

By Christopher Cole

A wireless services provider claims a Washington-based public utility is slowing down its Idaho broadband deployments and charging excessive fees, asking the Federal Communications Commission to step in.

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Brief

14 Cos. Banned From US Networks Over Robocall Violations

By Nadia Dreid

More than a dozen voice service providers have been booted from U.S. networks after failing to follow Federal Communications Commission rules aimed at staunching the barrage of robocalls that assault Americans' phones every day.

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11th Circ. OKs Refusal Of $1.5M Offer To End $140M Tax Debt

By Kat Lucero

The Eleventh Circuit rebuffed a software company founder's $1.5 million offer to settle his $140 million tax debt from 1999, ruling Wednesday that the IRS properly rejected the lowball offer in a case tied to sham arrangements.

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Contractor Seeks Redo After Fed. Circ. Vacates $12.7M Award

By Madeline Lyskawa

A software developer has urged the en banc Federal Circuit to rethink a panel's decision vacating a $12.7 million award against the federal government over unauthorized copies of the company's software, saying the panel wrongly endorsed a hypothetical negotiation between the parties to calculate damages.

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Avaya Execs Beat Investor Suit Over Failed Tech Transition

By Katryna Perera

A New York federal court has dismissed a shareholder lawsuit against two former Avaya Holdings Corp. executives, who were accused of misleading investors about the success of the North Carolina-based company's transition from a telecom to a technology firm prior to its bankruptcy filing, finding all challenged statements were forward-looking or inactionable.

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Fla. Driver's Conviction Upheld Over 'Intentional' Gate Damage

By Gina Kim

A rideshare driver who damaged a malfunctioning community gate could have stopped trying to force it open or called the police for help, a Florida state appeals court said Wednesday in upholding the driver's felony conviction for criminal mischief.

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VLSI Presses Court For Full Anonymous Report In Intel Row

By Theresa Schliep

VLSI has urged a D.C. federal court to force the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to release an unredacted version of a report alleging a connection between Intel and a company that successfully challenged a VLSI patent at issue in a multibillion-dollar infringement case.

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Walmart Says IP Suit Docs Can't Be Used In Malpractice Case

By Elliot Weld

Walmart has asked an Arkansas federal court to order food tech startup Zest Labs to comply with a protective order from the parties' settled trade secret dispute and block it from disclosing Walmart's confidential information in Zest's malpractice suit against its former attorneys.

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STMicro Investors Seek Cert. In Suit Over COVID Market Drop

By Gina Kim

Investors in semiconductor manufacturing company STMicroelectronics have asked a New York federal judge to certify their securities class action alleging company executives failed to acknowledge pandemic-related semiconductor chip demand declines, arguing they all relied upon the executives' public misrepresentations to purchase company shares. 

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Cruise Says GM Investors Can't Pursue Robotaxi Fraud Suit

By Linda Chiem

Cruise LLC told a Michigan federal judge Tuesday that lead plaintiffs lack standing to pursue their securities fraud class action alleging General Motors Co.'s self-driving car unit misrepresented the technological capabilities and commercial readiness of its robotaxis, and that their class certification bid should be rejected.

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Crypto Mine Noise Suit Belongs In State Court, Neighbors Say

By Hayley Fowler

Residents of a North Carolina town suing over allegedly excessive noise coming from a nearby cryptocurrency mining and AI data center want their lawsuit bumped back down to state court, arguing the damages they're seeking fall short of the threshold required for federal jurisdiction.

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Mich. City Says New Rules Moot Developer's Data Center Suit

By Charlie Innis

The city of Wixom said in Michigan federal court Tuesday that a developer's exclusionary zoning and due process claims over its recently enacted data center moratorium and subsequent denial of a waiver are not viable because they focus on an unapproved site plan under old rules.

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Snap Mobile Skims From Online Fundraisers, Donor Claims

By Ben Adlin

A Washington woman who donated through Snap Mobile's online fundraising platform filed a proposed class action claiming that the company deceptively skims up to 20% of donations as a platform fee on top of a 4% processing fee and a prepopulated "tip" that users must affirmatively decline.

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PayPal Lets Tech 'Invisibly' Track Venmo Users, Suit Says

By Katryna Perera

PayPal misled users about third-party tracking technologies embedded in its payment platform Venmo and how their personal information was disclosed to third parties, according to a new suit filed in California federal court.

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Brief

Trading Firm To Seek Justices' Input On Arbitration Questions

By Lauraann Wood

The Seventh Circuit said Wednesday that it will wait to make its arbitration rejection official so a Chicago trading firm can ask the U.S. Supreme Court to determine whether it was correctly ordered to litigate proposed class securities manipulation accusations.

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Buchanan, Davis Polk Steer Vertiv-UIG Deal Worth Up To $2.6B

By Al Barbarino

Vertiv Holdings Co. said Wednesday that it has agreed to acquire UtilityInnovation Group, a provider of microgrid controls and behind-the-meter power systems for data centers, for about $1.45 billion in cash at closing plus up to $1.15 billion in additional consideration tied to earnings targets.

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Wonderful, An AI Operating System Provider, Raises $550M

By Matt Perez

Wonderful, which provides an artificial intelligence operating system for enterprise companies, announced Wednesday the raising of $550 million in a Series C funding round that valued the Amsterdam-based startup at $5 billion.

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8th Circ. OKs 15-Year Sentence For Facebook Body Part Seller

By Parker Quinlan

The Eighth Circuit has ruled that an apprentice mortician sentenced to 15 years in prison for selling human remains on Facebook must stay in prison, because even though the punishment is an upward departure from sentencing guidelines, it is fair based on the nature of the crime.

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Split 9th Circ. Curbs Foreign Asset Forfeiture Without Control

By Hailey Konnath

A split Ninth Circuit panel Wednesday held that courts must determine that they have, at the very least, constructive control over a foreign defendant's property to establish jurisdiction in a forfeiture case, pointing to the Fifth Amendment's due process clause.

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Kroger, Costco, Major Grocers Added To DOJ Beef Price Probe

By Lauren Berg

The U.S. Department of Justice expanded its investigation into potential anticompetitive conduct in the American beef industry to include The Kroger Co., Walmart, Costco Wholesale Corp. and five other major grocers.

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NJ AG Seeks Expedited Discovery In Amazon Antitrust Suit

By Katherine Smith

New Jersey's attorney general has asked a federal court for leave to file a motion for expedited discovery in a federal antitrust suit claiming that Amazon has unlawfully maintained its dominant buying power in the delivery driver services market, claiming there is an "immediate need" for discovery in the case.

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3 Lessons From Crypto For Attys Entering The AI Space

Lawyers transitioning into roles at artificial intelligence companies can take several lessons from the evolution of the cryptocurrency space on how to manage regulatory ambiguity, weigh open-versus-closed technology models and build compliance safeguards as AI rules take shape, says Rebecca Rettig at Jito Labs.

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Scope Issues For Cos. To Consider Ahead Of Cyber Rules

As the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency finalizes its proposed Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act rules, organizations can take steps to navigate the uncertainty that stems from inconsistent critical infrastructure sector definitions and overlapping sector boundaries, say attorneys at Wiley.

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Thomson Reuters Cyberattack Hits North American Courts

By Bonnie Eslinger

A recent cyberattack on Thomson Reuters' court management software affected files associated with court systems in 11 states, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Canada, and may have exposed sealed documents and individuals' personal information, according to a Wednesday announcement from the technology and information services company.

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Calif. Bill Regulating Atty AI Use Heads To Newsom's Desk

By Emily Sawicki

A bill regulating attorneys' and arbitrators' use of generative artificial intelligence has unanimously passed the California State Legislature and is headed to Gov. Gavin Newsom's desk.

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'Astonished' Homebuyer Says Atty Email Lapse Caused Hack

By Pete Brush

A New York City law firm has been ordered to provide internet security and login information to a homebuyer who claims she was left in "shock" when an impostor with access to her lawyer's email tricked her into wiring away over $730,000.

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House Rejects Amendment To Fix Court At 9 Justices

By Courtney Bublé

The House failed to pass a proposed constitutional amendment on Wednesday that would keep the number of U.S. Supreme Court justices at nine.

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Tyson's Price-Fixing Deal Merits $27.5M Atty Fees, Buyers Say

By Dorothy Atkins

Beef direct purchasers asked a Minnesota federal judge Tuesday to award class counsel $27.5 million in fees, or one-third of Tyson's $82.5 million price-fixing settlement, arguing that the deal was reached after six years of hard-fought antitrust litigation and adds to another settlement, bringing the total recovery to $135 million.

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JPMorgan Seeks Stay Of $20M Javice, Amar Fee Order

By Jarek Rutz

JPMorgan Chase & Co. urged the Delaware Chancery Court on Wednesday to pause enforcement of an order requiring it to advance more than $20 million in disputed legal fees to convicted Frank founder Charlie Javice and former executive Olivier Amar, arguing the bank could permanently lose the money before it gets a chance to challenge the ruling.

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ABA Outlines Attys' Duties To Clients With Intellectual Limits

By Jack Karp

Attorneys have the same obligations to clients with decision-making limitations, should abide by those clients' decisions regarding their representation and must work to maintain an ordinary client-lawyer relationship as much as possible, the American Bar Association said in an opinion released Wednesday.

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