Apple Hit With Historic $5.7B Patent Verdict

By Adam Lidgett

A California federal jury said Friday that Apple owes a staggering $5.7 billion to headphone-maker Taction Technology Inc. after finding the tech giant infringed a pair of Taction's vibration technology patents, issuing the largest patent verdict in U.S. history.

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Meta Lied About Data Privacy, New Mexico Jury Finds

By Cara Salvatore

A New Mexico jury said Friday that Meta lied willfully on 26 different occasions regarding data privacy, hate speech, misinformation and Facebook's outside investigation of third-party app developers after the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

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TikTok To Pay At Least $100M, Curb Teen Use In Alabama Deal

By Lauren Berg

TikTok agreed to pay at least $100 million and implement usage limits, age verification and other safety measures in a landmark settlement to resolve Alabama's claims the social media platform harmed children and misled users about its safety, the state's attorney general announced Friday.

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DC Circ. Denies Anthropic's Security Risk Suit Against DOD

By Madeline Lyskawa

A divided D.C. Circuit panel ruled Friday the Pentagon was justified in citing national security concerns to exclude Anthropic's suite of Claude artificial intelligence models from its supply chain.

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US Backs Elon Musk In €120M EU Digital Transparency Case

By Sophia Dourou

The U.S. has announced it will join Elon Musk in a bid to overturn a €120 million ($137 million) fine imposed by the European Commission on social media platform X for breaching the bloc's digital transparency rules.

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Perplexity Stole Wake-Word Tech For AI Assistant, Suit Alleges

By Lauren Berg

Perplexity AI absconded with proprietary technology to create a wake-word system for its artificial intelligence assistant, a Swiss startup alleges in a trade secrets misappropriation lawsuit filed in California federal court in San Francisco.

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Astrana Health Reveals Spoofing Attack Targeting Private Data

By Allison Grande

An Astrana Health unit was the target of a "series" of social engineering cyberattacks in which hackers impersonated the company's employees to gain access to systems that contained private and confidential information about patients and others, the healthcare provider disclosed in a recent regulatory filing. 

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How A Calif. Ruling May Ease Court Reporter Shortage Effect

By Marco Poggio

A recent California Supreme Court ruling could help low-income litigants overcome a court reporter shortage that has left millions of hearings without an official record, undermining their chances of successfully appealing court decisions. For domestic violence survivors, advocates say, that record can mean the difference between challenging a potentially dangerous court order and having no viable path to appeal.

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FCC Insists DC District Lacks Jurisdiction In Fight With ABC

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission again urged a D.C. federal court to jettison ABC Inc.'s legal action claiming retaliation against the network over content disliked by President Donald Trump, saying case law shows the court has no jurisdiction over the dispute.

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Tech Co. Seeks FCC Reg Waiver For 'Silent Speech' Devices

By Christopher Cole

A technology firm has asked the Federal Communications Commission to waive part of its rules to allow it to market "silent speech," also known as lipsyncing, devices.

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US, China Agree To Trade Truce Extension, Greer Says

By Dylan Moroses

U.S. and Chinese negotiators agreed to temporarily extend a trade truce and provide preferential tariff treatment for a subset of goods bought and sold between the two countries while discussions continue on a broader trade agreement between the world's two largest economies, the top U.S. trade official said Friday.

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Google Win Over Online Ad Patent Case Upheld By Fed. Circ.

By Adam Lidgett

The Federal Circuit on Friday refused to revive an advertising management system company's infringement suit against Google and YouTube, agreeing with a California federal judge's finding that the claims at issue were invalid under the U.S. Supreme Court's Alice precedent.

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Fed. Circ. Backs Nixing Of Speech Patent In 'Hey Siri' Dispute

By Dani Kass

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board was right to fully invalidate a speech recognition patent that Apple stands accused of infringing, the Federal Circuit held Friday.

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9th Circ. OKs Class Cert. In Classmates.com Name Use Case

By Elliot Weld

The Ninth Circuit has approved a lower court's certification of a class of Californians suing over their names appearing in the yearbooks platform Classmates.com, rejecting a number of challenges from the website's operator, including that the lead plaintiff couldn't adequately represent the class.

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Southwest Investors Ask 5th Circ. To Revive 'Meltdown' Suit

By Bonnie Eslinger

Southwest Airlines investors have asked the Fifth Circuit to revive their securities fraud suit, alleging the airline's 2022 holiday travel "meltdown" stemmed from outdated technology and a flawed flight route structure, and that they have provided enough evidence showing the company made false statements to the public.

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Unions Urge 2nd Circ. To Back Reviving Uber, Lyft Driver Law

By Katherine Smith

A group of unions and workers' rights advocates has asked the Second Circuit to lift the block on a municipal ordinance banning Uber and Lyft from kicking drivers out of the app without a formal notice or an investigation, claiming the district court was wrong to stop the law.

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AI Mishap Has Judge Questioning 'Our Collective Character'

By Julie Manganis

A California attorney was barred from representing the plaintiffs in a Massachusetts insurance coverage dispute and ordered to pay legal costs of up to $10,000 to opposing counsel, after a federal judge found he relied on "inaccurate and fictitious" case cites and holdings in three filings.

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Cox Can't Recoup $15M In DMCA Suit Costs From Insurers

By David Aaro

A Georgia federal judge backed two insurers in a lawsuit by Cox Enterprises that alleged it was wrongly denied coverage for more than $15 million it racked up in separate litigation with a music publisher, saying the claims were not covered under Cox's policies.

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Apple Hit With Garnishment Order For $1.69M Wage Judgment

By Hayley Fowler

Apple was ordered Friday by a North Carolina federal judge to cease contract payments to an affiliated repair company that has allegedly failed to pony up a $1.69 million judgment in a wage and hour class action.

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Oura Can't Force Ex-CEO's Stock Option Suit To Arbitration

By Rae Ann Varona

A California federal judge Friday refused to make Oura's former CEO arbitrate his claims that the smart-ring maker ousted him and reneged on stock benefits, but tossed his claims that the company breached an employment agreement and an implied covenant to carry out the agreement in good faith.

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Judge Suggests No Injunction In Whirlpool Patent Suit

By Elliot Weld

A Texas federal magistrate judge has recommended not to grant an injunction to kitchen appliance company Whirlpool Corp. against Samsung in a case alleging the latter infringed patents covering dishwasher racks, finding there were "substantial questions" over whether the accused products were actually infringing and whether two of the patents were valid.

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Del. Chancery Says Curonix Owns Stimwave Shares

By Hilary Russ

The medical device company Curonix LLC has won its lawsuit against the founder of Stimwave Technologies Inc., with Delaware's Court of Chancery finding that the plaintiff is the rightful holder of 75,000 shares of the company it purchased in bankruptcy.

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eNASCAR Shop Says Rival Used Fake Name To Steal Car Data

By Hayley Fowler

A North Carolina company that builds digital race car setups for eNASCAR's competitive simulator racing series has accused the owner of a rival shop of using a fake name to pose as a customer in an elaborate ploy to steal its data.

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X.AI Sued Over Memphis-Area Data Center Noise

By Jonathan Capriel

Elon Musk's Colossus data centers and other xAI-operated facilities are "wreaking havoc" on Memphis-area communities, according to a federal lawsuit filed by homeowners who claim they are "plagued by excessive and offensive noise" at all hours.

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Pepsi Sued For Negligence Over Worker's 'Perverted Behavior'

By Kelcey Caulder

Pepsi has been sued in Georgia court by parents who say a vending machine worker took photographs and videos of middle and high school girls and then used artificial intelligence to modify those images into child pornography.

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Brief

Nvidia Wins Stay In AI Voice Data Class Action

By Celeste Bott

An Illinois federal judge granted Nvidia's motion to stay discovery pending his ruling on its bid to dismiss a suit claiming it used journalists' and voice actors' voices to train its artificial intelligence models without permission, saying the plaintiffs could have sought emergency relief if continued dissemination of the models was an urgent concern.

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Brief

Cold Storage Co. To Pay $5.25M To Settle Data Breach Lawsuit

By Kelcey Caulder

Americold Logistics LLC agreed to pay $5.25 million to settle a pair of proposed class actions alleging that lax cybersecurity at the cold storage giant led to two separate data breaches that impacted nearly 225,000 workers.

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Roundup

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

By Megan Norcott

The past week in London has seen Glencore Energy sue a refinery for allegedly defrauding it out of more than $236 million worth of crude oil, the former CEO of ankle-tag maker Big Technologies file a defamation claim against the company, and property investment group Hunter Jones hit by a claim from the Financial Conduct Authority. 

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Analysis

Prediction Market Regulators, Bad Actors In AI Arms Race

By Chris Villani

Artificial intelligence is playing an increasingly important role in policing prediction markets, and attorneys say that regulators and investigators are starting to effectively use the same technology that would-be bad actors have leveraged to try to score big with their bets.

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Roundup

Taxation With Representation: Kirkland, Latham, McDermott

By Zak Kostro

In this week's Taxation With Representation, Royal Caribbean invests billions in a joint venture with Sandals, Telix Pharmaceuticals buys ITM Isotope Technologies Munich, and Priority Technology makes a go-private deal with an investor group helmed by the company's chair and CEO.

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Roundup

Don't Miss It: Simpson Thacher, Latham Steer Hot Deals

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

A lot can happen in the world of mergers and acquisitions and equity fundraising over the course of a couple of weeks, and it's difficult to keep up with all the deals. Here, Law360 recaps the ones you may have missed, including transactions helmed by Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP and Latham & Watkins LLP.

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Dublin Power Co. Eaton Buying Italy's COL In €810M Deal

By Al Barbarino

Dublin-based power management company Eaton said Friday it has agreed to purchase Italian electric company COL Group from Oaktree Capital Management for an enterprise value of €810 million ($923 million).

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Ex-Soldier Gets 70-Month Sentence For Telecom Hack Scheme

By Rachel Riley

A Washington federal judge on Friday sentenced a former U.S. Army soldier to 70 months in prison and ordered him to pay nearly $300,000 in restitution for his role in extorting telecommunication companies by hacking their systems and holding sensitive data hostage for ransom.  

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Stinson Adds Engineering Pro To Patent Team In DC

By Jack Rodgers

Stinson LLP has bolstered its team in Washington, D.C., with a K&L Gates LLP intellectual property attorney who boasts an advanced electrical engineering degree that adds a technical perspective to her patent work.

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Hugging Face Attack Is A Warning To The Securities Markets

The recent Hugging Face cyberattack, in which OpenAI's artificial intelligence agents hacked a third party without human instruction, raises questions about how regulators could respond to a similar incident in the securities markets and whether there's a substitute for scienter if no person is behind a financial crime, says Joseph A. Hall at Davis Polk.

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FTC Push May Create Dual Origin-Claim Risks For Contractors

Recent Federal Trade Commission actions involving Made in USA advertising requirements offer a preview of enforcement themes that may impose dual compliance burdens on government contractors that are also subject to Federal Acquisition Regulation Buy American restrictions, says Amy Hoang at Seyfarth.

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Elder Fraud Risk And Pleading Lessons From Meta Cases

Michael Gilfix and Benjamin Gicqueau at Gilfix & La Poll discuss how a recent Meta youth settlement and an April decision involving social media harms to children may point to a broader pleading framework in cases of elder fraud, and offer practical measures for platforms and consumers seeking to reduce elder fraud risk.

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How To Improve Hiring Transparency Amid Ghost Job Scrutiny

Recent regulatory and state law scrutiny of ghost job postings for roles that don't exist or aren't being filled signals a shift toward hiring transparency, and employers that fail to adapt risk enforcement actions, consumer protection claims and financial penalties, say attorneys at Foley & Lardner.

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Beware Daubert Pitfalls With Technical Experts In Patent Suits

Recent decisions on Daubert motions in patent cases show that courts will exclude expert testimony that lacks a solid factual or methodological foundation, regardless of the expert's credentials — underscoring the importance of demonstrating reliability, say attorneys at Steptoe.

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Senior Lawyers Survey: Tell Us About Your Career

How are senior lawyers adapting to evolving career paths and emerging technologies? Share your perspective in this five-minute survey.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

O'Melveny & Myers LLP and Reed Smith LLP lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the Ninth Circuit overturned a $140 million class verdict against CenturyLink, holding that the company had a reasonable interpretation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

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Arkansas Firm 5th To Seal PE Deal With Uplift Investors

By Tracey Read

Arkansas' largest personal injury law firm is the latest legal entity to ink a deal to take private equity investment using Uplift Investors' associated management services organization.

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Tarter Krinsky Faces Suit After Disclosing Data Breach

By Andrea Keckley

Tarter Krinsky & Drogin LLP maintained "intentional opacity" about a recently disclosed cybersecurity attack last year that may have compromised protected health information, a proposed class action alleged in New York federal court.

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A2J At The High Court: Gun Bans, Voting And Civil Remedies

By Marco Poggio

From the right to own semiautomatic rifles to the rules governing voter registration, the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court term will see the justices tackle a broad swath of constitutional and access to justice issues.

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Domino Foods Fights Paul Weiss DQ Bid In Price-Fixing MDL

By Madison Arnold

Domino Foods is pushing back on an attempt to disqualify its counsel from Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP in a sugar price-fixing multidistrict litigation, arguing Hershey, J.M. Smucker and other food makers filed the motion as a "strategic attempt to gain tactical advantage" at a critical point in the dispute.

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Duane Morris To Settle Employee's Tax Withholding Claim

By Asha Glover

Duane Morris LLP has agreed to private mediation to settle a proposed class action by an employee who alleged that the firm failed to withhold taxes for workers who were misclassified as partners, according to a notice.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

Wilson Sonsini topped a list of law firms that have alumni attorneys working at six of the country's most prominent tech companies. And general counsel at most large companies expect to increase their litigation budgets next year.

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In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

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