Anthropic Judge Rejects Trump's Nat'l Security 'Blank Check'

By Lauren Berg

The U.S. Department of Defense's designation of Anthropic PBC as a supply chain risk to national security was not based on a credible threat, but rather was retaliation for the company's public criticism of the Trump administration's position in contract negotiations, a California federal judge ruled Thursday.

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5th Circ. Diverts From 9th Circ.'s Copyright Server Test

By Hailey Konnath

The Fifth Circuit Thursday refused to adopt what's known as the server test, which considers where online content is stored when assessing copyright liability, although it ultimately still declined to disturb a lower court's dismissal of copyright infringement claims against news aggregator NewsBreak.

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US Bank Should Face Ex-AI Chief's EEOC Claim, Judge Says

By Sydney Price

The former head of artificial intelligence at U.S. Bank should be allowed to proceed with his discrimination claim against the bank, a North Carolina magistrate judge recommended Thursday, adding that two other claims should be dismissed as not timely or not sufficiently pled.

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Meta Staves Off 3D Artist's AI Training Suit, For Now

By Elliot Weld

A California federal judge has dismissed a Los Angeles-based 3D artist's proposed class action alleging Meta Platforms Inc. removed copyright management information from art that was used to train artificial intelligence, but gave the artist a chance to cure the suit's issues.

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Quectel Owes $3M For Infringing Philips Patent, Jury Says

By Elliot Weld

A Delaware federal jury awarded $3 million in damages Thursday and found Quectel Wireless Solutions had willfully infringed a telecommunications patent held by Dutch consumer electronics giant Philips.

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Google Users' Atty Fee To Be In 'Realm' Of $147M, Judge Says

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal judge indicated Thursday that he won't give the full $147 million in fees sought by lawyers who won a $425 million class action verdict against Google for unlawfully collecting user information, but he said their "really excellent lawyering" deserves an amount "within that realm."

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AG Says Florida Won't Take Part In Meta's 'Weak' $17B Deal

By Jonathan Capriel

Florida will take no part in Meta's $17 billion social media addiction settlement, according to state Attorney General James Uthmeier, who has slammed the sum as "weak" and said the Sunshine State will not be bought off for "pennies on the dollar."

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FCC Ends Caption Reg On Public Channel Video Programmers

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission has scrapped a requirement that video programmers show they comply with closed captioning rules if they only provide content to local public, educational and governmental channels that are exempt from captioning mandates.

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SpaceX Seeks Green Light On Gen3 System

By Nadia Dreid

Since the FCC is already in the middle of overhauling its satellite licensing framework to presume applications are in the public interest if they follow certain rules, SpaceX wants the agency to apply that presumption to the 100,000-satellite constellation it has proposed.

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FCC Urged To Hold Off On New Subsea Cable Security Regs

By Elaine Briseño

A trade association for submarine cable owners and other groups urged the Federal Communications Commission to hold off on adopting more regulations for undersea communication cable equipment until more information is available.

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Charter Schools Blast Proposal To Limit E-Rate To Rural Areas

By Christopher Cole

Public charter schools told the Federal Communications Commission that the agency cannot pare back the E-Rate subsidy program to just rural areas because Congress meant the program to serve all low-income areas, including urban neighborhoods.

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OpenAI Leads Corporate Push To Bolster Cyber Defense

By Craig Clough

OpenAI and more than 100 other companies and organizations signed an open letter Thursday calling for a global surge in cyber defense, warning that artificial intelligence will make cyberattacks "more widespread and sophisticated" in the coming months.

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Fed. Circ. Hands Losses To Apple On 3 Smart Mobile Patents

By Adam Lidgett

Smart Mobile Technologies LLC came out victorious in a set of Federal Circuit decisions Thursday in a patent fight involving Apple Inc., with the appeals court refusing to revive the tech giant's challenges to certain patent claims and reversing the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's invalidation of other claims.

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2nd Circ. Backs Lyft In Wheelchair Access, Disability Bias Suit

By Linda Chiem

The Second Circuit on Thursday rejected certified class claims from Westchester County, New York, residents accusing Lyft of systematically discriminating against disabled riders, saying the plaintiffs' suggestions for increasing the availability of wheelchair-accessible vehicles weren't reasonable.

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Guardant Suits Against Tempus AI Clear Dismissal Bids

By Adam Lidgett

A Delaware federal judge has refused to throw out litigation accusing Tempus AI Inc. of infringing Guardant Health Inc. patents covering technology used to analyze cancer-related genetic data and help guide testing and treatment.

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Albright Cuts $9M IP Verdict Against GlobalFoundries To $1M

By Elliot Weld

A Texas federal judge has reduced a $9.2 million jury verdict against semiconductor-maker GlobalFoundries Inc. for patent infringement to $1 million, faulting several aspects of Katana Silicon Technologies LLC's damages theory.

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Health Co. Gets Partial Win In Suit Over $8.5M Food Tech Deal

By David Minsky

A Florida federal judge handed a partial win to a health information technologies services company and its board Thursday, tossing some claims that they cheated a Canadian business out of $8.5 million in equity after fraudulently inducing the sale of a subsidiary specializing in plant-based extrusion technology.

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Google Beats Cert. Bid Over User Tracking In Safari Browser

By Rae Ann Varona

A Delaware federal court denied class certification Thursday in a long-running litigation over allegations that Google bypassed privacy settings on Apple's Safari browser to track users without consent, saying the plaintiffs failed to show that the encryption keys Google destroyed would have provided a reliable way of identifying class members.

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VW Can't Toss Claims Audi E-Tron Batteries Are 'Time Bombs'

By Craig Clough

A Georgia federal judge refused to dismiss a proposed class action Thursday accusing Volkswagen Group of America Inc. of concealing and failing to adequately repair an alleged defect in the high-voltage batteries of certain Audi electric vehicles, keeping alive claims the autos are "ticking time bombs" that can lose power, short-circuit and catch fire.

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Data Brokers Can't Pause Judicial Privacy Law Fight

By Carla Baranauckas

A federal judge has denied a bid to pause dozens of lawsuits brought under the state's judicial privacy law, rejecting data brokers' request to stay the litigation while the Third Circuit weighs the statute's constitutionality.

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EV-Maker SPAC Investors Reach $4M Chancery Settlement

By Jarek Rutz

Former stockholders of the special purpose acquisition company that took electric vehicle manufacturer Lion Electric public have agreed to a $4 million cash settlement with seven individuals who served as Northern Genesis Acquisition Corp. directors, officers or alleged controllers to end Delaware Chancery Court claims over the 2021 deal.

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Womble Bond Asks To Drop Dutch Software Client Over Rift

By Hayley Fowler

Womble Bond Dickinson is looking to pull its representation of a Dutch software company after five years of a bitter trademark battle, citing a "fundamental disagreement" that has allegedly made it impossible for the firm to move forward as counsel of record.

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Boeing Calls Moon Tech Discovery Demand A 'Goose Chase'

By Ben Adlin

The Boeing Co. has pushed back against Colorado-based Wilson Aerospace's bid to force the disclosure of nearly 12 years' worth of financial records in an intellectual property dispute over technology used in a NASA moon exploration program, calling the discovery request "overbroad and unduly burdensome."

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Selena Gomez Says Wondermind Investor Suit Must Be Nixed

By Katryna Perera

Pop star Selena Gomez has urged a Delaware federal judge to toss securities fraud claims against her tied to the mental health startup Wondermind, saying she wasn't involved in the offering and suggesting that the plaintiffs may deserve sanctions for bringing "egregiously improper" claims against her.

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LGBCoin Defendant Says $75K Fee Bid In Suit Is Inflated

By Madison Arnold

The defendant who lost a default judgment earlier this month in favor of "Let's Go Brandon" meme coin investors has told a Florida federal judge that the plaintiffs' $75,000 fees request is too high.

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Ukrainians Still Can't Tie Cos. To Russian Missiles, TI Says

By Spencer Brewer

Several semiconductor manufacturers, including Mouser Electronics Inc. and Texas Instruments Inc., asked a Texas federal court to throw out claims brought by Ukrainian civilians alleging the companies' parts ended up in Russian missiles, saying the civilians failed to cure defects in their pleadings.

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Silver Lake Urges Chancery To Toss $1.7B Zuora Deal Suit

By Jarek Rutz

Silver Lake Group LLC and Zuora Inc. founder Tien Tzuo urged the Delaware Chancery Court on Thursday to throw out a stockholder suit challenging their $1.7 billion take-private deal, arguing the sale was protected by an independent special committee and an informed stockholder vote.

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XAI Trained Grok On Child Sex Abuse Images, Survivor Says

By Lauren Berg

Not only does Elon Musk's xAI knowingly allow Grok to create nonconsensual sexual images, including child sexual abuse material, it actually recycles those outputs to train the artificial intelligence chatbot and generate more abusive images, according to a new proposed class action filed in California federal court.

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Ex-Cannabis Tech Execs Say CEO Defamed Them After Firing

By Mike Curley

Two former executives at Alpine IQ Inc. are suing the company and its CEO in Colorado federal court, alleging they were defamed when he falsely accused them of stealing Alpine's intellectual property after he summarily fired them.

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Tech Insurance Co.'s 401(k) Paid Excessive Fees, Suit Says

By Patrick Hoff

An electronics insurance company's employee retirement plan was charged more than double the market rate for administrative services and loaded with underperforming funds offered by the recordkeeper, according to a proposed class action filed in Tennessee federal court.

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Amazon Sued Over Destroyed Meds, Leave And Bias Claims

By Kelcey Caulder

Amazon Web Services Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. have been sued in Georgia federal court by a disabled veteran who alleged Amazon "took and destroyed" his prescription medication and then forced him onto reduced-pay leave for six months and placed him on an unjustified performance plan for reporting what happened.

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Engineer Hits RTX With Age, Disability Bias Suit Over Ouster

By Julie Manganis

A former senior engineer for defense contractor RTX Corp. in Massachusetts says he was sidelined and then set up for termination after he disclosed he suffered from attention deficit disorder and later requested time off for surgery for another medical condition.

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Bank Says Late Notice Fumbled Data Breach Insurance Claim

By Gianna Ferrarin

An insurance services company caused a Milford, Connecticut, bank to lose insurance coverage for a data breach that affected nearly 12,000 of its customers by failing to timely report it, the bank says in a Wednesday complaint in Connecticut federal court.

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Satellite Comms Biz To Go Public Via $1B SPAC Merger

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Satellite communications company Astrum Space Inc. on Thursday revealed plans to go public by merging with special purpose acquisition company Black Spade Acquisition III Co. in a deal that gives Astrum an equity value of roughly $1 billion.

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Deals Rumor Mill

SoftBank Weighs Big Bet On Humanoid Maker, And More

By Al Barbarino

SoftBank is looking to acquire a majority stake in humanoid robotics developer 1X Technologies at a $6 billion valuation, investment bankers are shopping Warner Bros. Discovery assets around as Paramount Skydance seeks potential remedies in its effort to complete its $110 billion acquisition of the media company, and Vanguard Group is set to acquire fintech platform Altruist for around $4 billion.

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DOJ Can't Get Rethink On Apple Peek Into Fed Phone-Buying

By Bryan Koenig

A special master has refused to reconsider his New Jersey federal court mandate giving Apple a look into how the Pentagon, CIA, State Department and other agencies purchase smartphones, criticizing the Justice Department for trying to "split hairs" in contending the agencies aren't "party" to the monopolization lawsuit.

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Chamber Says FTC's Meta Appeal Trying To 'Rewrite' Law

By Bryan Koenig

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other amicus filers urged the D.C. Circuit not to revive the Federal Trade Commission monopolization lawsuit targeting Meta's purchases of WhatsApp and Instagram, taking issue Thursday with how the FTC characterizes social media competition, consumer behavior and the law allowing it to sue.

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Feds Want Ex-Google Engineer To Get Over 5 Yrs For AI Theft

By Dorothy Atkins

Prosecutors have urged a California federal judge to sentence ex-Google software engineer Linwei Ding to nearly 6 years in prison for stealing artificial intelligence trade secrets, while Ding argued that the government's suggestion is based on speculative evidence and he deserves only home confinement since he was acquitted of economic espionage.

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Colo. AG Accuses EarnIn Of Making Illegal Payday Loans

By Katryna Perera

Colorado's attorney general has accused the financial firm EarnIn of illegally providing "predatory" payday loans to tens of thousands of Coloradans through its earned wage access product, charging annual percentage rates of 1,000% or more.

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Brief

Telecoms Face FCC Call Block Over Robocall Compliance

By Nadia Dreid

The Federal Communications Commission has told nine different telecoms that they need to get right with their robocall mitigation database certifications or face being booted off U.S. networks.

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The Expanding Litigation Front Against The Data Center Boom

A survey of environmental and land use claims raised in disputes over data center projects across the country shows that the outcomes of these disputes will have significant implications not only for the future of data center development, but for infrastructure projects in general, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

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FTC IonQ Review Unearths A Divide In Vertical Merger Remedy

The Federal Trade Commission's recent split decision to close its investigation into the merger between IonQ and SkyWater Technology offers a candid window into how enforcers may approach vertical merger concerns after a string of difficult government cases, says Nicholas Cheolas at Wiley.

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Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: August Lessons

In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses seven recent rulings from cases involving Class Action Fairness Act jurisdiction, appellate jurisdiction, attorney fees and employment rights.

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Series

Taekwondo Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Taekwondo has taught me to recognize when to fight for a position and when to focus on finding a solution, and that the best outcomes are often achieved by solving problems — all of which has improved my work as a bankruptcy lawyer, mediator and Subchapter V trustee, says Amy Denton Mayer at Berger Singerman.

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McDermott Closing Health Policy Shop In DC

By Alison Knezevich

McDermott Will & Schulte is closing its healthcare lobbying and consulting shop after a dozen years in business.

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Feature

Rachael Rollins Pitches Scandal As Asset In Comeback Bid

By Taylor Bowie

Rachael Rollins rode a progressive wave to become Suffolk County's district attorney in 2019. After a scandal derailed her stint as Massachusetts U.S. attorney, she's trying to win her old DA post back, and leaning into her alleged ethical missteps as a resume boost.

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Calif. County Judges Recuse From Bias Suit Against DA's Office

By Patrick Hoff

The entire bench of a county court recused itself from a lawsuit alleging the San Francisco District Attorney's Office didn't take appropriate action when a Black employee reported a colleague's use of a racial slur, pushing the trial in the decade-old case to early October.

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'Exemplary Performance' Earns Google Users' Attys $146.8M

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal judge Friday awarded plaintiffs' attorneys $146.8 million in fees after they secured a $425 million jury verdict against Google LLC in a privacy class action covering about 98 million people, calling the one-third fee award "extraordinary" but justified given their "exemplary performance."

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House Eyes Vote To Lock Supreme Court At 9 Justices

By Courtney Bublé

The House returns from recess on Monday, and its agenda could include a vote to keep the number of U.S. Supreme Court justices at nine.

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Trump Denied New Bid To Federalize Hush Money Prosecution

By Pete Brush

A New York federal judge on Friday again denied President Donald Trump's bid to move his criminal hush money conviction out of state court, finding as he did earlier that a federal law defense that Trump was operating in his official capacity would be meritless.

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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 shoe brand Crocs bring an appeal against the chief executive of the U.K.'s Intellectual Property Office, singer Alanis Morissette sued by the former head of operations at Live Nation Israel and the son of convicted fraudster Guo Wengui file an appeal against the Chapter 11 trustee controlling his father's bankruptcy estate. 

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

KKR will pay a $250 million civil penalty to end allegations that it hid key documentation and entire transactions for merger notification. In the meantime, Apple told an Illinois federal judge that a recent Seventh Circuit decision affirming Samsung's win in a biometric privacy suit means the tech giant should prevail over similar claims. These are among the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

WilmerHale leads this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a California federal judge held that the U.S. Department of Defense's designation of Anthropic PBC as a supply chain risk to national security was retaliation for the company's public criticism of the Trump administration.

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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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