Block Seeks $764M Deal To End DOJ Cash App Fraud Probe

By Lauren Berg

Jack Dorsey's Block Inc. revealed in an investor filing Tuesday it has reached a tentative deal to resolve a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into claims that it ignored fraud on its Cash App, outlining terms that include a deferred prosecution agreement and payment of more than $760 million.

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Justices To Hear Apple App Store Contempt Case In January

By Matthew Perlman

The U.S. Supreme Court has scheduled an argument on Jan. 11 for Apple's challenge to a contempt order issued for allegedly trying to use high commissions to prevent app developers from steering users to outside payment methods in a case brought by Epic Games.

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Approach The Bench: Judge Wilson On Trial By Zoom

By Cara Bayles and Kelley Marcano

Before she became a state court judge in Washington, Judge Coreen Wilson worked as a trial attorney litigating hundreds of cases, including the country's first binding virtual civil jury trial during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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9th Circ. Told Apple Stock Awards Belong In OT Pay

By MJ Koo

Hourly Apple workers have asked the Ninth Circuit to revive their claims that the tech giant underpaid them for overtime by excluding the value of company stock they received, arguing that a lower court wrongly allowed Apple to exclude the stock awards from overtime calculations.

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New Calif. Governor Promises Litigation-Heavy Agenda

By Hailey Konnath

Former state attorney general and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra's projected win in the California governor's race Tuesday night tees up fresh legal battles with the Trump administration and puts immigration, insurance and artificial intelligence policy at the top of lawyers' watch lists.

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Calif. AG Rob Bonta Wins 2nd Term Over Michael Gates

By Bonnie Eslinger

California voters on Tuesday handed state Attorney General Rob Bonta a decisive reelection win over an Orange County city administrator who briefly served as a U.S. Department of Justice deputy assistant attorney general during the current Trump administration.

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Democrat Nathan Johnson Wins Race For Texas AG

By Spencer Brewer

Democratic candidate Nathan Johnson beat his Republican opponent in the race for Texas attorney general on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press. 

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Ohio Voters Limit Data Centers In Ballot Question Test

By Nate Beck

In Tuesday Ohio ballot questions, voters broadly opposed building new data center projects, including those for Amazon and Meta, in an electoral test for the buildout of artificial intelligence infrastructure.

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Squires Grants 4 IPRs, Denies 6 Before Handing Over Power

By Dani Kass

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires on Tuesday instituted four inter partes reviews in what could be the final petitions for which he reviews the merits.

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Dems Win Control Of Georgia Public Service Commission

By Gautama Mehta

Voters in Georgia flipped Republican control of the state's Public Service Commission, which regulates investor-owned utilities, in a pair of races that attracted unusually high political spending amid rising electricity prices and a massive data center buildout.

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Dems Interrogate McDonald's CEO On AI-Driven Pricing

By Hailey Konnath

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Rep. Becca Balint and other Democrats sent a letter to McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski, pressing him on the company's use of artificial intelligence-driven pricing recommendations and how it assesses potential harm to consumers and competition.

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FCC Evaluating Plan To Boost Drones In 3 Spectrum Bands

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

The Federal Communications Commission is evaluating a draft plan to update rules for three spectrum bands to make it easier to deploy drones as well as expand broadband connectivity in aviation.

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Calif. OK With Broadband Rules, But Not Net Neutrality Limits

By Nadia Dreid

California has told the National Telecommunications and Information Administration that it will accept the $1.8 billion it has been allocated under the federal broadband access program, but it doesn't believe that it has to stop enforcing its state consumer protection laws, including the ones related to net neutrality.

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Low-Power Stations Resist Sinclair Call For ATSC Mandate

By Christopher Cole

Low-power stations told the Federal Communications Commission they would stand behind a decision by full-power broadcasters to adopt the next-generation TV transmission standard, but urged the agency not to apply a federal sunset of the older standard to LPTV.

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Challengers Urge FCC To Zero Out Subsidy Fund Fees

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

A conservative litigation group challenging the Universal Service Fund asked the Federal Communications Commission Tuesday to zero out the fees supporting the fund next quarter.

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Brief

Cruz Tees Up Hearing For 3rd FCC Republican

By Christopher Cole

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Tuesday announced a confirmation hearing next week for a third Republican nominee to the Federal Communications Commission.

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Brief

China, Peru Modernize Free Trade Agreement

By Jack McLoone

China and Peru have updated their bilateral trade treaty to both update existing provisions and add new ones aimed at addressing changes in commerce and global trade since the deal was first reached in 2009, the two countries said.

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1st Circ. Won't Revive Sex Bias Suit Against Benefits Co.

By Patrick Hoff

The First Circuit refused to reinstate a lawsuit from a data architect who said a health benefits company fired her because she's a woman, saying she hadn't alleged that colleagues responsible for "stray" sexist comments played a role in her termination.

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2nd Circ. Revives SS&C Trade Secret Suit Against Arcesium

By Adam Lidgett

Financial software company SS&C can pursue its suit alleging fintech firm Arcesium misappropriated trade secrets from its software program, Geneva, to build a rival product, Trinity, the Second Circuit ruled Tuesday.

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Chanel Keeps $4M Win Against Luxury Reseller At 2nd Circ.

By Lauren Berg

The Second Circuit on Tuesday upheld a New York federal jury's verdict ordering a luxury reseller to pay Chanel Inc. $4 million for selling unauthorized handbags, but vacated as "premature" the trial court's award of more than $560,000 in litigation expenses to Chanel.

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11th Circ. Hints Ga. Tech Auditors Are Wrong Targets Of Suit

By David Aaro

The Eleventh Circuit seemed reluctant Tuesday to reinstate a malicious prosecution case from a former Georgia Tech professor who was accused but not convicted of selling off microchips the school paid for, suggesting the auditors he'd gone after weren't the right targets for his suit.

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Lockheed To Pay $29.5M Over Alleged DEI Bias Practices

By Craig Clough

Lockheed Martin Corp. agreed to pay $29.5 million under two settlements announced Monday by the U.S. Department of Justice over allegations that the defense contractor considered race or sex in some pay, hiring and promotion decisions while certifying compliance with federal antidiscrimination requirements

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Apple Gets Sync Streaming App's Antitrust Suit Sent To Calif.

By Rae Ann Varona

A New Jersey federal judge on Tuesday granted Apple Inc.'s bid to transfer a communal streaming app developer's antitrust lawsuit against it to California, saying "court congestion" and "local interest" weigh in favor of moving the case to the Golden State.

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Meta Can't Send Texas Sex Trafficking Case To Calif.

By Mike Curley

Meta Platforms Inc. can't get a sex trafficking case against it dismissed to be refiled in California court, a Texas appeals court ruled on Tuesday, finding the social media company waived its forum-selection clause by taking the case to Texas's highest court.

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Rivian Brass Reaches Deal To End Post-IPO Price Hike Suit

By Sydney Price

Rivian Automotive Inc. executives and the company's investors Tuesday filed a notice telling a California federal court they reached a settlement to end derivative claims Rivian hid the true price of manufacturing its electric vehicles ahead of its initial public offering.

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AI Co. Suno Seeks Toss Of Musicians' Claims It Copies Styles

By Ben Adlin

Artificial intelligence music service Suno Inc. urged a Massachusetts federal judge to throw out a proposed class action accusing the company of copying musicians' identifying attributes, arguing that U.S. copyright law does not protect a musician's artistic style.

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Nonprofits Seek To Halt Texas Data Center Support Projects

By Isaac Monterose

Public Citizen and the Sierra Club urged a Texas federal court to pause the construction of power plants and backup diesel generators for two data center campuses in the state, claiming their members will be harmed if the work continues.

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Texas Residents Say SpaceX Knew Launches Were Too Loud

By Mike Curley

A group of Texas homeowners is pushing back against SpaceX's bid to throw out their noneconomic damages in a suit alleging that its space launches were loud enough to damage their homes, saying the Elon Musk-owned company knew about the dangers but pressed on anyway.

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Energy Co. Directors Sued Over China Supply Chain Claims

By Keith Goldberg

The top brass of Bloom Energy Corp. on Tuesday were hit with another lawsuit claiming they misled shareholders by understating the extent to which the renewable energy company depended on Chinese scandium, a critical raw material used in its fuel cells.

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Judge Removes Boies Schiller As Class Counsel In AI Case

By Elliot Weld

A California federal judge has revoked Boies Schiller Flexner's status as interim class counsel for a group of authors suing Meta with allegations that their works were used without permission to train artificial intelligence, several months after the judge criticized the firm for how long it took to add a contributory infringement claim to the case.

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Brief

Uber, Photographers Cut Deal In Suit Over Uber Eats Photos

By Theresa Schliep

Nearly two dozen photographers have reached a settlement in principle with Uber over claims that the company used their photos on Uber Eats without permission and infringed their copyrights, according to a joint notice the parties filed in Florida federal court Tuesday.

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Latham-Led AI Startup Valued At $3.25B After Funding Round

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Artificial intelligence company Applied Compute, advised by Latham & Watkins LLP, revealed that it has reached a $3.25 billion valuation after securing $350 million in its latest funding round.

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Patent Suits Highlight Risks Across Data Center Supply Chain

Recent patent disputes involving technologies that support artificial intelligence data centers showcase the growing litigation risks that data center suppliers and operators face, and raise questions about how litigation responsibilities may be allocated between them, say attorneys at Katten.

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10 Ways AI Labs Can Limit Antitrust Risks Of Safety Pacts

The OpenAI CEO’s recent call for artificial intelligence laboratories to collectively slow development to allow safety research to catch up invites antitrust scrutiny, but the risks to coordinating competitors can be managed by carefully structuring pacing agreements and layering their approach to compliance, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

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How Cos. Using AI Agents Can Avoid Protected Data Incidents

For businesses whose deployed artificial intelligence agents could enter other companies' systems and steal protected data, deployers can take several steps before an incident to test the configured agent, such as limiting it to approved systems and destinations and requiring human escalation when tasks stall, says Steven Carlson at von Briesen & Roper.

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Courts Signal Higher FCRA Bar For Identity Theft Claims

Recent rulings adopting a heightened, "objectively and readily verifiable" inaccuracy standard may give credit furnishers stronger defenses to identity theft-related Fair Credit Reporting Act claims in the Ninth Circuit, while requiring them to continue documenting thorough dispute investigations, says Brian Kiolbasa at Ballard Spahr.

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DOJ Says Trump Adviser Needn't Answer ABA Subpoenas Yet

By Jared Foretek

The U.S. Department of Justice is arguing that Trump attorney Boris Epshteyn shouldn't have to respond to subpoenas from the American Bar Association in its challenge to the Trump administration's campaign against law firms until the presiding judge rules on the administration's preexisting motion to quash them.

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Judge Questions Federal Role In Ed Martin Ethics Case

By Jared Foretek

A D.C. federal judge struggled Tuesday to see how he could preside over a state attorney ethics proceeding if U.S. pardon attorney Ed Martin gets his way and keeps the case in federal court, as the city's ethics board fought to have it sent back to state court.

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Brownstein Hyatt Faces Suit Over Flawed Cannabis Co. Deal

By Rachel Konieczny

A Colorado real estate developer and his company alleged that Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP negligently drafted their settlement agreement in a dispute with members of cannabis dispensary chain Native Roots over a sale of the chain's entities, resulting in a roughly $100 million arbitration award against the developer's company.

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Texas Atty Seeks Release In Cyberstalking Case

By Lynn LaRowe

A Texas lawyer who is expected to plead guilty in a cyberstalking case involving BigLaw firm attorneys is asking a federal court to free her, saying circumstances are "materially different" because of mental health treatment she has received while behind bars.

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Adult Daycare Pushes To Revive Suit Against Fox Rothschild

By Rose Krebs

An adult daycare company is asking a New Jersey state court to undo the toss of its suit against Fox Rothschild LLP and one of its attorneys, saying the dismissal was in error because the business had sought more time to respond to a dismissal motion.

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Volunteer Exits Malicious Prosecution Suit Naming DLA Piper

By Craig Clough

A Los Angeles judge on Tuesday tossed a malicious prosecution claim against a former volunteer for Breaking Code Silence on free speech grounds, even as he called the broader case against DLA Piper and the nonprofit "stronger than most."

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Ashurst Perkins ICap Suit Stayed Amid Bankruptcy Fight

By Ben Adlin

A Washington state judge has agreed to freeze a lawsuit accusing law firm Ashurst Perkins Coie of aiding and abetting a nearly $230 million Ponzi scheme, ordering the King County Superior Court litigation be put on hold pending an outcome in a related bankruptcy dispute.

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Roundup

The Top In-House Hires Of October

By Michele Gorman

Legal department hires during the past month included high-profile appointments at Fox, Dell and LinkedIn. Here, Law360 Pulse looks at some of the top in-house announcements from October.

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