Interview

ABA Cyber Task Force Co-Chair Eyes AI Education Boost

By Allison Grande

With the legal industry presenting a more and more enticing target for cyberattacks, it's becoming increasingly important for practitioners to know how to best protect clients' data and most effectively use emerging artificial intelligence tools — a task that the American Bar Association's Cybersecurity Legal Task Force is well positioned to assist with, its incoming co-chair recently told Law360.

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High Court Urged To Take Target Case For Alice Look

By Adam Lidgett

The U.S. Supreme Court should clarify its own Alice test regarding patent eligibility, according to the owner of a series of patents covering ways of finding products within a store that were invalidated under the standard in a suit against Target.

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Fed. Circ. Questions Medical Training Co.'s $100M Deal Theory

By Ivan Moreno

A medical training startup urged the Federal Circuit on Friday to revive claims accusing Galderma of a "classic catch-and-kill strategy" to derail what it says could have been a $100 million deal with Allergan, but a three-judge panel questioned whether that theory had been properly presented below.

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Meta 'Voiceprint' Privacy Suit Turns On Use Terms, Judge Says

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal judge mulling Meta's motion to dismiss a proposed class action claiming the tech giant secretly and unlawfully captures Facebook users' "voiceprints" and related biometric information said he'd review the social media platform's privacy and use terms, which he said would be "controlling."

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TikTok Let Minors See Harmful Content, Texas Judge Finds

By Jonathan Capriel

Texas scored significant wins in its lawsuit accusing TikTok of exposing children to harmful content while misrepresenting the app's safety, with a state judge ruling that the social media company violated state law by misleading consumers about its content-moderation practices and the effectiveness of its "restricted mode" feature.

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In-House Atty Org. Says Rival Ripped Off Data For AI Tool

By Andrea Keckley

The Association of Corporate Counsel alleges in Delaware federal court that its competitor used the nonprofit's proprietary materials to train its artificial intelligence tool Lloyd and "brazenly promoted its Lloyd product by showing the public that ACC materials could be accessed via Lloyd."

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Analysis

'Creative' Settlement Path For EPRs Shows Wording Risks

By Dani Kass

T-Mobile's use of a contingency payment to end patent litigation with Kaifi LLC highlights the difficulty of alleged infringers challenging patents through ex parte reexaminations, a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office proceeding where they have no control, attorneys say.

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Trump Admin Pulls Back Obama-Era Spectrum Policy

By Nadia Dreid

The White House is retracting an Obama-era guidance that it says makes it harder for the government to repurpose spectrum in a move that it says will "dramatically improve" the process of turning federally used spectrum usable for 6G.

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Va. Agency Tells FCC Verizon Copper Retirement Affects 150K

By Nadia Dreid

The Virginia State Corporation Commission is wary about Verizon's plan to end all legacy copper line service in the commonwealth, telling the Federal Communications Commission that 5% of the mobile behemoth's customers in the state still use wireline services.

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Brief

Senate Committee Soon Taking Up Anti-Jawboning Bill

By Christopher Cole

A key U.S. Senate panel on communications issues plans Sept. 16 to vote on a bill that would seek to prevent government officials from exerting undue influence over news organizations and social media platforms.

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Split Fed. Circ. Backs Amazon's Win Over Network Patent Suit

By Theresa Schliep

A split Federal Circuit panel Friday upheld Amazon's escape from an infringement case over an AlterWAN Inc. network patent, with the dissenting judge saying the panel needlessly went "down the rabbit hole" and arrived at a "flat wrong" claim construction.

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FCC Can't Avoid Final Order On Fox Philly Issue, Court Told

By Christopher Cole

A media advocacy group told the D.C. Circuit on Friday that the Federal Communications Commission cannot sidestep its duty to issue a final order on whether to dismiss a petition over Fox TV's character fitness for a broadcast license in Philadelphia.

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Lemonade Gets Final OK For $10.5M Data Breach Settlement

By Mike Curley

A New York federal judge has granted final approval to a $10.5 million settlement to end consolidated claims that Lemonade Inc. negligently exposed 190,000 people's driver's license numbers to cybercriminals.

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Co. Ordered To Pay Dating Sites $821K Fees They're Owed

By Elliot Weld

A patent-holding company has been ordered to pay about $821,000 in attorney fees and costs to eHarmony and corporate sibling The Meet Group after its patent infringement suits failed in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's Alice test.

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Ex-Tech Co. Workers Nab Class Cert. In 401(k) Fee Suit

By Patrick Hoff

A duo of former NCR Corp. workers can represent a 15,000-member class in their lawsuit accusing the company's retirement plan committee of saddling the employee 401(k) plan with excessive recordkeeping fees, a Georgia federal judge ruled.

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IRS Can Withhold Docs That May Air Taxpayer ID, Court Rules

By Zak Kostro

The IRS may withhold documents sought by a tax news publisher, a Washington, D.C., federal judge said, finding the subject is prominent enough that disclosing the records could allow the taxpayer to be identified using a former IRS contractor's leak of President Donald Trump's tax returns and thousands of others.

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X Wins Arbitration Bid In $500M Severance Suit

By Benjamin Morse

A former Twitter employee must arbitrate a suit seeking more than $500 million in severance the company promised after Elon Musk's takeover, a Delaware federal court ruled Friday, rejecting the worker's argument that the company had already refused arbitration.

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Patent Co. Says 'Prejudicial Errors' Merit New DoorDash Trial

By Elliot Weld

A patent-holding company has asked a Texas federal judge to order a new infringement trial against DoorDash and grant it a favorable judgment on its enablement defense, arguing that the food delivery giant's conduct led to "prejudicial errors."

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US Bank Objects To Ex-AI Chief's Untimely Race Bias Claim

By Hayley Fowler

U.S. Bank has objected to a North Carolina federal magistrate judge's recommendation that would allow its former head of artificial intelligence to move forward with his race discrimination suit, arguing he waited too long to loop in the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission after he was fired.

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Tesla Investors Press Del. High Court To Keep Cases In State

By Jessica Corso

Tesla Inc. investors have asked the Delaware Supreme Court to keep in the state a trio of lawsuits accusing the carmaker and its CEO, Elon Musk, of breaching their fiduciary duty, after a Chancery Court judge ruled earlier this year that the cases belong in Texas.

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NC Biz Court OKs Data Breach Deal But Shrinks Atty Fees

By Hayley Fowler

A North Carolina Business Court judge gave his final seal of approval to a class action data breach settlement with an eye care provider but slashed the amount of attorney fees he would allow, saying the deal was fair but "by no means extraordinary."

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SThree Rejects Circle8 Offer To Create Nearly $3B Recruiter

By Al Barbarino

British specialist recruitment company SThree rejected an unsolicited takeover proposal from U.S.-based Circle8 Group on Friday, saying it significantly undervalued the business, although Circle8 can still make a firm offer for the company under U.K. takeover rules.

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Wilson Sonsini, Davis Polk Steer $1.9B Vehicle Auction Deal

By Al Barbarino

Copart Inc. has agreed to acquire ACV Auctions Inc. for about $1.9 billion, expanding the online vehicle auction operator into dealer-to-dealer wholesale remarketing, with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC advising Copart and Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP representing ACV. 

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Bitcoin Miner Atlantic HPC Lands $150M SPAC Merger

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Bitcoin mining company Atlantic HPC Group Inc., led by Hunter Taubman Fischer & Li LLC, on Friday revealed plans to go public by merging with Ellenoff Grossman & Schole LLP-led special purpose acquisition company Aperture AC in a $150 million deal.

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DOJ Gets Final OK For Agri Stats Antitrust Settlement

By Craig Clough

A Minnesota federal court has granted final approval to the U.S. Department of Justice's settlement with Agri Stats, with the company agreeing to stop offering the sales reports for meat processors at the center of the case.

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Legal Tech Roundup: Xapien, Blee, Flex Legal

By Matt Perez

Fundraising rounds in legal artificial intelligence top recent legal technology news.

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Wis. Groups Say Warrantless Flock Searches Violate Chatrie

By Parker Quinlan

Wisconsin privacy groups have sued a group of local governments over their warrantless searches of Flock Group Inc. camera data, arguing that they run afoul of the Fourth Amendment after the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Chatrie v. U.S.

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Lessons For Banks When A Fintech Partner Fails

Recent fintech bankruptcies highlight best practices for how banks can strengthen third-party oversight, data-access rights, wind-down planning and customer communications to limit regulatory exposure and consumer harm when a fintech partner collapses, say attorneys at Barack Ferrazzano.

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9th Circ. Comet Ruling Spotlights Trade Secret Proof Burdens

The Ninth Circuit’s recent decision to vacate a $40 million verdict awarded to Comet Technologies in its trade secret dispute with XP Power underscores how the burden of proof differs between federal and state law, giving litigants a fresh perspective on several issues, including how a jury should be instructed, say attorneys at Cooley.

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Del. Ruling Emphasizes High Bar To Pleading A Control Group

The Delaware Court of Chancery's recent decision in Le Clair v. KnowBe4 illustrates the high burden to which courts hold plaintiffs trying to establish a control group, as well as the continued power of an informed stockholder vote, say attorneys at Sidley.

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What Trial Teams Should Know About AI Jury Research Tools

Using artificial intelligence for jury research is quickly becoming part of the litigation consulting landscape, and can be a useful part of a case assessment toolkit — but litigators must understand what these systems are built to measure, and what conclusions can reasonably be drawn from their output, say Bill Kanasky and Steve Wood at Courtroom Sciences.

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Attorneys Using AI May Have Ethical Duty To Redact Docs

The trajectory of legal ethics guidance in recent years strongly suggests that as redaction technology becomes more accessible, the failure to use it when uploading highly confidential materials into artificial intelligence tools will become increasingly difficult to defend as reasonable, say attorneys at Lewis Brisbois.

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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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Greenberg Traurig, Eckert Seamans Hit By Data Breaches

By Ryan Boysen

Greenberg Traurig LLP and Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott LLC have publicly revealed that they've been hit by data breaches, adding to the dozens of cybersecurity incidents U.S. law firms have suffered this year.

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Analysis

Midterm Wins Could Help Dems Probe Trump's BigLaw Deals

By Courtney Bublé

If the Democrats take back one or both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections, a big item on their oversight agenda will be to step up ongoing investigations of the deals that nine major law firms cut with the Trump administration last year.

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Trial Errors 'Crippled Goldstein's Defense,' 4th Circ. Hears

By Jeff Overley

Appellate luminary Tom Goldstein unveiled a sweeping and forceful critique aimed at erasing his felony fraud convictions, telling the Fourth Circuit that prosecutors were hell-bent on convicting him "no matter the facts or law," disregarded a star witness "incompetence" and benefited from a trial judge's "inexplicable" rulings.

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Personal Injury Firm Beats Atty's Bid For 'Birth Justice' TM

By Adam Lidgett

A former associate at a personal injury and medical malpractice law firm can't register in her own name a trademark for birth-injury legal services that she helped develop before and during her employment with the firm, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board has ruled.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

AI is driving a significant gap between in-house legal departments' budgets and the cost of their workloads, according to a new study. Speaking of gaps, a new Law360 Pulse report on women in law found that men still make up 71% of law firm equity partners and 63% of nonequity partners. These are some of 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

Elias Law Group LLP and Stinson LLP lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Missouri cannot use a newly drawn congressional map that favors Republicans in the midterms.

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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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