Analysis

NY Huawei Case Roars To Life With Historic Corp. RICO Trial

By Stewart Bishop

The sprawling racketeering case against Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. has faded from the spotlight in recent years, but the Chinese telecommunications giant has bucked convention by proceeding to a historic criminal trial over accusations of rampant intellectual property theft, sanctions violations and brazen lies to banks and U.S. officials about its business practices.

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Analysis

Fed. Circ. Backs Double Dismissals, But Dodges Preclusion

By Dani Kass

The Federal Circuit has expressly allowed district court judges to dismiss patent cases on multiple grounds at once, but attorneys say they're left guessing how that impacts future litigation on the same patent.

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DC Panel's Rare Rebuke Over AI Errors Flags Rules Gap

By Andrea Keckley

A D.C. appellate court panel issued a rare sua sponte sanctions order on Thursday after finding nonexistent case citations in a brief filed by a McCabe Weisberg & Conway LLC attorney representing Deutsche Bank National Trust Co. in a foreclosure action, noting an apparent gap in the rules governing the court's sanctions authority.

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Musk's XAI Can't Block Minn. Ban On Image 'Nudification'

By Gina Kim

Elon Musk's xAI can't stop Minnesota's ban on image "nudification" technology, after a federal judge said Friday he found "without hesitation that the balance of equities weighs heavily in favor of the state," which has an interest in shielding the public from harm caused by the dissemination of sexualized images.

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DivX Loses Bid For New Patent Trial After Loss To Netflix

By Lauren Berg

DivX cannot have a new trial over anti-copying and image-quality patents after a California jury cleared Netflix of infringement in March, a federal judge ruled Friday, saying the video compression technology company hasn't shown the jury's decision was not supported by substantial evidence.

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NextEra's $67B Deal Clears Vote Ahead Of Regulatory Hurdles

By Al Barbarino

The shareholders of Kirkland & Ellis LLP-advised NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy, advised by McGuireWoods LLP, have approved the companies' planned $67 billion merger, as regulatory scrutiny mounts at the state and federal levels.

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Microsoft Says Feeding Books And News To AI Is Fair Use

By Elliot Weld

Microsoft on Friday told a Manhattan federal court that using books and news articles to train the large language model behind the artificial intelligence model Copilot counts as fair use, and the company should therefore be granted a favorable judgment.

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Meta Hit With Class Action Claiming AI Tools Aid Crypto Fraud

By Dorothy Atkins

Three cryptocurrency scam victims hit Meta Platforms Inc. with a proposed class action Thursday, accusing the social media giant of turning a blind eye to reports of rampant crypto-ad scams on its platforms and instead perpetuating the scams by providing scammers with artificial intelligence tools that boost their impact.

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Analysis

AI Land Use Fights Are Just Getting Started In Mass.

By Chris Villani

Some Massachusetts cities and towns are scrambling to update their zoning rules amid rising tensions over artificial intelligence data centers, with disputes expected to play out in the courts and on Beacon Hill in coming years.

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Top Groups Lobbying The FCC

By Christopher Cole

Lobbying activity at the Federal Communications Commission dropped off in August, but dozens of groups still sought to affect agency policies in areas such as media ownership caps, satellite spectrum sharing, network modernization and more.

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SpaceX Presses For Opening 3 Bands To Direct-To-Device

By Nadia Dreid

SpaceX has its eye on three bands of spectrum it wants the Federal Communications Commission to open for direct-to-device satellite services, a move it told the agency would be good for both competition and the integration of satellite and terrestrial networks.

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Advocates Slam SpaceX Proposal To Cut FCC High-Cost Aid

By Nadia Dreid

SpaceX's suggestion that the Federal Communications Commission "wind down and sunset" the agency's multibillion dollar program that provides subsidies for installing broadband in high cost, hard-to-serve places, is a bad one, say rural broadband advocates.

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Brief

FCC Pays Back $3.08B 'Rip And Replace' Treasury Loan

By Christopher Cole

After completing a spectrum auction directed by federal law, the Federal Communications Commission said Friday that it has repaid a $3.08 billion loan from the U.S. Treasury that it used to fill a funding gap in the "rip and replace" network security program.

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Brief

FCC Bans People Convicted Of Fraud From USF

By Nadia Dreid

Seven people who abused the Federal Communications Commission's E-rate program, which subsidizes the cost of internet service for schools and libraries, have been forever banned from participating in any of the agency's other internet subsidy programs.

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Justices Let FCC's New Campaign Ad Rates Take Effect

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday cleared the way for the Federal Communications Commission to extend discounted television and radio advertising rates previously reserved for political candidates to political parties and joint fundraising committees that buy spots in coordination with candidates.

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9th Circ. Won't Let Roblox Arbitrate Online Safety Suit

By Mike Curley

The Ninth Circuit denied Roblox Corp.'s bid to compel arbitration in a suit by a man alleging his daughter was targeted on the platform by adult predators, saying its delay in seeking arbitration while it litigated the suit on the merits waived any right to arbitrate.

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Analysis

ERISA Recap: 5 Appellate Rulings To Know From August

By Kellie Mejdrich

The Seventh Circuit kept an Arkansas pharmacy benefit manager rule in place as not preempted by federal benefits law, the Fourth Circuit revived an Altria ex-worker's dispute over benefit plan documents, and the Eleventh Circuit reversed a pretrial win for Royal Caribbean in cruise workers' suit challenging 401(k) funds. Here, Law360 looks at those and two other major appellate decisions from August involving ERISA that benefits attorneys may want to know.

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Roundup

3rd Circ. Preview: Penn State TM Row, NFL Agent Poaching Suit

By P.J. D'Annunzio

The Third Circuit in September is set to decide whether a print-on-demand company's collegiate apparel counts as counterfeit Penn State merchandise and if two former Philadelphia detectives can escape a $16 million judgment for a wrongfully convicted murder suspect.

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Trial Dates Vacated In Former Albright Cases, Schedules Stay

By Ryan Davis

The chief judge of the Western District of Texas has vacated the trial dates and hearings for cases that had been overseen by now-departed U.S. District Judge Alan Albright while the court works to reassign them, but said all other schedules and deadlines remain in effect.

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Robinhood To Halt Sports Trades In Mich. Amid Appeals

By Katryna Perera

Robinhood Derivatives LLC has agreed to stop offering new sports-related event contracts in Michigan, and the state has agreed not to pursue an enforcement action against the exchange until the Sixth Circuit rules on any of the pending appeals regarding the legality of sports event contract offerings.

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'Bad Faith' Subpoenas On Apple Execs Spur Fee Sanctions

By Bryan Koenig

A California federal magistrate judge imposed sanctions Thursday on Joseph M. Alioto of Alioto Law Firm for repeatedly trying to depose senior Apple executives, including then-CEO Tim Cook, in an attempt to drag the iPhone-maker back into consumer antitrust litigation accusing Google of shutting out rival search engines.

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Split PTAB Gives Amazon Win On Speech Patent

By Adam Lidgett

A split Patent Trial and Appeal Board has found that Amazon was able to show that claims in a speech recognition patent were invalid, the latest in a larger fight involving a patent litigation outfit that targeted the retail giant's Alexa virtual assistant.

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Ohio Justices Tee Up Data Center Vote In Another City

By Isaac Monterose

The Ohio Supreme Court will allow the residents of Trenton, Ohio, to vote in a special election for a proposed city charter amendment that will ban the construction of data centers in the city, which is similar to a recent Ohio high court decision that set up a potential data center vote.

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Passengers Say State Laws Offer No Immunity In Lyft MDL

By Mike Curley

Lyft Inc. passengers are urging a California federal court to reject the company's bid to throw out their claims in multidistrict litigation that it failed to protect them from sexual assault, saying no Texas or California law or regulation offers the immunity Lyft seeks.

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Verisign, ICANN Accused Of Locking In .Com Monopoly

By Lauren Berg

Verisign, which controls the database that makes every .com website functional, has monopolized .com registry services and keeps its power through a financial arrangement with the nonprofit charged with promoting competition in the domain name marketplace, according to a consumer antitrust lawsuit filed Friday in California federal court.

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Recall Recap: Boston Scientific Pacemakers, Baby Formula

By Emily Field

While the iceberg lettuce cyclospora outbreak and subsequent litigation targeting supplier Taylor Farms Inc. and Taco Bell was the chief news this summer in product recalls, Law360 takes a look back at some of the other suits filed in recent months over recalls that may have slipped under readers' radars.

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Roundup

NC High Court Snapshot: TikTok, DuPont, NCAA Top Sept.

By Hayley Fowler

North Carolina's highest court is returning from its summer hiatus with a stacked September lineup of cases for oral argument, starting with a name, image and likeness suit brought by members of N.C. State University's 1983 championship basketball team against the NCAA.

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Roundup

Injury Law Roundup: Meta's Social Media Addiction Deal

By Y. Peter Kang

A $17.1 billion social media addiction settlement between Meta and 29 states and Johnson & Johnson's $5.5 billion ovarian cancer deal over its talc products lead Law360's Injury Law Roundup.

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Brief

Licensing Co., TSMC Settle ITC Chip Patent Case

By Elliot Weld

A company called Longitude Licensing Ltd. has reached a settlement with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. to end a case against several technology companies at the U.S. International Trade Commission seeking a ban on imports of certain products.

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Brief

Ill. Panel Affirms BIPA Exemption For Home Care Provider

By Celeste Bott

An Illinois appellate court has refused to revive a biometric privacy lawsuit against home-care provider Help at Home, finding the company was exempt from a state privacy law's reach as a government contractor when it collected employees' fingerprints for a required background check.

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Latham, Simpson Thacher Steer Oura's Expected $2.5B IPO

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Fitness-tracking ring maker Oura has filed plans with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering that could raise around $2.5 billion.

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Blockchain Biz Archblock Seeks More Time For Ch. 11 Plan

By Yun Park

Blockchain business Archblock LLC has asked a Delaware bankruptcy court to extend its Chapter 11 plan exclusivity period, saying the case is complex and negotiations with the creditors committee are progressing.

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Calif. Privacy Agency Flags Data Brokers' Reporting Gaps

By Allison Grande

California's privacy agency is warning data brokers that they run the risk of accumulating hefty daily fines for not only failing to register with the agency, but also for providing inaccurate information about their data collection and sale activities in connection with that registration. 

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Meta Layoff Suit Serves As Early Test Of AI Bias Claims

A lawsuit in California federal court alleging that Meta's use of artificial intelligence in recent layoffs negatively affected employees on protected leave provides insight for plaintiffs about what evidence to preserve and how to build these discrimination claims, says Manny Starr at Frontier Law Center.

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CISA Town Halls Signal Key Cyber Rule Changes Ahead

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency recently held a series of town halls to gather additional stakeholder input on the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act, offering potential insights into how the agency may address key issues in a forthcoming final rule, say attorneys at Covington.

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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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Legal Sector Hiring Grows For 5th Month, But At Slower Pace

By Rachel Rippetoe

The legal sector saw 600 more jobs in August, growing for the fifth consecutive month, according to seasonally adjusted data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

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3rd Circ. Revives Malpractice Claim Against Kirkland Atty

By Emily Sawicki

A New Jersey divorcee may once again pursue a legal malpractice claim against a Kirkland & Ellis LLP attorney who she said lost her millions by mishandling estate documents, after the Third Circuit found it could be possible to link her alleged damages to the lawyer's work.

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Quinn Emanuel DQ'd In Defamation Case Over Stock Reports

By Lynn LaRowe

A Texas federal court on Friday booted Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP from representing a Hong Kong manufacturing company in its defamation lawsuit against investment research service Muddy Waters LLC after finding that the law firm had received relevant confidential information when it represented Muddy Waters in a related government probe.

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Motley Rice Founder Remembered As Titan Of Mass Tort Bar

By Adrian Cruz

Motley Rice LLC co-founder Joseph F. Rice, who died Thursday, was remembered by former colleagues and friends as a "transformational" attorney and "giant in the civil litigation bar" who spent decades working on some of the most high-profile mass torts and obtaining landmark asbestos, opioid and tobacco settlements.

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Sinema Can't Duck Suit Over Affair With Ex-Security Guard

By Y. Peter Kang

A North Carolina federal judge Friday denied former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's bid to escape the suit brought by the ex-wife of a former member of her security detail with whom she allegedly had an affair, saying the district court indeed has the authority to adjudicate the case.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Morgan Verkamp LLC and Sparacino PLLC lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the Eleventh Circuit held that the False Claims Act's qui tam provisions do not violate the appointments clause of the U.S. Constitution.

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

Attorneys and academics differ over whether the moves by Meta's in-house lawyers ahead of its $17 billion settlement over claims its content harmed children were legal missteps or defensible efforts to manage litigation risk. And the co-founders of a partner-only law firm told Law360 Pulse how their technology reduces intake, billing and other nonbillable tasks that attorneys would normally perform. These are among the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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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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