Apple Gets High Court Review Of Epic Case Sanctions

By Bryan Koenig

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to take up Apple's challenge to a California federal court contempt order against it for violating a ban, won by Epic Games, on company policies that barred app developers from steering users to outside payment options.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Roblox Addiction Judge Wonders 'Where We Are As A Society'

By Craig Clough

A California judge overseeing a suit accusing Epic Games, Roblox and Microsoft of addicting children to video games wondered aloud Tuesday "where we are as a society" — though the comment was directed not at America's youth, but rather the state of the law when considering a motion to compel arbitration.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Meta Social Media Addiction MDL Headed For August Trial

By Hailey Konnath

A California federal judge has mostly denied dueling motions for summary judgment in litigation brought by multiple states claiming Meta intentionally designed its products to be addictive, rejecting Meta's attempts to ditch the case and teeing it up for an August advisory jury trial.

Order attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Authors Ask Calif. Court For Win In AI Training Copyright Case

By Elliot Weld

Several authors suing artificial intelligence firms Databricks and Mosaic ML have asked a California federal judge for a favorable ruling on their claims of direct copyright infringement for what they say was the mass ingestion of their works for AI training, saying the companies' conduct was "undoubtedly substitutive and plainly harmed the market" for their books.

Motion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

SAG-AFTRA Wants House Panel To Advance AI Deepfakes Bill

By Elliot Weld

The president of actors union SAG-AFTRA spoke to a congressional subcommittee Tuesday to press the need for a bill to allow for the removal of deepfakes from the internet, framing the advent of digital replicas of people as a fundamental alteration in the methods of human interaction that cannot be ignored by lawmakers.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

FCC Set To Streamline Info On Broadband 'Nutrition' Labels

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission next month will consider revamping broadband "nutrition" labels of cable service performance crafted during the Biden administration to purportedly make them less confusing, according to a Tuesday blog post.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

FCC Plans To Build 'Superband' With Major Spectrum Auction

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission plans to vote on whether to auction 160 megahertz of spectrum for new wireless services at its July meeting, part of an envisioned "superband" of prime midband airwaves ready for commercial use by 2030.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

ITC Funding Disclosure Rule Mostly Draws Support

By Dani Kass

The U.S. International Trade Commission's proposal to require litigation funding disclosures in intellectual property investigations received near-universal approval from those who provided feedback, receiving pushback only from an organization representing litigation funders and a nonpracticing entity.

18 documents attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Calif. Will Lock In Biz Tax Credit Limit, Halve Min. Tax For LLCs

By Maria Koklanaris

California will expand its sales and use tax base to include prewritten software, make permanent its business tax credit limit and halve the $800 minimum tax for limited liability companies, under the last budget that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed as the state's chief executive.

1 document attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Dems Grill NTIA Head Over Stalled BEAD Applications

By Nadia Dreid

The BEAD program was on everyone's mind on Capitol Hill when National Telecommunications and Information Administration head Arielle Roth appeared before a House subcommittee Tuesday morning for an oversight hearing, with Democrats questioning her about when states could expect to get their money.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Brief

Canada, Germany Pledge Closer Cooperation On Chips

By Dylan Moroses

Canadian and German officials signed a joint declaration committing to work together on policy matters involving semiconductor supply chains, according to a Tuesday news release by the Canadian government.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Trump Loses Bid To Remove Copyright Office Leader For Now

By Ivan Moreno

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to let the Trump administration remove U.S. Copyright Office leader Shira Perlmutter for now, leaving in place a D.C. Circuit order that allows her to keep leading the office while her lawsuit challenging her firing proceeds.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

High Court Remands Geofencing Cases In Wake Of New Rules

By Parker Quinlan

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered Texas' highest criminal court and the Eleventh Circuit to take fresh looks at a pair of criminal convictions in light of the justices' ruling this week that geofence warrants demanding smartphone users' location data are "searches" under the Fourth Amendment.

Order List attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Judge Rejects Uber's Bid To Strike Location Tracking Patents

By Theresa Schliep

A California federal court has declined to invalidate a pair of location tracking technology patents asserted against Uber Technologies Inc., disagreeing with the company's claims that the patents are abstract and finding instead that each covers a "technical solution to a technical problem."

Opinion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

UNC Escapes Bias Suit From Native American Ex-Professor

By Grace Elletson

A federal judge tossed Tuesday a Native American professor's suit claiming the University of North Carolina declined to renew his contract because he was a vocal critic of the institution, ruling he failed to rebut UNC's argument that he lost his job for changing course material without permission.

Opinion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Atlas Data's Daniel's Law Notices Not Spam, Judge Rules

By Emily Sawicki

A New Jersey federal court has found that Atlas Data Privacy Corp.'s flurry of thousands of takedown notices do not constitute a "spam attack," dismissing counterclaims brought by database providers alleging that the company was abusing a New Jersey judicial privacy law in violation of state and federal statutes.

Opinion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Cellspin Settles Challenges To Its Patents At PTAB

By Adam Lidgett

Three companies that challenged a series of Cellspin Soft Inc. patents for publishing data on websites have settled their disputes at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board after the board agreed to review the patents earlier this year.

4 documents attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Texas Court Sends 4 Asbestos Suits Out Of MDL Court

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas appeals court on Tuesday found that multiple families of people who died following diagnoses of asbestos-related malignancies can remand their cases back to the courts they initially filed in, saying the multidistrict litigation rules do not apply to their cases.

Opinion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

SpaceX, Feds Say Texas Is Proper Venue For Land Swap Suit

By Ganesh Setty

A D.C. federal court on Tuesday ordered expedited briefing over motions by SpaceX and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service seeking to transfer to the Southern District of Texas a lawsuit from environmental groups challenging their land-exchange deal there.

2 documents attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Gibson Dunn, White & Case Lead KKR's $4.2B EDF Biz Deal

By Lauren Berg

Private equity firm KKR & Co., represented by Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, announced Tuesday a $4.2 billion agreement to acquire the North America renewable power business operated by EDF Group, advised by White & Case LLP.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Digital Realty Pays $3.5B For Blackstone Data Center Shares

By Nate Beck

Digital Realty will pay $3.5 billion to acquire a stake in three Blackstone data centers fully leased to hyperscalers in northern Virginia, according to an announcement from the companies.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

SEC, CFTC Fine 2 Firms $5M For Off-Exchange Trades

By Sydney Price

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission have fined an online brokerage technology company and a customer support company accused of participating in improper, off-exchange contract offerings.

2 documents attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Last 'Big 6' Advertiser Settles FTC Group Boycott Claims

By Bryan Koenig

The Federal Trade Commission announced a settlement Tuesday resolving claims that Havas Media Group USA LLC colluded with other advertising agencies to demonetize "disfavored political viewpoints" using brand safety standards, making Havas the last of the industry's "Big Six" to cut deals in the sweeping campaign against alleged censorship of conservatives.

2 documents attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Ex-Google Engineer Can't Undo Trade Secrets Conviction

By Cara Salvatore

A California federal judge rejected a former Google engineer's argument that prosecutors withheld proper notice of their trade secrets charges by burying him in paper, saying this happened only because he misappropriated "such a large volume of documents."

Order attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Ex-Palo Alto Insider Trader Avoids Prison After 9th Circ. Trip

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal judge resentenced an ex-Palo Alto Networks engineer Tuesday, 17 months after the Ninth Circuit upheld his securities fraud conviction but threw out his 18-month sentence, saying it now "doesn't make any sense" to incarcerate the 51-year-old given his failing health and family obligations.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

DOJ Defends Live Nation Deal As Boosting Competition Sooner

By Bryan Koenig

The Justice Department offered its formal defense of the controversial midtrial settlement that allowed Live Nation to keep its Ticketmaster subsidiary, telling a New York federal judge the deal frees up artists and venues much faster than any remedy state attorneys general could achieve through their jury win.

Statement attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Lessons For Cos. From Nixed Apple Watch Greenwashing Suit

A California federal court's recent decision in Dib v. Apple, a putative class action challenging carbon-neutral marketing statements made about the Apple Watch, provides meaningful guidance on how such claims may be defeated at the pleading stage, especially where they hinge on third-party verification, say attorneys at Mintz.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Prediction Market Case Will Test US Insider Trading Reach

The insider trading case recently brought against Google employee Michele Spagnuolo may help clarify the extraterritorial reach of the Commodity Exchange Act and U.S. agencies' ability to police foreign trading in prediction markets, say attorneys at Akin.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Series

Power To The Paralegals: Burnout As A Structural Problem

Law firm leadership can best retain their paralegals not by encouraging self-care, but by seeking top-down structural solutions for the quiet proliferation of responsibilities and the vicarious exposure to client trauma that particularly drive burnout in this vital role, says Erika Sneeringer at Brockstedt Mandalas.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

2 Ex-Clifford Chance Attys Say Firm Wants To Claw Back $6M

By Jake Maher

Two former practice group leaders at Clifford Chance LLP have sued in New York federal court alleging the firm is trying to claw back nearly $6 million in total from the pair after they moved to Sidley Austin LLP early this year.

Complaint attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Trump Nominates Just Confirmed La. Judge For 5th Circ.

By Courtney Bublé

Judge Anna St. John has been on the federal bench for less than four months, and now she's being put forth for a higher court.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

McCarter Atty Says He Didn't Know NY Law Before $20M Deals

By Brian Steele

A onetime McCarter & English LLP partner in Hartford testified Tuesday that he did not research New York's municipal contracting laws before helping two insurers enter into doomed $20 million loan repayment agreements with a Long Island town, but contended that he was under no obligation to do so.

2 documents attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

NJ Assembly Passes Litigation Funding Disclosure Bill

By Jake Maher

The New Jersey Assembly passed a bill requiring the disclosure of third-party litigation funding arrangements on Tuesday by an overwhelming margin after similar pending legislation in the state Senate received pushback from trial lawyers and litigation finance representatives.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Analysis

Justices' Birthright Ruling Leaves Little Room For Congress

By Britain Eakin

The U.S. Supreme Court's 5-4 holding Tuesday that President Donald Trump's executive order limiting birthright citizenship is unconstitutional did more than invalidate the policy, it effectively foreclosed Congress from trying to implement the executive order through legislation, experts told Law360.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

High Court Scraps Caps On Coordinated Campaign Spending

By Katie Buehler and Jeff Overley

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down federal limits on political party spending in coordination with individual candidates, agreeing with a Republican-led challenge that the caps violate the First Amendment.

Opinion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Uber, FedEx Slam Pa. Law Firm Counterclaims In RICO Suit

By James Boyle

Philadelphia-based personal injury firm Simon & Simon PC and its founder have failed to support a counterclaim in Pennsylvania federal court saying Uber Technologies Inc. and FedEx Corp. filed a sham litigation and abused the legal process with their ongoing RICO complaint against the firm, the companies argued Monday.

Motion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

NY State Bar Wants New Bar Exam Rules For Emergencies

By Kevin Penton

Following two recent incidents that drew scrutiny over their handling, the New York State Bar Association is calling for new standardized protocols to be followed should emergencies occur during the administration of the bar exam.

Report attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »