Judge Wary Of DOD Rationale For Anthropic Risk Label

By Madeline Lyskawa

A California federal judge appeared unconvinced Thursday by the government's claim that its designation of Anthropic PBC as a supply chain risk to national security was based on a credible threat and not retaliation for publicly criticizing the Trump administration.

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Tesla Tells Justices USPTO Is 'Gutting' Patent Reviews

By Ryan Davis

Tesla Inc. has become the latest company to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review limits that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has put on patent challenges, arguing that the office is "gutting" the review system created by the America Invents Act.

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2 Traders Admit Guilt In Stolen BigLaw Info Scheme

By Chris Villani

Two men pled guilty Thursday in Massachusetts federal court to their roles in a sweeping scheme to trade on inside information stolen from huge corporate law firms about upcoming deals.

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XAI Can't Unmask Jane Does In Deepfake Suit, Judge Says

By Gina Kim

A California federal judge on Thursday declined to order a group of women suing xAI Corp. over Grok-generated deepfakes of them in sexual situations to reveal their identities and allowed them to proceed pseudonymously, finding their fears of threatened harm and retaliation from having to disclose their real names were reasonable.

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Instagram Could Easily Disrupt User Permascrolling, Jury Told

By Cara Salvatore

A Silicon Valley tech guru and theorist testified on Thursday in Tennessee's trial against Meta that, for him, it took "less than 10 lines of code" to create a time delay that broke the grip of a hard-to-resist design feature he released to the world in 2006, infinite scroll.

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Renters Seek $120M Fee Award In RealPage Rent-Fixing MDL

By Craig Clough

Renters in sprawling multidistrict litigation that reached nearly $360 million in preliminary settlements with building owners over their alleged use of RealPage's software to inflate rents asked a Tennessee federal judge to approve $119.9 million in attorney fees, saying they've expended over 100,000 hours on the case.

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Minn. Social Media Mandate Muzzles Sites, Says Tech Group

By Jonathan Capriel

Tech trade group NetChoice is urging a federal court to reject Minnesota's bid to keep alive its new law requiring social media companies to display mental health warning labels at the login page, arguing the statute forces these companies to become "mouthpieces" for the state, violating the First Amendment.

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Squires Grants 6 Patent Petitions, Denies 4 In New Order

By Ryan Davis

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires has granted six requests for America Invents Act patent reviews and rejected four in his latest batch of decisions.

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Ease Broadband Buildout To Fuel AI Boom, Lawmakers Urged

By Christopher Cole

Lawmakers must put an end to delays in broadband deployment and renew a federal cybersecurity statute if they hope to feed the artificial intelligence boom while curtailing safety concerns, U.S. senators heard Thursday.

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FCC Says EchoStar Can't Use Trust Fund To Pay Itself

By Nadia Dreid

The Federal Communications Commission is not pleased that EchoStar is trying to convince a bankruptcy court to let it use a trust fund created to pay contractors to build its now-abandoned 5G network to instead pay a loan one EchoStar subsidiary made to another.

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AT&T's Copper Network Retirement Needs Review, FCC Told

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

The Communications Workers of America, rural counties in California and a consumer advocacy group for affordable utilities urged the Federal Communications Commission to reverse its automatic approval of AT&T's request to retire copper-line networks in California, saying that significant public interest concerns have to be addressed first.

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Consider 4.4GHz Band To Expand 5G, 6G, Report Says

By Nadia Dreid

As the federal government eyes a pair of bands for the expansion of 5G and 6G, a spectrum researcher has released a report saying that the 4.4 gigahertz band is the best option.

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Brief

FCC Official Calls E-Rate Review 'Long Overdue'

By Christopher Cole

A top official at the Federal Communications Commission said the agency's review of the E-Rate fund for schools and libraries will be a much-needed reexamination of a 30-year-old telecom program.

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Fed. Circ. OKs Samsung Win Over Patent Tied To $81M Award

By Elliot Weld

The Federal Circuit on Thursday upheld a Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision invalidating a patent covering standard-essential 5G wireless network technology that Samsung was directed to pay $81 million for infringing, rejecting G+ Communications LLC's procedural and evidentiary arguments.

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WDTX Jury Awards $1.5M In Lighting Patent Retrial

By Adam Lidgett

A Texas federal jury has awarded Chinese company Jiaxing Super Lighting almost $1.5 million in damages from rivals found to have infringed an LED tube lamp patent, a year after the Federal Circuit ordered a new trial.

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Insurance Sales Agents Win Conditional Cert. In Pay Suit

By Benjamin Morse

A New Jersey federal magistrate judge conditionally certified a collective of insurance sales agents, finding they offered more than speculation that common policies deprived them of pay for computer work and bonuses.

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Valve Scores Quick Appeal In Gamer Arbitration Clause Fight

By Rachel Riley

A Seattle federal judge on Thursday granted Valve Corp.'s bid for a quick appeal of an order declining to halt antitrust arbitrations brought by hundreds of individual gamers, pausing the litigation for the video game developer to seek the Ninth Circuit's input on whether the arbitrations can proceed under its subscriber terms.  

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Workers, Korean Tractor Co. Settle Data Breach Claims

By Carla Baranauckas

A proposed class action against tractor manufacturer Daedong USA over a 2025 network breach that exposed sensitive employee information has been settled, according to a docket entry in North Carolina federal court.

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T-Mobile Says WCO Spectrum Can't Fix Antitrust Claims

By Matthew Perlman

T-Mobile has told a California federal court that WCO Spectrum has admitted it does not have what it needs to state a viable antitrust counterclaim in the mobile carrier's case accusing the spectrum-buying company of racketeering.

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Apartments.com Tells Judge Rent Payment Fees Not 'Junk'

By Holly DeMuth

The company behind Apartments.com on Wednesday said its costs are clearly disclosed and users have options for avoiding them when paying rent, in a bid to have a Washington federal judge throw out a proposed class action accusing it of charging "junk fees."

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Cloud Tech Co. Hid AI Shift's Toll On Revenue, Investor Says

By Sydney Price

Rackspace Technology, a cloud computing and artificial intelligence solutions company, has been accused of misleading investors about the value of its strategic partnership with Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and its decision to shift capital away from its private cloud business, resulting in a recent financial guidance cut.

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Fitch Even Says €10M French Patent Feud Must Be Arbitrated

By Caroline Simson

Fitch Even Tabin & Flannery LLP is urging an Illinois federal court to halt a €10 million ($11.5 million) French lawsuit by former clients who accuse the intellectual property law firm of downplaying the economic viability of their patents, saying the matter belongs in arbitration.

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3 Firms Steer NYSE Owner ICE's $6B MarketAxess Deal

By Al Barbarino

The parent company of the New York Stock Exchange announced Thursday it has agreed to acquire MarketAxess Holdings Inc., a trading platform for fixed-income markets, for $6 billion, in a deal steered by three law firms.

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Deals Rumor Mill

Curium, Sazerac And Stripe Pursue Megadeals, And More

By Al Barbarino

Reports of potential multibillion-dollar deals were plentiful this week, with U.S. alcohol producer Sazerac steadfast in its $15 billion pursuit of the maker of Jack Daniel's; Curium reportedly in advanced talks to acquire fellow radiopharmaceutical firm Lantheus Holdings Inc. for up to $8 billion; and Nvidia, Stripe and Devon Energy all linked to sizable strategic bets of their own.

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Latham Secures SEC Relief For Data Center Securitizations

By Jessica Corso

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission staff have freed some types of data center financing from having to comply with Dodd-Frank Act rules on credit risk retention and conflicts of interest, agreeing with Latham & Watkins LLP attorneys' arguments that the financial instruments are not asset-backed securities.

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DOJ Wants Rethink On Apple's Peek Into Feds' Phone-Buying

By Bryan Koenig

The U.S. Department of Justice has asked a special master to rethink his New Jersey federal court mandate giving Apple a look into how the Pentagon, CIA, State Department and other federal agencies purchase smartphones, arguing that the retired federal judge applied the wrong legal standard in the antitrust case.

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Landlord Denied Sanctions Against DC In RealPage Case

By Matthew Perlman

A D.C. Superior Court has refused to sanction the district's attorney general's office for alleged discovery failures in a case accusing RealPage of helping residential building owners use software to inflate rents.

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Defenders Have 'Ethical Duty' To Use AI, NACDL Paper Says

By Brandon Lowrey

Horror stories abound about lawyers getting punished for filing briefs riddled with artificial-intelligence hallucinations. But in a report released Thursday, the nation's biggest criminal defense association said attorneys should be just as scared about failing make enough use of the new technology.

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Employer Lessons From Apple Ruling Resolving OT Question

In Costa v. Apple, a California federal court recently handed employers a win on a previously unresolved wage and hour question, offering a reminder that favorable outcomes on novel issues often hinge on the specific facts of a company's own program and compliance efforts, say attorneys at Foley & Lardner.

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Series

Teaching SEC Investigations Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Instructing a law school course on U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigations has made me a more thoughtful, deliberate practitioner because it requires me to continually reassess and challenge what I know about securities law enforcement, how I know it and how best to explain it, says David Chase at Miami Law.

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How Does In-House Pay Compare? Take The Law360 Survey

How do in-house salaries vary across industries, roles, and organizational revenue? What compensation tools are companies using to lure top talent? Help Law360 Pulse answer these questions and more in this year's In-House Compensation Survey.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Andrea Keckley

Two Texas personal injury firms lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions for their work securing a $604 million verdict against a freight broker and logistics company for their roles in a deadly 2021 highway collision.

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Goldstein Launches Appeal Of Tax, Mortgage Fraud Case

By Jared Foretek

Imprisoned SCOTUSblog founder Thomas Goldstein is formally launching a Fourth Circuit appeal challenging his 12 convictions for tax and mortgage fraud, as well as his six-year prison sentence and the $3.1 million restitution judgment against him, according to a new filing from his attorneys.

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Judges Rip DHS GC's 'Worst' Posts As Intimidation Campaign

By Jake Maher

Sitting federal judges on Friday blasted the general counsel of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for "painting a target" on judges' backs in a recent series of social media posts attacking judges who ruled against the Trump administration in immigration cases and called on him to take them down.

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NY Public Defense Org. Denies Union's ULP Claims

By Andrea Keckley

The Neighborhood Defender Services of Harlem's leadership on Friday denied allegations from the union representing its more than 100 employees that it has offered unlawful incentives to break its ongoing strike.

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UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Laura Stewart Liberty

The past week in London has seen George Michael's estate bring an intellectual property claim against the late star's friend over footage shared online, collapsed law firm Axiom Ince sue the U.K. branch of State Bank of India and Ryanair face a group claim from 262 people. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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Hub Hires: Pierson Ferdinand, Biogen, FisherBroyles

By Chris Villani

While not as sizzling as the temperatures or the Red Sox, the Boston legal market remained hot through the month of July, with Hogan Lovells Cadwalader adding a mergers and acquisitions partner, Pierson Ferdinand snagging a veteran litigator and Foley & Lardner hiring a finance attorney.

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

There has been a wave of cases alleging employers and their insurance brokers violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, and experts say this marks an increasing litigation trend. In the meantime, the American Bar Association is eyeing the elimination of the first of multiple diversity-related law school standards. 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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