Ex-OpenAI Engineer Charged With Bugging Conference Room

By Dorothy Atkins

Federal prosecutors have arrested and charged a former OpenAI product team engineer in California federal court on allegations he hid a secret recording device inside toilet paper behind a TV in an executive conference room in order to capture confidential communications about the ChatGPT-maker's artificial intelligence technology.

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Analysis

In AI Race, Trade Secret Suits Become Popular Safeguard

By Theresa Schliep

Fierce competition for artificial intelligence engineers and the relative paucity of intellectual property protections for AI technologies have companies turning to trade secret litigation as a powerful tool they can wield against competitors and former employees, attorneys say.

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What To Watch As Justices Weigh Video Privacy Law's Scope

By Allison Grande

The U.S. Supreme Court is poised to hear arguments Wednesday over who can sue under the decades-old Video Privacy Protection Act in a dispute that experts say is likely to hinge on the approach the justices take to squaring the statute's original intent with the capabilities of modern tracking technologies.

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Apple Urges Judge To Toss 'Shocking' $5.7B Patent Verdict

By Hailey Konnath

Apple Inc. on Tuesday asked a California federal judge to wipe out a jury's $5.7 billion damages award for Taction Technology Inc. or order a new trial in the haptic vibration technology patent dispute, calling the award "shocking" and "untethered to any evidence at all."

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Groups Ask Justices To Hear Apple's ITC Industry Rule Fight

By Jack McLoone

The Federal Circuit wrongly continued the degradation of the U.S. International Trade Commission's domestic industry requirement in patent disputes by sustaining a decision that Apple Watches infringe Masimo Corp.'s patents, groups supporting Apple's petition told the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday.

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Qualcomm Secures $2 In License Breach, Interference Trial

By Dani Kass

Arm Holdings should pay Qualcomm $2 for breaching a licensing agreement and interfering in Qualcomm's economic relationship with Meta, a Delaware federal jury found Tuesday.

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Apple Gets Expedited OpenAI Discovery In Trade Secret Case

By Theresa Schliep

A California federal judge said Tuesday that OpenAI must work on an expedited timeline to furnish some documents in Apple's suit accusing the company of using former employees to access secret information, calling Apple's concerns about the preservation of some evidence "well-taken."

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Reddit Fights Proskauer's 'Hot Potato' AI Client Bid In IP Suit

By Dorothy Atkins

Reddit Inc. has urged a New York federal judge to block its former law firm Proskauer Rose from defending Perplexity AI in Reddit's suit over alleged data scraping used to train artificial intelligence models, arguing the firm can't represent Perplexity after dropping Reddit as a client like ‌a "hot potato."

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OpenAI Accused Of Mining Kids' ChatGPT Data To Train LLMs

By Hailey Konnath

OpenAI has preyed on children by extracting "vast amounts of highly sensitive and valuable data" from millions of young ChatGPT users without valid consent and then using that information to train its large language models, according to a proposed class action filed Tuesday in California federal court.

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Cruz Contends E-Rate Costs Inflated By Consulting Fees

By Christopher Cole

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, issued a report Tuesday claiming the E-Rate program's costs have ballooned over time due to layers of bureaucracy and outside consulting work for local organizations that use the federal broadband subsidy.

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FCC OKs 14 More 'Rip And Replace' Extensions

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

The Federal Communications Commission has granted petitions from 14 telecommunications companies asking for extensions to finish projects to "rip and replace" foreign-produced network equipment the agency deems untrustworthy.

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High Court Won't Review Student's Suit Over Phone Search

By Mike Curley

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday denied certiorari to a teenager who alleges his constitutional rights were violated when his school principal searched his phone on suspicion that he had nude photos of another student.

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Fed. Circ. Upholds Alice Ax Of Targeted Ad Patents

By Adam Lidgett

The Federal Circuit on Tuesday refused to revive a series of patents relating to internet advertising in a dispute between rival ad platforms after a New York federal court found the patents didn't pass the U.S. Supreme Court's Alice test.

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Fed. Circ. Backs L'Oreal's Alice Win On Face Analysis Patent

By Theresa Schliep

The Federal Circuit on Tuesday issued a one-word order affirming a California federal court's invalidation of a facial measurement and analysis patent that had been asserted against the cosmetic giant L'Oreal USA Inc.

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Fed. Circ. Pressed To Undo $61M IP Verdict Against Samsung

By Adam Lidgett

A nonprofit representing tech giants including Amazon, Google and Intel told the Federal Circuit on Friday the court should overturn a $61 million jury verdict against Samsung for infringing a single standard-essential 5G patent.

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Trade Court Backs Commerce On Solar Module Duty Scope

By Dylan Moroses

The U.S. Department of Commerce properly determined an importer's solar-powered charging modules should be subject to countervailing and antidumping duties on Chinese solar cell products, according to an opinion published Tuesday by the U.S. Court of International Trade.

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Dolby Loses Bid To Ax InterDigital Patent From Disney Case

By Ryan Davis

A California federal judge has denied Dolby's motion seeking to invalidate an InterDigital video patent that is at issue in a related infringement suit against Disney over its streaming services, ruling that Dolby failed to show that the patent covers only an abstract idea.

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Landlord Discovery Greenlit In Yardi Rental Rate Software Suit

By Rachel Riley

A Washington federal judge said Tuesday that renters can pursue discovery from landlords in a proposed antitrust class action targeting Yardi's rent-setting software for multifamily property managers, while largely denying the tech firm's summary judgment bid — a ruling that would allow for more factfinding before definitively resolving the arguments.  

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Pa. Firm Can't Toss Uber's RICO Claims Over Insurer Payouts

By Linda Chiem

A Pennsylvania federal judge allowed Uber to pursue Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act claims alleging a Philadelphia personal injury firm schemed with healthcare providers to fabricate medical records and inflate accident claims involving Uber and FedEx drivers, saying Uber doesn't lose standing just because its insurer paid its legal fees in underlying litigation.

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ITC Probing Vicor Rivals For AI Power System Infringement

By Jack McLoone

The U.S. International Trade Commission announced it will investigate claims made by Vicor Corp. that several rivals are importing patent-infringing power delivery systems typically used in high-performance computing such as artificial intelligence, setting up possible import exclusions.

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Del. High Court Upholds Forum Limit In Amazon Records Case

By Jessica Corso

The Delaware Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a lower court's decision that both curtailed the type of records an Amazon shareholder can seek as it investigates alleged anticompetitive behavior at the company, and restricted where the investor can sue. 

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FCC Using 'Excuses' To Threaten Licenses, ABC Says

By Christopher Cole

ABC told a D.C. federal court the Federal Communications Commission has effectively admitted that a probe of its parent Disney's hiring practices could not justify threatening eight of the network's TV stations' licenses with an early renewal proceeding.

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Google Says Consent Bars Claim Calls Illicitly Recorded For AI

By Bonnie Eslinger

Google urged a California federal judge Tuesday to toss a proposed class action alleging it illegally trains its artificial intelligence tools through the customer service software it provides Uber and other companies, saying the customers' consent to record the calls through the businesses' terms and policies overrides any allegedly improper use.

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Nvidia Faces Suit Over AI Training Music Data

By Adam Lidgett

An independent music licensing company has brought a lawsuit accusing Nvidia of infringing its copyrights to train its artificial intelligence models, days after dropping a nearly identical suit in the same court.

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MIT Says Amazon Web Services Infringes Security Tech Patent

By Ben Adlin

Amazon Web Services Inc.'s use of certain hardware fingerprinting technology in its cloud computing services violates a pair of Massachusetts Institute of Technology patents related to cryptography and hardware identification, the university alleged Friday in Massachusetts federal court.

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Google, UPS Shares Users' Browsing History, Suit Says

By Rae Ann Varona

Google and the United Parcel Service falsely promise that only tracking numbers would be sent to the mail carrier, two consumers have alleged in a proposed class action filed in California federal court, saying that a click of a tracking button instead sends their personal data to undisclosed third parties.

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Georgia Utility Failed To Protect Personal Info, Customer Says

By Kelcey Caulder

A utility and its parent's inadequate cybersecurity practices led to the exposure of hundreds of thousands of customers' information in a recent data breach, a Georgia Power Co. customer alleged in a proposed class action in federal court.

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Chicagoans Sue Over Delivery Robots' Biometric Scans

By Celeste Bott

Two California-based robot delivery companies have been hit with biometric privacy suits in Illinois state court alleging that the robots they deploy in Chicago unlawfully scan identifying information from people in their range and stream that data in real time to human operators, using it to train both their own and third parties' artificial intelligence models.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court last week saw stockholders challenge Nvidia Corp.'s roughly $20 billion deal with artificial intelligence chipmaker Groq Inc., Hertz Global Holdings Inc.'s electric vehicle strategy and more than $1.5 billion in Humana Inc. stock buybacks.

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Brief

X, Musk Reach Fresh Deal In Twitter Severance Class Action

By Dorothy Atkins

Elon Musk, X Corp. and its affiliate holding companies have reached a new deal to resolve a proposed class action by former Twitter Inc. workers over severance benefits related to Musk's take-private acquisition of the social media giant.

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Bumble Going Private In $1.3B Sale To Ithaca Holdings

By Al Barbarino

Dating app Bumble said Tuesday that it has agreed to be acquired by recently launched technology investment firm Ithaca Holdings in an all-cash deal valuing the company at $1.3 billion, with four law firms advising.

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Character.AI Files Ch. 11 With $20M Sale Bid From Disney

By Rick Archer

Artificial intelligence entertainment platform Character Technologies has filed for Chapter 11 protection in Delaware with more than $50 million in debt, saying it was sunk by high operating and legal costs and plans an asset auction with a baseline $20 million bid from Disney.

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Judge Rejects Updated AG Bid To Join RealPage Deal Talks

By Nate Beck

A Tennessee federal judge said he would consider objections from state attorneys general to terms of a possible settlement in multidistrict litigation over alleged price-fixing enabled by RealPage software, despite rejecting a renewed move by the states to intervene in the negotiations.

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GAO Sustains Protest Over DOD Skills Training Contract

By Ganesh Setty

The U.S. Government Accountability Office said a U.S. Department of Defense agency should reevaluate proposals for a mobile application helping servicemembers develop their academic skills, finding the awardee's proposal failed to address an offline access requirement.

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What To Know As State 'Neural Data' Privacy Laws Emerge

Attorneys at Goodwin discuss new state laws aimed at regulating consumer data generated from nervous system activity, explain why neurotechnology is attracting state and federal legislators’ attention, and highlight the compliance obligations that industry players should address now.

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Data Sale In Spirit Bankruptcy Raises Novel Privacy Risks

Spirit Airlines' planned sale of deidentified business data to Google for artificial intelligence training exposes gaps in the Bankruptcy Code's privacy guardrails, particularly for employee information, say attorneys at Patterson Belknap.

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Nelson Mullins Sued In SC Over October Data Breach

By Jake Maher

Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP has been hit with a proposed class action in South Carolina federal court over a data breach that took place in early October.

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Justices Won't Eye 'Weaponized' Sanctions Of Election Attys

By Jeff Overley

Despite outrage among Ninth Circuit conservatives, the U.S. Supreme Court declined Tuesday to scrutinize six-figure sanctions of lawyers who challenged Arizona election protocols, leaving intact discipline designed to "send a message."

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DOJ Cites Privacy Concerns In Rejecting NM Epstein Files Bid

By Courtney Bublé

The U.S. Department of Justice has rebuffed the state of New Mexico's request for the unredacted Jeffrey Epstein files for its investigation into possible crimes at Epstein's Zorro Ranch, saying it would hinder law enforcement operations.

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Case Dropped Against Judge Accused Of Endorsing Violence

By Madison Arnold

Ethics charges against a Florida state court judge in Jacksonville alleging he made comments appearing to endorse violence, convey bias and demean individuals during several proceedings last year have been dropped.

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What The Justices Won't Hear: A Roundup Of Cert Denials

By Taylor Bowie

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to grant a writ of certiorari to another batch of applications Tuesday, including cases involving six-figure sanctions, wine shipment laws and overtime claims. 

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