OpenAI Judge Pauses Trial To Probe Musk Attys On $97B Bid

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal jury trial over Elon Musk's challenge to OpenAI's for-profit conversion paused on a precarious note Thursday after Musk's legal team failed to object to a document during Musk's cross-examination, and inadvertently opened the door to wide-ranging and potentially damaging evidence into Musk's $97.4 billion acquisition proposal.

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'Grotesquely Bloated,' Google Judge Rips Consumers' Fee Bid

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal judge said Thursday he would likely give final approval to Google's $700 million antitrust deal with states and consumers, but blasted the accompanying request for $85 million in attorney fees, calling the 100,000 hours the consumers' counsel said they spent on the case "grotesquely bloated."

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Netflix's 'Tiger King' Funeral Clip Was Fair Use, 10th Circ. Says

By Ivan Moreno

The Tenth Circuit on Thursday said Netflix Inc. made fair use of a minutelong funeral clip in its popular "Tiger King" docuseries, holding in a precedential opinion that the streaming platform's use of the footage was "significantly transformative," departing from its earlier ruling that reached the opposite conclusion.

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Jones Day Beats Sanctions Bid In $2M Fee Dispute

By Celeste Bott

An Illinois state judge has ruled that Jones Day can pursue punitive damages on several of its claims in a lawsuit alleging a former client made a series of unlawful transactions to avoid paying over $2 million in legal fees, and also denied sanctions sought by the ex-client against the firm.

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XAI's Suit Is 'Jurisdictional Bullying,' Musk Child's Mom Says

By Mike Curley

The mother of one of Elon Musk's children is urging a Texas federal court to throw out a suit from his artificial intelligence company alleging she breached its terms of service by suing it in New York, saying the case is "jurisdictional bullying" and trying to weaponize a forum selection clause to preempt her own case.

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Trump Says Fixed-Price Procurement Deals Will Be Default

By Madeline Lyskawa

President Donald Trump issued an executive order Thursday making fixed-price contracts the default for federal contracting, as a part of an effort to tackle "unpredictable costs, bloated overhead, and weak performance incentives," which the president attributed to cost-reimbursement contracts.

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New Mexico AG Calls Meta Threat To Leave State 'PR Stunt'

By Craig Clough

New Mexico's attorney general responded Thursday to Meta Platforms' threat to pull social media products from the state if an upcoming bench trial over potential mandates to increase child safety goes poorly for the company, calling it a "PR stunt" that is "showing the world how little it cares about child safety."

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FCC Establishes E-Rate Competitive Bidding Portal

By Nadia Dreid

Despite a partial dissent from the Federal Communications Commission's lone Democrat, the agency Thursday morning voted to approve a much-criticized plan to create a portal that consolidates bids for the E-rate program into one place.

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FCC Advances Plan To Clamp Down On Robocall Campaigns

By Christopher Cole

Calling illegal robocalls the No. 1 customer service issue facing the agency, the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday floated new rules that would require voice call providers to familiarize themselves with customers ahead of carrying their call traffic.

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Critical Mineral Restrictions Up 500% From 2009, OECD Says

By Jack McLoone

Global export restrictions on critical raw materials that are key for digital and renewable energy technologies increased fivefold between 2009 and 2024, which could lead to greater risks of supply chain vulnerabilities, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said.

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Brief

Antenna Location Near Bermuda Sinks Ala. FM Station Bid

By Nadia Dreid

Selma, Alabama, will not be getting a new low-power FM station after the Federal Communications Commission said an error on the paperwork listed antenna coordinates that nearly reached all the way to Bermuda.

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Fed. Circ. Lets Stand Walmart's Alice Win Over Q Tech Patents

By Elliot Weld

The Federal Circuit said Thursday it will not rehear arguments that Walmart infringed three content-sharing patents that were invalidated under the U.S. Supreme Court's test for assessing whether patents cover abstract subject matter.

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Federal Circuit Upholds Google Win In Targeted Ad PTAB Case

By Adam Lidgett

The Federal Circuit on Thursday refused to undo Google's successful invalidation of claims in a targeted advertising patent owned by tech company Wildseed Mobile LLC, backing the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's finding that they were obvious.

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Ad Network Can't Ditch Suit Over Mobile App User Tracking

By Allison Grande

A California federal judge refused to toss a putative class action accusing mobile advertising network InMobi of unlawfully collecting detailed, sensitive information from users of apps that integrate its software tools, finding the plaintiff adequately alleged the technology functions as a "pen register" that's prohibited by the state's wiretap law. 

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Texas Panel Backs Amazon Over Delivery Photo Showing Child

By Rae Ann Varona

An Amazon package delivery driver did not invade a Texas family's privacy when a proof-of-delivery photo inadvertently included the family's naked minor child standing by the family's glass front door, a Texas appellate court ruled Thursday, affirming judgment in favor of the e-commerce giant in the family's tort lawsuit.

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Al Jazeera Fights To Nix Storm Video DMCA Claim For Good

By Gina Kim

Al Jazeera urged a California federal judge Thursday to permanently nix a claim alleging it knowingly, with intent to conceal infringement, embedded its watermark over videographers' extreme weather footage uploaded onto YouTube, arguing it never removed the videographers' copyright management information and that the parties' works are not identical.

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Google Says Ad Tech Rivals Can't 'Circumvent' Time Limits

By Bryan Koenig

Google has formally asked a New York federal judge to dramatically reduce antitrust claims from rival advertising placement technology providers, arguing they're clearly targeting policies they've known about for years and thus cannot get around a four-year statute of limitations pegged to a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit.

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Tribes Back Michigan In Robinhood, Polymarket Betting Fight

By Melanie Dorsey

A coalition of tribal gaming groups and federally recognized tribes won permission on Thursday to file briefs backing Michigan officials in suits by Robinhood Derivatives LLC and Polymarket US over sports-related event contracts, arguing the companies' claims threaten to upend tribal-state gaming regulation and siphon revenue from tribal governments. 

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Verizon Slaps Landowner With Counterclaims Over Tower Lease

By Nadia Dreid

Verizon is fighting back after a North Carolina federal judge declared that the lease for land a cell tower was constructed on is invalid, laying down a set of counterclaims accusing the landowner of using it to build up the site before canceling the lease.

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Roundup

NC Biz Court Bulletin: Corporate Raid, MV Realty Settlement

By Hayley Fowler

A major case settled in the North Carolina Business Court in April as new lawsuits emerged, including a complaint by health information technology company IQVIA Holdings Inc. accusing its former top brass of orchestrating a corporate raid and defecting to a competitor. In case you missed this story and others, here are the highlights.

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Brief

Northrop Grumman Drops Satellite Damage Suit In Va.

By Rae Ann Varona

A Virginia federal judge has approved Northrop Grumman's voluntary dismissal of its breach of contract lawsuit against Maryland-based subcontractor Element U.S. Space & Defense, which Northrop had accused of wrecking a $5 million solar satellite array and refusing to reimburse resulting damages.

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Monthly Merger Review Snapshot

By Matthew Perlman

A pair of door manufacturers ended a landmark private merger challenge, state enforcers are gearing up for a potential Live Nation breakup bid following a crucial jury win, and a separate group of states and DirecTV are challenging Nexstar's $6.2 billion deal for rival broadcaster Tegna.

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ADW Pursues $3B Takeover Of Meineke Owner, More Rumors

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Hedge fund ADW Capital is trying to scoop up Meineke owner Driven Brands in a $3 billion deal, SpaceX told investors that only Elon Musk has the power to remove himself as the leader of the space exploration giant, and technology services firm Virtusa Corp. is looking to raise $1 billion in an India initial public offering.

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5 States Join Bid To Block $6.2B Nexstar-Tegna Merger

By Rae Ann Varona

Five states on Thursday joined a coalition of others who sued to challenge Nexstar Media Group Inc.'s then-proposed $6.2 billion merger with Tegna Inc., alleging in an amended antitrust complaint that the currently frozen deal will eliminate consumers' choices for local news and diminish diversity in news coverage.

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McKool Smith's Patent Trial Legend Sam Baxter Retires

By Adam Lidgett

Sam Baxter of McKool Smith has announced his retirement after more than five decades in the legal profession, wrapping up a storied career as a patent litigator in the Eastern District of Texas.

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Buchalter Adds Engineer Turned Patent Atty From Mintz

By Andrea Keckley

Buchalter PC announced Wednesday that it has welcomed an engineer-turned-lawyer to its Los Angeles and San Francisco offices, touting her long-standing experience as a patent litigator and registered patent attorney.

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How Banks And Fintechs Can Build COPPA-Ready Youth Apps

Recent Children's Online Privacy Protection Act and state law activity expanding children's data protections underscore compliance considerations for bank-fintech partnerships offering digital financial tech products for youth, including age-gating, data minimization and parental control, says Erin Illman at Bradley Arant.

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Fed. Circ. In March: IPR And The Limits Of Retroactivity

The Federal Circuit recently ruled in Implicit v. Sonos that even though the clever retroactive correction of two invalidated patents theoretically should have changed the outcome of the inter partes review, the patentee had forfeited the right to rely on the correction — which is interesting for several reasons, say attorneys at Knobbe Martens.

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What's At Stake For Employers In Fight Over Visa Pause

For employers that rely on foreign talent, the Trump administration’s suspension of immigrant visa issuance for the nationals of 75 countries is creating practical problems, and a recently filed lawsuit challenging the pause could determine whether consular processing, for some, ceases to be an individualized process, says attorney Lisa Eisenberg.

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Series

Playing Magic: The Gathering Makes Me A Better Lawyer

The competitive card game Magic: The Gathering offers me a training ground for the strategic thinking skills crucial to litigation, challenging me to adapt to oft-updated rules, analyze text as complicated as any statute and anticipate my opponent’s next moves, says Christopher Smith at Lash Goldberg.

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How They Won It

How Sullivan & Cromwell Won An $18B 'Bet The Country' Case

By Chris Villani

It is not often that a Second Circuit ruling is hailed as "the greatest legal achievement in national history" by a country's president, but that's what happened after a team from Sullivan & Cromwell LLP persuaded the appellate panel to nix an $18 billion judgment against Argentina.

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'Christian Witch' Says Jenner & Block Must Face Vax Bias Suit

By Grace Elletson

A former Jenner & Block LLP employee told an Illinois federal judge that she didn't need to disclose that she's a "Christian witch" in order to seek an exemption to the law firm's COVID-19 vaccine requirement, urging the court to reject her ex-employer's bid to toss the case.

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Senate Advances Mont. Judge Pick Rated Unqualified By ABA

By Courtney Bublé

A judicial nominee for the District of Montana who was the only nominee of the second Trump administration so far to receive a "not qualified" rating from the American Bar Association advanced out of committee on Thursday.

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Judge Denies Push To Stop Closed Immigration Hearings

By Tom Lotshaw

A D.C. federal judge denied a Minnesota human rights organization's request to block immigration judges from restricting public and press access to proceedings, ruling that it failed to show an immediate threat of future harm from unlawful hearing closures.

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J&J Says Ill. Ruling Backs Beasley Allen's DQ From Talc Suits

By George Woolston

Johnson & Johnson told a New Jersey federal court that a recent ruling in Illinois backs the Beasley Allen Law Firm's disqualification from multidistrict litigation over its talcum powder.

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LSC Decries House Subcommittee's Proposed Budget Cut

By Marco Poggio

The nation's largest funder of civil legal aid condemned a House appropriations proposal to slash its budget for fiscal year 2027 by more than half, warning Thursday the reduction could leave nearly 3 million Americans without help for critical civil legal problems.

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Ex-Husch Blackwell Partner Urges Discovery In ERISA Dispute

By Daniel Moritz-Rabson

A former Husch Blackwell LLP partner has urged a Missouri federal court to ignore the firm's request for summary judgment in a dispute over employee retirement benefits, arguing discovery should proceed in the proposed class action.

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Hub Hires: Weil Gotshal, Reed Smith, Morgan Lewis

By Chris Villani

April showers bring legal hires in Boston, with several attorneys on the move. Weil Gotshal snagged an international trade lawyer from Kirkland & Ellis, Morgan Lewis added an attorney from Hunton, and Reed Smith continued to expand its new Boston office.

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