Analysis

High Court's Cisco Ruling Is A Win For Multinational Cos.

By Y. Peter Kang

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision Tuesday clearing Cisco in an Alien Tort Statute suit alleging it helped the Chinese government violate international law is a win for companies that do business in regions with possible human rights issues, experts tell Law360.

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Justices Say Cisco Can't Be Sued Under Alien Tort Statute

By Y. Peter Kang

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that the Ninth Circuit was wrong to reinstate an Alien Tort Statute suit alleging that Cisco helped the Chinese government's allegedly unlawful crackdown on the Falun Gong religious movement, saying federal courts lack authority to create causes of action for alleged violations of international law.

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FCC's Carr Calls Policy Against DEI 'Right Thing To Do'

By Christopher Cole

Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr has told Congress that tanking diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the telecom industry is not only justified but also a policy where Americans find more "common ground" than many lawmakers realize.

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Fed. Circ. Affirms Intel Win In Processor Patent Fight

By Elliot Weld

The Federal Circuit on Tuesday upheld a summary judgment granted to Intel in an infringement lawsuit brought by licensing entity PACT XPP Schwiz AG over patents covering processing architecture in computers, finding PACT had failed to raise an argument properly that it was relying upon on appeal.

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Live Nation Discloses White House Involvement In DOJ Deal

By Bryan Koenig

Live Nation Entertainment Inc. confirmed that the road to its controversial settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice went all the way to the White House in a New York federal court filing that leaves many questions unanswered about a deal Democrats have cast as corrupt and failed to mollify state enforcers.

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9th Circ. Judge Pans Live Nation's 'Unlawful' Arbitration Terms

By Dorothy Atkins

A Ninth Circuit panel on Tuesday expressed doubt about Live Nation's argument that a putative class action seeking refunds for a canceled 2022 festival belongs in arbitration, with one judge calling Live Nation's arguments "puzzling" and another judge saying she's disturbed to see a "blatantly unlawful provision" in its terms.

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Google And Adult Website Defeat Data Sharing Suit, For Now

By Lauren Berg

A California federal judge on Tuesday again tossed a proposed class action alleging that an adult website illegally shares customers' private sexual information with third parties like Google, noting that the amended complaint made "perplexing" changes that don't fix the original suit's issues, but allowed the plaintiff to rework some allegations.

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Paramount Urges High Court To Limit Video Privacy Lawsuits

By Allison Grande

Paramount Global is calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to preserve a ruling that only consumers who directly subscribe to audiovisual goods and services can bring lawsuits under the Video Privacy Protection Act, arguing that a more expansive reading would allow plaintiffs to flood the courts and would wrongly "transform" the law into an "unworkable internet-privacy regime."

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Several Democrats Challenge FCC Political Ad Guidance

By Corey Rothauser

Democratic candidates and officeholders, including former Sen. Sherrod Brown, Sen. Jon Ossoff, former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet, have asked the Fourth Circuit to strike down Federal Communications Commission guidance they say unlawfully expands discounted political advertising rates to party committees and joint fundraising groups.

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SEC Sends E-Delivery Proposal To White House

By Jessica Corso

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission could soon put forth a proposal amending the rules for providing electronic statements to investors, following recent comments from SEC Chair Paul Atkins that changes to the opt-in model are "long overdue."

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SSA Says Court Has No Jurisdiction Over FOIA Fee Dispute

By Elaine Briseño

The Social Security Administration told the D.C. federal court that the Freedom of Information Act does not authorize the court to override the fee determinations the agency made when producing public records related to its involvement with technology company Palantir.

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Brief

FCC Spectrum Auction Pulls In More Than $3.5B

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission said Tuesday it had raised more than $3.5 billion in gross winning bids in its recent spectrum auction, the first sale of wireless licenses by the federal government in years.

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Brief

UK Seeks Input On Potential Customs Updates

By Jack McLoone

HM Revenue & Customs is considering a plan to require customs intermediaries to register with the agency for the purposes of raising standards, it said Tuesday while also looking for general input on modernizing the U.K. customs regime.

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Connecticut Courts Require Verification Of AI Output In Filings

By Brian Steele

Connecticut's state judges on Tuesday issued a new requirement that attorneys and pro se filers independently verify all citations, legal authorities and evidence produced by generative artificial intelligence tools, threatening to impose case-ending sanctions on those who flout the rule.

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Media Alliance Seeks Say In Charter, Cox Merger In Calif.

By Nadia Dreid

Cox Communications and Charter Communications Inc. have asked the California Public Utilities Commission to kibosh a media advocacy group's petition seeking conditions on their $34.5 billion merger, but the media organization is asking the commission to ignore that request.

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Telecom Biz Sees Robust Competition, Think Tank Says

By Christopher Cole

As the Federal Communications Commission evaluates competition in the telecom sector, a think tank urged the agency not to adopt regulatory policies that treat the market as unfairly skewed toward a few large players.

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3rd Circ. Revives Huckabee Likeness Suit Over Meta CBD Ads

By Matthew Santoni

The Third Circuit partly revived former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's lawsuit against Meta Platforms Inc. over Facebook ads that falsely claimed his endorsement of CBD products, after a panel said he'd noted enough red flags in the ads that Meta could have been aware that his name and likeness were being misused.

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PTAB Rebuffs Tesla's Bid To Invalidate Network Patent Claims

By Theresa Schliep

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board on Monday declined to invalidate claims in an Intellectual Ventures II LLC patent covering wireless network technology challenged by Tesla, finding that Tesla's obviousness arguments did not pass muster.

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CrowdStrike Continues Push To End GoSecure Patent Suit

By Adam Lidgett

Austin-based CrowdStrike has told a Texas federal court that a magistrate judge got it wrong when she recommended against tossing a lawsuit accusing the company of infringing a computer system monitoring patent.

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Meta Fights Authors' Bid For Quick Appeal In AI Training Case

By Elliot Weld

Meta Platforms Inc. urged a California federal judge on Monday to reject a bid by 13 authors to appeal his ruling that the company's use of their copyrighted works to train its Llama large language models was fair use, arguing the decision was not a novel legal question warranting appellate review.

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Nvidia Seeks To Toss 3D Artist's 'Copycat' Copyright AI Suit

By Bonnie Eslinger

Nvidia Corp. urged a California federal court to throw out a Los Angeles-based 3D artist's proposed class action claiming violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, saying the way Nvidia's artificial intelligence models are trained and used puts the company outside the scope of the federal copyright law.

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Class Certified In Konica Minolta Workers' Severance Dispute

By George Woolston

A New Jersey federal judge Tuesday agreed to certify a class of workers alleging Konica Minolta used an office relocation as a guise to conduct a mass layoff without having to pay severance.

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Worker Accuses Outsourcing Co. Of Pay Errors

By MJ Koo

A former customer support worker has sued a business process outsourcing company in Massachusetts federal court, alleging the company shortchanged workers on overtime and paid them late because of its semimonthly pay system.

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WhatsApp Users Fight Uphill To Keep Calif. Privacy Suit Intact

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal judge overseeing WhatsApp users' allegations that Meta violated their privacy rights appeared open Tuesday to tossing some of the claims, at least for now, saying the proposed class complaint appears to make fraud claims that need to be backed by particularized allegations.

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NJ Transit Says Electronics Co. Must Cover Patent Suit Defense

By George Woolston

New Jersey Transit alleged in federal court that a railway electronics company must fund the transit agency's  defense against patent infringement claims in an underlying suit, claiming that the company provided the infringing systems and that its agreement with the company requires it to cover the defense.

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Planned Parenthood Sent Patient Data To Google, Suit Says

By Danielle Ferguson

Planned Parenthood and regional affiliates were hit with a proposed class action alleging they use hidden tracking tools on their website and patient portals to transmit sensitive sexual and reproductive health information to third-party companies such as Google and Meta without consent. 

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Menlo Ventures Raises $3B To Back AI Companies

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Menlo Park, California-based venture capital firm Menlo Ventures, led by Cooley LLP, on Tuesday revealed that it has raised $3 billion in new capital to invest in artificial intelligence companies at every stage of the life cycle.

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Vimeo Owner Bending Spoons Launches Plans For $1.6B IPO

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Italian mobile app developer Bending Spoons has unveiled terms for an estimated $1.6 billion initial public offering steered by Latham & Watkins LLP and Milbank LLP.

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Flight Sim Training Co.'s Ch. 11 Liquidation Plan Approved

By Vince Sullivan

Pilot training company Avenger Flight Group LLC received approval Tuesday from a Delaware bankruptcy judge for its Chapter 11 liquidation plan to create a trust to provide recoveries to unsecured creditors.

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Engineer Plotted To Send US Tech To Iran, Jury Is Told

By Carolyn Muyskens

Prosecutors told a Boston federal jury Tuesday that an Iranian-born engineer schemed to send electronic parts with potential military applications to Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions on the country, while the engineer's attorney asserted his innocence and urged jurors not to let the U.S. conflict with Iran color their views on the case. 

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AI Heightens Old Compliance Risks For Investment Advisers

Though artificial intelligence offers genuine promise for investment advisers, it also magnifies long-standing risks — including those involving fiduciary duties, books and records, client confidentiality, and marketing — with most foundational compliance requirements likely to remain, says Theodore Edwards at Troutman.

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How A Novel NY Law Fits Into The AI Legal Landscape For Ads

An amendment to New York's General Business Law requiring disclosures when advertisements use performers generated by artificial intelligence arrives at a moment of rapid transformation in the marketing ecosystem and indicates that advertisers should take a proactive approach grounded in transparency, contractual protections and alignment across legal and creative teams, say attorneys at Manatt.

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Justices' Obstruction Ruling Clears Venue-Challenge Path

While the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Abouammo v. U.S. poses venue challenges for federal obstruction of justice prosecutions, it is a gift for defense counsel because it offers a clean, constitutional basis to challenge venue where a place of falsification and a place of investigation diverge, says Liz Aloi at MoFo.

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Defending Against Remote Work Risks During The World Cup

With World Cup matches underway, remote work policies and security measures can help employers manage the risks of employees working from sports arenas and other nontraditional locations, including hours-worked compliance, network security and data protection, says Lisa Burton at Ogletree.

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What NERC Reliability Guideline Means For Large Loads

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation's new reliability guideline — which addresses issues associated with large loads like data centers, cryptocurrency mining facilities and factories — is nonbinding, but hints at possible future expansion of reliability obligations for large load owners, operators, developers and equipment providers, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

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Drawing A Line Between Settlement Pressure And Extortion

U.S. v. Luo, pending in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, may force courts to address anew when settlement negotiations become criminal extortion, particularly in the age of easily fabricated digital evidence, says attorney Denis Kiely.

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How 3 Courts Are Approaching AI Adoption

By Emily Sawicki

The rules surrounding artificial intelligence experimentation in courts run the gamut from court systems offering proprietary tools and training to unwritten policies that essentially amount to don't ask, don't tell.

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Analysis

With Data And AI, Whistleblowers Set Off An FCA Tidal Wave

By Phillip Bantz

Whistleblowers are increasingly using artificial intelligence to comb through public data in search of potential False Claims Act cases, unleashing a flood of new complaints that are shaking up white collar defense and government enforcement efforts while subjecting more companies to potentially false allegations, experts say.

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Conn. Justices Threaten Sanctions For AI Errors

By Andrea Keckley

The Connecticut Supreme Court has threatened to sanction GLG Law LLC and one of its attorneys for submitting documents in two cases "that misrepresented the law through the use of generative artificial intelligence," according to a Tuesday order that summoned them to appear in court next month.

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Atty DQ Over Inadvertent Doc Disclosure Overturned

By Y. Peter Kang

A California state appeals court has upended the disqualification of defense counsel in a sexual battery suit, saying documents undermining the case that were accidentally produced via a Dropbox link were not privileged.

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DOJ Nominee Questioned About Deleted Social Media Posts

By Courtney Bublé

A nominee for a top U.S. Department of Justice position, who is a real estate attorney turned tech entrepreneur, came under fire on Wednesday for past social media posts that he's now deleted.

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Booker, Cassidy Press DOJ On Trump Immunity Deal

By Courtney Bublé

Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., wrote to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Wednesday expressing "serious concerns" about the alleged immunity for President Donald Trump, his family and businesses in the controversial settlement he reached with the IRS.

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