Amazon Must Face Delivery Driver Restroom Tech Claims

By Elliot Weld

A Washington federal judge on Wednesday mostly allowed a company's claims accusing Amazon.com Inc. of stealing technology that routes delivery drivers to nearby bathrooms to proceed, saying he would not stop it from presenting its misappropriation claims.

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First Brands Needs Court OK On $48M From Ford, GM, Polaris

By Emily Lever

Struggling auto parts maker First Brands Group urged a Texas bankruptcy judge Wednesday to let it borrow $48 million advanced by Ford, General Motors, Harley-Davidson and other customers, saying it needs the funds to stay afloat after running out of debtor-in-possession financing. 

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EPA Begins Rollback Of Biden-Era Smog Control Plan

By Keith Goldberg

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed to reapprove pollution control plans from several states as part of its effort to undo a Biden-era rule curbing cross-border smog formation that was halted by the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Law360 Seeks Members For Its 2026 Editorial Boards

Law360 is looking for avid readers of our publications to serve as members of our 2026 editorial advisory boards.

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Atty Who Sued Blank Rome Lawyers Ordered To Pay Fees

By P.J. D'Annunzio

A Pennsylvania federal judge has adopted a special master's recommendation that a lawyer who lost her malicious prosecution case against several Blank Rome LLP attorneys and an aviation parts company should pay fees covering the defendants' bid to sanction her over alleged deposition conduct.

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Bankrupt Alaska Airline Gets First-Day Ch. 11 Nods In Del.

By Jeff Montgomery

A bankrupt Alaska-based airline landed its first Chapter 11 motion approvals in Delaware on Wednesday, with a U.S. Trustee's Office attorney noting that "this case has some unusual qualities to it," including an absence of revenue.

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Judge Lets BMW Drop Contempt Bid After 'Battle Royale'

By Ryan Davis

Following what BMW called a "battle royale" where the parties accused each other of misrepresentation, a Texas federal judge Wednesday granted the automaker's motion to withdraw its bid to hold Onesta IP in contempt of a now-stayed order for the licensing company to drop German litigation over U.S. patents.

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Self-Driving Car Biz Waabi Secures $750M In New Funding

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Self-driving automobile tech company Waabi on Wednesday announced that it secured $750 million of new funding and unveiled a partnership with Uber that will be used to develop and deploy robotaxis.

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Colo. Drivers Claim $5M Damage From Gas-Diesel Mix-Up

By Rachel Konieczny

Colorado residents filed a proposed class action Tuesday in federal court against two fuel station operators, alleging the companies distributed gasoline contaminated with diesel fuel to major gas stations in early January that caused more than $5 million in damage to their vehicles.

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Farmers Say 'Secret' Union Pacific Fee Blocks Rival Rail Line

By Bryan Koenig

Kansas and Colorado grain farmers and the company they use to ship their grain to the West Coast sued Union Pacific in Kansas federal court for allegedly using a "secret" fee illegally hidden from federal rail regulators to stop the plaintiffs from using a cheaper alternative rail line.

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Criminal History Law Covers Job Seeker's Suit, 3rd Circ. Says

By Grace Elletson

The Third Circuit reinstated a suit Wednesday from a job applicant who said a trucking company illegally rejected him because of a past armed robbery conviction, ruling that a Pennsylvania law that sets guardrails on the consideration of criminal histories in hiring applies to his case.

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Werner Acquires FirstFleet Trucking Co. In $283M Deal

By Al Barbarino

Werner Enterprises said Wednesday it has purchased privately held dedicated trucking company First Enterprises Inc., known as FirstFleet, for about $245 million in cash, and will separately purchase about $38 million worth of real estate from the company.

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Amazon Seeks To Send Delivery Co.'s RICO Suit To Arbitration

By Rachel Riley

Amazon is urging a Washington federal judge to force a shipping contractor to arbitrate his proposed class action targeting the e-commerce company's logistics partner program, arguing the Ninth Circuit has already held that disputes stemming from its Delivery Service Partner agreement belong in arbitration.

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Del. Justices Told ERISA, Legal Fee Tangle Unprecedented

By Jeff Montgomery

An attorney for a distressed credit fund told Delaware's Supreme Court justices on Wednesday that a vice chancellor made an unprecedented finding last year that provisions of the nation's employee retirement income law barred entitlement to legal fee advancement in a state contract case, urging the justices to overturn the ruling.

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New Squires Order Allows 4 Patent Reviews, Denies 25 Others

By Theresa Schliep

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires instituted four America Invents Act patent challenges while denying 25 others in his most recent summary decision.

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Brief

FCC Chair Signals Feb. Vote On 900 MHz Expansion

By Corey Rothauser

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr said the commission plans to vote next month on an order that would allow broadband deployment across the full 10 megahertz of the 900 MHz band, a move the nation's railroads have said they would support but only with strict safeguards in place.

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7th Circ. Doubtful Climate Fight Belongs In Federal Court

By Lauraann Wood

Seventh Circuit judges seemed skeptical Wednesday of Chevron and other oil giants' argument that a lower court incorrectly sent Chicago's climate deception claims back to state court, questioning whether they've cited the type of contractual government work and relationship that would otherwise keep the suit in federal court.

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Enbridge Looks To Keep Pipeline Open Amid 7th Circ. Appeal

By Crystal Owens

Enbridge Energy Inc. is looking to pause a shutdown order of a segment of its Line 5 pipeline that runs through Wisconsin tribal lands pending its Seventh Circuit appeal, arguing to a Wisconsin district court that a cutoff would cause disproportionate economic harm and energy shortages.

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Series

Judges On AI: How Judicial Use Informs Guardrails

U.S. Magistrate Judge Maritza Dominguez Braswell at the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado discusses why having a sense of how generative AI tools behave, where they add value, where they introduce risk and how they are reshaping the practice of law is key for today's judges.

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ICE Violated Nearly 100 Court Orders, Minn. Judge Says

By Rae Ann Varona

The Minnesota federal court's chief judge admonished U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday for violating nearly 100 court orders concerning the Trump administration's immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota while another judge, on the same day, temporarily blocked ICE from unlawfully arresting and detaining refugees in the North Star State.

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Tobey Maguire Says He Rerouted Fee To Goldstein

By Jared Foretek

"Spider-Man" star Tobey Maguire told the jury Wednesday in Thomas Goldstein's tax fraud trial that he paid $500,000 for his legal services to another poker player the former SCOTUSblog founder owed money to, rather than Goldstein's law firm.

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Tom Goldstein Saga Could Go From Courtroom To Big Screen

By Rachel Rippetoe

As federal prosecutors are two weeks into detailing SCOTUSblog founder Thomas Goldstein's storied descent into the world of high-stakes poker during his tax fraud trial in Maryland, Hollywood producers are gearing up to tell the same story on-screen.

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Fla. Prosecutors' Detention Defense Met With Sanction Threat

By Adrian Cruz

The U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Florida, Gregory Kehoe, along with an assistant U.S. attorney have been threatened with sanctions by a federal judge for the methods their office used in defending the mandatory detention of noncitizens.

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Brief

Trump Announces Pick For New Assistant AG For Fraud Role

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday evening that he would be nominating Colin McDonald, associate deputy attorney general, for the newly created assistant attorney general for fraud role.

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USPTO Seeks 'Serious Sanctions' For Chinese Co.'s 19K Apps

By Rae Ann Varona

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office says the "most serious sanctions" are warranted against a China-based company for filing more than 19,000 trademark submissions using names of U.S.-licensed attorneys who did not review the applications, saying submissions were at times filed in 3-minute intervals "or less."

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Prosecutors Form New Group To Fight Federal Overreach

By Ryan Boysen

Several progressive prosecutors have launched a new group to hold accountable federal officials who "exceed their lawful authority," amid a growing backlash to the Trump administration's immigration crackdown and the recent killing of two protesters by immigration agents in Minneapolis.

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Analysis

Trade Secret Filings Hit Record High In 2025, Report Finds

By Ivan Moreno

Trade secret litigation reached an all-time high in 2025, with more than 1,500 federal cases filed for the first time ever, according to a new report by legal analytics firm Lex Machina, which also highlights trends about damages, the busiest courts and the law firms most frequently involved.

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