Technology

  • October 16, 2024

    FTC Says Customers Must Be Able To 'Click To Cancel'

    Companies will now be required to allow customers to ditch their subscriptions with a single click after the Federal Trade Commission finalized its new "click to cancel" rule, which has been years in the making.

  • October 16, 2024

    Pharma Co. Contractor Settles SEC Insider Trading Claim

    An information technology consultant for a Massachusetts biopharmaceutical company will pay the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over $28,000 to resolve claims he immediately dumped shares of his client when he got wind of its yet-to-be announced plans for major layoffs.

  • October 16, 2024

    Fla. Sued Over Threats To TV Stations For Airing Abortion Ad

    The sponsor of a ballot initiative that would enshrine the right to abortion in the Florida Constitution sued the state Wednesday over letters threatening television stations with criminal prosecution if they did not pull a campaign ad promoting the initiative.

  • October 16, 2024

    Alphatec Investor Seeks $9.5M Atty Fee After Chancery Win

    A family office investment company that recently won a five-year battle over millions worth of securities purchase rights not honored by a surgical and medical device developer asked Delaware's Court of Chancery on Wednesday to shift more than $9.5 million in fees and expenses to the developer.

  • October 16, 2024

    SEC Data Contractor Faked Audit Certification, Feds Say

    The CEO of a company that received roughly $11 million from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to provide data infrastructure services was charged in D.C. federal court with creating a shell entity to fraudulently claim his business was certified for high-level reliability and security, prosecutors announced Wednesday.

  • October 16, 2024

    NY Urges Sotomayor Not To Block Broadband Price Cap Law

    New York is fighting the telecommunications industry's effort to halt its new law capping broadband prices for low-income residents, telling U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to reject a petition that would stay the law's implementation pending a forthcoming certiorari bid challenging the law.

  • October 16, 2024

    Pa. AG Wants State Claims Restored In FTC Amazon Suit

    Pennsylvania's attorney general wants to get back into a joint state and federal antitrust case against Amazon, asking a Washington federal judge to reconsider tossing claims under Pennsylvania's consumer protection law because Amazon allegedly concealed its unfair trade practices from Pennsylvania customers.

  • October 16, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Restores Patent Fight Between LED Light Cos.

    A small Utah company that claims to have developed novel LED lights persuaded the Federal Circuit on Wednesday to keep its patent lawsuit alive after a Los Angeles judge used an "improper construction" of words to allow a different company that sells light bulbs to slip out of the suit.

  • October 16, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Affirms Samsung's PTAB Wins Over LED Patents

    The Federal Circuit on Wednesday upheld the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's decision to invalidate the vast majority of two Lynk Labs LED patents, but wasn't ready to address a larger issue from a third, related case.

  • October 16, 2024

    Latham-Led Silicon Carbide Biz Lands $2.5B Of New Funding

    Silicon carbide technology company Wolfspeed, advised by Latham & Watkins LLP and Smith Anderson, announced that it expects to receive up to $2.5 billion in new funding, through the CHIPS and Science Act and from a consortium that includes private equity giant Apollo, to support the expansion of silicon carbon manufacturing in the U.S.

  • October 16, 2024

    M&A Pros Cautious About Expected Private Equity Surge

    It's an oft-repeated line that private equity activity is set to surge amid pressure to exit older investments and deploy record stores of dry powder, but mergers and acquisitions professionals recently surveyed by Dykema were cautious when asked if they expect private equity to boost deal flow in the next 12 months, with a majority saying they only "somewhat agree." 

  • October 16, 2024

    Remote Workers Weren't Reimbursed For Expenses, Suit Says

    A customer experience technology company required remote workers to purchase high-speed internet and computers but didn't reimburse them for these costs, causing their wages to hold less value, a former employee said in a lawsuit filed in Colorado federal court.

  • October 16, 2024

    DLA Piper Says 'Sloppy' Work Cost Pregnant Associate Job

    DLA Piper urged a New York federal court to throw out a former associate's lawsuit alleging that she was fired after requesting maternity leave, saying her work performance was "shockingly poor" during her one year with the firm.

  • October 16, 2024

    Two Circles Boosts 'Big 5' Sports Client Base With Kore Buy

    Sports data and entertainment company Two Circles said Wednesday it has agreed to buy sports industry intelligence platform Kore, in a deal that will create a merged company worth a reported $650 million.

  • October 16, 2024

    RTX To Pay $1B For Qatari Bribes And Defrauding US Gov't

    RTX Corp. and its Raytheon subsidiary have agreed to pay approximately $1 billion and enter into two separate deferred prosecution agreements in connection with a bribery scheme to secure Qatari military contracts, as well as separate ploys to defraud the U.S. government in deals for Patriot missile and radar systems.

  • October 15, 2024

    Meta Limits But Can't Shake Social Media Addiction MDL

    A California federal judge on Tuesday refused to ax sprawling multidistrict litigation accusing Meta Platforms Inc. and other social media giants of designing their platforms to addict children, finding that a broad tech liability shield required claims pressed by dozens of state attorneys general to be narrowed but not tossed. 

  • October 15, 2024

    10th Circ. Won't Reboot Short Sellers' Suit Against Overstock

    In a decision dealing with matters of first impression, the Tenth Circuit on Tuesday declined to revive a hedge fund's proposed class action accusing Overstock.com Inc. and its leadership of manipulating the market when it said it would pay shareholders using cryptocurrency but abandoned the plan to force short sellers into a "squeeze."

  • October 15, 2024

    Western Digital Had No Way Around Patent, Spex Chief Says

    Western Digital owes between $5 and $8.50 per unit for infringing Spex's data security patent based on Spex's 2009 licensing deal with Kingston Technology, Spex's president told California federal jurors Tuesday, noting that Western Digital had no noninfringing alternative to implement hardware encryption in its storage devices. 

  • October 15, 2024

    NYT Says Perplexity Violating IP Law, AI Firm Claims Fair Use

    The New York Times has hit Perplexity AI Inc. with a cease-and-desist letter claiming that the artificial intelligence startup is unlawfully using its copyrighted news content, while Perplexity contends that its AI search engine is lawfully indexing web pages and surfacing facts as citations.

  • October 15, 2024

    Split FCC Votes To Explore How Data Caps Affect Consumers

    The Federal Communications Commission will look at how data cap practices are affecting the public to decide whether it need involve itself further in the matter, something the Republican minority on the commission made clear Tuesday that it does not support.

  • October 15, 2024

    Patent Co. Drops IP Suits To Go After Carriers In Antitrust Cases

    Patent-holding company VoIP-Pal.com announced Monday that it will refocus its legal efforts on antitrust litigation targeting the big three telecommunications carriers, days after dropping recently filed patent suits against Verizon and T-Mobile.

  • October 15, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Votes No On Reviving Ballot Machine Patent

    The Federal Circuit on Monday shut down an effort to revive language in a patent covering a "ballot marking device" for disabled voters that had been asserted against vote-counting business Smartmatic USA Corp.

  • October 15, 2024

    SEC Says Robot Co.'s AI Caretaker Was Mostly A Dummy

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued a robotics and artificial intelligence startup and its founder in Florida federal court Tuesday, accusing them of misleading investors about the company's ability to develop an AI-infused hologram and a robot to help families with childcare and other tasks.

  • October 15, 2024

    Gamers End Challenge Of Microsoft's $69B Activision Deal

    Microsoft reached an agreement ending a challenge from a group of gamers targeting its $69 billion deal for Activision Blizzard as a merger challenge from the Federal Trade Commission remains pending at the Ninth Circuit.

  • October 15, 2024

    OpenAI Says It Will Only Use Its Patents 'Defensively'

    Artificial intelligence firm OpenAI has announced a new pledge to only use its patents for defensive reasons, provided others do not threaten it or assert claims against it first, echoing a similar position taken by electric-vehicle maker Tesla.

Expert Analysis

  • How Cos. With Chinese Suppliers Should Prep For Biotech Bill

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    A proposed bill to prohibit government-affiliated life sciences companies from contracting with Chinese biotech companies of concern may necessitate switching to other sources for research and supplies, meaning they should begin evaluating supply chains now due to the long lead times of drug development, say John O'Loughlin and Christina Carone at Weil Gotshal.

  • Mirror, Mirror On The Wall, Is My Counterclaim Bound To Fall?

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    A Pennsylvania federal court’s recent dismissal of the defendants’ counterclaims in Morgan v. Noss should remind attorneys to avoid the temptation to repackage a claim’s facts and law into a mirror-image counterclaim, as this approach will often result in a waste of time and resources, says Matthew Selmasska at Kaufman Dolowich.

  • Nuclear Power Can Help Industrial Plants Get To Net-Zero

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    In the race to fight climate change and achieve net-zero emissions, the industrial sector currently faces immense challenges — but the integration of nuclear energy is a promising solution, so companies should consider the financial and regulatory issues, opportunities, and risk-mitigating factors, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Why The SEC Is Targeting Short-And-Distort Schemes

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent crackdown on the illegal practice of short-and-distort trades highlights the urgent need for public companies to adopt proactive measures, including pursuing private rights of action, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • Series

    Playing Dungeons & Dragons Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Playing Dungeons & Dragons – a tabletop role-playing game – helped pave the way for my legal career by providing me with foundational skills such as persuasion and team building, says Derrick Carman at Robins Kaplan.

  • Bid Protest Spotlight: Misplaced Info, Trade-Offs, Proteges

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    James Tucker at MoFo examines three recent decisions concerning the consequences of providing solicited information in the wrong section of a bid proposal, the limits of agency discretion in technical merit, best-value trade-off evaluations, and the weight of the experience and capabilities of small businesses in mentor-protégé joint venture qualification.

  • Considerations When Using Publicly Available Data To Train AI

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    To maximize the benefits and mitigate the risks of using publicly available data to train artificial intelligence models, companies should maintain a balance between openness and protection, and consider certain best practices, says Michael Cole at Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America.

  • Opinion

    USPTO AI Patent Guidance Leaves Questions Unanswered

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    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s recent guidance on artificial intelligence patent eligibility is unlikely to answer many of the open questions that AI patent applicants face, as it includes nominally new analysis that applicants can adopt to analyze their inventions, say attorneys at Fenwick & West.

  • Illinois BIPA Reform Offers Welcome Relief To Businesses

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    Illinois' recent amendment to its Biometric Information Privacy Act limits the number of violations and damages a plaintiff can claim — a crucial step in shielding businesses from unintended legal consequences, including litigation risk and compliance costs, say attorneys at Taft.

  • 3 Leadership Practices For A More Supportive Firm Culture

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    Traditional leadership styles frequently amplify the inherent pressures of legal work, but a few simple, time-neutral strategies can strengthen the skills and confidence of employees and foster a more collaborative culture, while supporting individual growth and contribution to organizational goals, says Benjamin Grimes at BKG Leadership.

  • How Justices' E-Rate Decision May Affect Scope Of FCA

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s eventual decision in Wisconsin Bell v. U.S., determining whether reimbursements paid by the E-rate program are "claims" under the False Claims Act, may affect other federal programs that do not require payments to be made by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, says David Colapinto at Kohn Kohn.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Rulings On Hyperlinked Documents

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    Recent rulings show that counsel should engage in early discussions with clients regarding the potential of hyperlinked documents in electronically stored information, which will allow for more deliberate negotiation of any agreements regarding the scope of discovery, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Loper Bright Limits Federal Agencies' Ability To Alter Course

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision to dismantle Chevron deference also effectively overrules its 2005 decision in National Cable & Telecommunications Association v. Brand X, greatly diminishing agencies' ability to change regulatory course from one administration to the next, says Steven Gordon at Holland & Knight.

  • How To Deploy AI In A Dangerous Threat Landscape

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    Businesses are feeling immense pressure to deploy generative artificial intelligence tools to accelerate profits and demonstrate their technological superiority to investors and consumers, and there are a few steps they can take when using AI tools to mitigate liability risks, say B. Stephanie Siegmann and Julianna Malogolowkin at Hinckley Allen.

  • 2nd Circ. Case Reinforces Need For Advance Notice Bylaws

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    The Second Circuit's recent decision in Nano Dimension v. Murchinson illustrates that Section 13(d) of the Exchange Act is a square peg for a round hole, and that advance notice bylaws are far better at protecting against undisclosed coordination among activist shareholders, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

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