Telecommunications

  • January 13, 2026

    FCC Told It Lacks Legal Authority For Jail Cellphone Jamming

    The Federal Communications Commission does not have the statutory power to authorize cellphone signal jamming in jails and prisons, a consumer interest group says.

  • January 13, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Gives Apple New Shot At Axing Smart Mobile Patent

    The Federal Circuit on Tuesday revived Apple's challenge at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to a technology patent that Smart Mobile Technologies LLC accuses it of infringing.

  • January 12, 2026

    Apple Cites Privacy To Avoid Reporting Child Porn, Victims Say

    A proposed class of child abuse victims claiming Apple spread child sexual abuse materials has fired back against the company's latest attempt to dismiss their lawsuit in California federal court, saying it failed to implement safeguards for preventing the storage and dissemination of such materials over pretextual privacy concerns.

  • January 12, 2026

    Nielsen Gets 4-Day Pause On National-Local Data Tying Block

    Nielsen has just four days to seek Second Circuit intervention before an order goes into effect blocking it from conditioning full access to its nationwide radio data on also buying local data, after a New York federal judge refused Monday to pause that mandate beyond a brief administrative stay.

  • January 12, 2026

    5th Circ. Urged Again To Find FCC Subsidy Regime Unlawful

    A conservative think-tank has again launched a Fifth Circuit legal challenge to the federal government's fee regime used to pay for telecommunications subsidies, less than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the funding arrangement's constitutionality.

  • January 12, 2026

    Acer Says T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon Infringe 6 Wireless Patents

    Acer Inc. is going after AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon in Texas federal court over allegations that the American telecommunications companies are infringing six of the Taiwanese technology giant's patents related to 4G, LTE and 5G wireless standards, while refusing to negotiate licensing terms.

  • January 12, 2026

    Prison Phone Co. Appealing New Rate Rule In DC Circ.

    A Texas-based prison phone provider is challenging the Federal Communications Commission's order regulating prison call rates and prohibiting "site commissions" paid by phone providers to facilities.

  • January 12, 2026

    FCC Scraps Verizon's 60-Day Phone Unlocking Mandate

    The Federal Communications Commission on Monday waived a rule stemming from Verizon's takeover of discount provider TracFone that forced the company to open its cellphones to other carriers after 60 days.

  • January 12, 2026

    Ad Tech Rivals Say 'Unique Harms' Make Complaints Separate

    Google's advertising placement technology competitors have told a New York federal judge their half-dozen complaints should remain separate, arguing that letting the search giant tee up a consolidation motion would hamper, rather than streamline, their antitrust claims, which followed the U.S. Department of Justice's successful litigation against the company.

  • January 12, 2026

    Judge Tosses Meta Rival's Mobile Streaming Patent Lawsuit

    A Washington federal judge has tossed the remainder of a lawsuit claiming Meta infringed mobile streaming application patents from a competing social media platform and refused to let the patent owner rewrite its complaint again.

  • January 12, 2026

    Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

    The Delaware Chancery Court closed out the week with developments ranging from leadership changes in a $13 billion take-private case and posttrial sparring over a major earnout to fresh governance fights, revived fraud claims and sanctions tied to advancement rights.

  • January 12, 2026

    How AI Is Causing Real Copyright Uncertainty

    As artificial intelligence is used increasingly to generate images, sounds, software and other products, attorneys say they are left navigating an uncertain landscape when it comes to securing copyright protections for AI-assisted outputs, with few signs of clarity on the horizon.

  • January 12, 2026

    High Court Won't Hear Whistleblowers' FCC Fraud Claims

    The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to review whether the D.C. Circuit erred by rejecting two lawyers' claims that entities linked to UScellular defrauded the government by falsely claiming small business credits in a federal spectrum auction.

  • January 09, 2026

    Skadden's Ex-Palo Alto Leader Named Aetherflux's COO, CLO

    The former head of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP's Palo Alto office Joe Yaffe is now Aetherflux's chief operating officer and chief legal officer as the San Carlos, California, space-based solar power startup moves ahead with its "Galactic Brain" project to launch an artificial intelligence data center satellite in space, Aetherflux announced Friday.

  • January 09, 2026

    Wash. AG Aims To Weigh In On Constitutionality Of Email Law

    Washington state's attorney general intends to weigh in on a proposed class action accusing apparel maker Hanesbrands Inc. of flooding consumers' inboxes with misleading marketing emails, responding to Hanes' argument that the state's Commercial Electronic Mail Act is unconstitutional.

  • January 09, 2026

    Texas Biz Court Says Provider Can't Prove AT&T Defamed It

    A Texas Business Court judge threw out a defamation suit brought by a third-party provider against AT&T Enterprises LLC, saying the provider as a matter of law failed to show how statements AT&T made about it constitute defamation.

  • January 09, 2026

    High Court Grants Review Of Falun Gong Cisco Spying Case

    The U.S. Supreme Court said Friday it will determine whether the Ninth Circuit was right to reinstate a suit brought under the Alien Tort Statute suit alleging that Cisco aided the Chinese government's allegedly unlawful crackdown on the Falun Gong religious movement.

  • January 09, 2026

    FCC Approves Telecom's New Plan For Alaska Buildout

    An Alaskan telecommunications company has received the go-ahead from the Federal Communications Commission to deploy its mobile service throughout the far-flung state with federal support, after the new plan showed the firm could triple the number of people for whom it provides service.

  • January 09, 2026

    Paramount Seeks To Toss Privacy Suit Over Kids' Data

    Paramount Skydance Corp. urged a California federal court to toss a "haphazard" proposed class action that accuses the media giant of unlawfully disclosing the personally identifiable information of children who streamed content on their families' devices, saying the kids' parents failed to sufficiently allege any of their claims.

  • January 09, 2026

    Ramey Ducks BlackBerry's Sanctions Bid Over 'Frivolous' Suit

    Patent attorney Bill Ramey has avoided sanctions requested by BlackBerry Corp. for what the smartphone company called the "frivolous and unreasonable" way he litigated a case brought on behalf of Silent Communications LLC.

  • January 09, 2026

    SpaceX Can Build Up Its Next-Gen Constellation, FCC Says

    The Federal Communications Commission gave its stamp of approval Friday for SpaceX to ramp up its second-generation Starlink satellite system.

  • January 09, 2026

    Nielsen's 'Coercive' National-Local Data Tying Blocked

    A New York federal judge preliminarily blocked Nielsen from conditioning full access to its nationwide radio data on also buying local data because that policy is more than just discounted bundling, according to a ruling unsealed Thursday.

  • January 09, 2026

    USTelecom Wants 'More Green Lights' For Broadband In '26

    A key telecom industry group says that if 2025 was marked by continual delays in broadband deployment, 2026 needs to be the year when construction crews actually break ground on federally backed projects.

  • January 09, 2026

    Future Risk Not Enough To Save Verizon Pension Annuity Suit

    A New York federal judge tossed a suit from a group of retirees who claimed Verizon Communications Inc. and its independent fiduciary State Street Global Advisors Trust Co. illegally converted $6 billion in pension benefits to risky annuities, ruling that the workers hadn't shown that the annuity holders were unlikely to follow through on their benefits.

  • January 09, 2026

    X Strikes Back At Music Publishers With Antitrust Suit

    X Corp. accused the National Music Publishers' Association and the largest music publishers in the United States of an anticompetitive conspiracy, alleging in a suit filed Friday that the industry's top players colluded against the social media company in an "extortionate campaign" over copyrighted music licenses.

Expert Analysis

  • How The 5th, DC Circuits Agreed On FCC Forfeiture Orders

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    The Fifth and D.C. Circuits split this year on the Federal Communications Commission's process for adjudicating enforcement actions, but both implicitly recognized the problem with penalizing a party based on a forfeiture order that has not yet been challenged in any way in court, says Jared Marx at HWG.

  • Parenting Skills That Can Help Lawyers Thrive Professionally

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    As kids head back to school, the time is ripe for lawyers who are parents to consider how they can incorporate their parenting skills to build a deep, meaningful and sustainable legal practice, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.

  • How WTO's Anti-Suit Injunction Ruling Affects IP Stakeholders

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    The World Trade Organization's recent ruling in favor of the European Union's challenge to Chinese courts' anti-suit injunction practices should hearten holders of standard-essential patents, while implementers can take solace that they retain mechanisms to distinguish the WTO decision when seeking anti-suit injunctions in U.S. courts, says Michael Franzinger at Dentons.

  • Series

    Teaching Trial Advocacy Makes Us Better Lawyers

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    Teaching trial advocacy skills to other lawyers makes us better litigators because it makes us question our default methods, connect to young attorneys with new perspectives and focus on the needs of the real people at the heart of every trial, say Reuben Guttman, Veronica Finkelstein and Joleen Youngers.

  • Unpacking A New Era of Compliance For Submarine Cables

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    After decades of operating under its old regulatory framework, the Federal Communications Commission has modernized its oversight of submarine cable infrastructure, which presents a complex array of legal and policy challenges, including heightened national security vulnerabilities, say attorneys at Troutman.

  • Series

    Adapting To Private Practice: From Texas AUSA To BigLaw

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    As I learned when I transitioned from an assistant U.S. attorney to a BigLaw partner, the move from government to private practice is not without its hurdles, but it offers immense potential for growth and the opportunity to use highly transferable skills developed in public service, says Jeffery Vaden at Bracewell.

  • Advice For 1st-Gen Lawyers Entering The Legal Profession

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    Nikki Hurtado at The Ferraro Law Firm tells her story of being a first-generation lawyer and how others who begin their professional journeys without the benefit of playbooks handed down by relatives can turn this disadvantage into their greatest strength.

  • 9th Circ. Qualified Immunity Ruling May Limit Phone Searches

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    Though the Ninth Circuit affirmed police officers’ qualified immunity claims in Olson v. County of Grant earlier this year, it also established important Fourth Amendment precedent on the use of cellphone extractions that will apply more broadly in criminal investigations and prosecutions, say attorneys at The Norton Law Firm.

  • Series

    Coaching Cheerleading Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    At first glance, cheerleading and litigation may seem like worlds apart, but both require precision, adaptability, leadership and the ability to stay composed under pressure — all of which have sharpened how I approach my work in the emotionally complex world of mass torts and personal injury, says Rashanda Bruce at Robins Kaplan.

  • Unpacking The BIS Guidance On Chinese AI Chip Use

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    In response to May guidance from the Bureau of Industry and Security, which indicates the agency considers a wide but somewhat unclear range of activities involving Chinese integrated circuits to be in violation of its General Prohibition 10, companies should consider adopting enhanced due diligence to determine how firm counterparties may be using the affected chips, says Peter Lichtenbaum at Covington.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: How To Make A Deal

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    Preparing lawyers for the nuances of a transactional practice is not a strong suit for most law schools, but, in practice, there are six principles that can help young M&A lawyers become seasoned, trusted deal advisers, says Chuck Morton at Venable.

  • Annual Report Shows CFIUS Extending Its Reach In 2024

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    The recently released 2024 annual report from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States reveals record civil penalties and enhanced internal capabilities, illustrating expanding jurisdiction and an increasing appetite for enforcement actions, says Nathan Fisher at StoneTurn.

  • 11th Circ. Ruling Shows Federal Question Jurisdiction Limits

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    The Eleventh Circuit's recent decision in AST Science v. Delclaux shows why it is extremely difficult for litigants to maintain a state law cause of action in federal court under Supreme Court precedent, says Paul Avron at Berger Singerman.

  • From Clerkship To Law Firm: 5 Transition Tips For Associates

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    Transitioning from a judicial clerkship to an associate position at a law firm may seem daunting, but by using knowledge gained while clerking, being mindful of key differences and taking advantage of professional development opportunities, these attorneys can flourish in private practice, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • Associates Can Earn Credibility By Investing In Relationships

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    As the class of 2025 prepares to join law firms this fall, new associates must adapt to office dynamics and establish credible reputations — which require quiet, consistent relationship-building skills as much as legal acumen, says Kyle Forges at Bast Amron.

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