Appellate

  • September 30, 2026

    7th Circ. Backs Truckers In Union Pacific BIPA Suit

    A Seventh Circuit panel on Wednesday affirmed that fingerprint scans at Union Pacific's Illinois facilities violated a state privacy law, rejecting the company's stance that a government contractor exception applies anytime the contract is active.

  • September 30, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Won't Order Judge To Invalidate Injection Patents

    The Federal Circuit on Wednesday refused to issue an order for a Utah federal judge to declare patents held by CR Bard Inc. and Bard Peripheral Vascular Inc. invalid at the request of Medical Components Inc.

  • September 30, 2026

    Defamation Litigation Roundup: Candace Owens, Firm DQ

    In this month's review of defamation fights, Law360 highlights a new suit over right-wing media personality Candace Owens and her conspiracy theories about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, as well as Quinn Emanuel's disqualification from a suit against a former client.

  • September 30, 2026

    Baker Donelson Gets 2nd Chance To Toss Malpractice Suit

    A Florida state appeals court reversed an order denying law firm Baker Donelson's bid to escape a construction company's malpractice lawsuit alleging it relied on bad legal advice, saying Wednesday the lower court must first determine if any misconduct occurred in the Sunshine State. 

  • September 30, 2026

    Tow Co. Can't Nix $27M Default Judgment, Texas Court Rules

    The father of a U.S. Postal Service worker who was totally incapacitated following a collision with a tow truck will get a second shot at securing a $27 million default judgment against the repossession company, a Texas appeals court ruled, saying the company was properly served.

  • September 30, 2026

    DC Circ. Unsure Annulled $40M Award Is 'Repugnant'

    The D.C. Circuit is set to decide whether it was "repugnant" of a Swedish court to retroactively cancel an arbitration agreement after a $40 million award had already been won, based on a finding that European Union law didn't allow it.

  • September 30, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Spurns Partial ParkerVision Appeal In Patent Suit

    The Federal Circuit on Wednesday found that it couldn't consider ParkerVision's challenge to a lower court's construction of some patent claims in its suit against Qualcomm while others from the same patent remain undecided, saying courts can't enter final judgments in such situations.

  • September 30, 2026

    23andMe Beats Calif.'s Bankruptcy Sale Privacy Challenge

    A Missouri federal judge on Tuesday denied California's bid to undo the $305 million bankruptcy sale of 23andMe over concerns that the sale sidestepped state consumer data protections, ruling that the state lacks standing to challenge the sale and that the court's "good-faith" findings aren't clearly erroneous.  

  • September 30, 2026

    Texas Court Revives Suit Over Sponge Left In Surgery Patient

    A Texas appellate court on Wednesday revived a medical malpractice suit accusing three radiologists of failing to identify a surgical sponge left inside a patient after open-heart surgery, saying there is a factual dispute over whether the plaintiffs acted with sufficient diligence to overcome a statute-of-limitations defense.

  • September 30, 2026

    3rd Circ. Topples Materiality Rule For Securities Suits

    The Third Circuit on Wednesday revived a securities fraud class action against pharmaceutical company Ocugen Inc., scrapping a decades-old circuit rule that treated a stock price's failure to move after a corrective disclosure as conclusive proof that an alleged misstatement was immaterial.

  • September 30, 2026

    11th Circ. Skeptical Of PACE Lenders' CFPB Rule Challenge

    An Eleventh Circuit panel on Wednesday appeared poised to reject an industry challenge to Biden-era Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rules for providers of property-assessed clean-energy loans, repeatedly questioning claims that the agency overstepped its authority.

  • September 30, 2026

    Ga. Judge Must Justify No Sanctions In Alice-Doomed IP Case

    The Federal Circuit on Wednesday ordered a Georgia federal judge to explain why it wasn't appropriate to sanction Epic Tech LLC when there were three major signs the patent it asserted against Pen-Tech Associates Inc. was invalid.

  • September 30, 2026

    Fla. Panel Says Hot-Car Conviction Needs Knowledge Element

    A Florida state appeals court Wednesday ruled that a nanny convicted of felony murder after forgetting she left a 10-month-old inside a hot car should be tried again, saying prosecutors used an improper underlying charge as a basis for the felony murder charge.

  • September 30, 2026

    3rd Circ. Calls Westlaw AI Fight 'Ordinary Copyright Case'

    The Third Circuit said the first appellate fight over artificial intelligence training and fair use ultimately came down to an "ordinary copyright case," affirming that Ross Intelligence infringed Thomson Reuters' Westlaw headnotes when it used them to train a competing legal research platform.

  • September 30, 2026

    3rd Circ. Probes Payment Recipients In Fund's $100M Tax Row

    A Third Circuit panel examined dealer-and-customer relations under accounting rules governing their transactions on Wednesday to determine whether the Internal Revenue Service was right to slap a $100 million tax bill against a Cayman Islands hedge fund for payments tied to U.S. portfolio companies.

  • September 30, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Backs PTAB Ax Of Twist Drill Patent Claims

    A Chinese inventor lost his attempt to revive claims in his twist drill patent he accused a Minnesota company of infringing on Wednesday when the Federal Circuit backed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's invalidation of the claims.

  • September 30, 2026

    Biz Groups Urge 5th Circ. To Back Texas Derivative-Suits Limit

    The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Texas Association of Business on Wednesday urged the Fifth Circuit to uphold the dismissal of a Southwest Airlines shareholder's derivative suit, saying Texas law properly blocks such suits for those who hold less than 3% of shares.

  • September 30, 2026

    Amazon, Investor Clash Over Del. Forum Limits On Records

    Amazon.com Inc. and a stockholder seeking company records clashed before the Delaware Supreme Court on Wednesday over whether the investor should be restricted to using those documents in Delaware litigation, with the stockholder arguing the condition is too broad and Amazon saying it protects against duplicative lawsuits in multiple courts.

  • September 30, 2026

    States Back AGs' 6th Circ. Bid To Keep RealPage Rent Claims

    A contingent of 25 states is backing a Sixth Circuit appeal from several other state-level enforcers challenging settlements in private litigation that could block them from seeking damages over claims that landlords used RealPage's software to collude on residential rental rates.

  • September 30, 2026

    11th Circ. Seems Wary Of Ga. Campaign Finance Challenge

    The Eleventh Circuit appeared reluctant Wednesday to revive the Libertarian Party of Georgia and the Georgia Green Party's challenge to a Peach State campaign finance statute they say gives traditional political parties an unfair advantage, pressing their attorney on whether they had standing to sue. 

  • September 30, 2026

    Ohio High Court Says Omitted Self-Defense Instruction OK

    A divided Ohio Supreme Court has upheld a man's conviction for firing a gun and hitting his neighbor's house, finding that the man could not prove that the trial court's failure to provide a self-defense instruction — which he had not requested — was an obvious error.

  • September 30, 2026

    3 States Ask High Court To Block Abortion Shield Laws

    Louisiana, Arkansas and Alabama urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to strike down shield laws for reproductive care in New York, California and Massachusetts, alleging they illegally allow the mailing of abortion medication into states that restrict or ban abortion.

  • September 30, 2026

    Landowners Seek 11th Circ. Redo On Easement Value Cut

    Three Georgia conservation easement donors asked the full Eleventh Circuit to review a panel's split decision to slash the value of an easement they donated from $18 million to $1 million, saying the decision failed to take into account the property's highest and best use.

  • September 30, 2026

    NJ Co. Says PPE Stockpiling Was Chinese Sovereign Activity

    A New Jersey company accused of helping China hoard personal protective equipment to create a monopoly at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic told the Eleventh Circuit that a lower court erred in finding that the allegations fall within the commercial activity exception to sovereign immunity.

  • September 30, 2026

    Ex-BDO Partner Says Board Retaliated With Equity Cut

    A former BDO USA partner urged the Delaware Supreme Court on Wednesday to revive claims that the accounting firm improperly stripped him of equity after he announced plans to retire, arguing that even broad contractual discretion cannot be used in bad faith or retaliation.

Expert Analysis

  • How Pfizer Won Fed. Circ. Patent Dispute By 1 Carbon Atom

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    The Federal Circuit's recent refusal to revive a patent in Enanta Pharmaceuticals v. Pfizer over an alleged typo creating a one-atom difference in a COVID-19 treatment application hands defendants a template for potentially converting a triable fact question into an early dispositive ruling, say attorneys at Polsinelli.

  • What To Know Before Justices Rule In Title IX Employee Case

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    The U.S. Supreme Court is poised to decide whether Title IX protections extend to employees alleging sex discrimination in Crowther v. Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, which could have significant implications for higher education institutions and their employees, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • Fed. Circ. Ruling Highlights The Cost Of Incorrect Inventorship

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    The Federal Circuit's recent decision in Fortress Iron v. Digger Specialties, affirming that a fencing company's patents were invalid due to a missing co-inventor, is a reminder that confirming correct inventorship should be a critical part of every patent invalidity workup, say attorneys at Neal Gerber.

  • Future Of Fed Independence Shaky After Justices' Ruling

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling in Trump v. Cook preserved the Federal Reserve's formal independence but could invite the president to remove board members with just modest protections, leaving the central bank's autonomy uncertain and potentially setting up fresh clashes over other agencies, says Steven Schwinn at the University of Chicago.

  • Series

    Mich. Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q2

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    The second quarter brought several notable financial services law developments to Michigan, including a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on state tax foreclosures, progress on a money transmission modernization bill package, and continued legislative momentum on cryptocurrency and mortgage lending, say attorneys at Dykema.

  • Justices' Ruling Alters Playing Field For State Subpoena Suits

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Davenport will spark more federal court challenges to state subpoenas, but procedural defenses will block some merits decisions, so plaintiffs must carefully time and manage parallel federal and state proceedings, say attorneys at Troutman.

  • Looking At Drake's Diss Track Appeal Through An IP Lens

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    Though Drake's pending Second Circuit appeal over UMG's promotion of Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us" is formally about defamation, it shows that IP considerations can help identify records showing how a work traveled, which may guide courts when deciding context, says attorney Abdul Abdullahi.

  • Series

    Bass Fishing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Landing a trophy striped bass and closing a big deal both require cultivating the patience to finesse — not force — your way to desired outcomes, changing course when your old approach isn’t working and learning from the ones that got away, says Jon Ruiss at Alston & Bird.

  • Series

    NY Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q2

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    The year's second quarter brought several notable banking law developments to New York, including a proposal to align state stablecoin rules with the federal Genius Act, fresh fair lending and cybersecurity guidance from state regulators, and a significant Second Circuit holding on preemption, say attorneys at Ashurst Perkins Coie.

  • PacifiCorp Ruling Shows Limits Of Aggregate Wildfire Loss Models

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    An Oregon appeals court's recent decision in James v. PacifiCorp illustrates that in litigation involving multiple wildfires, materially different causation theories, and evidence tied to particular fires and locations, a single undifferentiated damages model is vulnerable to attack, say Paige Van Oosten and Jason Kim at Hunton and Kevin Cahill at FTI Consulting.

  • Roundup

    The Most Talked-About Supreme Court Decisions Of 2026

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    This term, 11 U.S. Supreme Court decisions quickly became hot topics among Law360's guest writers.

  • A New Defense For Medicaid Fraud Cases In Texas

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    The Texas Supreme Court decision in LabCorp v. Texas last month, finding that the state's False Claims Act requires proof that an omission is material, is among the first to establish that the government's lack of reaction to the defendant's disclosures rendered alleged omissions immaterial, say attorneys at Sheppard.

  • Fighting The Evidentiary Risks Of Deepfakes In Court

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    Though courts and federal rules are only slowly developing frameworks for assessing digital evidence that could have been created or generated by artificial intelligence, litigators should understand what steps they'll likely need to take to successfully challenge potentially deepfaked exhibits — and fight questions about the authenticity of their own, say attorneys at MoFo.

  • Justices' Cuba Ruling Narrowly Recasts Sovereign Immunity

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    The U.S. Supreme Court recently allowed Exxon Mobil's bid for $1 billion in damages for Cuban-seized property to proceed, but the ruling's doctrinal significance is in treating the Helms-Burton Act as a later, specific and self-contained statutory displacement of the default jurisdictional immunity regime, says Josep Galvez at 4-5 Gray's Inn.

  • 'Tiger King' Funeral Clip Ruling Offers Fair Use Road Map

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    The Tenth Circuit's decision in Whyte Monkee v. Netflix that the streaming service's use of another party's funeral footage in the docuseries "Tiger King" constituted fair use lays out a framework for producers to apply the four statutory fair use factors to their own projects, says Frank D’Angelo at Loeb & Loeb.

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