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California
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September 25, 2024
Defense Contractor Hit Wit $2.25M Fine For Bribery Scheme
A California federal judge issued a $2.25 million fine to a defense company for its role in a bribery scheme through which a former executive bribed an ex-Navy contracting official in exchange for lucrative contracts.
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September 25, 2024
All Mariah Carey Wants Is To Ax 'Christmas' IP Row For Good
Mariah Carey and Sony Music Entertainment hope to finally put to bed a copyright infringement suit over the now-decades-old Christmas hit "All I Want For Christmas Is You," telling a California federal judge this week that the accusing musicians have not shown the similarities are anything more than common holiday tropes.
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September 25, 2024
FTC Targets 'Robot Lawyer,' Others In AI Enforcement Sweep
The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday revealed a flurry of recent enforcement actions aimed at cracking down on the use of artificial intelligence to "supercharge" harmful and deceptive business practices, including a case targeting "lofty" claims made about a service that promised to provide "the world's first robot lawyer."
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September 25, 2024
Hairbrush Co.'s Patent Suit Over Straighteners Settles
A hairbrush company and an investment firm that together filed several lawsuits accusing various companies of "poisoning" the market with knockoffs of their patented ceramic straightening brush asked a California federal judge Wednesday to dismiss the last of those cases, stating that the claims have been settled.
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September 25, 2024
EPA Can't Justify Calif. Emissions Ruling, High Court Told
Republican-led states told the U.S. Supreme Court the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency can't justify a D.C. Circuit decision backing its authorization of a Clean Air Act waiver allowing California to set its own greenhouse gas emissions standards for certain vehicles and run a zero-emissions vehicle program.
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September 25, 2024
Boies Joins Authors' Meta IP Suit After Judge Blasts Lead Atty
Veteran litigator David Boies and a top member of his firm have joined the team heading a proposed class action against Meta Platforms Inc. for allegedly using copyrighted material to train its artificial intelligence product "Llama" — days after a California federal judge told the lead plaintiff's attorney, "You are not doing your job."
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September 25, 2024
Poppi's 'Gut Healthy' Sodas Are Harmful To The Gut, Suit Says
The maker of Poppi-brand sodas misleadingly advertises the products as "prebiotics for a healthy gut," despite the fact that it's full of sugar, which is harmful to overall health and heightens the risk of obesity, Type II diabetes and other issues, alleges a putative class action filed in California federal court.
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September 25, 2024
Calif. Judge Says Fluoride In Water Risks Lowering Kids' IQ
A California federal judge on Tuesday agreed with green groups that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's current "optimal" level of fluoride in drinking water poses an unreasonable risk of lowering children's IQ and directed the EPA to act.
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September 25, 2024
Penalized Apple Atty Says He Was 'Demoralized' By Co. Culture
Apple Inc.'s former senior director of corporate law, who pled guilty of insider trading in 2022 and then penalized $1.1 million in a civil case, had mental health disorders and was "demoralized" by the company's culture and executives' misconduct, he said in temporarily unsealed records in New Jersey federal court.
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September 25, 2024
Vape Co. Sues Buchalter Alleging Malpractice After IP Action
A Los Angeles-based cannabis company called Smoke Tokes LLC has filed a legal malpractice suit accusing Buchalter PC and two of its attorneys of causing a federal trademark action to drag on unnecessarily even after Smoke Tokes took all necessary steps to satisfy a judgment and injunction.
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September 25, 2024
Production Co. Drops Lil Uzi Vert Manager From Fees Suit
A California-based company suing rapper Lil Uzi Vert for failing to pay more than half a million dollars in concert design and production costs told a Georgia federal judge it is dismissing a breach of contract claim against the rapper's manager, Amina Diop.
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September 25, 2024
Calif. Man Admits Importing Greenhouse Gases In Novel Case
A San Diego man pled guilty to conspiring to transport regulated greenhouse gasses into the United States from Mexico, in what prosecutors said was the first conviction under a 2020 law that criminalizes the sale of such substances.
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September 25, 2024
Bloggers In EBay Stalking Case Can't Pinpoint Lost Sources
A Massachusetts couple suing eBay after their blog's critical coverage of the e-commerce giant made them the target of a corporate harassment scheme told a federal judge on Wednesday they aren't able to specifically identify potential sources who were allegedly chilled into silence by the scheme.
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September 25, 2024
Ex-American Airlines Pilot Cleared In Sex Assault Trial
A California federal jury on Wednesday cleared a former American Airlines pilot of liability in a civil lawsuit alleging he sexually assaulted two flight attendants at a hotel during a round-trip journey between Los Angeles and São Paulo, Brazil.
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September 25, 2024
Akin Adds Energy-Sector Adviser From Greenberg Traurig
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP announced Wednesday that it's welcoming an energy-sector-focused attorney from Greenberg Traurig LLP, as the firm says opportunities to invest in sustainable energy projects have fueled client demand.
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September 25, 2024
Man Detained After Explosion At California Courthouse
Two people suffered non-life-threatening injuries Wednesday morning following a report of a bomb explosion at a Santa Barbara County, California, courthouse, according to the county sheriff's office.
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September 24, 2024
Dentons Accused Of Hacking Laptop, Aiding Vape Co. Usurper
Dentons helped the founder of vape distributor Next Level sabotage and usurp manufacturer Avid Holdings' brand, including breaking into its founder's laptop to access confidential information, Avid alleged in a sprawling lawsuit filed Tuesday in California federal court.
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September 24, 2024
Google Can't Ditch Privacy Suit Over Period App Data Sharing
A California federal judge has refused to release Google from a proposed class action alleging the company used a data analytics tool to wrongfully retrieve data from menstruation tracking app Flo, rejecting the tech giant's arguments that the plaintiffs lacked standing and had consented to the disclosures.
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September 24, 2024
Full 9th Circ. Vaporizes First-To-File Precedent For FCA Suits
The full Ninth Circuit on Tuesday overruled circuit precedent and held that the so-called first-to-file rule governing False Claims Act cases is not jurisdictional, meaning that courts can't toss a whistleblower action on jurisdictional grounds rooted in the first-to-file provision.
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September 24, 2024
Adult Actresses' Blacklist Suit Against Meta Nixed Before Trial
A California federal judge has dismissed a case claiming Meta conspired with OnlyFans and blacklisted adult entertainers who used competitors' risque platforms weeks before its October trial date, saying he had "no choice" and did so despite the social media giant's "questionable recordkeeping."
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September 24, 2024
Feds Charge AI Co. Founder With $40M Fraud
The founder and former CEO of a company that purported to sell artificial intelligence-based business automation software faces federal criminal charges and a civil lawsuit from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, authorities announced Tuesday, alleging he lied about the firm's revenues and customer relationships to entice investors.
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September 24, 2024
SEC Orders Crypto Cos. To Pay $700K Over Stablecoin Offers
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday unveiled a $700,000 settlement with stablecoin issuer TrueCoin and affiliated lending business TrustToken over alleged misrepresentations about the stability of the token and failures to register its use in "profit-making opportunities."
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September 24, 2024
Chance Cognizant Didn't Discriminate Is '1 In A Billion,' Jury Told
An attorney for a class of former Cognizant Technology employees alleging the company discriminated against non-South Asian and non-Indian employees told a jury during opening statements of a retrial Tuesday that the probability Cognizant's behavior wasn't racially biased is about one in a billion.
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September 24, 2024
Cathode Ray Class Attys Fight Over Fees At 9th Circ.
Plaintiffs firm Cooper & Kirkham urged the Ninth Circuit Tuesday to reverse a ruling slashing its $3.452 million fee award in since-settled cathode ray tube price-fixing multidistrict litigation, arguing the firm was being unfairly punished for representing a subclass, while lead class counsel slammed the firm's tactics as "extreme mischief."
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September 24, 2024
SEC Fines Weedmaps' Parent Co. $1.5M Over User Metrics
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday fined the parent company of cannabis tech company Weedmaps $1.5 million for allegedly making misleading statements about its monthly active users.
Expert Analysis
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Series
Round-Canopy Parachuting Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Similar to the practice of law, jumping from an in-flight airplane with nothing but training and a few yards of parachute silk is a demanding and stressful endeavor, and the experience has bolstered my legal practice by enhancing my focus, teamwork skills and sense of perspective, says Thomas Salerno at Stinson.
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And Now A Word From The Panel: The MDL Map
An intriguing yet unpredictable facet of multidistrict litigation practice is venue selection for new MDL proceedings, and the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation considers many factors when it assigns an MDL venue, says Alan Rothman at Sidley Austin.
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What To Expect From Calif. Bill Regulating PE In Healthcare
A California bill currently awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsom's approval, intended to increase oversight over private equity and hedge fund investments in healthcare, is emblematic of recent increased scrutiny of investments in the space, and may affect transactions and operations in California in a number of ways, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.
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Why Now Is The Time For Law Firms To Hire Lateral Partners
Partner and associate mobility data from the second quarter of this year suggest that there's never been a better time in recent years for law firms to hire lateral candidates, particularly experienced partners — though this necessitates an understanding of potential red flags, say Julie Henson and Greg Hamman at Decipher Investigative Intelligence.
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Reassessing Lease Provisions To Account For ESG Initiatives
As companies seek to build ESG considerations into their businesses, it's crucial to understand how such initiatives can quickly become significant enough to compel reassessment of lease agreement provisions, and how best to modify leases accordingly, say Julian Freeman and Gabe Pitassi at Cox Castle.
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What 7th Circ. Collective Actions Ruling Means For Employers
With the Seventh Circuit’s recent Fair Labor Standards Act ruling in Vanegas v. Signet Builders, a majority of federal appellate courts that have addressed the jurisdictional scope of employee collective actions now follow the U.S. Supreme Court's limiting precedent, bolstering an employer defense in circuits that have yet to weigh in, say attorneys at Jackson Lewis.
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Google And The Next Frontier Of Divestiture Antitrust Remedy
The possibility of a large-scale divestiture in the Google search case comes on the heels of recent requests of business breakups as remedies for anticompetitive conduct, and companies should prepare for the likelihood that courts may impose divestiture remedies in the event of a liability finding, say Lauren Weinstein and Nathaniel Rubin at MoloLamken.
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Considering Possible PR Risks Of Certain Legal Tactics
Disney and American Airlines recently abandoned certain litigation tactics in two lawsuits after fierce public backlash, illustrating why corporate counsel should consider the reputational implications of any legal strategy and partner with their communications teams to preempt public relations concerns, says Chris Gidez at G7 Reputation Advisory.
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It's No Longer Enough For Firms To Be Trusted Advisers
Amid fierce competition for business, the transactional “trusted adviser” paradigm from which most firms operate is no longer sufficient — they should instead aim to become trusted partners with their most valuable clients, says Stuart Maister at Strategic Narrative.
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Calif. Bill, NTIA Report Illustrate Open-Model AI Safety Debate
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s balanced recommendations for preventing misuse of open artificial intelligence models, contrasted with a more aggressive California bill, demonstrate an evolving regulatory debate about balancing democratic access to this powerful new technology against potential risks to the public, say Stuart Meyer and Fredrick Tsang at Fenwick.
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Behind 3rd Circ. Ruling On College Athletes' FLSA Eligibility
The Third Circuit's decision that college athletes are not precluded from bringing a claim under the Fair Labor Standards Act raises key questions about the practical consequences of treating collegiate athletes as employees, such as Title IX equal pay claims and potential eligibility for all employment benefits, say attorneys at Debevoise.
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Missouri Injunction A Setback For State Anti-ESG Rules
A Missouri federal court’s recent order enjoining the state’s anti-ESG rules comes amid actions by state legislatures to revise or invalidate similar legislation imposing disclosure and consent requirements around environmental, social and governance investing, and could be a blueprint for future challenges, say attorneys at Paul Hastings.
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The Risks Of Employee Political Discourse On Social Media
As election season enters its final stretch and employees increasingly engage in political speech on social media, employers should beware the liability risks and consider policies that negotiate the line between employees' rights and the limits on those rights, say Bradford Kelley and James McGehee at Littler.
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DOJ Must Overcome Hurdles In RealPage Antitrust Case
The U.S. Department of Justice's recent claims that RealPage's pricing software violates the Sherman Act mark a creative, and apparently contradictory, shift in the agency's approach to algorithmic price-fixing that will face several key challenges, say attorneys at Clifford Chance.
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11 Patent Cases To Watch At Fed. Circ. And High Court
As we head into fall, there are 11 patent cases to monitor, touching on a range of issues that could affect patent strategy, such as biotech innovation, administrative rulemaking and patent eligibility, say Edward Lanquist and Wesley Barbee at Baker Donelson.