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California
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May 01, 2024
Trader Joe's Must Pay Fees To Union After 'Meritless' TM Suit
A California federal judge ordered Trader Joe's to pay $112,622 in attorney fees to a union of its employees in a suit alleging the union's logo infringes the grocer's name and trademarks, saying Trader Joe's claim that the suit is unrelated to a labor dispute "cannot be taken seriously."
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May 01, 2024
'Irked' Albright Refuses To Send IP Suit Against Apple To Calif.
U.S. District Judge Alan Albright of the Western District of Texas has refused to send a suit accusing Apple Inc. of infringing patents on vibration technology to California, with the judge saying that some of the tech giant's arguments were "irksome."
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May 01, 2024
Fed. Judge's Handcuffing Of Girl Was Misconduct, Panel Says
The Judicial Council of the Ninth Circuit found Wednesday that a California federal judge who ordered a crying 13-year-old girl in his courtroom be handcuffed engaged in judicial misconduct, issuing a reprimand for his actions and ordering that the judge not be assigned new criminal cases for three years.
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May 01, 2024
Bayer Can't Scratch Off Antitrust Suit Over Flea, Tick Meds
A California federal judge has largely declined Bayer's bid to dismiss generics competitor Tevra's pet medication antitrust suit, saying in an order released Wednesday that there are factual disputes about whether Bayer's exclusivity deals with distributors and retailers significantly foreclosed Tevra's potential sales in the market.
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May 01, 2024
Sony, PlayStation Users Spar Over Early Antitrust Cert. Denial
Sony and PlayStation Store users fought before a California federal judge Wednesday over the company's bid to deny class certification to users who claim it overcharged them through a monopoly on downloadable game cards, with the users arguing that Sony waived its arbitration arguments under the Ninth Circuit's recent Hill ruling.
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May 01, 2024
Median Patent Damages Awards Are Shrinking
A New York accounting firm that provides damages experts for intellectual property cases has found in a new study that median damages awards in patent cases have declined over the last 15 years.
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May 01, 2024
PayPal Won't Face CFPB Enforcement Over Venmo Probe
Payments giant PayPal is not expecting any enforcement action from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau after the agency told the firm it was closing its inquiry into social payment subsidiary Venmo, the company disclosed in a securities filing.
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May 01, 2024
Artist Can Exhibit 'MetaBirkins' NFT Despite TM Trial Loss
A New York federal judge has said the Los Angeles-based designer behind the "MetaBirkins" non-fungible token can provide permission to a Swedish museum to display his trademark-infringing artwork, despite an injunction barring him from promoting or selling the NFTs.
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May 01, 2024
DOL Announces $6.5M For Seasonal Farmworker Housing
The U.S. Department of Labor on Wednesday said it will make $6.5 million in grants available to organizations working to improve housing conditions for seasonal and migrant farmworkers and their dependents.
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May 01, 2024
9th Circ. Slams Door On Kids' Climate Case
The Ninth Circuit ordered an Oregon federal judge Wednesday to immediately dismiss a closely watched suit by young adults against the federal government over the effects of climate change, saying its earlier order to end the matter could not be brushed off.
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May 01, 2024
Hotel Chains Hit With Algorithmic Pricing Collusion Suit
A group of hotel-goers has hit six major hotel chains with a proposed class action, alleging that the companies used a shared pricing algorithm to fix and raise hotel prices nationwide.
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May 01, 2024
Eiger Gets Deal With Merck Over $46M Rare-Disease Drug Sale
Bankrupt Eiger BioPharmaceuticals Inc. told a Texas federal judge Wednesday it had struck a tentative agreement with drug company Merck & Co. over licensing rights to a rare-disease drug that it is selling for $46.1 million.
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May 01, 2024
Apple Users Defend Web Apps Antitrust Case
Consumers urged a California federal court not to toss their case accusing Apple of violating antitrust law by preventing iPhones from running web-based apps that don't need to be downloaded, saying Apple used deals with Google and others to protect its dominance.
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May 01, 2024
'Foul' BioVentrix Cash-Out Gets Extra Scrutiny, Chancery Says
A medical device company's decision to suddenly and without explanation cash out its common stockholders for less than a penny just two months before the company raised $48.5 million in new capital creates such a "foul flavor" that it deserves extra scrutiny, a Delaware Chancery Court judge said Wednesday.
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May 01, 2024
Ex-NFL Star Romanowski Files For Ch. 11 Amid $15M Tax Suit
Ex NFL star and Super Bowl champion Bill Romanowski has filed for Chapter 11 protection in California after being slapped with a $15.5 million income tax suit.
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May 01, 2024
SpaceX Again Asks 5th Circ. To Step Into NLRB Challenge
SpaceX called on the Fifth Circuit Wednesday to freeze a National Labor Relations Board hearing scheduled for Thursday afternoon, saying in its second trip to the appeals court that it will suffer irreparable harm if the administrative suit proceeds before the agency it claims is unconstitutional.
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May 01, 2024
53 Govs. Want Say In Moving Nat'l Guard Staff To Space Force
The governors of 48 states and several U.S. territories warned the U.S. Department of Defense that allowing hundreds of Air National Guard personnel to be transferred to the U.S. Space Force without the governors' approval undermines their authority over their states' military readiness.
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May 01, 2024
UAW Local Calls Arrests Of Members At USC Protest Illegal
The University of Southern California violated federal labor law by having union members who protested in support of a ceasefire in Gaza arrested, a United Auto Workers affiliate representing graduate student workers said.
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May 01, 2024
DC Circ. Torn Over FERC's San Francisco Power Order
D.C. Circuit judges were undecided as to what Congress intended when it grandfathered certain consumers into a power-carrying agreement between San Francisco and Pacific Gas and Electric Co. in 1992, with the company arguing Wednesday that a recent regulatory order would allow far more consumers into the deal than it was meant for.
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May 01, 2024
Former Calif. Law Student's ADA Suit Gets Tossed
A California federal judge has thrown out a long-running suit by a former student at the John F. Kennedy College of Law's Northern California campus, who accused the university of failing to provide the pro se litigant with reasonable accommodations, finding the student received more help than he requested.
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May 01, 2024
Insulin Pump Maker Wins Toss of Investor Suit For Now
A California federal judge has sided with an insulin pump maker and tossed a suit alleging it misled investors about the potential growth of the company amid inflation and an uptick in competition, saying the suing investors have failed to plead any false or misleading statements or knowledge of wrongdoing by the defendants.
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May 01, 2024
Ex-Edison Energy GC, McDermott Atty Joins Troutman In LA
Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP is expanding its West Coast infrastructure team, announcing Tuesday it is bringing in a McDermott Will & Emery LLP emerging energy technologies expert who was previously general counsel with Edison Energy Group to be a partner in its Los Angeles office.
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May 01, 2024
PG&E, KKR In Exclusive Talks For Partial Sale Of Power Biz
Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. is in exclusive talks with private equity giant KKR to sell a minority interest in its subsidiary, Pacific Generation LLC, to KKR's infrastructure strategy in a deal that would reduce customer rates by more than $100 million over the next two decades.
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May 01, 2024
Tesla Forces Bias Suit Over Firing Into Arbitration
A California federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit from a former Tesla manager alleging he was fired because he was nearing 60 years old and took medical leave to treat his diabetes, saying an arbitration agreement he signed should be enforced.
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April 30, 2024
Ex-Autonomy VP Says CEO Lynch Told Him To Lie To Investors
A former Autonomy business development executive testified Tuesday that CEO Mike Lynch directed him to lie to a hedge fund investor about prepaid royalty deals that boosted the company's upfront revenue numbers, saying at Lynch's criminal fraud trial that it was hard to say no to the "big boss."
Expert Analysis
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Antitrust Ruling Shows Limits Of US Law's Global Reach
Antitrust plaintiffs often cite the legislative history of the Foreign Trade Antitrust Improvements Act to support application of U.S. antitrust law to alleged injuries abroad, but as a California federal court recognized recently in Figaro v. Apple, the cited history does no such thing, say Daniel Swanson and Eli Lazarus at Gibson Dunn.
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New Concerns, Same Tune At This Year's SIFMA Conference
At this year's Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association conference on legal developments affecting the financial services industry, government regulators’ emphasis on whistleblowing and AI washing represented a new refrain in an increasingly familiar chorus calling for prompt and thorough corporate cooperation, say attorneys at Fried Frank.
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Calif. High Court Ruling Has Lessons For Waiving Jury Trials
The California Supreme Court’s recent decision in TriCoast Builders v. Fonnegra, denying relief to a contractor that had waived its right to a jury trial, shows that litigants should always post jury fees as soon as possible, and seek writ review if the court denies relief from a waiver, say Steven Fleischman and Nicolas Sonnenburg at Horvitz & Levy.
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SC Ruling Reinforces All Sums Coverage Trend
A South Carolina state court's recent ruling in Covil v. Pennsylvania National is the latest in a series of decisions, dating back to the 2016 New York Court of Appeals ruling in Viking Pump, that reject insurers' pro rata allocation argument, further supporting that all sums coverage is required whenever a loss could be covered under a policy in any other year, say Raymond Mascia and Thomas Dupont at Anderson Kill.
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What Rescheduling Could Mean For Cannabis Bankruptcies
Bankruptcy courts have historically been closed for cannabis-related businesses, but recent case law coupled with a possible reclassification of cannabis provides cautious optimism, say attorneys at Duane Morris.
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Opinion
DOJ Press Office Is Not Fulfilling Its Stated Mission
The U.S. Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs’ apparent practice of issuing press releases when someone is indicted or convicted, but not when a defendant prevails, undermines its stated mission to disseminate “current, complete and accurate” information, and has negative real-world ramifications, says Sara Kropf at Kropf Moseley.
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Opinion
Expanded Detention Will Not Solve Immigration Challenges
The recently defeated bipartisan border package included provisions that would increase funding for detention, a costly distraction from reforms like improved adjudication and legal representation that could address legitimate economic and public safety concerns at much lower cost, say Alexandra Dufresne and Kyle Wolf at Cornell University.
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Opinion
Neb. Justices Should Weigh IRC Terms In Dividend Tax Case
Nebraska’s highest court, which will hear oral arguments in Precision CastParts v. Department of Revenue on April 1, should recognize that the Internal Revenue Code provides key clues to defining “dividends received or deemed to be received,” and therefore limits Nebraska’s tax on foreign-sourced corporate income, says Joseph Schmidt at Ryan.
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What New Waste Management Laws Signal For The Future
Several states have enacted extended producer responsibility and recycling labeling laws that will take effect in the next few years and force manufacturers to take responsibility for the end of life of their products, so companies should closely follow compliance timelines and push to innovate in the area, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.
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Series
Spray Painting Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My experiences as an abstract spray paint artist have made me a better litigator, demonstrating — in more ways than one — how fluidity and flexibility are necessary parts of a successful legal practice, says Erick Sandlin at Bracewell.
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Examining The Arbitration Clause Landscape Amid Risks
Amid a new wave of mass arbitrations, recent developments in the courts and from the American Arbitration Association suggest that companies should improve arbitration clause drafting to protect themselves against big-ticket settlements and avoid major potential liability, say attorneys at Benesch.
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How Activision Ruling Favors M&A Formalities Over Practice
The Delaware Chancery Court’s recent nod to a proposed class action, alleging shareholder notice violations in Activision Blizzard’s sale to Microsoft, puts practitioners on notice that customary merger and acquisition market practices do not offer protection from potential liability, say John Stigi and Eugene Choi at Sheppard Mullin.
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Past CCPA Enforcement Sets Path For Compliance Efforts
The California Privacy Protection Agency and the California Attorney General's Office haven't skipped a beat in investigating potential noncompliance with the California Consumer Privacy Act, and six broad issues will continue to dominate the enforcement landscape and inform compliance strategy, say attorneys at Reed Smith.
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Where 9th Circ. Lowe's Ruling Leaves PAGA Jurisprudence
Leah Kennedy and Carolyn Wheeler at Katz Banks discuss the legal landscape and controlling precedent around the Private Attorneys General Act that led to the Ninth Circuit's Johnson v. Lowe's decision last month on individual PAGA wage claims, and explore the open questions that it leaves.
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Meta Data Scraping Case Has Lessons For Platforms, AI Cos.
The California federal court ruling that artificial intelligence company Bright Data's scraping of public data from Meta social media sites does not constitute a breach of contract signals that platforms should review their terms of service and AI companies could face broad implications for their training of algorithms, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.