California

  • October 18, 2024

    Fritos Didn't Defame In Flamin' Hot Cheetos Feud, Judge Told

    An attorney for Frito-Lay Inc. on Friday urged a California federal judge to dismiss a former employee's suit claiming he invented Flamin' Hot Cheetos and had his livelihood destroyed when the company disavowed his story, saying it's not inherently defamatory to disagree about the snack's origins.

  • October 18, 2024

    9th Circ. Judge Doubts AI 'Robot Judges' Can Replace Jurists

    Ninth Circuit Judge William Fletcher expressed skepticism Friday that artificially intelligent "robot judges" should replace jurists, saying during a conference on complex litigation ethics that judges understand how to creatively apply the law to best serve justice, and "I don't trust the AI system to break the law when it should."

  • October 18, 2024

    Fired SF Rail Workers Win First Phase Of Vax Mandate Trial

    A California federal jury on Friday ruled that the Bay Area Rapid Transit District didn't prove it tried to accommodate six unvaccinated employees the agency fired during the COVID-19 pandemic, pushing the trial to a second phase over whether the workers had a "sincerely held" religious belief against being vaccinated.

  • October 18, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Sinks BofA's Fight Over Image Recognition Patents

    Bank of America had no luck Friday in an appeal seeking to revive a handful of challenges targeting patents owned by companies run by billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong that are suing the bank in California federal court.

  • October 18, 2024

    US Fights PetroSaudi Bid To Limit $380M Seizure

    The U.S. on Friday slammed a PetroSaudi company's request for a California federal court to clarify that officials can only seize 5% of a $380 million award, calling the request an improper attempt at revisiting a 3-year-old court ruling.

  • October 18, 2024

    Tech Cos. Ask 9th Circ. To Skip DMCA Probe In GitHub IP Suit

    Microsoft, GitHub and OpenAI have told the Ninth Circuit to rebuff an interlocutory appeal petition from a group of anonymous software developers who want clarity on whether the Digital Millennium Copyright Act requires an infringing copy to be identical to the original to claim a DMCA violation, saying the injury the group alleges is theoretical.

  • October 18, 2024

    Weedmaps' Parent Co. Faces Investor Suit After SEC Fine

    The parent company of cannabis tech company Weedmaps was hit with an investor's proposed class action alleging shareholders were damaged following the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's announcement that it fined the company $1.5 million for allegedly making misleading statements about its monthly active users.

  • October 18, 2024

    Biotech Co. Wins Injunction Against Ex-Worker In Secrets Suit

    Biotech startup Trilobio Inc. won a temporary restraining order against a former employee after a California federal judge concluded the company has a strong likelihood of success on its claims that the worker stole trade secrets to start his own business after being fired for poor performance.

  • October 18, 2024

    Chinese National Admits To Smuggling Semiconductor Tech

    A Chinese national has pled guilty in California federal court to illegally exporting U.S. semiconductor technology to a blacklisted Chinese company, according to an announcement from the U.S. Department of Justice.

  • October 18, 2024

    Fake 'Hollywood Reporter' Scams Job Seekers, Mass. AG Says

    Scammers posing as the publishers of entertainment industry trade publication The Hollywood Reporter created an impostor website to lure job seekers into a cryptocurrency fraud scheme, the Massachusetts attorney general alleged in a complaint Friday.

  • October 18, 2024

    AGs Slam 4th Circ. Bid To Restore NC Abortion Drug Limits

    In a joint amicus brief to the Fourth Circuit, a coalition of 17 states and the District of Columbia has said the abortion drug mifepristone is a part of women's reproductive healthcare, assailing the "needless" limits that states including North Carolina have sought to impose on the drug's access.

  • October 18, 2024

    Ore. Water Rights Issues Grounded In State Law, 9th Circ. Told

    The Klamath Irrigation District is asking the Ninth Circuit to certify two questions to the Oregon Supreme Court concerning the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's authority to use and control the use of water under Oregon law.

  • October 18, 2024

    SunPower Corp. Gets OK For Chapter 11 Plan

    A Delaware bankruptcy judge Friday approved residential solar technology company SunPower Corp.'s plans to distribute the proceeds of its asset sales to the creditors in its Chapter 11 case after hearing all objections had been resolved or put off.

  • October 18, 2024

    Hogan Lovells Guides Buyer On San Diego Soccer Team Deal

    National Women's Soccer League team the San Diego Wave Fútbol Club has assumed new ownership after Hogan Lovells-advised private equity firm Levine Leichtman Family Office bought the team from previous owner Ron Burkle, advised by Loeb & Loeb LLP, marking the latest in a string of NWSL deals this year.

  • October 18, 2024

    Google Play Store Injunction Paused To Let 9th Circ. Weigh In

    A California federal judge on Friday briefly paused his injunction requiring Google to open up its Play Store to competition while the tech giant seeks an emergency stay of the injunction at the Ninth Circuit, where it's appealing a jury verdict that it illegally monopolized the Android app distribution and payment market.

  • October 18, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Partly Restores Suit Over Utility Line Patent

    The Federal Circuit has revived part of a lawsuit that alleged Metrotech Corp. infringed a competitor's patent covering ways for finding underground utility lines, finding that a lower court needs to take another look at key patent terminology.

  • October 18, 2024

    LA County DA Defends Progressive Policies In Reelection Bid

    George Gascón, the progressive Los Angeles County district attorney who's survived two recall efforts during his first term as top prosecutor, is standing by his reformist policies, which aim to curb mass incarceration and police misconduct, as he fights to keep his seat in November.

  • October 18, 2024

    Class Status Sought For Sex Bias Suit Over Layoffs At X

    A suit alleging X targeted women in layoffs after Elon Musk bought the company should move forward as a class action because hundreds of women were impacted by sexist decision-making, a former employee for the company once known as Twitter argued in California federal court

  • October 18, 2024

    BCLP Corporate Ace Jumps To Barnes & Thornburg In LA

    A longtime Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP attorney has taken his practice to Barnes & Thornburg in Los Angeles, becoming the fourth partner to join its corporate department in just the last month.

  • October 18, 2024

    Western Digital Hit With $315.7M Verdict In Patent Suit

    Western Digital must pay SPEX Technologies nearly $316 million in damages for infringing its patent related to hardware encryption technology in Western Digital's Ultrastar and My Book data storage devices, a California federal jury decided on Friday.

  • October 18, 2024

    Taxation With Representation: Baker, Simpson, Ropes

    In this week's Taxation With Representation, Lundbeck inks a $2.6 billion cash deal for Longboard, Silver Lake agrees to buy Zuora for $1.7 billion, and PPG and American Industrial Partners reach a $550 million deal.

  • October 18, 2024

    NCAA's $2.78B NIL Deal Still Faces Long Road To Final OK

    The absence of noticeable change to address concerns flagged by a California federal judge about the NCAA's $2.78 billion name, image and likeness compensation settlement made that same judge's preliminary approval of the deal last week surprising, and experts say those same problematic provisions likely will make final approval an uphill battle.

  • October 17, 2024

    Apple's $20M Watch Defect Deal Lacks Info, Judge Says

    A California federal judge has declined to preliminarily approve Apple's $20 million deal to resolve a proposed class action alleging certain Apple Watches have a battery defect that can cause serious injuries, ordering counsel to submit additional information, including details on the lawsuit's maximum value if consumers win at trial.

  • October 17, 2024

    Atty's 'Groundhog Day' Motion Trims Ex-Girardi Client's Suit

    A California state judge on Thursday trimmed a family's $1.8 million malpractice lawsuit against an attorney that represented it in recovering millions lost in Girardi Keese's embezzlement scandal, calling a bid to nix one of the suit's claims a "Groundhog Day" motion because she already granted a similar one from the attorney's firm.

  • October 17, 2024

    Microsoft Fights IP, Antitrust Suit Alleging Cartel With Nvidia

    Microsoft slammed a lawsuit brought by a startup accusing it, Nvidia and a third company of engaging in patent infringement and an illegal buyers' cartel suppressing the price of graphic processing units used in powering artificial intelligence, urging a Texas federal judge Wednesday to deny an injunction bid due to lack of evidence.

Expert Analysis

  • 9th Circ. Ruling Flags Work Harassment Risks Of Social Media

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    The recent Ninth Circuit ruling in Okonowsky v. Garland, holding an employer could be liable for a co-worker's harassing social media posts, highlights new challenges in technology-centered and remote workplaces, and underscores an employer's obligation to prevent hostile environments wherever their employees clock in, say Jennifer Lada and Phillip Schreiber at Holland & Knight.

  • Lessons From Rising Fake Discount Consumer Class Actions

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    Ellen Robbins and Scott Allbright at Akerman discuss the rise of false reference price consumer class actions and outline key strategies to minimize legal risk and protect businesses.

  • 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.

  • Daubert Motion Trends In Patent Cases Reveal Damages Shift

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    A review of all 2023 Daubert decisions in patent cases reveals certain trends and insights, and highlights the complexity and diversity in these cases, particularly in relation to lost profits and reasonable royalty damages opinions, say Sherry Zhang and Joanne Johnson at Ocean Tomo.

  • 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.

  • How High Court Ruling Is Shaping Homelessness Policies

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson to allow enforcement of local ordinances against overnight camping is already spurring new policies to manage homelessness, but the court's ruling does not grant jurisdictions unfettered power, say Kathryn Kafka and Alex Merritt at Sheppard Mullin.

  • 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.

  • Gilead Drug Ruling Creates Corporate Governance Dilemma

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    If upheld, a California state appellate court's decision — finding that Gilead is liable for delaying commercialization of a safer HIV drug to maximize profits on another drug — threatens to undermine long-standing rules of corporate law and exposes companies to liability for decisions based on sound business judgment, says Shireen Barday at Pallas.

  • Class Action Law Makes An LLC A 'Jurisdictional Platypus'

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    The applicability of Section 1332(d)(10) of the Class Action Fairness Act is still widely misunderstood — and given the ambiguous nature of limited liability companies, the law will likely continue to confound courts and litigants — so parties should be prepared for a range of outcomes, says Andrew Gunem at Strauss Borrelli.

  • 3 Notes For Arbitration Agreements After Calif. Ruling

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    After last month's California Supreme Court decision in Ramirez v. Charter Communications invalidated several arbitration clauses in the company's employee contracts as unconscionable, companies should ensure their own arbitration agreements steer clear of three major pitfalls identified by the court, say attorneys at Cooley.

  • Jarkesy Ruling May Redefine Jury Role In Patent Fraud

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    Regardless of whether the U.S. Supreme Court’s Jarkesy ruling implicates the direction of inequitable conduct, which requires showing that the patentee made material statements or omissions to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the decision has created opportunities for defendants to argue more substantively for jury trials than ever before, say attorneys at Cadwalader.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Latest 'Nuclear Verdict' Underscores Jury-Trial Employer Risk

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    A Los Angeles Superior Court jury's recent $900 million verdict in a high-profile sexual assault and harassment case illustrates the increase in so-called nuclear verdicts in employment cases, and the need for employers to explore alternative methods of resolving disputes, say Anthony Oncidi and Morgan Peterson at Proskauer.

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