California

  • August 18, 2026

    Big Tech, PTAB Attys Urge Justices To Fix USPTO Power Grab

    The Federal Circuit's refusal to curb the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office director's power over instituting Patent Trial and Appeal Board challenges has allowed leaders to "wreak havoc" without accountability, top tech companies have warned the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • August 18, 2026

    Judge Cancels $82M Navy Base Operations Services Contract

    A U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge ordered the Navy to cancel an $82 million contract for base operations support services at Naval Base Coronado in Southern California, finding the Navy failed to consider the winning contractor's negative performance under a prior contract.  

  • August 18, 2026

    Intuit Hid AI, Mailchimp Woes From Investors, Suit Says

    TurboTax distributor Intuit Inc. has been hit with a shareholder's proposed class action accusing it of falsely telling investors that it was well-positioned to integrate generative artificial intelligence tools even though the technology was actually diminishing Intuit's primary businesses.

  • August 18, 2026

    Netflix Says Tyra Banks Signed Away Editorial Control Of Doc

    Netflix and the producers behind a docuseries about "America's Next Top Model" asked a California federal judge to dismiss Tyra Banks' defamation lawsuit, arguing her allegations are nothing more than "complaints about ordinary editorial decisions" that are protected by free speech laws.

  • August 18, 2026

    OnlyFans Creator Sues MrBeast, Amazon For Bogus Rules

    A staffer for the 2024 MrBeast Games allegedly told a contestant she must delete her OnlyFans, which netted $60,000 a year, or be kicked out of the $5 million competition despite no one else being forced to do this, according to a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Court that seeks damages from the show and Amazon.

  • August 18, 2026

    PE Music Rights Co. Sues Anthropic, Suno Over AI Training

    Private equity music publisher Round Hill Music has sued Anthropic, Suno and web-scraping provider Bright Data in separate federal lawsuits in California, accusing the companies of "rampant commercial copying" of thousands of its copyrighted songs and lyrics without permission to build and train artificial intelligence systems.

  • August 18, 2026

    Sofia Vergara's Underwear Co. Moves To Nix AI Deepfake Suit

    EBY urged a California federal judge to dismiss a content creator's suit alleging that, while she agreed to be a brand ambassador, the underwear company used AI to create a "deepfake" version and publish a video where she appeared partially nude, arguing Monday that the video is not "pornography" as commonly understood.

  • August 18, 2026

    Attys In Ebay Harassment Suit Seek Lion's Share Of $15M Fee

    Counsel for a Massachusetts couple who recently reached a $55.7 million settlement over a harassment campaign by former eBay employees have asked a state court judge to find the couple's original attorney is entitled to no more than 5% of the fees in the case.

  • August 18, 2026

    Alerus, Telecom Co. Settle Fight Over ESOP Sale

    A telecommunications business and employee stock ownership plan trustee Alerus Financial have agreed to settle a suit claiming workers were shortchanged in a $7.2 million sale of company shares, according to a California federal court filing.

  • August 18, 2026

    Quill & Arrow Says Ford Can't Rehash Lemon Law Fee Fights

    Quill & Arrow LLP has asked a California federal judge to dump a "retaliatory" lawsuit alleging the personal injury firm saddled Ford Motor Co. with high-priced legal bills for work purportedly handled by virtual assistants overseas or nonlawyers, saying the automaker is trying to chill product liability litigation.

  • August 18, 2026

    Nexo Sanctioned Over Purge Of Emails, Slack Messages

    Nexo Capital Inc. has been sanctioned and ordered to pay roughly $439,000 in attorney fees by a federal magistrate judge in California who found that the crypto lender intentionally destroyed electronic evidence relevant to a customer's suit about allegedly forced liquidations of his crypto assets.

  • August 18, 2026

    DSW, Sony Strike Deal In Social Media Music Copyright Fight

    Sony Music Entertainment and DSW's parent company, Designer Brands, have reached a settlement in principle in a copyright infringement suit accusing the shoe retailer and related companies of using more than 100 copyrighted songs in social media advertising without authorization, according to a notice filed in California federal court.

  • August 18, 2026

    McKool Smith Litigator Joins Faegre Drinker In Los Angeles

    Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP announced that a veteran litigator with nearly 40 years of experience has joined the firm's Los Angeles office as a partner from McKool Smith.

  • August 18, 2026

    ITC Probing Transformers Over Trade Secrets Theft Claim

    The U.S. International Trade Commission has opened an investigation into a California transformer manufacturer's claims that an Indian competitor stole its trade secrets in order to accelerate its entrance into the U.S. market, along with false advertising and trademark infringement claims.

  • August 18, 2026

    Kalshi Invades NM Tribes' Exclusive Gaming Turf, Amici Say

    The first tribes to sue Kalshi alleging it violated the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act are backing four New Mexico Indigenous nations' efforts to block the prediction market from offering sports-related contracts on their lands, contending U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1832 recognize Indian political independence and self-governance.

  • August 18, 2026

    Calif. Says Academy Mortgage Must Pay Data Breach Penalty

    Residential mortgage lender and servicer Academy Mortgage Corp. must pay a penalty for a March 2023 consumer data breach that impacted more than 34,000 Californians, the state's Department of Financial Protection and Innovation announced.

  • August 18, 2026

    ​​​​​​​Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

    The Delaware Chancery Court last week tackled disputes involving multibillion-dollar mergers, corporate oversight, founder control, SPAC litigation, commercial contracts and attorney fees.

  • August 18, 2026

    ABC Sues FCC To Stop License Renewal 'Retaliation'

    ABC sued the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday, accusing the Trump administration of using the agency to threaten the Disney-owned network's licenses in a bid to stop it from broadcasting anything displeasing to the president.

  • August 17, 2026

    Standing Flaw Sinks Chrysler Website Tracking Row, For Now

    A California federal judge has tossed, with leave to amend, a proposed class action accusing automaker FCA of illegally divulging Chrysler website visitors' personal information to a data broker, finding that the plaintiff had failed to establish the type of concrete injury necessary to sustain her wiretap and privacy claims.

  • August 17, 2026

    Meta Exec Can't 'Rule Out' Addiction But Doubts It, Jury Told

    A Meta safety executive admitted Monday to a Tennessee jury that she cannot "rule out" that addiction may occur with Instagram but said she believes that so far there is no evidence to identify anything beyond "problematic use."

  • August 17, 2026

    Calif. AG Pans Bid To Pause Social Media Algorithm Limits

    The California attorney general urged a federal judge to deny requests from TikTok, Meta and Google to block enforcement of a state law barring them from using algorithms to deliver feeds to children, saying the court already denied a preliminary injunction and should not grant one pending the companies' appeal.

  • August 17, 2026

    Meta Loses 'Hail Mary' Sanctions Bid On Eve Of AGs' Trial

    A California federal judge Sunday denied Meta's request for spoliation sanctions against state attorneys general that would've barred a Meta whistleblower from testifying in the upcoming high-stakes social media addiction bellwether trial, ruling that Meta's request was an "obvious" "Hail Mary attempt to eliminate a strong witness" before trial.

  • August 17, 2026

    Apple Hit With Derivative Suit Over AI Copyright Infringement

    Apple executives and directors are facing a stockholder derivative action claiming they've been knowingly using copyrighted materials to develop Apple's artificial intelligence services — an unlawful business strategy they knew could lead to litigation from copyright holders, the plaintiff told a California federal court.

  • August 17, 2026

    Apple Bricked Smartwatches In Software Update, Suit Says

    Apple has been hit with a proposed class action in California federal court alleging it breached its contracts with customers by intentionally killing updated software support for five generations of its smartwatches and essentially bricking them before the end of the hardware's useful life.

  • August 17, 2026

    Happy Egg Breaks 'Pasture Raised' False Ad Class At 9th Circ.

    The Ninth Circuit on Monday threw out class certification of California and New York consumers accusing the company behind the Happy Egg brand of deceptively labeling egg cartons with promises that its hens are "pasture raised on over 8 acres."

Expert Analysis

  • 3 AI Adoption Mistakes GCs Should Avoid

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    The pressure in-house legal teams face to quickly adopt artificial intelligence tools, combined with budget constraints and the need to evaluate a crowded market of options, sets the stage for implementation mistakes that are often difficult to undo, says former 23andMe general counsel Guy Chayoun.

  • Sentencing Tips For Defending Crypto Conspiracy Cases

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    The sentencing of Evan Tangeman to 70 months in federal prison for laundering money in a cryptocurrency conspiracy illustrates that defense attorneys representing clients in multidefendant crypto cases need to understand the mechanics of conspiracy liability, loss attribution and restitution exposure before they reach the sentencing table, says Joseph De Gregorio at Sentencing Advocacy.

  • Series

    Playing Basketball Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My grandfather used to say "I wear your jersey" as shorthand for wholly committing to support someone with loyalty and integrity — ideals that have shaped my life on the basketball court and in legal practice, says Tracy Schimelfenig at Schimelfenig Legal.

  • Nexstar Offers A Cautionary Tale On State-Level Deal Scrutiny

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    State-enforcement challenges to the $6.2 billion Nexstar-Tegna merger remind legal practitioners that federal approval isn't always sufficient to deliver certainty on closing, integration and timetable assumptions, says Brett Story at Britehorn Securities.

  • How 'Bundling' Enforcement Is Parsing Efficiency, Access

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    Recent antitrust enforcement actions have taken a selective view of companies' bundling of products or services — challenging it when it shuts out rivals, but tolerating it when it creates efficient scale — making the real test now less about lower prices than about whether competition is being blocked, says attorney Alan Kusinitz.

  • Series

    The Biz Court Digest: Georgia Court Has Business On Its Mind

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    Thanks to recent legislation, the Georgia State-wide Business Court will soon offer business litigants greater access to the court than ever before, further enhancing the court's emphasis on efficiency, predictability and accessibility for sophisticated commercial disputes, says former GSBC judge Walt Davis at Jones Day.

  • Operational AI Washing: A New Securities Class Action

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    In rising claims of operational AI washing — plaintiffs alleging that artificial intelligence was invoked to explain corporate business decisions in ways that may obscure underlying financial distress — earnings calls, restructuring disclosures and board-level communications will serve as key defense evidence, say attorneys at Akerman.

  • Where The Preemption Fight Over Prediction Markets Stands

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    While the Third Circuit's recent ruling in Kalshi v. Flaherty remains a significant win for the federal government in its quest to regulate prediction markets, the Fourth, Sixth and Ninth Circuits appear more skeptical, indicating that this fight is likely headed for the Supreme Court, says Johnny ElHachem at Holland & Knight.

  • 4 Emerging Approaches To AI Protective Order Language

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    Over the last year, at least five federal district courts have issued or analyzed specific protective order provisions restricting the use of generative artificial intelligence platforms with protected materials, establishing that proactive AI-specific provisions are now standard practice and demonstrating that no single model works for every case, says Joel Bush at Kilpatrick.

  • 1st Surveillance Pricing Law In Md. Reflects Broader Scrutiny

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    A new law will make Maryland the first state to target data-driven or surveillance-based price manipulation, highlighting increased scrutiny from federal and state enforcement agencies and policymakers as they consider whether new laws are required to regulate dynamic pricing, say attorneys at Pillsbury.

  • Understanding The Insider Trading Gap In Prediction Markets

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    While the first-ever insider trading indictment involving a prediction market — the recent prosecution of a service member involved in the capture of Nicolás Maduro — comprised extreme facts and straightforward legal theories, future cases will test the bounds of insider trading law, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • Heppner Ruling Left AI Privilege Risk For Lawyers Unresolved

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    While a New York federal judge’s recent ruling in U.S. v. Heppner resolved a privilege question surrounding client-side artificial intelligence use, it did not address how to mitigate the risks that can arise when confidential information enters the operative context of an AI system used by an attorney, says Jianfei Chen at Quarles & Brady​​​​​​​.

  • The Ethics And Practicalities Of Representing AI Agents

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    With autonomous artificial intelligence agents now able to take action without explicit instructions from — or the awareness of — their human owners, the bar must confront whether existing frameworks like informed consent and client privilege will be sufficient on the day an AI agent calls seeking counsel, say attorneys at Morrison Cohen.

  • Notable Q1 Updates In Insurance Class Actions

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    Notable insurance class action decisions from the first quarter of the year included reminders about the statute of limitations as a key defense for claims relating to allegedly deficient forms, the importance of focus on the specific contract at issue and further guidance on the contours of Rule 23, says Kevin Zimmerman at BakerHostetler.

  • 9th Circ.'s Silence Prolongs Uncertainty On Cemex Framework

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    By affirming a bargaining order in Cemex Construction Materials v. National Labor Relations Board without opining on the NLRB’s 2023 expansion of its authority to issue such orders, the Ninth Circuit avoided direct conflict with the Sixth Circuit’s rejection of the same framework, prolonging uncertainty for employers facing union elections, say attorneys at Dinsmore & Shohl.

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