Competition

  • September 19, 2024

    Calif. Vape Co. Says Mich. Store Is Selling Counterfeit G Pens

    California-based GS Holistic LLC is suing a Michigan smoke shop in federal court, alleging that it is selling counterfeit versions of its G Pen e-cigarettes without authorization at a fraction of the price, infringing its trademarks and harming its reputation.

  • September 19, 2024

    Google Accused Of Apple 'Stranglehold' In £7B Class Action

    A consumer champion bringing a £7 billion ($9.3 billion) class action against Google told a tribunal Thursday that the tech giant has maintained a "stranglehold" on Apple devices through an illegal exclusivity deal with the iPhone-maker.

  • September 18, 2024

    Google Judge Wonders: Does Ad Tech Benefit Publishers?

    The Virginia federal judge weighing the fate of Google's display advertising placement business zeroed in Wednesday on a key aspect of the search giant's defense against a Justice Department monopolization suit — the assertion that even if company practices disadvantaged rival ad exchanges, they benefited publishers.

  • September 18, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Revives Astellas Patent Axed As Natural Law

    The Federal Circuit on Wednesday vacated a lower court's invalidation of an Astellas Pharma overactive bladder medication patent for claiming only a natural law, saying the holding was improper because the generics makers accused of infringement never made that argument.

  • September 18, 2024

    9th Circ. Won't Revive Gas Price-Fixing Suit Over Trump Pact

    The Ninth Circuit upheld the dismissal of a proposed class action alleging price fixing between major oil producers as part of the Trump Administration's 2020 deal with Russia and Saudi Arabia to cut production, saying that subjecting the pact to judicial review would be inappropriately "second-guessing" executive branch foreign policy.

  • September 18, 2024

    Nintendo Stole BlackBerry IP For Devices, Patent Holder Says

    Nintendo has been hit with a patent infringement suit in Washington federal court by an Irish firm that holds the rights to many of BlackBerry's inventions, targeting technologies used in controllers for the popular Switch console and other gaming accessories.

  • September 18, 2024

    Gov't Lifeline Gives Nippon A Fighting Chance On US Steel

    The Biden administration has indicated it's poised to block Nippon Steel from proceeding with a controversial $14.9 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel, but the government is reportedly giving the Japanese steelmaker an additional 90 days to prove its case, a development that should give Nippon hope it can get the deal done, attorneys say.

  • September 18, 2024

    Altria's Vape As Popular As Kale Juice, Elf Bar Tells Calif. Court

    Blocking the Chinese companies behind Elf Bar from importing their flavored vapes won't increase the market share of Altria Group subsidiary NJOY's nicotine e-cigarettes, the foreign companies argued, saying it's just as unlikely as consumers going from grape juice to kale juice.

  • September 18, 2024

    IP Firm Prevails In Malpractice Suit Over Dueling Patent Apps

    A Boston intellectual property law firm on Wednesday ducked a legal malpractice suit brought by a Colorado technology company alleging the firm betrayed it while filing patents on behalf of another client, after a Massachusetts federal judge found an absence of attorney-client relationship sunk the claims.

  • September 18, 2024

    EU Drops Microsoft-Inflection Probe After Illumina Ruling

    European enforcers said Wednesday they will not review Microsoft's acquisition of key personnel from Inflection AI after member states withdrew their referrals in the wake of a recent high court ruling in the Illumina-Grail merger challenge.

  • September 18, 2024

    Conn. Investment Adviser Stole Secrets, Ex-Employer Says

    An employee of a Connecticut investment advisory firm started a competing company and solicited his employer's clients before suddenly resigning and taking trade secrets to his new business, according to a new lawsuit in state court.

  • September 18, 2024

    NCAA Must Give Up Control To Reach Suitable NIL Settlement

    The date set by a California federal judge for the NCAA and the athletes suing it over name, image and likeness compensation to iron out issues with their proposed $2.78 billion settlement is fast approaching, and according to experts, a rational solution that would satisfy the two sides and the law might not exist.

  • September 18, 2024

    SEC's Equity Trading Reforms Allow Half-Penny Stock Pricing

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday unanimously agreed to allow exchanges to quote stock prices in half-penny increments, part of a wider overhaul purportedly aimed at improving transparency and lowering trading costs.

  • September 18, 2024

    WillScot, McGrath RentCorp Nix $3.8B Deal Over FTC Scrutiny

    Temporary space solutions provider WillScot Holdings Corp. and business-to-business rental company McGrath RentCorp on Wednesday unveiled that they have agreed to nix their $3.8 billion merger because there was "no commercially reasonable path" to clear the regulatory hurdles the deal has bumped into since it was announced.

  • September 18, 2024

    GameStop CEO Pays $1M For Failure To Flag Bank Stock Buy

    GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen has agreed to pay nearly $1 million to settle U.S. Department of Justice claims that the Canadian entrepreneur violated the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act when he bought more than $20 million worth of Wells Fargo shares in 2018.

  • September 18, 2024

    9th Circ. Breathes New Life Into Swimmers' Boycott Suit

    The Ninth Circuit has revived a class action from the International Swimming League and a trio of competitive swimmers accusing the sport's global governing body of orchestrating a de facto boycott of the upstart league, overruling a district court that threw out the case.

  • September 18, 2024

    Google Fights To Ax £7B Apple Search Engine Abuse Case

    Google asked a tribunal on Wednesday to strike out a £7 billion ($9.25 billion) case alleging it abused its dominance by securing exclusivity for its search engine on Apple devices, arguing that the case against it must fail.

  • September 18, 2024

    Qualcomm Gets Predatory Pricing Fine Trimmed To €239M

    A European Union court has pared back the penalty handed to Qualcomm for abusing its dominance by selling 3G baseband chipsets below cost, trimming it on Wednesday from €242 million ($266 million) to €238.7 million after finding that enforcers had not properly applied their own fining guidelines.

  • September 18, 2024

    Google Gets €1.49B Antitrust Fine Tossed In AdSense Case

    A European Union court on Wednesday annulled a €1.49 billion ($1.65 billion) fine against Google for abusing its dominance in markets for brokering online search advertising, saying the bloc's competition enforcer had not adequately weighed how long the contracts had been in place.

  • September 17, 2024

    FDIC, OCC Cement New Bank-Merger Policy Guidelines

    Federal banking regulators on Tuesday approved plans to tighten their oversight of bank mergers, scoping out heightened scrutiny for deals that result in banks with $100 billion in assets among other things.

  • September 17, 2024

    Benefit Funds Sue Sandoz Over Alleged Fraudulent Transfers

    Several health and welfare funds have filed a class action against Sandoz Inc. and affiliates in Pennsylvania federal court, alleging the drugmaker engaged in fraudulent transfers designed to evade liabilities stemming from drug-pricing antitrust litigation.

  • September 17, 2024

    North Carolina Panel Orders Redo In Hospital Beds Battle

    A Tar Heel State administrative court erred when it used the state health department's failure to hold a public hearing as a basis to yank the department's approval of the University of North Carolina's application to enhance its hospital's services, an appeals court ruled Tuesday, in a setback for Duke University's healthcare unit.

  • September 17, 2024

    DOT Clears $1.9B Alaska-Hawaiian Airlines Combo For Takeoff

    Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines intend to close their $1.9 billion merger within days as the U.S. Department of Transportation greenlit the deal Tuesday after convincing the companies to agree to conditions meant to protect travelers, rural communities and competition in the market.

  • September 17, 2024

    GC Base Salaries At Big Companies On The Rise

    General counsel base salaries at companies making $5 billion or more in revenue has increased from last year, while their total compensation has decreased, according to a report released Tuesday by the Association of Corporate Counsel and Empsight International LLC.

  • September 17, 2024

    Google Taps In-House Atty For Head Of General Litigation

    Google has promoted a longtime in-house attorney to be its head of general litigation, tapping a 13-year veteran of the tech giant who originally studied architectural engineering before going to law school. 

Expert Analysis

  • Behind 3rd Circ. Ruling On College Athletes' FLSA Eligibility

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    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.

  • Complying With FTC's Final Rule On Sham Online Reviews

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    The Federal Trade Commission's final rule on deceptive acts and practices in online reviews and testimonials is effective Oct. 21, and some practice tips can help businesses avert noncompliance risks, say Airina Rodrigues and Jonathan Sandler at Brownstein Hyatt.

  • Opinion

    A Fuzzy Label With Bite: FTC Must Define Surveillance Pricing

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    The Federal Trade Commission recently issued orders to eight companies — including Mastercard, McKinsey and Chase — seeking information on "surveillance pricing," but the order doesn't explain the term or make the distinction between legal and illegal practices, leaving any company that uses personalized pricing in the dark, says Chris Wlach at Huge.

  • Assessing Algorithmic Versus Generative AI Pricing Tools

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    A comparison of traditional algorithmic pricing models and those powered by generative artificial intelligence can help regulators and practitioners weigh the pros and cons of relying on large language models to price products or services, say Maxime Cohen at McGill University, and Tim Spittle and Jimmy Royer at Analysis Group.

  • A Look At UK, EU And US Cartel Enforcement Trends

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    The European Union, U.K. and U.S. competition agencies' recently issued joint statement on competition risks in generative artificial intelligence demonstrates increased cross-border collaboration on cartel investigations, meaning companies facing investigations in one jurisdiction should anticipate related investigations in other jurisdictions, say lawyers at Latham & Watkins.

  • A Preview Of AI Priorities Under The Next President

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    For the first time in a presidential election, both of the leading candidates and their parties have been vocal about artificial intelligence policy, offering clues on the future of regulation as AI continues to advance and congressional action continues to stall, say attorneys at Mintz.

  • DOJ Must Overcome Hurdles In RealPage Antitrust Case

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    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.

  • 11 Patent Cases To Watch At Fed. Circ. And High Court

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    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.

  • EU Merger Control Concerns Remain After ECJ Illumina Ruling

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    The recent European Court of Justice judgment in Illumina-Grail is a welcome check on the commission's power to review low-threshold transactions, but with uncertainty persisting under existing laws and discretion left to national regulators, many pitfalls in European Union merger control remain, says Matthew Hall at McGuireWoods.

  • Why India May Become A Major Patent Litigation Forum

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    India is reinventing itself with the goal of becoming a global hot spot for patent litigation, with recent developments at the Delhi High Court creating incentives for plaintiffs to assert patent rights in India, say Ranganath Sudarshan at Covington and IP litigator Udit Sood.

  • Court Denial Of $335M UFC Deal Sets Bold Antitrust Precedent

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    A Nevada federal court’s recent refusal to accept a $335 million deal between Ultimate Fighting Championship and a group of former fighters to settle claims of anticompetitive conduct was a rare decision that risks the floodgates opening on established antitrust case law, says Mohit Pasricha at Lawrence Stephens.

  • How Methods Are Evolving In Textualist Interpretations

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    Textualists at the U.S. Supreme Court are increasingly considering new methods such as corpus linguistics and surveys to evaluate what a statute's text communicates to an ordinary reader, while lower courts even mull large language models like ChatGPT as supplements, says Kevin Tobia at Georgetown Law.

  • FTC Focus: What Access To Patent Settlements Would Mean

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    Settling parties should adopt a series of practice tips, including specifying rationales to support specific terms, as the Federal Trade Commission seeks to expand its access to settlements before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, say Shannon McGowan and David Munkittrick at Proskauer.

  • Why Attorneys Should Consider Community Leadership Roles

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    Volunteering and nonprofit board service are complementary to, but distinct from, traditional pro bono work, and taking on these community leadership roles can produce dividends for lawyers, their firms and the nonprofit causes they support, says Katie Beacham at Kilpatrick.

  • Firms Must Offer A Trifecta Of Services In Post-Chevron World

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    After the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo decision overturning Chevron deference, law firms will need to integrate litigation, lobbying and communications functions to keep up with the ramifications of the ruling and provide adequate counsel quickly, says Neil Hare at Dentons.

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