Competition

  • June 07, 2024

    NFL's Kraft Testifies 'Too Many' Sunday Ticket Sales Is Bad

    A California federal jury considering multi-billion dollar antitrust claims against the NFL brought by Sunday Ticket subscribers saw video deposition testimony Friday from New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who said ensuring a high price for the television package is a league priority, and he would not want "too many" U.S. subscribers.

  • June 07, 2024

    Texas Jury Clears Michaels In Paint-By-Number TM Suit

    Arts and crafts retailer Michaels Stores Inc. did not infringe a paint-by-number company's trademarks to create a competing product, a Texas federal jury determined.

  • June 07, 2024

    DC Circ. Undoes Library Of Congress Win In Fair Use Fight

    The D.C. Circuit on Friday reversed a lower court's decision that had rejected two industry groups' challenge to a final rule that categorized medical device diagnostic procedures and repairs as fair use exemptions to U.S. copyright law.

  • June 07, 2024

    Don't Delay In-House Handbags Case For Fed. Court, FTC Told

    Federal Trade Commission staffers are urging the commission not to delay an in-house challenge to the planned $8.5 billion merger combining the parent companies of Coach and Michael Kors, arguing that a separate New York federal court fight won't automatically determine the deal's fate.

  • June 07, 2024

    Trade Commission Votes To Advance Solar Cell Investigations

    The four heads of the U.S. International Trade Commission voted unanimously Friday to continue anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations into solar cell imports from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, finding evidence that the imports harmed domestic solar manufacturers.

  • June 07, 2024

    Cities, Cable Cos. Seek Reg Changes As FCC Studies Markets

    Cities want the Federal Communications Commission to jettison rules that they say unduly restrict cable franchise fees, while the cable business says the FCC needs to back off on regulation, as the agency scrutinizes the competitive landscape across multiple industries.

  • June 07, 2024

    FCC Asks 6th Circ. To Transfer Net Neutrality Cases To DC

    The Federal Communications Commission on Friday urged the Sixth Circuit to transfer a set of challenges to the FCC's recently passed net neutrality rules to the D.C. Circuit, where similar suits have previously played out.

  • June 07, 2024

    Ranbaxy Units Overcome Lipitor Antitrust MDL

    Multiple Ranbaxy Inc. entities have defeated multidistrict litigation accusing them of conspiring with Pfizer Inc. to delay releasing a generic alternative to blood pressure drug Lipitor, as a New Jersey federal judge on Thursday criticized the drug purchasers' "speculative" arguments.

  • June 07, 2024

    Pilgrim's Pride Largely Can't Pause Chicken Farmers' Suit

    An Oklahoma federal judge largely refused Friday to pause a lawsuit accusing Pilgrim's Pride of conspiring with other chicken producers to suppress farmer compensation while Pilgrim's appeals certification of over 24,000 farmers, finding it does not matter if the $2.77 billion damages claim might pressure the company to settle.

  • June 07, 2024

    Off The Bench: NFL On Trial, Betting Crackdowns, Tennis Suit

    In this week's Off The Bench, the NFL stands trial in a massive antitrust class action over its Sunday Ticket broadcast package, a series of sports betting crackdowns makes waves in the MLB and the NBA, and the U.S. Tennis Association denies any liability for a player's sexual assault by her coach.

  • June 07, 2024

    Justices Are Asked To Ax 9th Circ. Price Discrimination Test

    A retail trade association is coming to 5-Hour Energy's defense, calling for the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the energy drink-maker's petition challenging a 2023 Ninth Circuit ruling that revived claims from a group of wholesalers alleging that the company engaged in illegal price-fixing advantaging Costco.

  • June 07, 2024

    Philly Legal Services Group Backs FTC Noncompete Ban

    Community Legal Services, which represents the poorest Philadelphians in legal matters, threw its support Friday behind the Federal Trade Commission's bid to ban business from forcing employees into noncompete agreements.

  • June 07, 2024

    Merchants Get OK For Visa, Mastercard Fees Suit On 2nd Try

    A group of merchants got a tentative go-ahead Friday to bring a collective action accusing Visa and Mastercard of unfairly imposing interchange fees on retailers after revising weaknesses in the initial proposal at the U.K.'s specialist antitrust court.

  • June 07, 2024

    Ryanair Can't Ground €10B Spanish COVID-19 Fund

    Ryanair failed Thursday to convince Europe's top court that a Spanish COVID-19 aid package for struggling companies would distort competition in the European Union's internal market.

  • June 07, 2024

    Google Ad Tech Case Won't Go To Jury Due To Co.'s Payment

    A Virginia federal judge ruled Friday that the U.S. Department of Justice's case accusing Google of monopolizing key digital advertising technology will be heard by the bench, and not a jury, thanks to a $2.3 million check from Google covering the amount enforcers could be awarded if they prevail.

  • June 06, 2024

    NY Prosecutor Says DOJ Self-Disclosure Policies Are Working

    The proliferation of policies across the U.S. Department of Justice crediting firms and individuals for voluntarily self-disclosing misconduct indicates the approach is effective, even though instances of such disclosures aren't overwhelming, a senior federal prosecutor in New York told a gathering of compliance officers on Thursday.

  • June 06, 2024

    NFL Sunday Ticket Is A Rigged Game, Antitrust Jury Told

    An attorney for NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers told a California jury Thursday during opening statements of a multibillion-dollar antitrust suit that secret documents will prove the NFL engaged in anticompetitive behavior, and the trial would reveal the "darker side of the NFL behind the shield."

  • June 06, 2024

    FTC Says Kroger Hasn't Turned Over Promised Documents

    The Federal Trade Commission urged an administrative law judge on Tuesday to require Kroger to fork over documents related to negotiations for its divestiture plan amid the commission's in-house challenge to the grocer's merger with Albertsons, saying Kroger's prior representations that it would produce the materials "have proven false."

  • June 06, 2024

    Drugmakers Escape Cancer Drug Antitrust Claims For Now

    A New Jersey federal judge granted drugmakers Celgene and Bristol-Myers Squibb an out from consolidated antitrust litigation accusing them of delaying generic competition to their blockbuster cancer treatments, saying the conduct alleged by a group of insurer plaintiffs fails to amount to anti-competitive conduct.

  • June 06, 2024

    In 13-Year Trademark Fight, Chicago Judge Says No More

    A Chicago federal judge brought to a close a trademark fight between two vaping companies surrounding the phrase "21st Century Smoking" that has stretched on for over a decade and led to millions of dollars in sanctions over thousands of deleted emails and long-hidden documents.

  • June 06, 2024

    FTC And DOJ Divvy Up Probes Of OpenAI, Microsoft, Nvidia

    The Federal Trade Commission will investigate OpenAI and its investor Microsoft for potential competition issues, while the U.S. Department of Justice will look at chipmaker Nvidia's role in the quickly emerging artificial intelligence space, a source confirmed to Law360 on Thursday.

  • June 06, 2024

    High Bar For Booking.com Price Limits, EU High Court Told

    A European Court of Justice advocate general recommended a high bar Thursday for Booking.com assertions that price parity clauses imposed on contracts with hotels are "ancillary" to, and thus protected as, legitimate business arrangements.

  • June 06, 2024

    Transport Monopoly Indictment Is Deficient, Accused Says

    One of 12 individuals who U.S. federal prosecutors claim conspired to monopolize cross-border sales of used vehicles and other goods from the U.S. to Central America using violence has moved to dismiss antitrust charges, saying prosecutors omitted elements of an indictable offense.

  • June 06, 2024

    AI Co. UiPath's $70M Award Over Chinese Code Theft OK'd

    A New York federal judge has affirmed an unopposed $70 million arbitration award in favor of U.S. artificial intelligence software and robotic process automation company UiPath against a China-based competitor over allegedly stolen source code.

  • June 06, 2024

    UK, US Team Up On Standard-Essential Patents

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and U.K. Intellectual Property Office each announced a five-year agreement Thursday to collaborate on policy for standard-essential patents.

Expert Analysis

  • Live Nation May Shake It Off In A Long Game With The DOJ

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    Don't expect a swift resolution in the U.S. Department of Justice's case against Live Nation, but a long litigation, with the company likely to represent itself as the creator of a competitive ecosystem, and the government faced with explaining how the ticketing giant formed under its watch, say Thomas Kliebhan and Taylor Hixon at GRSM50.

  • NCAA Settlement May End The NIL Model As We Know It

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    The recent House v. NCAA settlement in California federal court, in which the NCAA agreed to allow schools to directly pay March Madness television revenue to their athletes, may send outside name, image and likeness collectives in-house, says Mike Ingersoll at Womble Bond.

  • Opinion

    The FTC And DOJ Should Backtrack On RealPage

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    The antitrust agencies ought to reverse course on their enforcement actions against RealPage, which are based on a faulty legal premise, risk further property shortages and threaten the use of algorithms that are central to the U.S. economy, says Thomas Stratmann at George Mason University.

  • Series

    Fishing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Atop the list of ways fishing makes me a better lawyer is the relief it offers from the chronic stress of a demanding caseload, but it has also improved my listening skills and patience, and has served as an exceptional setting for building earnest relationships, says Steven DeGeorge​​​​​​​ at Robinson Bradshaw.

  • Exploring Alternatives To Noncompetes Ahead Of FTC Ban

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    Ahead of the Sept. 4 effective date for the Federal Trade Commission's noncompete ban, employers should seek new ways to protect their proprietary and other sensitive information, including by revising existing confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements, says Harvey Linder at Culhane.

  • A Healthier Legal Industry Starts With Emotional Intelligence

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    The legal profession has long been plagued by high rates of mental health issues, in part due to attorneys’ early training and broader societal stereotypes — but developing one’s emotional intelligence is one way to foster positive change, collectively and individually, says attorney Esperanza Franco.

  • To Make Your Legal Writing Clear, Emulate A Master Chef

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    To deliver clear and effective written advocacy, lawyers should follow the model of a fine dining chef — seasoning a foundation of pure facts with punchy descriptors, spicing it up with analogies, refining the recipe and trimming the fat — thus catering to a sophisticated audience of decision-makers, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

  • Circuit Judge Writes An Opinion, AI Helps: What Now?

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    Last week's Eleventh Circuit opinion in Snell v. United Specialty Insurance, notable for a concurrence outlining the use of artificial intelligence to evaluate a term's common meaning, is hopefully the first step toward developing a coherent basis for the judiciary's generative AI use, says David Zaslowsky at Baker McKenzie.

  • A Look At M&A Conditions After FTC's Exxon-Pioneer Nod

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    The Federal Trade Commission's recent consent decree imposing several conditions on Exxon Mobil's acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources helps illustrate key points about the current merger enforcement environment, including the probability of further investigations in the energy and pharmaceutical sectors, say Ryan Quillian and John Kendrick at Covington.

  • Attys Beware 2 Commonly Overlooked NIL Contract Issues

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    As name, image and likeness deals dominate high school and collegiate sports, preserving a client's NCAA eligibility should be a top priority, so lawyers should understand the potentially damaging contract provisions they may encounter when reviewing an agreement, says Paula Nagarajan at Arnall Golden.

  • FTC Theories Of Harm After Anesthesia Co. Ruling

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    As Federal Trade Commission litigation against U.S. Anesthesia Partners proceeds following a Texas federal court's recent decision to dismiss a private equity sponsor from the suit, the case attempts to incorporate and advance some of the commission's theories of competitive harm from the final 2023 Merger Guidelines, say attorneys at Mintz.

  • FTC Focus: Exploring The Meaning Of Orange Book Letters

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    The Federal Trade Commission recently announced an expansion of its campaign to promote competition by targeting pharmaceutical manufacturers' improper Orange Book patent listings, but there is a question of whether and how this helps generic entrants, say Colin Kass and David Munkittrick at Proskauer.

  • How Employers, Attorneys Can Respond To Noncompete Ban

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    As the Federal Trade Commission's recently issued noncompete ban faces ongoing legal challenges, now is a good time for employers to consider whether they want to take a wait-and-see approach before halting use of noncompetes and for practitioners to gain insight into other tools available to protect their clients' business interests, says Jennifer Platzkere Snyder at Dilworth Paxson.

  • Perspectives

    Trauma-Informed Legal Approaches For Pro Bono Attorneys

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    As National Trauma Awareness Month ends, pro bono attorneys should nevertheless continue to acknowledge the mental and physical effects of trauma, allowing them to better represent clients, and protect themselves from compassion fatigue and burnout, say Katherine Cronin at Stinson and Katharine Manning at Blackbird.

  • Series

    Playing Music Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My deep and passionate involvement in playing, writing and producing music equipped me with skills — like creativity, improvisation and problem-solving — that contribute to the success of my legal career, says attorney Kenneth Greene.

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