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Corporate
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May 28, 2024
Ex-USPTO Directors Want Vidal To Withdraw Disclaimer Plans
Former U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Directors Andrei Iancu and David Kappos on Tuesday urged current Director Kathi Vidal to "immediately" withdraw proposed rules regarding so-called terminal disclaimers, saying the changes are "contrary to law" and "threaten serious harm to America's innovation economy."
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May 28, 2024
Autonomy Founder Says HP 'Panicked,' Tried To Unwind Deal
Autonomy founder Michael Lynch testified Tuesday in a California federal criminal trial over claims he conned HP into overpaying for his company that HP's board "panicked" after news of the acquisition leaked and HP's stock dropped 20%, that HP fired its CEO and that it attempted to back out of the deal.
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May 28, 2024
Judge Hints Amazon Can't Avoid BIPA Suit For Stored Data
A Washington federal judge pushed back Tuesday against Amazon's claims it cannot be sued for data that merely passed through its servers, noting that Illinois' biometric privacy law doesn't just create liabilities for the original data collector.
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May 28, 2024
AI Co. Can't Escape Meta's Suit Over User Data Scraping
A California federal judge has refused to toss Meta Platforms Inc.'s suit accusing an artificial intelligence company of unlawfully scraping Facebook users' data and selling it to its clients, finding that Meta had identified a valid contract and that the court had jurisdiction over all the social media giant's claims.
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May 28, 2024
Boeing Jury Urged To Reject Electric Startup's $200M IP Ask
Counsel for Boeing Co. told a jury to reject Zunum Aero Inc.'s claim it deserves nearly $200 million for alleged trade secrets misappropriation, saying during closing arguments Tuesday that Zunum wants to shift blame away from its own failures.
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May 28, 2024
Chancery Finds Ex-CEO Owed $79M For Share Lockup Losses
The former CEO of a 3D building imaging company is owed more than $79 million in damages in his share value suit against the company, but not the more than $141 million he sought, the Delaware Chancery Court ruled Tuesday.
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May 28, 2024
Consumers, Advertisers Seek Class Cert. Against Meta
Advertisers and consumers suing Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc. over allegations of monopolizing the online social media advertising market and misusing users' data in the process have told the California federal court overseeing their claims that they believe it's time for the proposed classes to be certified.
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May 28, 2024
Google, Meta Can Arbitrate H&R Block User's Tax Data Suit
A California federal judge on Friday ruled that a man who was previously instructed to arbitrate his proposed class action alleging that H&R Block shared private data must also arbitrate claims against Google and Meta Platforms Inc., saying the allegations against the two technology companies are closely connected to those against H&R Block.
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May 28, 2024
The NCAA Put Out One Fire, But The House Is Still Ablaze
Despite the enormous size of the settlement of a class action by hundreds of thousands of former college athletes over name, image and likeness compensation denied to them, experts say it only resolves one of the NCAA's many legal crises, while shining a light on the severity of the others.
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May 28, 2024
Data Co. Exec Misled GC About Scammer Sales, Feds Tell Jury
A former Epsilon Data Management executive was well aware that a division of the direct marketing and data company was selling information about millions of consumers to fraudsters and worked to keep the firm's general counsel in the dark about the details, federal prosecutors told a Denver jury Tuesday.
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May 28, 2024
Trump Atty Calls Cohen 'MVP Of Liars' As NY Trial Closes
Donald Trump's counsel repeatedly assailed the credibility of star witness Michael Cohen Tuesday in a final pitch to the New York jury that will decide whether to convict the former president of falsifying business records, calling Cohen "an MVP of liars" and "the human embodiment of reasonable doubt."
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May 28, 2024
Twitter Investors Seek Cert Over Musk's Backtrack On Buyout
A group of Twitter investors have asked a California federal judge to certify a class over claims Elon Musk fraudulently tweeted about the social media company's alleged bot problem to get out of his $44 billion acquisition, arguing that the case is "perfectly suited for class certification."
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May 28, 2024
Frontier, Ex-CEO Settle $21.8M Life Insurance Benefits Feud
Frontier Communications and Leonard Tow, its former CEO and the top executive of a predecessor, have privately settled a feud surrounding tens of millions in split-dollar life insurance policies, with both sides asking a Connecticut state court judge to withdraw a $21.8 million prejudgment remedy order issued last month.
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May 28, 2024
White House Looks To Boost Carbon Credit Market Integrity
The Biden administration on Tuesday released new guidelines for voluntary carbon markets, touting the measures as a foundation for "ambitious and credible climate action" that also attempts to address questions about the integrity of credits that companies use to show a greener footprint.
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May 28, 2024
Chiquita Ops Chief Says Militant Leader Extorted Company
Chiquita's former head of Colombia operations took the stand Tuesday for the second time in a trial over the banana company's funding of right-wing paramilitaries, recounting to jurors how he was summoned to the house of a notorious paramilitary boss to convey what he said were threats on the company's business.
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May 28, 2024
Microsoft, OpenAI Beat Overstuffed Privacy Suit, For Now
A California federal judge threw out, for now, consumers' suit alleging their privacy was violated by Microsoft Corp. and OpenAI LP's products, slamming the complaint as "excessive" and packed with "unnecessary and distracting allegations" to the point it's "nearly impossible" to determine the adequacy of the claims.
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May 28, 2024
Chevron Confident As Hess Shareholders Approve $53B Deal
Hess Corp. said Tuesday it has received the necessary stockholder approvals to close its $53 billion sale to Chevron Corp., as Chevron separately expressed confidence that it will prevail in an ongoing dispute with Exxon Mobil Corp. and wrap up the regulatory process soon.
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May 28, 2024
27 States Urge Fed. Circ. To Back Idaho 'Patent Troll' Law
Attorneys general from 27 states, along with tech industry lobbying groups, have thrown their support behind Micron Technology Inc.'s argument in its fight at the Federal Circuit that Idaho's law barring "bad faith" allegations of patent infringement is constitutional.
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May 28, 2024
Capital One Is The Latest To Face 'Refer A Friend' Text Suit
Capital One Financial Corp. faces a proposed class action in Seattle federal court alleging it violated a Washington state law barring advertising texts in connection with the "refer a friend" texts it prompted existing customers to send to their own personal contacts.
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May 28, 2024
NC Biz Court OKs Air Gun Asset Buy To Settle $6.7M Fight
A North Carolina state business court approved a deal Tuesday in which a struggling air gun company's Swedish supplier will forgive its debt and acquire most of its assets to resolve claims the American firm owed the Swedish entity $6.7 million.
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May 28, 2024
Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court
Delaware Court of Chancery watchers shifted their focus last week from the courtroom to Dover's legislative hall, as proposed amendments to Delaware's corporate code were finally introduced to state lawmakers. Hearings, decisions and reversals involved Kraft-Heinz, AMC Entertainment and the merger of cryptocurrency companies BitGo and Galaxy. In case you missed it, here's the latest from Delaware's Chancery Court.
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May 28, 2024
Kroger, Albertsons Must Give FTC Texts, Written Notes
Claims from a pair of multibillion-dollar grocery giants that a discovery request will pose financial burden held no sway over a Federal Trade Commission in-house judge who last week ordered Kroger and Albertsons to produce text messages and handwritten notes from key employees as part of the agency's merger challenge.
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May 28, 2024
Christie's CEO Confirms Cyberattack On Auction House's Data
The chief executive officer of Christie's said it has identified the hacking group behind a cyberattack that hit the international auction house's website just as it launched a series of live and online auctions for art and luxury goods this spring.
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May 28, 2024
Biz Groups Back BofA In Merger Interest Tax Fight At 4th Circ.
Business groups told the Fourth Circuit on Tuesday that they supported Bank of America in its fight against a North Carolina federal court ruling that found the bank wasn't entitled to net the interest on the tax liabilities of Merrill Lynch after the two companies merged.
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May 28, 2024
Exxon Investor Broadens Promise To Nix Climate Proxy Bid
An activist investor sued by Exxon Mobil Corp. over a now-withdrawn shareholder proposal concerning climate change has again called on the oil giant to withdraw its suit after broadening its previous promise not to resubmit the proposal in the future.
Expert Analysis
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Protecting IP May Be Tricky Without Noncompetes
Contrary to the Federal Trade Commission's view, trade secret law cannot replace noncompetes' protection of proprietary information because intellectual property includes far more than just trade secrets, so businesses need to closely examine their IP protection options, say Aimee Fagan and Ching-Lee Fukuda at Sidley.
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Del. Ruling Highlights M&A Deal Adviser Conflict Disclosures
The Delaware Supreme Court recently reversed the Court of Chancery's dismissal of challenges to Nordic Capital's acquisition of Inovalon, demonstrating the importance of full disclosure of financial adviser conflicts when a going-private merger seeks business judgment rule review, say attorneys at Debevoise.
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E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On Text Message Data
Electronically stored information on cellphones, and in particular text messages, can present unique litigation challenges, and recent court decisions demonstrate that counsel must carefully balance what data should be preserved, collected, reviewed and produced, say attorneys at Sidley.
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Dual-Track IPO-M&A Exit Strategies For Life Science Cos.
A dual-track process for life sciences companies offers a proven path to securing favorable deal terms for an exit, and strategic moves can include running a crossover financing round in the lead-up, say attorneys at McDermott.
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Keeping Up With Class Actions: A New Era Of Higher Stakes
Corporate defendants saw unprecedented settlement numbers across all areas of class action litigation in 2022 and 2023, and this year has kept pace so far, with three settlements that stand out for the nature of the claims and for their high dollar amounts, says Gerald Maatman at Duane Morris.
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Fostering Employee Retention Amid Shaky DEI Landscape
Ongoing challenges to the legality of corporate diversity, equity and inclusion programs are complicating efforts to use DEI as an employee retention tool, but with the right strategic approach employers can continue to recruit and retain diverse talent — even after the FTC’s ban on noncompetes, says Ally Coll at the Purple Method.
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How New Rule Would Change CFIUS Enforcement Powers
Before the May 15 comment deadline, companies may want to weigh in on proposed regulatory changes to enforcement and mitigation tools at the disposal of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, including broadened subpoena powers, difficult new mitigation timelines and higher maximum penalties, say attorneys at Venable.
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What's Extraordinary About Challenges To SEC Climate Rule
A set of ideologically diverse legal challenges to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate disclosure rule have been consolidated in the Eighth Circuit via a seldom-used lottery system, and the unpredictability of this process may drive agencies toward a more cautious future approach to rulemaking, say attorneys at Thompson Coburn.
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Is The Digital Accessibility Storm Almost Over?
Though private businesses have faced a decadelong deluge of digital accessibility complaints in the absence of clear regulations or uniformity among the courts, attorneys at Epstein Becker address how recent federal courts’ pushback against serial Americans with Disabilities Act plaintiffs and the U.S. Department of Justice’s proposed government accessibility standards may presage a break in the downpour.
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Series
Swimming Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Years of participation in swimming events, especially in the open water, have proven to be ideal preparation for appellate arguments in court — just as you must put your trust in the ocean when competing in a swim event, you must do the same with the judicial process, says John Kulewicz at Vorys.
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Key Priorities In FDIC Report On Resolving Big Bank Failures
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s report last month on the resolvability of large financial institutions contains little new information, but it does reiterate key policy priorities, including the agency's desire to enhance loss-absorbing capacity through long-term debt requirements and preference for single-point-of-entry resolution strategies, say attorneys at Freshfields.
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A Recipe For Growth Equity Investing In A Slow M&A Market
Carl Marcellino at Ropes & Gray discusses the factors bolstering appetite for growth equity fundraising in a depressed M&A market, and walks through the deal terms and other ingredients that set growth equity transactions apart from bread-and-butter venture capital investing.
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Opinion
SEC Doesn't Have Legal Authority For Climate Disclosure Rule
Instead of making the required legal argument to establish its authority, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate-related disclosure rule hides behind more than 1,000 references to materiality to give the appearance that its rule is legally defensible, says Bernard Sharfman at RealClearFoundation.
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What 100 Federal Cases Suggest About Changes To Chevron
With the U.S. Supreme Court poised to overturn or narrow its 40-year-old doctrine of Chevron deference, a review of 100 recent federal district court decisions confirm that changes to the Chevron framework will have broad ramifications — but the magnitude of the impact will depend on the details of the high court's ruling, say Kali Schellenberg and Jon Cochran at LeVan Stapleton.
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Patent Damages Jury Verdicts Aren't Always End Of The Story
Recent outcomes demonstrate that patent damages jury verdicts are often challenged and are overturned approximately one-third of the time, and successful verdict challenges typically occur at the appellate level and concern patent validity and infringement, say James Donohue and Marie Sanyal at Charles River.