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SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Dec. 11 affirmed in part a lower court’s ruling finding Apple in contempt of a court-ordered injunction to enjoin Apple Inc. from certain anticompetitive practices on its App Store but reversed in part civil contempt sanctions regarding restrictions on Apple’s ability to impose any commissions on purchases outside an app in an antitrust dispute with Epic Games Inc., finding that the lower court did not err in finding Apple in contempt.
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge said “old gambling provisions” need to be “clean[ed] up” but nonetheless found that they apply to “Robux,” the digital in-game currency used in the game Roblox, in an order denying a Robux-gambling website creator’s motion to dismiss claims brought against him by the parents on behalf of children “who gambled away their Robux on RBLXWild.”
SAN FRANCISCO — A divided Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel upheld a trial court’s dismissal of a consumer’s putative class complaint alleging that potato chips’ “Air Fried” labeling is deceptive when the chips are only finished in an air fryer rather than fully cooked in an air fryer as the consumer failed “to plausibly allege that a reasonable consumer would be deceived into believing that the chips are not deep fried in oil.”
NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower federal court’s judgment in favor of insurers in their lawsuit disputing coverage for underlying actions arising from their firearm manufacturer insured’s alleged sales of “ghost gun” parts and kits brought by New York state and two cities against their firearm manufacturer insured, holding that the underlying claims fail to allege an “accident” to trigger coverage.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s (TTAB) decision to cancel a sports-based nonprofit organization’s trademarks containing the phrase “more than an athlete,” agreeing that a LeBron James-founded company had shown that it acquired common-law rights to a similar phrase earlier than the nonprofit’s registration.
NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel again held Dec. 10 that it lacked appellate jurisdiction to consider a Connecticut federal judge’s ruling that a toy company’s redesigned figurines still ran afoul of a preliminary injunction previously ordered in an intellectual property dispute with Lego A/S and affiliated Lego entities (collectively, Lego).
RALEIGH, N.C. — The U.S. Government on Dec. 10 filed a brief in North Carolina federal court arguing that the Plaintiff Leadership Group’s (PLG) motion to strike supplemental reports filed by a government expert in the Camp Lejeune water contamination litigation constitutes a sanction that is “disproportionate and severe” because the documents in question contain corrections that are contemplated under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 10 heard oral arguments in a case between closed-end funds (CEFs) and a hedge fund, with the CEFs asking it to determine whether the CEFs violated the Investment Company Act of 1940 (ICA) and whether Congress intended there to be a private right of action in Section 47(b) of the ICA.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a dispute over a patent held by the International Business Machines Corp. related to single-sign-on (SSO) technology with Zillow Group Inc. and a related entity, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Panel affirmed U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) findings that some claims in the patent were invalid while others were not, rejecting arguments from both parties.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Two days after the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a pro se litigant’s petitions for writs of mandamus in a dispute involving long-term disability (LTD) benefits, an Ohio federal judge on Dec. 10 issued an amended ruling designating him a vexatious litigant, dismissing his case without prejudice and imposing sanctions including a $1,500 penalty and a three-part filing restriction, highlighting “his repeated failure to appear” and “his (apparently ongoing) use of AI resulting in fabricated citations.”
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Three companies that send child support payments to recipients filed a notice of appeal in California federal court on Dec. 9 stating they are appealing the court’s $7.6 million restitution award against them in favor of a certified class of child support recipients, who the court found were charged 50-cent service fees for making customer support phone calls in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL).