SAN DIEGO — A California federal judge on March 5 granted in part and denied in part a motion filed by The Procter & Gamble Co. (P&G) to dismiss a consumer’s putative class action accusing it of misleadingly marketing a sleep aid product as providing benefits “naturally” in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) because it is actually made with “synthesized” artificial ingredients.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The manufacturer of the Gardasil vaccine on March 5 declined to respond to a petition for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court filed by three women who claim that the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals erred in finding that the women must first file in the Vaccine Act compensation program before suing in a district court and contend that the addition of the Gardasil vaccine to the Vaccine Injury Table was unconstitutional.

SAN FRANCISCO — A split Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on March 4 affirmed a lower court’s denial of a motion by Uber Technologies Inc., its subsidiary Portier LLC and Maplebear Inc. (Instacart) for a preliminary injunction to enjoin the enforcement of a Seattle ordinance prohibiting “unwarranted” deactivations of app-based workers’ accounts, finding in part that the ordinance does not regulate speech that is protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York dismissed a claim of trademark dilution from a complaint the United States Polo Association Inc. (USPA) brought against an apparel company that the polo association accused of fraudulently obtaining a registered trademark; the judge held March 4 that USPA failed to establish the requisite fame of its marks.

RICHMOND, Va. — A Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel denied two vape manufacturers’ petition for rehearing or rehearing en banc of the panel’s decision staying a lower court’s ruling enjoining Virginia from enforcing civil penalty provisions of its new tobacco products registry law, which the manufacturers claim will force them to close more than 100 retail locations and leave thousands of employees without work.

ST. LOUIS — Amid concerns raised by some putative class members, a state court judge in Missouri on March 4 granted preliminary approval to a $7.25 billion nationwide Roundup settlement between the putative class and Bayer Corp., Monsanto Co.’s parent company, which would resolve claims alleging that the herbicide causes cancer.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed and remanded a lower court’s grant of summary judgment for the U.S. government in its suit alleging that a wheat farmer defrauded the government and violated the False Claims Act (FCA) by concealing harvested wheat and receiving crop insurance indemnity payments of more than $500,000, finding that issues of fact remain regarding whether the farmer acted with the required scienter under the FCA.

NEW YORK — Greatly narrowing a putative class suit in which plaintiffs challenging purported cross-selling done by a third-party service provider have sought to represent participants in thousands of retirement plans, a New York federal judge on March 4 ruled that the plaintiffs “may not attempt to pursue classwide claims for those plans in which they did not participate” because they didn’t show “class standing” as required in the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.