SAN FRANCISCO — A federal jury in California convicted a former Google LLC employee of theft of trade secrets and economic espionage across 14 total categories related to his work developing software to ensure that graphics processing units could function efficiently with artificial intelligence.

BOSTON — A Massachusetts appellate court panel on Jan. 30 reversed and remanded a state reviewing board decision denying a reinsurer’s reimbursement of cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) benefits paid after exhaustion of a self-insured employer’s statutory bond, ruling that the board improperly imposed an extra-statutory bar to recovery by denying reimbursement based on the employer’s insolvency and the reinsurer’s nonparticipation in trust fund assessments, grounds not authorized under the workers’ compensation reimbursement framework.

NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Jan. 30 affirmed a lower federal court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of an insurer in a breach of contract and bad faith lawsuit, holding that the insured failed to provide evidence suggesting hail occurred within the relevant policy period and, as a result, did not establish a genuine dispute of material fact regarding whether covered damage occurred.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) on Jan. 29 issued a general license authorizing transactions for sales of oil and oil-related assets belonging to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its affiliates, which is required due to U.S. sanctions against Venezuela, representing a key step for pending litigation in Delaware federal court where a $5.8 billion bid for Venezuela’s holdings in CITGO Petroleum Corp. was approved, pending appeal before the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

MIAMI — A Florida federal judge on Jan. 29 dismissed a false advertising lawsuit against Burger King Corp. (BKC) for allegedly deceptively advertising burgers including the “Whopper” to appear 35% larger than they actually are, after the parties filed a joint stipulation in which the plaintiffs “acknowledge” that BKC made the ads using its authentic beef patties and BKC said it will not pursue sanctions against the plaintiffs’ lawyers.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Jan. 29 affirmed a California federal judge’s summary judgment of noninfringement in favor of Hulu LLC, despite finding that the judge erroneously narrowed the meaning of a claim phrase, because Hulu’s accused systems did not perform the relevant processes in the order required by the patent.

CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed a lower court and found that two pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) accused by Ohio of conspiring to drive up prices of prescription drugs properly removed the case to federal court under the federal officer removal statute.

JACKSON, Miss. — A plaintiff architectural design entity can pursue claims that a property sales company infringed the design of a single element of a copyrighted home design, a federal judge in Mississippi held, but it could not pursue claims based on technical drawings the judge found were not part of the registration of the architectural work.