Media & Entertainment

  • May 27, 2025

    'Gone In 60 Seconds' IP Appeal 'Stalls At Starting Line'

    A Ninth Circuit panel held Tuesday that the customized Ford Mustangs called "Eleanor" that were featured in four films — most recently in the 2000 Nicolas Cage film "Gone in 60 Seconds" — is not a copyrightable character.

  • May 27, 2025

    11th Circ. Says Producer's Defamation Claims Came Too Late

    The Eleventh Circuit refused Friday to revive a movie producer's defamation suit against The Hollywood Reporter over its article on his feud with a former business partner, ruling that a district court correctly applied California's statute of limitations, rather than Florida's, to dismiss the suit.

  • May 27, 2025

    Greenpeace Fights To Walk Back $666M Pipeline Verdict

    Greenpeace on Tuesday continued its post-trial attack on a $666 million defamation and property damage case against Dakota Access pipeline builder Energy Transfer, telling a North Dakota judge that a lack of evidence requires overturning numerous jury findings.

  • May 27, 2025

    Renaissance Fair Co. Says Landlord Planned 'Knock-Off' Event

    The operator of a New England Renaissance fair has accused its landlord of stalling on a long-term lease extension in order to plan a "knock-off version" of the event.

  • May 27, 2025

    11th Circ. Won't Revisit FCC Ownership Ruling

    The Eleventh Circuit won't take a second whack at its order upholding a Federal Communications Commission finding that Gray Television had broken agency ownership consolidation rules by owning one too many stations in Anchorage, Alaska.

  • May 27, 2025

    Trump To Pardon 'Chrisley' Stars Convicted Of Tax Evasion

    President Donald Trump is planning to pardon reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, the Georgia duo sentenced to prison after being convicted of running a yearslong bank fraud scheme and dodging federal taxes, according to a post Tuesday on X by Trump's communications adviser.

  • May 27, 2025

    Judge Follows The Users And The Money In Meta's FTC Case

    A D.C. federal judge on Tuesday looked for the right metrics to measure the effect that Meta Platforms Inc. has had on Instagram and WhatsApp in terms of users, growth and money spent buying the apps in deals the Federal Trade Commission says were designed to buy or bury the competition.

  • May 27, 2025

    Debate Over Moratorium On State AI Oversight Goes To Senate

    Before going on recess, the U.S. House of Representatives passed their budget reconciliation bill that includes a hotly debated moratorium on states' enforcement of artificial intelligence-related legislation, and the debate continues as the bill heads to the U.S. Senate, where at least a few Republicans have voiced opposition.

  • May 27, 2025

    Trump's Media Co. To Raise $2.5B For Bitcoin Purchase

    Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., the parent company of President Donald Trump's social media platform, said Tuesday it plans to raise $2.5 billion from institutional investors to buy bitcoin to create what it is calling a bitcoin treasury.

  • May 27, 2025

    Card Game Maker Sues Competitor Over Alleged Knockoff

    The maker of the Never Have I Ever card game has sued a rival game company in California federal court, claiming the board game Tipsy Land is a knockoff seeking to capitalize on the success of its product.

  • May 27, 2025

    Wireless Mics Need Fewer Reg Restrictions, FCC Told

    A group that advocates for making more spectrum available for wireless microphones has its own ideas about what regulations the Federal Communications Commission should be cutting, starting with two areas it says are hindering the wireless mic industry.

  • May 27, 2025

    'I Need To Be Careful': Judge Wades Into Musk-Firm Conflict

    A New York federal judge questioned his authority to weigh in on Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP's hiring decisions after it sought permission to employ a former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission attorney who Elon Musk claims could disadvantage him in a shareholder lawsuit, asking the firm and Musk to brief him on what may be an issue of first impression.

  • May 27, 2025

    NPR Sues To Block Trump's 'Blatantly Unconstitutional' Cuts

    National Public Radio and three Colorado stations hit the Trump administration with a lawsuit in D.C. federal court Tuesday, claiming a recent executive order aimed at cutting federal funding is discriminatory and "blatantly unconstitutional."

  • May 27, 2025

    Trump, Ex-Copyright Head Duel Over Her Firing

    Former U.S. Copyright Office director Shira Perlmutter on Tuesday said a Washington, D.C., federal judge should ignore the Trump administration's argument that her recent firing was legal, the latest salvo in her lawsuit against the federal government as she seeks to block her removal.

  • May 23, 2025

    Law360 Reveals Titans Of The Plaintiffs Bar

    This past year, a handful of attorneys secured billions of dollars in settlements and judgments for both classes and individual plaintiffs against massive companies and organizations like Facebook, Dell, the National Association of Realtors, Johnson & Johnson, UFC and Credit Suisse, earning them recognition as Law360's Titans of the Plaintiffs Bar for 2025.

  • May 23, 2025

    9th Circ. Mulls 'Two John Smiths' In Classmates.com Class

    Ninth Circuit judges Friday scrutinized a vast class of Californians whose identities were allegedly misappropriated by yearbooks platform Classmates.com, discussing ways to distinguish people with the same names and the case's implications for internet search giants — as well as how one judge's class of '62 yearbook might be a small part of the litigation.

  • May 23, 2025

    Disney Accuses YouTube Of Poaching Ex-Distribution Exec

    Disney has hauled YouTube and freshly resigned Disney executive Justin Connolly into California state court, accusing YouTube of poaching Connolly, who it said was leading license renewal negotiations with the Google-owned video sharing company.

  • May 23, 2025

    Legendary Calif. Judge Alsup Likely To Go Inactive In 2025

    U.S. District Judge William H. Alsup, a larger-than-life jurist who's overseen some of the most consequential litigation in California's Northern District, indicated in a court filing Friday that he'll likely take inactive status before year's end, although the 79-year-old judge warned Law360 that he hasn't made a final decision.

  • May 23, 2025

    5th Circ. Sides With Texas Library In Book Ban Redo

    The Fifth Circuit gave a green light for a Texas public library to toss several books that deal with topics such as sexuality and racism, labeling the arguments challenging the library's decision to remove the challenged literature as "over-caffeinated" in a Friday en banc opinion.

  • May 23, 2025

    Detroit Judge Can't Yet Invoke Immunity Over Teen's Mock Trial

    A Michigan federal judge said a Detroit judge's decision to put a teenager through a livestreamed "judicial-like" proceeding akin to "Scared Straight" for falling asleep in his courtroom while on a field trip may have fallen outside the bounds of judicial immunity, denying a bid to toss the teen's lawsuit against the judicial officer.

  • May 23, 2025

    X Says Media Matters Must Pay For 'Unjustified' Transfer Bid

    Social media giant X Corp. wants Media Matters for America sanctioned for waiting more than a year to try to transfer X Corp.'s lawsuit against it, and told a Texas federal judge Wednesday that the left-leaning media watchdog must cover the costs of defending against the unsuccessful motion.

  • May 23, 2025

    Meta, App Maker Flo Can't Escape All Of Privacy Class Action

    A California federal judge ruled Thursday that Flo Health Inc. and Meta cannot escape all the claims in a class action brought by users of a menstrual cycle app who allege their privacy was violated, denying parts of both companies' summary judgment bids. 

  • May 23, 2025

    Westlaw AI Win Right But Appellate Review Wise, Judge Says

    A Delaware federal judge Friday voiced confidence in his ruling that tech startup Ross Intelligence infringed copyrighted material from Thomson Reuters' Westlaw platform to create a competing legal research tool powered by artificial intelligence, but explained that granting interlocutory appeal on two questions will help resolve the case more efficiently.

  • May 23, 2025

    LegitScript Can't Use 'Unclean Hands' To Ax Antitrust Case

    The Ninth Circuit on Friday said that pharmacy verification and monitoring service provider LegitScript could not toss an antitrust action brought by PharmacyChecker.com based on assertions that the plaintiff facilitated the illegal importation of foreign drugs, saying that the defense of unclean hands doesn't bar the lawsuit.

  • May 23, 2025

    9th Circ. Judges Grapple With Funko Investors' Fraud Claims

    Ninth Circuit panelists said Friday they were "struggling" with an appeal from a group of investors in a proposed class securities fraud case against toymaker Funko, expressing skepticism that the shareholders had shown corporate leadership knowingly misrepresented the status of a software update that flopped.

Expert Analysis

  • How Judiciary Can Minimize AI Risks In Secondary Sources

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    Because courts’ standing orders on generative artificial intelligence and other safeguards do not address the risk of hallucinations in secondary source materials, the judiciary should consider enlisting legal publishers and database hosts to protect against AI-generated inaccuracies, say attorneys at Lankler Siffert & Wohl.

  • 3 Steps For Companies To Combat Task Scams

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    On the rise in the U.S., the task scam — when scammers offer a victim a fake work-from-home job — hurts impersonated businesses by tarnishing their name and brand, but companies have a few ways to fight back against these cons, says Chris Wlach at Huge.

  • Perspectives

    Protecting Survivor Privacy In High-Profile Sex Assault Cases

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    Multiple civil lawsuits filed against Sean "Diddy" Combs, with claims ranging from sexual assault and trafficking to violent physical beatings, provide important lessons for attorneys to take proactive measures to protect the survivor's anonymity and privacy, says Andrea Lewis at Searcy Denney.

  • How Attorneys Can Break Free From Career Enmeshment

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    Ambitious attorneys can sometimes experience career enmeshment — when your sense of self-worth becomes unhealthily tangled up in your legal vocation — but taking the time to discover and realign with your core personal values can help you recover your identity, says Janna Koretz at Azimuth Psychological.

  • Lawyers With Disabilities Are Seeking Equity, Not Pity

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    Attorneys living with disabilities face extra challenges — including the need for special accommodations, the fear of stigmatization and the risk of being tokenized — but if given equitable opportunities, they can still rise to the top of their field, says Kate Reder Sheikh, a former attorney and legal recruiter at Major Lindsey & Africa.

  • Opinion

    Judicial Committee Best Venue For Litigation Funding Rules

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    The Advisory Committee on Civil Rules' recent decision to consider developing a rule for litigation funding disclosure is a welcome development, ensuring that the result will be the product of a thorough, inclusive and deliberative process that appropriately balances all interests, says Stewart Ackerly at Statera Capital.

  • The Strategic Advantages Of Appointing A Law Firm CEO

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    The impact on law firms of the recent CrowdStrike outage underscores that the business of law is no longer merely about providing supplemental support for legal practice — and helps explain why some law firms are appointing dedicated, full-time CEOs to navigate the challenges of the modern legal landscape, says Jennifer Johnson at Calibrate Strategies.

  • Fed. Circ. Ruling May Signal Software Patent Landscape Shift

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    The Federal Circuit's recent ruling in Broadband iTV, despite similarities to past decisions, chose to rely on prior cases finding patent-ineligible claims directed to receiving and displaying information, which may undermine one of the few areas of perceived predictability in the patent eligibility landscape, say attorneys at King & Wood.

  • Series

    Beekeeping Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The practice of patent law and beekeeping are not typically associated, but taking care of honeybees has enriched my legal practice by highlighting the importance of hands-on experience, continuous learning, mentorship and more, says David Longo at Oblon McClelland.

  • Election Unlikely To Overhaul Antitrust Enforcers' Labor Focus

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    Although the outcome of the presidential election may alter the course of antitrust enforcement in certain areas of the economy, scrutiny of labor markets by the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice is likely to remain largely unaffected — with one notable exception, say Jared Nagley and Joy Siu at Sheppard Mullin.

  • Challenges Of Insuring An NIL Collective

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    Sarah Abrams at Baleen Specialty examines the emergence of name, image and likeness collectives for student-athletes, the current litigation landscape that has created a favorable environment for these organizations, and considerations for director and officer insurers looking to underwrite NIL collectives.

  • Opinion

    Legal Institutions Must Warn Against Phony Election Suits

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    With two weeks until the election, bar associations and courts have an urgent responsibility to warn lawyers about the consequences of filing unsubstantiated lawsuits claiming election fraud, says Elise Bean at the Carl Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy.

  • How Cos. Can Build A Strong In-House Pro Bono Program

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    During this year’s pro bono celebration week, companies should consider some key pointers to grow and maintain a vibrant in-house program for attorneys to provide free legal services for the public good, says Mary Benton at Alston & Bird.

  • Series

    Home Canning Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Making my own pickles and jams requires seeing a process through from start to finish, as does representing clients from the start of a dispute at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board through any appeals to the Federal Circuit, says attorney Kevin McNish.

  • Patent Lessons From 7 Federal Circuit Reversals In August

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    The Federal Circuit’s seven vacated or reversed cases from August provide helpful clarity on obviousness-type double patenting, written description and indefiniteness, and suggest improved practices for petitioners and patent owners in inter partes review, say Denise De Mory and Li Guo at Bunsow De Mory.

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