Judge Trims IP Claims In Voice Actors' Suit Against AI Co.

By Ivan Moreno

A New York federal judge ruled Thursday that two voice actors accusing an artificial intelligence startup of cloning their voices for narration software without permission can proceed with their state-level claims, but their trademark and most of their copyright claims must be dismissed for now.

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'Tiger King' Loses Retrial Bid Over Alleged Witness Lies

By Cara Salvatore

The Tenth Circuit has rejected Joseph "Tiger King" Maldonado's latest bid for a new trial following the Netflix series star's murder-for-hire conviction and 21-year sentence, saying arguments regarding supposed witness recantations were waived or unclear.

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Golfer's Defamation Suits Not Up To Par, 11th Circ. Says

By Mike Curley

The Eleventh Circuit won't revive a pair of defamation suits by golfer Patrick Reed against media outlets he accused of defaming him by reporting accusations of cheating and criticism of his association with a Saudi Arabia-backed golf organization.

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IRS Leaker Fairly Sentenced To 5 Years, Gov't Tells DC Circ.

By Anna Scott Farrell

The judge who sentenced an IRS contractor for leaking thousands of wealthy people's tax returns to the media, including those of President Donald Trump, kept an open mind when she decided to deliver the maximum five-year prison term, the government told the D.C. Circuit, arguing the sentence was fair.

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X Can't Escape Don Lemon Suit, But Musk Can, Judge Says

By Adam Lidgett

X Corp. has lost its bid to ditch all of former CNN anchor Don Lemon's lawsuit claiming the social media platform reeled him into a talk show partnership and then unceremoniously canceled the deal, although its leader Elon Musk was allowed to duck out of the case.

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Judge Clears Karol G, Dutch DJ Of Song Ripoff Allegations

By Elliot Weld

A Florida federal judge has tossed claims from flautist and composer René Lorente alleging Colombian singer Karol G and Dutch DJ Tiësto's song "Don't Be Shy" copied elements of one of his songs, doubting the testimony of Lorente's expert witness.

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50 Cent's Ch. 11 Reopened After Woman's $20M Injury Suit

By Aaron Keller

A Connecticut bankruptcy judge on Thursday reopened recording artist 50 Cent's 2015 Chapter 11 case but allowed a New York jurist to first decide whether to dismiss a woman's $20 million injury case, setting up a potential showdown over whether a 2017 discharge order might upend the woman's February lawsuit.

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Conn. Panel Will Again Hear Ex-Alex Jones Atty's Ethics Case

By Christine DeRosa

The Connecticut Appellate Court will hear former Alex Jones attorney Norm Pattis' second appeal of his already-reduced, two-week suspension for allowing a former associate to send Sandy Hook medical records to other Jones attorneys who had not signed a confidentiality order.

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Mo' Money Mo' Problems: Biggie Smalls' Widow Sued Over IP

By Dorothy Atkins

A record executive has sued the Notorious B.I.G.'s widow, Faith Evans, in Delaware Chancery Court, accusing the R&B singer of improperly trying to seize control of her late husband's hip-hop music catalog, which includes chart-topping hits like "Juicy" and "Mo' Money, Mo' Problems," following his mother's recent death.

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$33M Sonos Appeal Has Fed. Circ. Asking: What's Up, Alsup?

By Dani Kass

A Federal Circuit panel struggled Thursday to piece together the different interpretations of what U.S. District Judge William Alsup decided before upending Sonos Inc.'s $32.5 million jury verdict against Google LLC, with one judge claiming disbelief that there could be such a "fundamental disconnect" between the companies' understandings.

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Florida Restaurateur Can't Get Shrimp TM, Fed. Circ. Affirms

By Adam Lidgett

The Federal Circuit on Thursday refused to revive an author and restaurateur's bid to register a trademark for "Yucatán Shrimp" at his Florida eatery named after his crime novels, backing the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's finding that the mark would be merely descriptive.

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Carma Says Ex-CLO, President Stole Hulk Hogan Beer Ideas

By Gina Kim

Carma HoldCo Inc. has filed a $10 million lawsuit in Illinois federal court against its former president and chief legal officer, accusing them of misappropriating its trade secrets and business plans related to "Real American" beer in a partnership with wrestler Hulk Hogan after they were terminated.

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9th Circ. Upholds Converse's Win In Website Chat Wiretap Suit

By Allison Grande

The Ninth Circuit has refused to revive a proposed class action accusing Converse Inc. of allowing a third-party vendor to intercept website visitors' chats, finding that there was "no evidence" that the sneaker maker had violated the California Invasion of Privacy Act.

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$4.4B T-Mobile, UScellular Deal Gets DOJ OK, With A Warning

By Bryan Koenig

The U.S. Department of Justice gave its all-clear Thursday to T-Mobile's plan to take over most of UScellular's wireless operations, finding that T-Mobile's commitments to bolster the flagging company outweigh, at least for now, worries over the disappearance of UScellular's underdog offerings.

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'Admonition' But No More Amazon Penalty For Hidden Docs

By Bryan Koenig

A federal judge in Washington state took Amazon.com to task Thursday for "bad faith" material review that labeled tens of thousands of documents as covered by attorney-client privilege despite involving no legal advice, but the judge, who is presiding over the Federal Trade Commission's Prime subscriptions case against the company, opted against further punishment.

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NJ Developer Charged With Fraud, Bribing Local Official

By Katryna Perera

A New Jersey real estate investor and developer has been indicted on a raft of charges for allegedly running a Ponzi-like investment fraud scheme, conspiring to launder drug proceeds, laundering money represented to be drug proceeds as part of a sting operation and bribing a New Jersey politician.

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House Dem Says FCC Must Follow Law On DEI Probes

By Christopher Cole

A House Democrat who helps oversee the Federal Communications Commission says agency chief Brendan Carr must avoid any hint of targeting companies' diversity initiatives for political reasons rather than legal rationale against discrimination.

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Tegna To Pay $222K To Resolve FCC Probe Into Obscene Video

By Nadia Dreid

Broadcast giant Tegna has agreed to pay more than $222,000 to put an end to an inquiry that began almost four years ago when an unknown party played a 13-second pornographic video clip during an evening weather report on a Spokane, Washington, news station.

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Broadcast Groups Want Status Quo On AM Band Licenses

By Jared Foretek

AM broadcasters urged the Federal Communications Commission to allow them to continue dual operations in both the expanded and standard AM bands, telling the commission in a new filing that it should go ahead and shut down two AM-related dockets if it means that the status quo is maintained.

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Navigation Co. Says Study 'Validates' GPS Backup Plan

By Tom Lotshaw

Geolocation company NextNav Inc. told the Federal Communications Commission in a letter Wednesday that detractors of its proposal to use the lower 900 MHz spectrum to deploy an Earth-based backstop for the Global Positioning System have raised unfounded concerns and mischaracterized an engineering study supporting its proposal.

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Brief

Mass. Man Agrees To $10K Fine For Pirate Radio Stations

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission slapped a $10,000 fine on a Massachusetts man in a consent decree for operating pirate radio stations from three locations, though it was a reduction from the nearly $598,000 fine the FCC initially proposed.

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Insurer Wants Out Of Horse Co.'s $3.2M Theft Coverage Fight

By Ganesh Setty

An insurer for an equestrian and his company that faced theft claims urged a Florida federal court to toss a coverage action from the underlying plaintiff, arguing it lacks standing to claim the insurer wasted policy benefits while defending insureds and left nothing for an eventual $3.2 million settlement.

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Oakley Says MSG Ignoring 2nd Circ. Mandate In Assault Case

By Elaine Briseño

Former New York Knicks player Charles Oakley told a federal judge Tuesday that it should reject Madison Square Garden's latest attempt to have his assault and battery claims tossed, arguing the Second Circuit already determined that only a jury can resolve the dispute.

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Ga. Atty Avoids Sanctions In Suit Over Fatal Police Shooting

By Emily Johnson

A Georgia federal judge has rejected Savannah officials' bid to sanction attorneys suing for civil rights violations in the 2022 shooting death of a Black man by a police officer who's facing murder charges, finding Wednesday that an attorney's comments to the media weren't made in bad faith — but warned counsel to "tread carefully."

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Cinemex Theater Co. Gets $2.6M For Operations In Ch. 11

By David Minsky

A Florida bankruptcy judge approved more than $2.6 million to keep a theater company operating in its second Chapter 11 case on Thursday, allowing the funds to pay for critical vendors and goodwill expenses as the business plans another reorganization. 

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Gauging The Risky Business Of Business Risk Disclosures

With the recent rise of securities fraud actions based on external events — like a data breach or environmental disaster — that drive down stock prices, risk disclosures have become more of a sword for the plaintiffs bar than a shield for public companies, now the subject of a growing circuit split, say attorneys at A&O Shearman.

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Series

Playing The Violin Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Playing violin in a string quartet reminds me that flexibility, ambition, strong listening skills, thoughtful leadership and intentional collaboration are all keys to a successful legal practice, says Julie Park at MoFo.

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Atlanta Atty's Death In Texas Floods Shocks Colleagues

By Emily Johnson

Josephine Hardin, an Atlanta-based Huff Powell & Bailey attorney who died last week in flash flooding in Texas, is being remembered for making colleagues "laugh out loud, come together, and think deeply about the needs of others" and making an impact as a volunteer at a local legal nonprofit.

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Analysis

Courts Face Early Push To Expand Justices' Injunction Ruling

By Katie Buehler

In the two weeks since the U.S. Supreme Court curtailed federal judges' ability to issue universal injunctions, Trump administration attorneys have begun pushing to expand the decision's limits to other forms of relief used in regulatory challenges and class actions. So far, judges don't appear receptive to those efforts. 

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Bove Faults 'Heavy-Handed' Jan. 6 Cases

By Courtney Bublé

Third Circuit nominee Emil Bove, who is currently serving in the U.S. Department of Justice, in his post-hearing questionnaire obtained by Law360 on Friday, drew what he says is a distinction between condemning violence against law enforcement officers and over-prosecution of Jan. 6 rioters.

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Analysis

DOJ Poised To Pounce On Data Security Violators

By Phillip Bantz

Companies and individuals that are not yet in compliance with the U.S. Department of Justice's sweeping, complex new national data security program should expect to face probes and potentially enforcement actions sooner than later, experts say.

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3rd Circ. Revives Benicar MDL Fees Suit Against NJ Law Firm

By Carla Baranauckas

The Third Circuit on Friday revived a proposed class action against Mazie Slater Katz & Freeman LLC attorneys that claims they took excessive fees from plaintiffs' settlements in multidistrict litigation over the blood pressure drug Benicar, remanding the dispute for the district court to determine whether it has jurisdiction over the case.

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NCAA's $2.8B NIL Deal Nets Athletes' Firms Over $455M In Fees

By Craig Clough

A California federal judge Friday approved approximately $455 million in attorney fees for class counsel in the NCAA's $2.78 billion class action settlement that, for the first time, will provide for revenue sharing with college athletes, with additional fees set to roll in annually for 10 years.

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Litigation Funder Can't Escape Crash Loans Suit, Court Told

By Jake Maher

A married couple suing a litigation funding firm and multiple law firms, alleging they steered the couple into high-interest loans, told a New Jersey state court that they adequately pled fraud and urged the court not to dismiss their case against the funder.

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Calif. Panel Says Arbitration Provider Immune From Fraud Suit

By Irene Spezzamonte

An arbitration provider is immune from a logistics company's suit accusing it of not properly vetting its arbitrators, including one who oversaw a wage and hour suit against the company, a California appeals panel ruled, affirming a lower court's decision to nix the case.

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Claims Stack Up Against Texas Judges Accused Of Tampering

By Emily Sawicki

A Texas judge embroiled in a scandal involving allegations of witness tampering has been suspended without pay following a federal indictment alleging she pressured a subordinate to withhold testimony in a separate proceeding against a local justice of the peace.

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Roundup

UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Laura Stewart Liberty

This past week in London has seen HS2 hit with a defamation claim by two ex-employees who blew the whistle on alleged under-reporting of costs, Craig Wright and nChain face legal action brought by its former chief financial officer over a fraud scheme, and pro-footballer Axel Tuanzebe bring a clinical negligence claim against his former club Manchester United F.C. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

Carma has accused its former chief legal officer and president of misappropriating the brand licensing company's trade secrets, filing a $10 million lawsuit in Illinois federal court. Meanwhile, T-Mobile became the latest company to end DEI programs under pressure from the Federal Communications Commission's chair. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP, Gilbert Harrell Sumerford & Martin PC and Ashbrook Byrne Kresge Flowers LLC lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the Eighth Circuit vacated the Federal Trade Commission's planned "click-to-cancel" rule, which would have required companies to allow customers to ditch their subscriptions with a single click.

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In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

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