Google, Character.AI To Settle Suicide, Violent Content Suits

By Y. Peter Kang

Google and artificial intelligence company Character Technologies have agreed to settle lawsuits over various injuries suffered by underage users of its Character.AI chatbot, including the suicides of two teenagers, according to documents filed in federal courts.

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Warner Bros. Again Tells Shareholders To Nix Paramount Bid

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Warner Bros. Discovery on Wednesday implored shareholders to reject Paramount Skydance Corp.'s amended hostile takeover offer, saying the media conglomerate remains committed to the $82.7 billion deal it reached with Netflix in December.

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Exclusive

Microsoft Legal Shifts After GC Leaves To Join Meta

By Michele Gorman

A longtime Microsoft Corp. lawyer and executive is taking over the legal group previously overseen by the general counsel who left the technology giant this week to start as Meta's new chief legal officer, the company told Law360 Pulse exclusively Wednesday, in an integration meant to boost the organization's innovation efforts.

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JPMorgan Unit To Use AI Tool Over Proxy Advisory Firms

By Sarah Jarvis

JPMorgan Chase's asset management arm has eliminated its reliance on outside advisory firms for data collection and proxy voting recommendations and will instead use an in-house, artificial intelligence-powered tool to aggregate and analyze data from U.S. corporate meetings.

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OpenAI Can't Ax Musk's Fraud Claim Over For-Profit Plan

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal judge indicated Wednesday that she'll deny OpenAI's bid to toss Elon Musk's claims that the artificial intelligence company duped the billionaire into donating $45 million with false promises of remaining a nonprofit, saying "there's plenty of evidence" to take the claim to a jury.

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11th Circ. Affirms YouTube Win Over DMCA Safe Harbor

By Carolina Bolado

The Eleventh Circuit on Wednesday affirmed a win for YouTube in a dispute with a movie producer, finding that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act does not require YouTube to police its site for infringing clips beyond responding to takedown notices.

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Warner Bros. Hits Nokia With Antitrust Claims In Patent Case

By Ryan Davis

Warner Bros. has fired back at Nokia's video coding patent suit against it with allegations that the Finnish company has violated antitrust law by running an "unlawful monopolization scheme" on the technology and going back on pledges to license its patents on reasonable terms.

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FCC Plans To Raise Power Limits For Unlicensed 6 GHz Use

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission plans to vote this month on whether to expand unlicensed uses of the 6 gigahertz airwaves, aiming to make more room for Wi-Fi, the Internet of Things and augmented and virtual reality.

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Calif. Bill Proposes 4-Year AI Toy Ban To Mull Safety Rules

By Lauren Berg

California Sen. Steve Padilla has introduced what would be the nation's first moratorium on the sale of toys containing artificial intelligence chatbot features, with the aim of giving lawmakers time to implement regulatory guardrails to protect children from potentially dangerous AI interactions.

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FCC Won't Extend Time To Comment On Wireless Reg Redo

By Nadia Dreid

The Federal Communications Commission dashed the hopes of nearly two dozen cities on Wednesday, including the District of Columbia, when it refused to grant them more time to respond to the agency's plans to change rules surrounding wireless site deployment.

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FCC Urged To Revisit AT&T-UScellular Spectrum Deal OK

By Christopher Cole

Consumer advocates are teaming up with rural wireless carriers to call for the Federal Communications Commission to reverse its recent approval of a $1 billion deal for AT&T to snap up spectrum held by broken-up UScellular.

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Biotech Co. Says HHS Infringed Patent With Moderna Vax Deal

By Mark Payne

A biotech company that developed a patented protein technology that allegedly expedited the development of Moderna's COVID-19 Spikevax vaccine sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday, claiming the feds infringed its patent through a contract to develop a vaccine with the pharma giant.

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Brief

Samsung Settles Wi-Fi Patent Suit Ahead Of EDTX Trial

By Elliot Weld

Samsung has settled a case brought by Secure Wi-Fi LLC claiming the South Korean electronics giant's Galaxy smartphones infringed Secure's wireless network patents.

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Fed. Circ. Faults Lower Court In Parking Patent Case

By Adam Lidgett

The Federal Circuit said a new trial is needed to determine if a parking lot management patent is invalid under a rule prohibiting patents for technologies that were used or were on sale for more than a year before a patent application is filed.

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AT&T Says Discovery Bid Could 'Disrupt' $177M Settlement

By Spencer Brewer

AT&T Inc. has asked a Texas federal court to shoot down discovery requests from five alleged victims of a data breach, saying the requests are an underhanded attempt to derail a $177 million settlement between it and customers who suffered because of the breach.

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BlackSky Satellite SPAC Suit Settles In Del. For $7.5M

By Lauren Berg

Special purpose acquisition company Osprey and several of its top brass on Wednesday reached a $7.5 million deal to resolve litigation in Delaware Chancery Court alleging they protected their buy-ins while leaving public investors to suffer losses following a merger with satellite imaging company BlackSky.

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Amazon Stay Bid Should Fail In Patent Suit, WDTX Told

By Adam Lidgett

Texas-based Headwater Research LLC urged a Texas federal court not to pause its suit accusing Amazon of infringing a pair of server and wireless connection patents while the e-commerce giant challenges the patents at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

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Expedia Wants Singapore's Help Getting Docs In Rival's Suit

By Emlyn Cameron

Expedia asked a Washington federal judge to help it seek assistance from Singapore's court system to get documents from Trip.com, saying the discovery is pertinent in an antitrust case brought by representatives for a defunct Swiss competitor.

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Judge Tosses Disparate Impact Claim In South Asian Bias Suit

By Britain Eakin

A New Jersey federal judge on Wednesday dismissed a disparate impact claim in a suit alleging that Tata Consultancy Services favored South Asian workers, finding that the plaintiffs framed the claim under the wrong legal theory.

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Sonos, Wyze Labs Sued Over Wireless Encryption Patent

By Ben Adlin

California-based patent assertion entity Encryptawave Technologies LLC targeted device-makers Sonos Inc. and Wyze Labs Inc. in separate lawsuits Wednesday in Seattle federal court, accusing the companies of infringing a patent related to wireless network security.

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Illinois Man Charged In Snapchat Nude Photo Hacking Scheme

By Craig Clough

An Illinois man is facing federal charges alleging he used a phishing scheme to access the Snapchat accounts of hundreds of women, stole nude photos and sometimes sold or traded them on the internet, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts announced Wednesday. 

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3 Firms Guide Apollo's $3.5B Data Center Financing

By Grace Dixon

Apollo-managed funds and affiliates provided $3.5 billion to a fund managed by Valor Equity Partners, a financing arranged by Latham & Watkins, Proskauer Rose and Sullivan & Cromwell that will back the acquisition and lease of data center infrastructure to Elon Musk's xAI Corp.

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Simpson Thacher Advises As Data Center Biz Gets $1.9B

By Nate Beck

Investment firm KKR and private equity firm Oak Hill Capital on Wednesday said they will contribute approximately $1.9 billion in investments for European data center company Global Technical Realty, with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP advising.

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Paul Weiss-Led D-Wave To Buy Quantum Circuits For $550M

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP-advised quantum computing company D-Wave Quantum Inc. unveiled plans Wednesday to acquire Quantum Circuits Inc. in a $550 million cash and stock deal.

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Compass' $1.6B Anywhere Buy Goes Unchallenged By Government

By Isaac Monterose

Real estate brokerage Compass Inc.'s $1.6 billion acquisition of Anywhere Real Estate Inc. is expected to move forward Wednesday without being scrutinized by the federal government even though congressional lawmakers previously urged the government to do so.

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Calif. Agency Secures Halt On Data Broker's Info Resales

By Allison Grande

A marketing firm that compiles and redistributes lists of people with serious health conditions has agreed to pay a $45,000 fine and stop selling California residents' personal information in order to settle the California Privacy Protection Agency's latest enforcement strike against a data broker for failing to register, the agency announced Thursday. 

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DOJ Seeks Nod For HPE Merger Deal Over State Objections

By Matthew Perlman

The U.S. Department of Justice has requested court approval for its settlement that would end a challenge of Hewlett Packard Enterprise's acquisition of a networking equipment rival, despite objections raised by state enforcers over allegations of improper lobbying influence.

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Steptoe Adds Ex-Fed. Prosecutor To White Collar Team In LA

By Gina Kim

Steptoe LLP has hired Jamari Buxton, a veteran federal prosecutor with extensive experience investigating public corruption and civil rights issues with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California, to be a partner in the firm's White-Collar Defense & Compliance practice in Los Angeles. 

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The Video Privacy Protection Act's Future In 2026

The U.S. Supreme Court's recent denial of certiorari petitions in two Video Privacy Protection Act cases, Salazar v. National Basketball Association and Solomon v. Flipps Media, deepens a circuit split on how to apply the decades-old statute to modern technology, but the underlying interest in privacy protection hasn't changed, say attorneys at Janove.

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Series

A Day In The In-House Life: Chime GC Talks Pathfinding

On a recent Tuesday in the office, Chime's general counsel Adam Frankel shares his typical work day, tackling everything from strategically guiding product launches and testing AI tools to mastering the perfect latte and making time for extracurricular interests.

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Series

Law School's Missed Lessons: Intentional Career-Building

A successful legal career is built through intention: understanding expectations, assessing strengths honestly and proactively seeking opportunities to grow and cultivating relationships that support your development, say Erika Drous and Hillary Mann at Morrison Foerster.

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New Assistant AG For Fraud Will Report To White House

By Courtney Bublé

Vice President JD Vance announced on Thursday the creation of a new assistant attorney general role for fraud, which will be overseen by him and the president.

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US Atty In NY Northern District Serving Unlawfully, Judge Says

By Stewart Bishop

A Manhattan federal judge on Thursday held that the acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York is unlawfully serving in his position, the latest in a string of rulings disqualifying prosecutors appointed by President Donald Trump.

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Alito Recuses From Chevron, Exxon Coastal Pollution Case

By Keith Goldberg

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Thursday recused himself from considering Chevron and ExxonMobil's effort to place Louisiana pollution lawsuits stemming from the companies' World War II-era production in federal court, just days before the justices hear oral arguments in the case.

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Brief

House OKs $540M For Imperiled Legal Services Corp.

By Emily Sawicki

The "minibus" appropriations bill that the U.S. House of Representatives passed on Thursday includes a lifeline $540 million allocated toward the nonprofit Legal Services Corp. — representing a reduction of $10 million, or 3.6%, compared to fiscal year 2025's budget — whose funding the White House previously suggested should be slashed.

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La. Judge Is Senate's 1st Judicial Confirmation Of 2026

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate voted 53-40 on Thursday to confirm former acting U.S. Attorney Alexander C. Van Hook to be a district judge in the Western District of Louisiana.

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