Gibson Dunn, Sullivan & Cromwell Lead SpaceX, XAI Merger

By Lauren Berg

Elon Musk announced Monday that SpaceX, represented by Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, has acquired his artificial intelligence startup xAI, advised by Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, in a bid to launch space-based data centers, amid plans for an initial public offering that would value the aerospace company at more than $1 trillion.

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Fed. Circ. Grapples With AI Patent Eligibility In Amazon Case

By Ryan Davis

A Federal Circuit panel on Monday expressed skepticism about Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's argument that an artificial intelligence-related patent it sued Amazon over was wrongly invalidated as abstract, though the court seemed wary of issuing a ruling that could render all AI unpatentable.

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Amazon Shoppers' Counsel Admit To AI Errors In Motion

By Emily Sawicki

Lawyers representing Amazon customers in a proposed class action over supplement labeling have apologized to a Seattle federal judge for artificial intelligence hallucinations included in a recent filing, acknowledging "certain miscitations and misquotations" resulted from a Just Food Law PLLC attorney's use of the nascent technology and a failure by Boies Schiller Flexner LLP co-counsel to catch the errors.

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'Doesn't Make Sense': DOJ Irks Judge In Merger Fight With AGs

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge said Monday that the U.S. Department of Justice must hand over certain discovery materials to Democratic attorneys general challenging the DOJ's controversial settlement greenlighting the $14 billion merger of Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Juniper Networks, telling the DOJ that its argument that discussions of alternative remedies are shielded from discovery "doesn't make sense."

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Judge Skeptical Of XAI's Claims In OpenAI Trade Secrets Suit

By Ivan Moreno

A California federal judge has said she's inclined to grant OpenAI's motion to dismiss a trade secrets complaint from Elon Musk's xAI "in full," saying the plaintiffs have not provided enough facts to support claims that OpenAI poached employees and stole source code.

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'We Have Not Done Enough' On Sex Assaults, Uber Exec Says

By Bonnie Eslinger

Uber's chief product officer, the final live defense witness Monday in a bellwether trial over the company's sexual assault liability in multidistrict litigation involving thousands of cases, rejected claims that Uber dragged its feet on implementing some safety measures, while conceding "we have not done enough."

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FTC Says Bezos, Amazon Execs Hid Evidence Via Signal App

By Bryan Koenig

The Federal Trade Commission asked a Washington federal judge to assume Amazon.com Inc. used auto-deleting Signal chats to hide the "anticompetitive nature" of rules that allegedly created an artificial pricing floor across online retail, escalating a long-simmering evidentiary fight that implicates Jeff Bezos and general counsel David Zapolsky.

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House Lawmakers Set To Weigh FirstNet Renewal Bill

By Christopher Cole

U.S. House members Wednesday will consider legislative plans to renew the First Responder Network Authority for just over a decade beyond its scheduled sunset next year and also will examine whether to impose more federal oversight on the network.

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FCC's Phone Subsidy Fund Aims To Improve Nat'l Verifier

By Christopher Cole

As the Federal Communications Commission responds to reports from its internal auditors of widespread fraud in Lifeline phone services, the program's administrator has said progress is underway to strengthen a national system to verify beneficiaries.

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Brief

FCC Continues Work As Usual After Gov't Funding Lapse

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission said it has no immediate plans to alter operations as a result of the partial government shutdown that started over the weekend.

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Judge Clears Apple Of Some Haptic Patent Claims

By Elliot Weld

A California federal judge has allowed Apple to escape some patent claims brought by a company that accused the tech giant of infringing the business's vibration technology patents, letting Apple escape literal infringement allegations related to its "monolithic products."

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Wireless Charger Rivals Settle Patent Suit On Eve Of Trial

By Adam Lidgett

An Israeli wireless power technology company has agreed to settle its suit alleging a Chinese electronics manufacturer infringed various power transmission patents, a move that came the day before trial was set to commence.

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Pandora Settles IP Suits By Robin Williams, Other Comedians

By Gina Kim

Pandora Media has resolved yearslong copyright infringement litigation by Robin Williams' estate, Lewis Black and other comedians, who alleged the streaming service owes millions for wrongfully profiting off their performances and works without licensing agreements, following a settlement conference in California federal court Friday.

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Lead Counsel For Parents Appointed In Roblox MDL

By Emily Field

The California federal judge overseeing the growing multidistrict litigation over allegations that children were groomed and exploited by sexual predators on Roblox's popular gaming platform has appointed plaintiffs attorneys to leadership positions on Friday.

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Plaintiff Pulls Data Breach Claims Against Brown Paindiris

By Matt Perez

The last remaining plaintiff in a proposed class action against Brown Paindiris & Scott LLP over a 2023 data breach and the law firm's response to it filed for voluntary dismissal Friday in Connecticut federal court.

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PTAB Sinks Samsung Challenge To Ouraring Patent

By Adam Lidgett

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has shot down Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.'s challenge to an Ouraring Inc. smart ring patent amid an ongoing legal dispute that has spanned the board, federal district court and the U.S. International Trade Commission.

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ITC Issues Rechargeable Battery Import Ban On Chinese Co.

By Adam Lidgett

The U.S. International Trade Commission has issued an order blocking a Chinese company from importing rechargeable batteries that infringe a pair of LithiumHub patents, after the foreign manufacturer was found to be in default in the case.

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Zipcar Can't Be Liable For Renting To Drunk Driver, Panel Says

By Y. Peter Kang

A California appeals court has tossed claims against Zipcar in a suit accusing the online car rental platform of causing a passenger's catastrophic injuries by renting out a vehicle to a drunk customer, saying certain duties of care owed by traditional rental agencies don't apply to car-sharing companies.

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Netflix Slams HBO Max User's Challenge To Warner Bros. Deal

By Gina Kim

Netflix argued that an HBO Max subscriber lacks standing to challenge its plan to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, telling a California federal judge Friday that the subscriber doesn't show how the merger would injure her, as she's never subscribed to Netflix and doesn't say she plans to.

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Nvidia Faces New Class Action Over AI YouTube Scraping

By Elliot Weld

Chipmaker and artificial intelligence company Nvidia has been hit with more claims of improperly scraping data from YouTube for training material for its AI model Cosmos.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jeff Montgomery

A pair of new high-dollar suits in Delaware's Court of Chancery showed last week that post-deal stock appraisal suits still have legs, despite some efforts to reduce potential from deal-price gains challenges. The week ended with Delaware's justices nipping $100 million from the attorney fees owed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk from $176.2 million to roughly $70.9 million, rejecting part of a Court of Chancery fee calculation.

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Brief

Mich. College Web Users Drop Meta Pixel Privacy Suit

By Carolyn Muyskens

Two plaintiffs Monday dismissed their Michigan federal court lawsuit alleging Hillsdale College violated the Video Privacy Protection Act by using Meta's automated tracker to gather data about people who viewed the school's online lectures.

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ESAB Corp. To Acquire Eddyfi Technologies For $1.45B

By Al Barbarino

ESAB Corp. said Monday it has agreed to purchase Eddyfi Technologies for $1.45 billion, pushing deeper into industrial inspection and monitoring as it looks to diversify beyond its core welding equipment business.

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Donaldson Acquires Facet Filtration In $820M Deal

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Technology-led filtration products provider Donaldson Company Inc. on Monday announced plans to buy Filtration Group's Facet Filtration business in an all-cash deal valued at roughly $820 million.

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Space And Defense Comms Co. Secures $470M Of Funding

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Space and defense communications company CesiumAstro Inc. on Monday revealed that it has secured $470 million in growth capital, which will go toward funding the buildout of its new headquarters, among other uses.

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OpenText Sells Analytics Database Co. Vertica For $150M

By Matt Perez

Canada-based information management software company OpenText announced on Monday the sale of its subsidiary Vertica to Rocket Software Inc. for $150 million in cash before taxes and other fees.

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Monthly Merger Review Snapshot

By Matthew Perlman

U.S. enforcers reached three new merger settlements, while the Federal Trade Commission successfully blocked a $945 million heart valve deal and lodged an appeal for its case targeting Meta's past acquisitions.

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IT Exec Can't Shake False Billing Conviction, 4th Circ. Rules

By Hayley Fowler

The Fourth Circuit on Monday said there was more than enough evidence for a Maryland jury to convict the CEO of an IT company for lying about the hours she worked on a project for the National Security Agency, rejecting her claims that the trial was tainted by a misleading exhibit and prosecutorial misconduct.

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DOJ Opposes Google's Bid For Partial Search Remedy Pause

By Matthew Perlman

The U.S. Department of Justice and state enforcers are opposing Google's bid to pause parts of the remedies imposed after a D.C. federal court found it monopolized the search market, while the tech giant appeals the ruling to the D.C. Circuit.

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Mintz Adds Winston & Strawn ITC Practice Co-Leader In DC

By Emily Johnson

Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC has grown its Washington, D.C., office by bringing a Winston & Strawn LLP equity partner as its International Trade Commission practice co-chair, strengthening the firm's intellectual property services with a patent litigator with two decades of experience.

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DLA Piper Adds Ex-Cooley Atty To Lead N. Calif. Practice

By Rose Krebs

DLA Piper announced Monday that it has added the former global chair of Cooley LLP's digital health group to lead its Northern California corporate and securities practice and bolster its capacity to advise life sciences and technology companies on transactions and other matters.

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Defense Strategy Takeaways From Recent TCPA Class Actions

Although recent Telephone Consumer Protection Act decisions do not establish any bright-line tests for defeating predominance based on an argument that class members provided consent for the calls, certain trends have emerged that should inform defense strategies at class certification, say attorneys at Womble Bond.

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How 2 Tech Statutes Are Being Applied To Agentic AI

The application of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the California Invasion of Privacy Act to agentic artificial intelligence is still developing, but recent case law, like Amazon's lawsuit against Perplexity in California federal court, provides some initial guidance for companies developing or deploying these technologies, say attorneys at Weil.

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NYC Bar Opinion Warns Attys On Use Of AI Recording Tools

Attorneys who use artificial intelligence tools to record, transcribe and summarize conversations with clients should heed the New York City Bar Association’s recent opinion addressing the legal and ethical risks posed by such tools, and follow several best practices to avoid violating the Rules of Professional Conduct, say attorneys at Smith Gambrell.

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Series

The Biz Court Digest: Dispatches From Utah's Newest Court

While a robust body of law hasn't yet developed since the Utah Business and Chancery Court's founding in October 2024, the number of cases filed there has recently picked up, and its existence illustrates Utah's desire to be top of mind for businesses across the country, says Evan Strassberg at Michael Best.

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Paul Weiss Chair's Emails To Epstein Include Apollo Info

By Aebra Coe

Files released by the Department of Justice over the weekend belonging to the late billionaire Jeffrey Epstein show a yearslong relationship between Epstein and Paul Weiss chair Brad Karp, which included dinners, phone calls and meetings, as well as communication related to Paul Weiss client Apollo Global Management.

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Ex-Goldstein Employee Claims Accountants Made Mistakes

By Jared Foretek

Defense attorneys for SCOTUSblog founder Thomas Goldstein presented evidence Monday that his firm's tax accountants made serious mistakes in tax filings for Goldstein's wife, Amy Howe, in 2021.

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6th Circ. Clears Judge Boasberg In DOJ Ethics Complaint

By Courtney Bublé

The complaint the U.S. Department of Justice filed against Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg of the District of Columbia has been dismissed.

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Analysis

Wheeling & Appealing: The Latest Must-Know Appellate Action

By Jeff Overley

What happened to a GOP donor's $250,000 Swiss watch? Can cigarette warnings show jarring medical images? Will a circuit split of "far-reaching importance" for arbitration get even wider? That's a taste of the oral argument menu we'll help you digest in this preview of February's top appellate action.

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Fenwick Reaches Deal In FTX Crypto Scam Suit

By Madison Arnold

Fenwick & West LLP and victims of the infamous FTX Trading Ltd. cryptocurrency scam are working toward a settlement in a case over the firm's alleged role in the trading platform's collapse.

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Watchdog Renews Halligan Bar Complaint After Court Rulings

By Emily Sawicki

The nonprofit Campaign for Accountability on Monday once again launched a bar complaint against former interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan in Virginia, after the Virginia State Bar declined to pursue an ethics investigation against the attorney last year, calling it a matter for the courts to determine.

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Brief

Judiciary Open As Usual Until Thursday Despite Shutdown

By Courtney Bublé

The federal judiciary has enough funding to sustain normal operations until Thursday, following the partial government shutdown that started at midnight on Saturday.

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DOJ Defends NJ US Atty Office Funding Amid Scrutiny

By Matthew Santoni

Defending the three-person leadership structure of New Jersey's federal prosecution operations since the departure of Alina Habba, an administrator told a federal court that two of the attorneys running the office are paid through the office's budget and the third is funded through the U.S. Department of Justice.

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The Top In-House Hires Of January

By Sue Reisinger

Legal department hires over the first month of 2026 included high-profile appointments at SiriusXM, at a host of West Coast tech companies including Microsoft and Meta, and at Black & Decker. Law360 Pulse looks at some of the top in-house announcements from January.

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Law360 Seeks Members For Its 2026 Editorial Boards

Law360 is looking for avid readers of our publications to serve as members of our 2026 editorial advisory boards.

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