Google-Epic Judge Raises Doubts About App Antitrust Deal

By Bonnie Eslinger

The California federal judge overseeing Epic Games' antitrust suit against Google expressed serious doubts Thursday about their recent deal to end their fight over Android app distribution, ordering an evidentiary hearing and warning he's not sure the proposed deal will correct Google's illegal conduct.

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Fed. Circ. Won't Overrule Stewart's Institution Practices

By Dani Kass and Theresa Schliep

The Federal Circuit on Thursday rejected petitions filed by Motorola, Google, Samsung and SAP America arguing that the deputy director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office violated their due process rights by changing institution practices at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. 

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Social Media Apps Must Face Jury After Section 230 Loss

By Dorothy Atkins

A California state judge refused Wednesday to grant social media companies summary judgment on claims their platforms harm young users' mental health, again rejecting arguments that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act shields them from liability, and sent three cases to bellwether trials, with the first to begin Jan. 27.

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Judge Mehta 'Still Digging Out' From Google, Oath Keepers

By Bryan Koenig

U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta said Thursday he is still playing catch-up from a period during which his time was spent with virtually nothing but the Google search case and the prosecution of Oath Keepers charged with sedition and other crimes from the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol.

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Del. Justices Uphold Toss Of Trade Desk CEO's $5.2B Pay Suit

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Supreme Court Thursday affirmed a Chancery Court ruling that threw out a stockholder derivative challenge to an advertising technology company's multiyear compensation package for its co-founder, CEO and controlling stockholder, rejecting claims that the award, worth up to $5.2 billion, was a product of bad faith board conduct.

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Meta Accused Of AI Copyright Theft By Entrepreneur Mag

By Theresa Schliep

The owner of Entrepreneur magazine hit Meta Platforms Inc. with the latest suit accusing an artificial intelligence developer of infringing copyrighted material, telling a California federal court Thursday Meta "seeks to build a multibillion-dollar artificial intelligence empire on a foundation of systematic and widespread copyright theft."

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Sinclair Says Disney-YouTube Blackout An Antitrust Problem

By Matthew Perlman

Sinclair's CEO expressed frustration about the ongoing blackout of Disney programming on YouTube TV, saying the dispute between media giants raises potential antitrust concerns because local broadcasters whose stations are affiliated with Disney's ABC broadcast network have no say over whether their content is getting distributed to viewers.

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Brief

Squires Rebuffs Another 21 PTAB Petitions Without Comment

By Theresa Schliep

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires issued a one-page order Thursday rejecting 21 patent challenges from companies including Microsoft, Apple and Google, continuing his new practice of summarily denying such petitions with no explanation.

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Verizon Gets Backup In Fight Against Stewart Terminating IPR

By Adam Lidgett

Patent quality advocacy group Askeladden LLC has backed Verizon's appeal of former acting U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Coke Morgan Stewart's decision to wipe out a Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision in the telecom company's favor invalidating an Omega Patents patent.

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Core Scientific Reaches $14.75M Deal With SPAC Investors

By Emilie Ruscoe

Bankrupt cryptocurrency miner Core Scientific has reached a $14.75 million agreement to settle proposed class action claims brought by an investor in the special purpose acquisition company that made a $4.3 billion deal to bring the miner public via merger.

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NetChoice Gets Judge To Halt Colo. Social Media Warning Law

By Rae Ann Varona

A Colorado federal judge Thursday temporarily blocked a state law that would require social media platforms to provide social media health warnings to minors, saying the law likely didn't meet the highest standard of review for First Amendment challenges.

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PayPal Beats Antitrust Suit Over Merchant Rules Again

By Sydney Price

PayPal has for a second time beat a proposed class action accusing it of illegally boosting online retail prices with restrictive merchant agreements, but the consumers have one more chance to amend.

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Retailer Can't Force Arbitration Of False Pricing Class Claims

By Allison Grande

A California federal judge Thursday rejected a bid by women's fashion brand Maggy London to arbitrate a proposed class action accusing it of advertising "phantom" price discounts on products sold on its website, finding that merely providing a link to the arbitration terms during the checkout process wasn't enough to form a binding agreement. 

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Apple Denies Blame For Gift Card Scammers' Actions

By MJ Koo

Apple told a California federal judge a proposed class action accusing it of selling gift cards that scammers can drain before customers get a chance to use them doesn't identify any design flaw or deceptive statement that would make the tech giant liable for criminals' conduct.

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Software Co. Can Bar Ex-Founder's Money Transfers For Now

By Joyce Hanson

A software investment company has for now won its bid asking a New York federal judge to bar its former chairman, Invisalign inventor Zia Chishti, from trying to transfer his only remaining money out of the United States to avoid a $9 million arbitral award against him.

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Health Cos. Sent Google Private Patient Data, Suit Says

By Kelcey Caulder

A group of Georgia healthcare facilities has been hit with a proposed class action in federal court accusing the providers of disclosing patients' confidential health information to Google without consent through website tracking and data collection tools.

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EchoStar Sells Spectrum Licenses To SpaceX In $2.6B Deal

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Telecommunications company EchoStar, led by White & Case LLP, announced Thursday that it agreed to sell certain licenses to Elon Musk-controlled SpaceX in a $2.6 billion stock deal that builds on a previous agreement they entered into earlier this year.

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AI-Powered Parking Lot Startup Metropolis Raises $1.6B

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Parking payments artificial intelligence company Metropolis Technologies Inc. on Thursday revealed that it reached a $5 billion valuation after raising $1.6 billion of debt and equity fundraising.

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Pair Of Health-Focused Startups Net $423M In Combined IPOs

By Rae Ann Varona

Two startups, spanning the diagnostics and biotechnology sectors, began trading on Thursday after raising a combined $423 million in initial public offerings, guided by three law firms, as more companies continue going public despite a historic government shutdown that has reduced staffing at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

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Deals Rumor Mill

Pfizer Matches Novo's $10B Metsera Bid, And Other Rumors

By Al Barbarino

Pfizer Inc. reportedly raised its offer for Metsera Inc. to match a $10 billion bid from Novo Nordisk Inc., as a bidding war and legal squabble play out between the drugmakers. Among other deal-related rumors, Apollo Global Management Inc. reportedly dropped its bid to take private pizza chain Papa Johns International Inc., and new developments emerged as Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. weighs potential sale options.

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Education Tech Co. Inks $5.1M Data Breach Deal With 3 AGs

By Aaron Keller

Technology company Illuminate Education Inc. will pay a total of $5.1 million to California, Connecticut and New York and strengthen its data security efforts after a breach in late 2021 and early 2022 exposed the information of millions of students to online hackers, the attorneys general of the three states announced Thursday.

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Samourai Wallet Exec Gets 5 Years In Crypto Laundering Case

By Pete Brush

A Manhattan federal judge sentenced the CEO of crypto mixer Samourai Wallet to five years in prison Thursday after he admitted that his business facilitated big-dollar transfers derived from criminal activity including narcotics trafficking and extortion.

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Federal Acquisition Rules Get Measured Makeover

The Trump administration's promised overhaul of the Federal Acquisition Regulation is not a revolution in rules, but a meaningful recalibration of procurement practice that gives contracting officers more space to think, to tailor and to try, say attorneys at Mayer Brown.

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How CGL Policies May Respond To Novel AI Psychosis Claims

As courts and regulators begin to confront the realities of mental and physical injuries allegedly induced by artificial intelligence chatbots, commercial general liability insurers will need to reevaluate policy language, underwriting practices and claims handling protocols to address this emerging risk landscape, say attorneys at Wiley.

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Series

Mindfulness Meditation Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Mindful meditation enables me to drop the ego, and in helping me to keep sight of what’s important, permits me to learn from the other side and become a reliable counselor, says Roy Wyman at Bass Berry.

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Questions To Ask Your Client When Fraud Taints Financing

As elevated risk levels yield fertile conditions for fraud in financing transactions, asking corporate clients the right investigative questions can help create an action plan, bring parties together and help clients successfully survive any scam, says Mark Kirsons at Morgan Lewis.

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Lawmakers Rip Judges Over Anonymous High Court Criticism

By Ryan Boysen

Two Republican lawmakers have asked Chief Justice John Roberts to rein in judges who've anonymously criticized the U.S. Supreme Court's flurry of "shadow docket" rulings, but a full-on investigation appears unlikely.

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Atty Exits Bankruptcy Case Amid Judge Romance Fallout

By Emily Sawicki

The embattled wind-down trustee for defunct life insurance bond seller GWG Holdings in a Houston Chapter 11 case has resigned from the role amid the fallout from her secret romance with a then-bankruptcy judge in the Southern District of Texas.

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Trump Taps Ex-Kansas AG Deputy For DOJ Legal Policy Role

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump has nominated Dan Burrows, a White House official and former chief deputy attorney general of Kansas, to be assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Legal Policy.

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Goldstein Loses Bid To Trim Tax Charges Before Trial

By Jared Foretek

A Maryland federal judge Thursday handed SCOTUSblog co-founder Tom Goldstein a series of losses on pre-trial motions aimed at trimming the 22 federal tax charges he'll face at trial next year, ruling that many of the motions involved factual disputes fit for trial and keeping the government's case intact.

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Tom Girardi's Brother, Bankruptcy Trustee Settle Legal Fees

By Lauren Berg

The brother of disgraced attorney Tom Girardi and the trustee for their now-defunct law firm, Girardi Keese, have reached an agreement resolving John Girardi's claim seeking legal fees for cases he worked on after leaving the firm, the trustee told the California bankruptcy court.

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Atty Ordered Detained After Harassment Of BigLaw Attys

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas federal judge on Thursday ordered U.S. marshals to put an attorney accused of cyberstalking other attorneys at BigLaw firms in jail until trial, saying the attorney has continued to make harassing online posts while on pretrial release and didn't attend mandatory mental health treatment.

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DOJ Gives Comey Seized Materials, Balks At Grand Jury Docs

By Lauren Berg

The U.S. Department of Justice Thursday informed a Virginia federal court that it has handed over to former FBI Director James Comey materials seized under years-old search warrants, but it will challenge a magistrate judge's order to produce grand jury materials.

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Ex-DOJ Staffer Cleared After Tossing Sandwich At CBP Officer

By Elaine Briseño

A D.C. federal jury on Thursday found former U.S. Department of Justice employee Sean Dunn, who threw a Subway sandwich at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer, not guilty of misdemeanor assault.

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2nd Circ. Orders New Look At Trump's Hush Money Case

By Aaron Keller

In a published opinion, the Second Circuit on Thursday ordered a federal district judge to take a fresh look at President Donald Trump's attempt to move his New York hush money conviction to federal court, citing the U.S. Supreme Court's 2024 presidential immunity ruling as grounds for reconsidering the case.

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Miss. Judge, US Atty Nominees Held Up In Committee

By Courtney Bublé

Consideration of judicial and U.S. attorney nominees for Mississippi has stalled in committee over tensions between senators that are unrelated to the nominations, according to the Senate Judiciary Committee chair's office.

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