Analysis

Tesla Verdict Could Embolden Plaintiffs With Similar Claims

By Carolina Bolado

The $329 million verdict handed down by jurors in Miami on Friday over a fatal Florida Keys crash is the first to find Tesla's autopilot defective and will likely embolden other plaintiffs with similar claims to take them to trial, personal injury attorneys told Law360.

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Epic Games Defeats Bid To Upend Jury Patent Verdict

By Rae Ann Varona

A Seattle federal judge Tuesday denied Utherverse Gaming LLC's bid to undo a jury finding from a verdict favoring Epic Games, rejecting Utherverse's contention that a jury leaned on insufficient evidence when rebuffing a claim in its patent for playing back recorded experiences in a virtual world.

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Zazzle Nabs Win After Judge Cuts Font Copyright Claim

By Elliot Weld

A California federal judge has tossed a copyright infringement claim against online retailer Zazzle over a set of fonts used on its site after previously allowing the claim to stand, finding her earlier order misstated Zazzle's argument.

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Microsoft Reaches Injunction Deal With Canadian Firm

By Elliot Weld

Microsoft Corp. and Canadian business The Search People Enterprises Ltd. have agreed to end a dispute after reaching a deal in which the latter company is barred from infringing intellectual property related to Microsoft's software.

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Eckert Seamans Hit With Class Suit Over Data Breach

By P.J. D'Annunzio

Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott LLC has been hit with a data privacy class action in Pennsylvania federal court on behalf of about 9,400 Wheeling Jesuit University alumni the firm once represented, alleging the firm failed to protect their personal information when its computer network was breached.

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Feds Float Long-Awaited Drone Rule For Beyond Line Of Sight

By Linda Chiem

The Trump administration on Tuesday proposed a long-awaited rule that would allow commercial drones to be flown beyond an operator's visual line of sight, paving the way for drones to be used for longer-range purposes like fighting wildfires and inspecting infrastructure.

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Rising Star: Dunn Isaacson's Kyle Smith

By MJ Koo

Kyle Smith of Dunn Isaacson Rhee LLP helped Uber Technologies fend off a New York City rule that would have limited the time ride-share drivers could spend on Manhattan streets without passengers, earning him a spot among the technology law practitioners under 40 honored by Law360 as Rising Stars.

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FCC Moves Ahead On Controversial Broadband Inquiry

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission said Tuesday it has launched a plan to study the deployment of broadband services across the U.S. that consumer groups have attacked as failing to account for wide gaps in adoption and affordability.

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NTIA Says States Can't Regulate Rates In Broadband Program

By Nadia Dreid

States can't make companies promise to provide low-cost options in order to get access to federal broadband infrastructure funds, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration has announced, saying that to do so would be illegal rate regulation.

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FCC Asked To Reconsider Paramount-Skydance Deal

By Nadia Dreid

The Federal Communications Commission needs to rethink its decision to greenlight Skydance Media's controversial $8 billion acquisition of Paramount Global, a third-party firm has told the agency, arguing it never addressed "substantial evidence in the record" that Paramount was talking to President Donald Trump on the sidelines.

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NAB Says Streamers' Success Makes 39% Cap Outdated

By Christopher Cole

The broadcast industry's top lobbying group said marketplace changes call for the Federal Communications Commission to lift the 39% cap on national TV audience share.

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Fed. Circ. Partly Revives Solar Panel Safety Patent Challenge

By Adam Lidgett

The Federal Circuit on Tuesday said the Patent Trial and Appeal Board has to take another look at one of renewable energy industry trade group SunSpec Alliance's arguments in its challenge to claims of a patent on safeguards for solar panels.

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USPTO Urges Fed. Circ. To End Motorola's Fintiv Appeal

By Adam Lidgett

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office stood by its acting leader's decision to shut down Motorola's challenge to various Stellar patents at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, saying all of Motorola's appellate arguments at the Federal Circuit should be rejected.

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Retailer To Face Wiretap, Hacking Claims In Data Sharing Row

By Allison Grande

A California federal judge has trimmed a proposed class action accusing footwear retailer Rack Room Shoes Inc. of allowing Meta and other third parties to intercept website visitors' personal information, axing a pair of consumer protection claims while permitting revamped federal wiretap and state anti-hacking allegations to proceed. 

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Apple Looks To Nix Consumer Antitrust Case, Decertify Class

By Matthew Perlman

Apple told a California federal court that antitrust claims from a class of more than 185 million consumers targeting its App Store policies should not go to trial because the allegations focus on legitimate product design and business decisions, not anti-competitive conduct.

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Law, Medical School Orgs Face Application Fee Antitrust Suits

By Gina Kim

The Law School Admission Council and the Association of American Medical Colleges have each been hit with a proposed class action in Pennsylvania and D.C. federal courts, respectively, by candidates who said the nonprofits conspired with their member schools to charge excessive application fees that have been fixed at the same price regardless of the school.

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Google Ad Exchange Rival Follows DOJ With Antitrust Suit

By Bryan Koenig

A Google rival entered the fray over advertising placement technology with a Virginia federal court complaint explicitly following in the wake of the Justice Department's successful lawsuit that led to Google being liable for illegally monopolizing two targeted ad tech markets.

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Tesla Hit With Suit Over Autonomous Vehicle Issues

By Spencer Brewer

A Tesla Inc. investor has launched a proposed securities class action against the company in Texas federal court, claiming it overhyped its autonomous driving vehicles despite flaws that led to regulatory and legal blowback, including a recent $329 million verdict involving the Autopilot feature.

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Ga. Poultry Co. Says Insurer Must Cover Data Breach Suits

By Hope Patti

A poultry producer said it is entitled to coverage for underlying class actions stemming from a data breach that compromised its employees' personal information, telling a Georgia federal court that its insurer has wrongfully denied coverage based on what the insurer alleges was inadequate notice.

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Kirkland, Gibson Dunn Assist On $1.3B Zebra-Elo Merger

By Al Barbarino

Workflow technology company Zebra Technologies Corp. said Tuesday it will acquire Crestview Partners-backed Elo Touch Solutions Inc. for $1.3 billion in cash, in a deal guided by Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP.

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Binance Founder Seeks Exit From FTX $1.76B Clawback Suit

By Sydney Price

Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao asked a Delaware bankruptcy judge to dismiss him from a clawback suit filed by the estate of bankrupt crypto exchange FTX seeking to recover $1.76 billion it says FTX illegally transferred before its collapse two years ago, saying the transaction was outside the court's jurisdiction.

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Amazon, DC AG Seek To Delay Antitrust Trial To May 2027

By Jared Foretek

The D.C. Attorney General's Office and Amazon are seeking more time to complete fact discovery in the city's antitrust suit against the online retail giant, asking for the potential trial in the case to be moved from January 2027 to May of that year.

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Texas Man Gets Real Sentence For AI-Generated Child Porn

By Elizabeth Daley

A Texas man has been sentenced by a Florida federal judge to up to two years in prison for using an artificial intelligence app to generate child pornography, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida announced on Tuesday.

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Lottery.com SPAC Exec Wants Info From California Fraud Case

By Pete Brush

A Manhattan federal judge said Tuesday that he will weigh a request by a special purpose acquisition company CEO accused of fraud in a merger involving Lottery.com Inc. to have New York prosecutors provide discovery from a California criminal case.

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Feds Charge 2 With Shipping Nvidia AI Chips To China

By Bonnie Eslinger

Two Chinese nationals residing in California were charged with using a company they founded to unlawfully export microchips used in AI applications worth "tens of millions of dollars" to China in violation of the Export Control Reform Act, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday.

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Brief

DOJ, Google Get OK For 2-Week Ad Tech Remedies Trial

By Nadia Dreid

When Google faces off against the U.S. Department of Justice at trial next month to determine what remedy the tech behemoth should provide for illegally maintaining a monopoly over advertising technology services, they'll each get five or six court days to make their case.

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Unpacking Notable Details From FTC's 'AI Washing' Cases

The Federal Trade Commission has brought many cases involving allegedly deceptive artificial intelligence claims over the past couple of years, illustrating overlooked aspects of AI washing generally and a few new types of AI marketing claims that may line up in regulatory crosshairs down the road, says Michael Atleson at DLA Piper.

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Opinion

Privacy Bill Must Be Amended To Protect Small Businesses

While a bill recently passed by the California Senate would exempt a company's use of legally compliant website advertising and tracking technologies from the California Invasion of Privacy Act, it must be amended to adequately protect small businesses, say attorneys at Thompson Hine.

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Opinion

Calif. Must Amend Trade Secret Civil Procedure

A California procedural law that effectively shields trade secret defendants from having to return company materials until the plaintiff can craft detailed requests must be amended to recognize that property recovery and trade secret analysis are distinct issues, says Matthew Miller at Hanson Bridgett.

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Opinion

The Legal Education Status Quo Is No Longer Tenable

As underscored by the fallout from California’s February bar exam, legal education and licensure are tethered to outdated systems, and the industry must implement several key reforms to remain relevant and responsive to 21st century legal needs, says Matthew Nehmer at The Colleges of Law.

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Judge Mulls Sanctioning Hagens Berman In Thalidomide Suits

By Lauren Berg

The Pennsylvania federal judge presiding over dozens of product liability actions against manufacturers of the morning sickness drug thalidomide Tuesday ordered Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP to explain why it shouldn't be sanctioned for allegedly conducting "grossly inadequate" pre-suit inquiries, obstructing discovery and doctoring evidence.

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Analysis

A Free Exercise 'Blueprint' In Colo. Abortion Reversal Order

By Mark Payne

A Colorado federal judge's decision to allow medication abortion "reversals" on free exercise grounds could serve as a model for other lawsuits meant to legitimize a practice that is outside the standard practice of medicine.

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Law Profs Urge 11th Circ. To Toss Judge-Shopping Sanctions

By Madison Arnold

A group of seven law school professors is urging the Eleventh Circuit to toss a sanctions ruling against three attorneys for judge shopping, arguing that federal law does not forbid the practice and citing the "potentially chilling effect the order will have on counsel, especially those involved in pro bono representation."

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OptumRx Urges Panel To DQ Motley Rice In LA Opioid Suit

By Craig Clough

OptumRx told a California appellate panel Tuesday that Motley Rice should be disqualified from representing Los Angeles County in a lawsuit alleging it colluded with drugmakers to fuel the opioid crisis, saying the firm violated state law by using confidential information obtained in the case in other lawsuits it's handling against Optum.

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Feature

Meet FDA Chief Counsel Sean Keveney

By Dan McKay

The new top attorney at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, described as a "tremendous technical lawyer," rose through the ranks as a federal prosecutor before helping lead President Donald Trump's confrontation with elite universities this year.

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5th Circ. Says Texas Voter ID Law Is Legally Sound

By Spencer Brewer

A Fifth Circuit panel upheld a Texas law that requires voters to provide an identification number when voting by mail, finding the law complies with the Civil Rights Act and that the state designed it to combat mail-in ballot fraud.

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Ex-USPTO Heads, Judges Oppose Anti-Patent Thicket Bill

By Elliot Weld

A pro-innovation group composed of former U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officials and former Federal Circuit judges on Tuesday asked Congress to oppose a bill introduced last month that would limit so-called patent thickets used by pharmaceutical companies to restrict the production of generic counterparts to their drugs.

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Analysis

Medicaid Cuts May Worsen Incarceration-Linked Death Risks

By Hannah Albarazi

A new public health investigation reveals an association between incarceration and elevated risk of early death, not only for people who have been behind bars but for entire communities. Experts caution that impending disinvestment in Medicaid could worsen outcomes in vulnerable populations.

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Ghislaine Maxwell Slams Feds' Bid To Unseal Grand Jury Docs

By Lauren Berg

Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for trafficking children for late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, urged a New York federal judge Tuesday to deny the government's bid to unseal grand jury transcripts, saying release of the sealed materials could jeopardize the appeal of her 2021 conviction.

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Ex-Patent Examiner Fights USPTO Exclusion At High Court

By Adam Lidgett

A former U.S. Patent and Trademark Office examiner wants the U.S. Supreme Court to review his exclusion from practicing before the agency, saying the justices should look at issues relating to a suspension he received and also federal civil rights protections.

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Approach The Bench: Justice Wecht On Judicial Campaigns

By Cara Bayles and Steven Trader

If running for judicial office often requires walking the line of being a sitting jurist and a politician, Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice David Wecht is no stranger to that tightrope.

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