Texas AG Says Sony, Other TV-Makers 'Watching You Back'

By Rae Ann Varona

The Texas attorney general Monday sued five television manufacturers, including Sony, Samsung and LG, claiming in new lawsuits filed in Texas state court that the companies "are watching you back" and unlawfully harvesting and selling viewers' data.

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Analysis

The Top Patent Decisions Of 2025

By Dani Kass

The Federal Circuit decided its first en banc utility patent case in years and expanded who can use the U.S. International Trade Commission, while both the appeals court and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office took on the eligibility of AI patents. Here's a look at the top patent decisions of 2025.

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Social Media MDL Judge Warns Attys Against Flooding Docket

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal judge overseeing multidistrict litigation over claims that social media is addictive warned counsel for the plaintiffs Monday that she'd sanction them if their 17,000 pages of exhibits they plan to submit in response to defendants' summary judgment motions "[litter] the docket with irrelevant documents."

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USPTO Says 'Settled Expectations' Denials Sink Google Case

By Ryan Davis

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has told the Federal Circuit that the court's recent rejection of other petitions challenging the office's policy of denying patent reviews based on the owner's "settled expectations" means a case by Google on the same issue must also fail.

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Microsoft Seeks To Exit ChatGPT Users' OpenAI Antitrust Suit

By Rachel Riley

Microsoft has slammed a proposed class action accusing the company of bullying OpenAI into a cloud computing deal as devoid of fact and economic sense in two motions filed in California federal court, saying the plaintiffs, ChatGPT subscribers, are trying to dodge an arbitration clause in the chatbot developer's user terms.

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FTC Joined By 21 States In Accusing Uber Of Deception

By Rae Ann Varona

Twenty-one states joined the Federal Trade Commission on Monday in a California federal lawsuit accusing Uber of enrolling consumers into its paid subscription service without consent and keeping them in a "loop" of obstacles that deter or prevent cancellations.

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Roomba Maker IRobot Hits Ch. 11 To Hand Control To Lenders

By Emily Lever

IRobot Corp., the maker of the Roomba robot vacuums, has filed for Chapter 11 protection in Delaware bankruptcy court with over $250 million in debt and a plan to hand control of its business to its secured creditor.

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USPTO Replaces Denver Office With Center In Montana

By Adam Lidgett

Montana has been picked by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to be the first state to oversee community outreach in the area formerly serviced by the now-shuttered Rocky Mountain Regional Outreach Office in Denver.

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FCC Moves Forward On Multilingual Wireless Alerts

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission will soon make effective a rule rolling out multilingual alert templates for cellphones during public emergencies following pressure from Democrats on Capitol Hill over alleged delays in the effort.

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Nix FCC's Public Interest Standard, Free Market Group Says

By Christopher Cole

Lawmakers need to consider scrapping the longstanding public interest standard rather than seeking to hold broadcasters to a measure from the Communications Act, a free-market think tank argued Monday.

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Brief

PTAB Creates New Prehearing Conference For AIA Reviews

By Elliot Weld

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has rolled out a change to its trial practice guide that will create a new prehearing conference 15 days prior to oral hearings under the America Invents Act in cases implemented by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office director.

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Brief

FCC Sides With Nexstar In Ohio Retransmission Dispute

By Nadia Dreid

The Federal Communications Commission has dismissed a complaint by Cincinnati Bell against TV station chain Nexstar for allegedly failing to negotiate in good faith for program carriage rights to WDTN, the Nexstar-owned NBC affiliate serving Dayton, Ohio.

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11th Circ. Rejects ESOP Managers' Individual Arbitration Push

By Kellie Mejdrich

The Eleventh Circuit on Monday backed a court's decision to keep a lawsuit in Georgia federal court alleging a legal technology company's employee stock ownership plan shares were undervalued in a plan termination, holding that an arbitration provision was unenforceable because it blocked rights under federal benefits law.

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DouYu Investors Get Final OK For $2.25M Settlement

By Emilie Ruscoe

Investors in Chinese livestreaming platform DouYu International Holdings Ltd. have gotten final approval for their $2.25 million deal ending claims the company took risky measures to gin up user engagement, causing share prices to fall after Chinese authorities cracked down on the company over gambling and pornography on the platform.

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Smartwatch Giants Sued Over Fall Detection Patents

By Ryan Davis

A company that makes medical alert watches for the elderly has sued Apple, Samsung, Google and Garmin in federal court and the U.S. International Trade Commission, alleging that the fall detection features in their smartwatches infringe two patents.

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Telecom Says It Was Upcharged 864 Times For Fiber Install

By Nadia Dreid

An Iowa-based telecom has accused a Lumen unit of trying to balloon a nearly $300,000 job to $257 million by forcing it to pay per foot for each of the 864 "hair-width glass fiber strands" in a single cable that will be pulled through 50-plus miles of tunnel under Phoenix.

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Europe Seen As Top Tech M&A Prospect For 2026

By Al Barbarino

Europe has quietly become tech dealmakers' top hunting ground, as global tech mergers and acquisitions values skyrocketed more than 72% in the first three quarters of the year, according to a new global survey from Morrison Foerster LLP.

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Self-Driving Tech Co. Luminar Hits Ch. 11 With Plans To Sell

By Clara Geoghegan

Luminar Technologies Inc., which develops lidar technology used in autonomous vehicles, filed for bankruptcy protection in Texas on Monday with at least $500 million in debt and plans to sell its assets.

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Md. Residents, Advocates Fight DOJ's Bid For Voters' Data

By Allison Grande

Three Maryland voters and a pair of civil rights watchdog groups are the latest to push to participate in the U.S. Department of Justice's lawsuit seeking to force the state to hand over voters' sensitive personal information, arguing the request threatens residents' privacy and could enable voter disenfranchisement. 

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Coalition Slams SSA For Feeding Data Into DHS Database

By Allison Grande

More than a dozen consumer advocacy groups are calling on the Social Security Administration to immediately halt its sharing of personal information with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for citizenship and immigration verification, arguing that the agency can't seek "retroactive authority" for its allegedly "sweeping violation of privacy and voting rights."

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Pure DC Leases Entirety Of €1B Amsterdam Data Center

By Grace Dixon

Pure Data Centres Group announced Monday that it will lease the entirety of a €1 billion ($1.17 billion) data center campus under construction in Amsterdam to a single client, which it says is the largest standalone data center lease signed in Europe this year.

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A Look At The Wave Of 2025 Email Marketing Suits In Wash.

Since the Washington Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Old Navy in April, more than 30 lawsuits have alleged that a broad range of retailers across industries sent emails that violate the Washington Commercial Electronic Mail Act, but retailers are unlikely to find clear answers yet, says Gonzalo Mon at Kelley Drye.

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The AI Arbitrator: What It Is, What It Isn't And Where It's Going

Though not a silver bullet, the American Arbitration Association-International Centre for Dispute Resolution's recently launched artificial intelligence arbitrator for construction disputes offers a pragmatic template that heralds several near-term shifts in the use of generative AI in arbitration, say attorneys at Troutman.

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The Tricky Issues Underscoring Prediction Market Regulation

Prediction markets are not merely testing the boundaries of commodities law — they are challenging the conventional divisions between gambling regulation and financial market oversight, and in doing so, may reshape both, says Braeden Anderson at Gesmer Updegrove.

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Riding The Changing Winds For AI Innovations At The USPTO

As recent U.S. Patent and Trademark Office moves reshape how artificial intelligence inventions will be examined and put them on firmer eligibility footing, practitioners need to consider how this shift is both an opportunity and a challenge, say Ryan Phelan at Marshall Gerstein and attorney Mark Campagna.

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Series

The Law Firm Merger Diaries: Integrating Practice Groups

Enacting unified leadership and consistent client service standards ensures law firm practice groups connect and collaborate around shared goals, turning a law firm merger into a platform for growth rather than a period of disruption, says Brian Catlett at Fennemore Craig.

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Former DLA Piper Associate Alleges Ex-Partner Raped Her

By Lynn LaRowe

A former Boston-based DLA Piper associate on Monday launched a state lawsuit alleging she was raped at the firm's Delaware office by a former partner purportedly known for heavy drinking and inappropriate workplace conduct toward female subordinates.

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Bonus Spotlight

Elsberg Baker Exceeds, Cohen Ziffer Matches Atty Bonuses

By Tracey Read

Trial boutique Elsberg Baker & Maruri PLLC announced Monday that its associates will earn up to $226,250 in extra cash this year.

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'Hardworking' 9th Circ. Senior Judge Sandra Ikuta Dies At 71

By Hailey Konnath

Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Sandra Segal Ikuta of the Ninth Circuit, who has been semi-retired since early November, died on Dec. 7 at the age of 71, exactly one month after assuming senior status, according to the Federal Judicial Center.

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ABA Flags AI Fears: Making Attys 'Worse At Their Jobs'

By Steven Lerner

The erosion of skills for junior associates, deepfakes as evidence in court and the lack of technical knowledge in law firms were among the top fears and challenges listed by the American Bar Association in a new report about artificial intelligence in the legal profession.

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Ex-US Attys Say Pardons, Loyalty Demands Hurt Rule Of Law

By Adrian Cruz

A bipartisan group of former U.S. attorneys spoke publicly Monday on their concerns regarding the direction the U.S. justice system has taken since the start of the second Trump administration and the potential risks that may pose to the rule of law.

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Arbitration Ruling Stands In Morgan & Morgan Class Action

By Chart Riggall

A Georgia federal judge said Monday she won't backtrack on her decision to send a malpractice lawsuit from a former client of Morgan & Morgan PA to arbitration, once again rejecting his arguments that his proposed class claims were exempt from an agreement to arbitrate disputes.

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Atty Seeks To Block Law Banning Fee-Sharing With ABS Firms

By Emily Sawicki

The attorney challenging a California law that blocks fee-sharing with out-of-state law firms owned by nonlawyers has petitioned for enforcement of the law to be suspended before it is set to go into effect on Jan. 1.

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Judge Won't Boot Bondi-Appointed Prosecutor In LA

By Emily Sawicki

A federal judge has refused to reconsider his ruling disqualifying Bill Essayli from holding the role of U.S. attorney but allowing him to serve as the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, finding that Essayli's appointment by U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi is valid.

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Judge Willing To Take 'Heat' For Blocking ICE Arrest, Jury Told

By Nate Beck

A Wisconsin judge was willing to "take the heat" for using a staff hallway to usher an unauthorized immigrant out of her courtroom, a federal jury heard Monday, as a defense attorney argued she can't be found guilty by association just because someone in her courtroom tried to flee immigration agents.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jeff Montgomery

Litigation in Delaware's Court of Chancery sprawled from a dispute over control of banana plantations along Africa's Congo River to a fight over the late musician Prince's estate last week. Along the way, a court ruling rejected a motion for a quick decision favoring Blue Bell Creameries director and officer calls for liability releases in a tainted ice cream saga that dates to 2015.

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