IP Lawyer Aims To Toss Amazon's Claims Of Trademark Abuse

By Ben Adlin

A U.S. intellectual property lawyer living in Japan asked a Washington federal court on Tuesday to throw out Amazon.com Inc.'s lawsuit accusing him of conspiring with a Chinese company to use his legal credentials to circumvent a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rule requiring that foreign trademark applicants be represented by U.S. counsel.

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Farm To Pay $1M To Settle Claims It Favored Foreign Workers

By Ben Adlin

Washington state apple and hops producer Cornerstone Ranches and associated companies will pay $1 million to resolve claims by Attorney General Nick Brown that the farm fired local agricultural workers in favor of hiring temporary, foreign employees, according to a consent decree announced by the attorney general's office on Tuesday.

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DHS Ordered To Restore $233M Grants To 'Sanctuary' States

By Chris Villani

A Rhode Island federal judge ordered the Trump administration to reinstate $233 million in funding to immigration "sanctuary jurisdictions," finding the U.S. Department of Homeland Security had illegally terminated the grants for political reasons.

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OCC Wants To Preempt State Mortgage Escrow Interest Laws

By Hailey Konnath

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has unveiled a pair of proposals aiming to, among other things, preempt state laws requiring banks it regulates to make interest payments for escrow accounts connected to certain types of residential mortgage loans, calling it a "critical tool for reducing unnecessary burden."

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Federal Agencies Urge 9th Circ. To Lift Layoff Freeze

By Braden Campbell

The U.S. government urged the Ninth Circuit to stay a court order barring agencies from laying off workers through next month under the shutdown deal, saying the court intruded on federal labor panels' territory and the funding resolution didn't bar layoffs agencies had in the works.

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Shuttered Network Co. Gets One More Chance Against AWS

By Bryan Koenig

A shuttered network optimization startup has one more chance to fix market definition and other failings in its antitrust case accusing Amazon Web Services Inc. of deliberately sabotaging its work to drive it out of business, after a Washington federal judge gutted most of the suit Monday.

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Feature

State Telecom Roundup: AGs Step Up War On Robocalls

By Nadia Dreid

Americans have been pummeled by more than 2.5 billion robocalls every month this year, and stanching the onslaught has become one of the more bipartisan issues in national politics. Federal and state authorities also agree on the magnitude of the issue, and the nation's attorneys general are teaming up for battle across the country at the state level.

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Justices Urged To Review 'Bike+' TM Suit Against Peloton

By Ivan Moreno

A fitness company with a cycling app called Bike+ has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Ninth Circuit decision dismissing its trademark infringement claims against Peloton, saying the appeals court erred in assessing the likelihood of confusion and should have let a jury decide the matter.

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Amazon Escapes Suit Over Conn. Construction Site Nooses

By Aaron Keller

A Connecticut federal judge has dismissed a racial discrimination lawsuit against Amazon by five electricians who said they found eight nooses displayed in a warehouse being built, finding the online retailer did not have enough control over the premises while it was under construction to face possible liability.

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Full 9th Circ. Won't Hear Ex-Theranos Exec Balwani's Appeal

By Dorothy Atkins

A Ninth Circuit panel rejected ex-Theranos executive Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani's en banc hearing request to reconsider his 12-count conviction and nearly 13-year prison sentence, while also amending its opinion to clarify that there was "ample evidence" to convict Balwani, even if prosecutors failed to correct a witness's testimony.

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Intent Not Needed To Boost ID Theft Sentence, 9th Circ. Says

By Emilie Ruscoe

Federal prosecutors need not show that a defendant intended to commit fraud with stolen materials that have authentication features, such as driver's licenses, for courts to apply a sentencing enhancement for possessing those materials, the Ninth Circuit has held.

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3 Key Trends For The Legal Industry In 2025

By Tracey Read

Executive orders, updated office attendance policies and private equity interests were three top issues that shaped the industry this year.

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ITC Atty's 1st Kids' Book Imagines A Santa-Less Christmas

By Dani Kass

Michelle Klancnik, assistant general counsel at the U.S. International Trade Commission, spends her days looking into when imports should be banned for violating intellectual property rights, but outside work, she​'s focused on one big question: What would happen if Santa took a year off?

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Ex-Oura CEO Pushes To DQ Quinn Emanuel In Firing Suit

By Emily Sawicki

The onetime CEO of fitness tracker company Oura Health is pushing to disqualify Quinn Emanuel from representing the smart ring maker in his compensation suit, telling a San Francisco federal judge that he shared confidential information when he consulted with the firm about his claims prior to filing suit.

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NYC Bar Issues Opinion On AI Use For Recording Client Calls

By Tracey Read

The New York City Bar Association's Professional Ethics Committee has issued an opinion addressing how the New York Rules of Professional Conduct impacts the use of artificial intelligence tools to record, transcribe and create summaries of conversations in audio and video calls between attorneys and their clients.

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Ex-DOJ Employees Fight Gov't Bid To Toss Their Firing Suit

By Bonnie Eslinger

An ex-assistant U.S. attorney and two other former Justice Department employees urged a Washington, D.C., federal court on Tuesday to deny the government's motion to dismiss their lawsuit claiming they were unlawfully fired, arguing an internal government employment board isn't appropriate for their cases and is controlled by President Donald Trump.

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Top Delaware Chancery Cases Of 2025: A Year-End Report

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court closed out 2025 amid a period of institutional uncertainty, as landmark cases addressing fiduciary duty, executive compensation, board oversight and the limits of equitable power unfolded against the backdrop of sweeping legislative changes to the Delaware General Corporation Law.

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Hub Hires: Cooley, Morgan Lewis, Nixon Peabody

By Chris Villani

The end of the year marked the beginning of new chapters for plenty of Boston attorneys, as Cooley added more than 30 professionals to its life sciences team, Morgan Lewis snagged an intellectual property partner, and Nixon Peabody beefed up its cybersecurity practice.

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