9th Circ. Partially Lifts Block On Calif. Kids' Privacy Law

By Allison Grande

The Ninth Circuit on Thursday scrapped part of an injunction halting a groundbreaking California law requiring social media platforms to bolster privacy protections for children, finding that the tech trade group behind the lawsuit wasn't likely to succeed on its First Amendment challenge to the statute's coverage definition and age estimation mandate.

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Musk Banker Tells Jury Twitter Held Up Takeover Deal

By Bonnie Eslinger

An ex-Morgan Stanley banker who advised Elon Musk on his $44 billion Twitter acquisition testified Thursday in a trial seeking billions for investors claiming Musk tanked the social media company's stock to disrupt the takeover, saying Twitter was the one that obstructed the deal.

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Social Media 'Lions' Hunted Plaintiff Like Gazelle, Jury Told

By Craig Clough

The plaintiff's attorney in a bellwether trial accusing Meta Platforms Inc. and Google LLC of harming children's mental health encouraged a California jury during closing arguments Thursday not to buy the defendants' focus on his client's difficult childhood, saying it only weakened her to their social media "addiction machine" like a vulnerable gazelle being hunted by lions.

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Meta To Face Sanctions Bid Over Addiction MDL Privilege Log

By Dorothy Atkins

School district plaintiffs and attorneys general have told a California federal judge they plan to seek sanctions against Meta Platforms Inc. in the social media addiction multidistrict litigation for the tech giant's "extremely belated production" of over 73,841 documents downgraded off privilege logs, months after fact discovery closed.

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US Chamber Report Warns Of Risks To IP Protection

By Adam Lidgett

While the U.S. has ranked at the top of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's list measuring how countries worldwide are enforcing intellectual property laws, the group said problems with free trade agreements and efforts to reduce pharmaceutical prices could cause problems on the horizon domestically.

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Analysis

IP Notebook: TM Use Fight, Popeye, Kurt Cobain

By Ivan Moreno

This edition of emerging copyright and trademark cases and trends looks at an appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court that questions the definition of trademark "use in commerce" under the Lanham Act and a battle over the use of "Popeye" as a trademark.

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USPTO Clarifies Design Patent Eligibility For Computer Icons

By Theresa Schliep

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued guidance Thursday saying computer-generated digital designs depicted in holograms, virtual reality and the like are eligible for design patents, noting that displaying images on a screen is no longer strictly necessary for patent protection.

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Beef Up Telecom Networks To Power AI, Tech Experts Say

By Christopher Cole

Sprawling artificial intelligence data centers will require larger shares of U.S. energy consumption in the coming years, but telecom networks also need more capacity and resilience if the U.S. wants to fuel an AI boom, a think tank said Thursday.

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Piracy Tops List Of Worries In Next-Generation TV Changeover

By Christopher Cole

Broadcasters have a lot on their plates as they move to the next TV standard, but chief among their worries will be protecting content from piracy, a security group formed by the major networks told the Federal Communications Commission.

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EU Antitrust Officials Targeting 'Entire AI Stack'

By Bryan Koenig

The European Union's top antitrust official said Thursday that bloc enforcers are casting a wide net as they look at the ways artificial intelligence companies may try to anticompetitively boost themselves over rivals, including underlying training models and needed power and cloud computing infrastructure.

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Justices Told Fed. Circ.'s 1-Line Orders Flout Loper Bright

By Elliot Weld

A lighting company has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take a look at a Federal Circuit decision that affirmed the invalidation of various claims in its LED patents, saying the circuit's one-line orders without explaining the court's reasoning violate the justices' decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo.

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CBP Clears Redesigned Innoscience Chips After ITC Case

By Adam Lidgett

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has found that modified versions of Innoscience's semiconductor chips no longer infringe an Efficient Power Conversion patent, after the U.S. International Trade Commission blocked infringing imports.

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Meta Expert Says NM's Case Is About Normal Behavior

By Cara Salvatore

A psychology expert witness for Meta told a New Mexico jury on Thursday that the state's claims of social media mental health harm rely on pathologizing normal behavior as addiction-like.

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DraftKings Wants Emails Under Wraps In Voided Bet Suit

By Alex Lawson

DraftKings has asked an Indiana federal judge to redact its emails with a betting technology company while it looks to fend off a class action from bettors alleging that they were unfairly denied payouts on successful NBA wagers.

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UiPath Execs Hid Risks, Ditched $394M+ In Stock, Suit Alleges

By Jarek Rutz

A UiPath Inc. shareholder has filed a derivative lawsuit in Delaware Chancery Court accusing the company's top executives and directors of misleading investors about slowing growth and intensifying competition in the robotic process automation market while insiders sold hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of stock.

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Lenovo Faces Class Suit Over Early-Morning Marketing Texts

By Zak Kostro

Technology company Lenovo unlawfully sent marketing text messages early in the morning to potentially thousands of people and might owe up to $1,500 in damages for each unwanted solicitation, according to a putative class action in California federal court.

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Valve Faces 'Loot Box' Gambling Suits After NY AG's Action

By Ben Adlin

On the heels of the New York attorney general's accusations that Washington-based Valve Corp. promotes illegal gambling through its popular video game franchises, gamers filed two putative class actions in Seattle federal court similarly targeting the entertainment giant's use of "loot boxes."

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PayPal Execs Hit With Derivative Suit Over 2027 Forecast

By Sydney Price

PayPal executives and directors were hit with a shareholder's derivative suit accusing them of damaging the company with comments about the strong growth trajectory for its branded checkout segment that the investor said turned out to be untrue.

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Cogent CEO's Stock Pledges Spark Derivative Suit

By Emilie Ruscoe

The CEO and board members of internet service provider Cogent Communications Holdings Inc. face shareholder derivative claims the CEO improperly collateralized his commercial real estate portfolio with his stake in the company, causing trading prices to plummet when he was forced to sell off those shares amid financial distress.

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Icahn Outbid By $7B Caesars Offer, And Other Rumors

By Al Barbarino

Billionaire Tilman Fertitta is in exclusive negotiations to buy Caesars Entertainment for roughly $7 billion, superseding a competing all-cash offer from Carl Icahn's Icahn Enterprises, and Papa John's received a bid from Qatari-backed investment firm Irth Capital Management that could value the pizza chain at $1.5 billion. 

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SoftBank-Backed PayPay Downshifts To $880M IPO

By Grace Dixon

SoftBank Group Corp.-backed Japanese mobile payment service PayPay Corp. began trading on the Nasdaq on Thursday at $16 a share, below the range it had announced in early March as the war in Iran roils the market.

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4 Firms Guide Canadian Satellite Provider's $300M US IPO

By Isaac Monterose

MDA Space Ltd., a Canadian manufacturer of communications satellites, debuted Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange after it priced a $300 million initial public offering, guided by Skadden, Goodmans, Simpson Thacher and Osler Hoskin.

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Celsius Accuses Fireblocks Of 'Staggering' Crypto Negligence

By Dorothy Atkins

The Chapter 11 plan administrator for defunct cryptocurrency platform Celsius Network urged a New York bankruptcy judge Wednesday to order Fireblocks to respond to discovery demands over the cybersecurity company's alleged "staggering negligence" that led to the destruction of cryptographic keys and the loss of Ethereum tokens worth tens of millions of dollars.

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Ex-Judge Testifies About Alleged Forgeries In Amazon Case

By Kelcey Caulder

The former chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia testified Thursday about the alleged forging of court documents, signatures and court stamps in a criminal case against a woman accused of defrauding Amazon out of $9.4 million through fraudulent invoices. 

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Brief

Democrats Vow To Oversee DOJ's Reported Binance Inquiry

By Sarah Jarvis

Three Democratic U.S. senators said Thursday that they will oversee a reported investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice into potential Iran sanctions violations carried out on the cryptocurrency exchange Binance.

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GAO Says DOD Should Better Assess Contractors' Cyber Risk

By Ganesh Setty

The U.S. Government Accountability Office said on Thursday that the U.S. Department of Defense has not done enough to examine whether its hundreds of thousands of private contractors are properly following cybersecurity requirements.

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Partnership Says Data Centers Should Not Trigger $24M In Tax

By Anna Scott Farrell

A partnership's acquisition of data centers and improvements to a damaged building should not have triggered $24 million in additional taxes, it told the U.S. Tax Court in challenging adjustments by the Internal Revenue Service.

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Series

Podcasting Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Podcasting has changed how I ask questions and connect with people, sharpening my ability to listen without interrupting or prejudging, and bringing me closer to what law is meant to be: a human profession grounded in understanding, judgment and trust, says Donna DiMaggio Berger at Becker.

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'Swinging Dicks' Dissent Stirs Uproar Across 9th Circ. Bench

By Jeff Overley

A raunchy dissent in litigation over transgender spa patrons prompted dozens of Ninth Circuit judges to denounce the "vulgar barroom talk" of a colleague, who returned fire by ridiculing his peers for adopting the "fastidious sensibilities of a Victorian nun."

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Atty Who Sought Trump Pardons Accused Of Extorting Client

By Stewart Bishop

A South Carolina attorney and lobbyist who has billed himself as a fixer for prisoners seeking clemency from President Donald Trump made an appearance in Brooklyn federal court Saturday on newly unsealed charges that he tried to extort a client for over half a million dollars.

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Life Sciences Partner Hiring Up Amid Regulatory Scrutiny

By Aebra Coe

Large law firms' partner additions in life sciences rose slightly across five geographic markets between 2024 and 2025, with several factors including increased regulatory scrutiny driving new additions, according to an analysis by intelligence platform Macrae+.

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Judge Denies US Atty's Recusal Call Over Conflict Concerns

By Rose Krebs

Calling it "procedurally improper, untimely, and lacking merit," a federal judge on Friday nixed a demand from Minnesota's U.S. attorney for the judge to step aside from a habeas case related to the government's immigration enforcement operation since his wife is pursuing litigation over the crackdown as the state's solicitor general.

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NY Republicans Say Chief State Judge Crossed Ethics Line

By Emily Sawicki

Republican legislators on the judiciary committees of the New York state Senate and Assembly have brought a misconduct complaint against New York State Chief Judge Rowan Wilson over statements the judge made at a symposium in support of proposed legislation to reform minimum sentencing guidelines that they believed violated judicial conduct rules on impartiality.

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Immigration Watchdog Sues DOJ Over Secret Court Hearings

By Adrian Cruz

A Minnesota-based human rights nonprofit has sued the U.S. Department of Justice in D.C. federal court over its decision to restrict public access to proceedings at St. Paul's Fort Snelling Immigration Court.

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Ariz. Judicial Council OKs ABS Rules Despite Bar Concerns

By Rachel Rippetoe

Arizona's Judicial Council approved some new restrictions on out-of-state operations for non-attorney-owned law firms allowed to operate under the state's licensure program, despite the Arizona state bar's concerns that the new rules aren't stringent enough.

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Reed Smith Is Ignoring Expanded Back Pay Window, Atty Says

By George Woolston

A former Reed Smith LLP attorney who claimed she was unlawfully underpaid told a New Jersey state court on Friday that the firm's bid to limit the window of time for which she's seeking damages is an attempt to roll the case back in time.

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Q&A

She Has A Point: Finnegan's Cora Holt

By Theresa Schliep

Cora Holt, a partner at Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner LLP in Washington, D.C., has a "do your job" attitude and "getting the stuff done" approach to litigation that earned plaudits from Kassie Helm, co-chair of Dechert LLP, who praised Holt for her work as part of a Law360 series celebrating women litigators.

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Q&A

NC Judge Brings Military Roots, Not Politics, To Biz Bench

By Abigail Harrison

The North Carolina Business Court added decade-long Superior Court Judge Graham Shirley to its bench this month. In an interview, Judge Shirley told Law360 how time as an attorney in the U.S. military helped make him a thorough and punctual jurist, and expanded on his interest in keeping partisan politics out of the judiciary. 

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Esquire's $348M Signature Deal Bolsters Litigation Platform

By Al Barbarino

Esquire Financial Holdings Inc. has agreed to buy the parent company of Signature Bank in a roughly $348.4 million deal that Esquire said will help expand its Chicago-area commercial banking presence and support growth of its litigation banking platform.

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GSA Pans Giving 'Unelected Judiciary' Sway Over Property

By Courtney Bublé

The federal government's landlord told the federal judiciary it is "ill equipped" to have direct authority to maintain its buildings.

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Roundup

UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Laura Stewart Liberty

In London, Estée Lauder accused Jo Malone's founder of intellectual property infringement, the wife of an Iranian businessman linked to a £75 million fraud sued several Iranian oil companies, HSBC sued U.S. property tycoon Michael Fuchs, and Charles Russell Speechlys brought a claim against a United Arab Emirates company it once represented in an international arbitration.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP, Latham & Watkins LLP and Clement & Murphy PLLC lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the Federal Circuit vacated an over $600 million judgment involving the maker of Norton antivirus software for infringing Columbia University patents.

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In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

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