Meta Celebrates 'Abuse' Of Atty-Client Privilege, Judge Told

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge ordered Meta on Tuesday to rereview privilege designations on 300 documents in social media addiction litigation, after plaintiffs' lawyers cited a "culture of privilege abuse" epitomized by Instagram swag hats embroidered with "a/c priv" — the shorthand used to log withheld documents.

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Seyfarth Says Data Breach Exposed Social Security Numbers

By Hailey Konnath

Seyfarth Shaw LLP has disclosed a recent data breach that exposed the names and Social Security numbers of at least 300 individuals, according to notices filed with the Texas and California attorneys general.

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Tyra Banks Says Netflix Misquoted Her Pact Like It Edited Doc

By Craig Clough

Tyra Banks has told a California federal court that Netflix and the producers of an "America's Next Top Model" docuseries used the same misleading tactic in their dismissal motion that they allegedly used onscreen: removing key material from the middle of statements to change their meaning.

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Anthropic Says It 'Never Promised' Fixed Claude Usage Rates

By Lauren Berg

Claude subscribers accusing Anthropic of misleadingly marketing the usage offered in pricey top-tier versions of the artificial intelligence tool are ignoring what the company's platform promises actually state, Anthropic told a California federal judge Tuesday, arguing the case should be tossed as a "failed effort to accuse Anthropic of deception."

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9th Circ. Wipes Out $140M Class Verdict Against CenturyLink

By Craig Clough

The Ninth Circuit overturned a $140 million class verdict against CenturyLink on Tuesday, holding that the company's reasonable interpretation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act shielded it from liability for willful violations when it pulled consumers' credit reports during online orders for internet service.

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SF Sues To Block Early Access To Trump's Truth Social Posts

By Dorothy Atkins

San Francisco's city attorney and others sued President Donald Trump's social media platform Truth Social in California state court Monday, asking a judge to block its "unprecedented" scheme that grants customers who pay $100,000 per month early access to the president's and other high-level officials' social media posts.

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California Powerhouse: Keker

By Dorothy Atkins

Keker Van Nest & Peters LLP partners helped Google and Netflix beat major patent litigation in the past year, while representing OpenAI and other tech companies in precedent-setting IP cases, and fostering a strong pro bono practice, earning the boutique firm a spot on the list of Law360 2026 California Powerhouses.

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Blue States Expand Fight Over Trump Offshore Wind Buyouts

By Keith Goldberg

Democratic-led states on Tuesday stepped up their fight against the Trump administration's buyouts of U.S. offshore wind leases, filing a trio of lawsuits that seek to undo payments to developers for abandoning projects on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

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Feds' Latest Permit For Calif. Pipeline Challenged At 9th Circ.

By Rachel Riley

Environmental groups are urging the Ninth Circuit to review Trump administration's recent decision approving operations of two coastal California oil pipeline segments, including one that was shut down for years following a 2015 oil spill, saying on Tuesday that the new permit waives key safety requirements.

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Spray Foam-Maker Says Calif. Is Forcing It To Fund Research

By Rae Ann Varona

Texas-based spray foam insulation manufacturer Quadrant Performance Materials has sued the California Department of Toxic Substances Control in federal court over an order the manufacturer alleges unconstitutionally conditions its ability to sell in the Golden State on subsidizing research and advocacy it does not agree with.

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CVS Beats Malpractice Suit Over Pharmacy Mix-Up

By Y. Peter Kang

A California appeals court on Tuesday upheld the dismissal of a suit accusing a CVS pharmacy of negligently giving the wrong prescription medication to a woman, which allegedly caused years of seizures, citing flawed expert testimony from plaintiff's expert.

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Amazon Says Ring Cam Privacy Suit Misconstrues State Laws

By Rachel Riley

Amazon urged a Washington federal judge Monday to throw out a proposed class action claiming its Ring doorbell security cameras illegally gathered facial recognition data of neighbors and visitors, contending the plaintiffs seek "to rewrite states' privacy laws" and invent new private rights of action.

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Rack Room Shoe Shoppers Can't Get Cert. In Privacy Suit

By Gina Kim

A California federal judge on Monday refused to certify six putative classes of Rack Room Shoes website users who say it permitted Meta and other third parties to intercept their personal information in violation of state and federal privacy laws, noting the lack of evidence that their information was intercepted.

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Judge Sinks Patent Judgments Against Chilisin In Cyntec Suit

By Adam Lidgett

A California federal judge has nullified judgments against Chilisin Electronics Corp. in a patent case from Cyntec Co. over Cyntec's failure to disclose an agreement to license a pair of its patents to Apple, while also agreeing to sanction Cyntec's counsel.

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3rd Time's A Charm As Netflix Gets PTAB To Ax DivX Patent

By Adam Lidgett

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has ruled that Netflix was able to show that all the claims in a DivX streaming patent were invalid, following two previous decisions to the contrary and two trips to the Federal Circuit.

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Alphabet's Bid To Pare Ad Tech Suit Stalls Over Discovery

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal judge rejected Alphabet's bid for partial summary judgment, saying the Google parent must first comply with a class of investors' discovery requests prompted by the company's motion in litigation claiming CEO Sundar Pichai made a false statement to Congress about whether the company's ad auctions favor Facebook.

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Flyers Tell 9th Circ. Alaska-Hawaiian Merger Eroding Service

By Linda Chiem

Airline customers have told the Ninth Circuit that Alaska Airlines' 2024 acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines eroded consumer choice on numerous routes, and that a district court improperly dismissed their antitrust lawsuit with premature and flawed findings that cannot be allowed to stand.

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Juul Buyers Defend Antitrust Classes At 9th Circ.

By Matthew Perlman

Juul buyers are defending the certification of several classes in a case over tobacco giant Altria's past investment in the e-cigarette company, telling the Ninth Circuit it does not matter if they purchased different quantities on different terms or live in different states.

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Vape Purchasers Say MDL Complaint Shows Price-Fix Scheme

By Mike Curley

Direct purchasers of vaping products are defending their amended complaint in multidistrict litigation alleging that a Chinese vape company conspired with its distributors to fix prices, saying new allegations in their latest complaint show there was more at work in the arrangement than "ordinary" business dealings.

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Foley & Lardner Steers Cognex On $500M RealSense Buy

By Al Barbarino

Industrial machine-vision company Cognex Corp. said Tuesday it has agreed to acquire RealSense for about $500 million, expanding its business into robotic perception and adding exposure to the growing market for 3D sensing technology.

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RI Judge Vacates Feds' Noncitizen Benefit Restrictions

By Tom Lotshaw

New York and other states applauded a Rhode Island federal judge's finding that the Trump administration flouted rulemaking requirements when it reinterpreted a 30-year-old welfare reform bill to try to subject a slew of federally funded benefit programs to immigration status verification requirements.

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Dispensary's Tax Deduction Properly Nixed, IRS Tells 9th Circ.

By Zak Kostro

The U.S. Tax Court correctly ruled that a San Francisco marijuana dispensary's expenses found to be tied to trafficking in controlled substances aren't deductible, the IRS told the Ninth Circuit, saying such a deduction shouldn't be allowed in determining an amount to settle the business's $3 million tax debt.

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The Preemption Gap In Prediction Market High Court Petitions

The Supreme Court is considering three certiorari petitions following a split in prediction market litigation between the Third and Ninth circuits, but one of the petitions would not allow the court to reach the express preemption question, which would leave the dispute half-resolved, says Jordan Garman at Withers.

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Hims & Hers Suit Spotlights Health Data-Sharing Privacy Risks

Regulators' complaint against telehealth company Hims & Hers alleging deceptive practices serves as a reminder that the privacy principles developed under consumer protection laws and predating omnibus statutes remain in force, and sensitive data governance continues to be a crucial component of compliance, say attorneys at Venable.

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4 Paths To AI Safety Coordination Amid Antitrust Debate

Frontier artificial intelligence companies have more room for collective safety work than the debate over an antitrust waiver suggests, with several existing avenues providing different degrees of protection and oversight, says Evan Miller at V&E.

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Mich. Fed. Judge On 1-Year Leave Over Drunken Driving Case

By Jack Karp

U.S. District Judge Thomas L. Ludington is taking a one-year paid leave of absence from the bench following his misdemeanor conviction for drunken driving, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan announced Tuesday.

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Womble Bond Can't Quit Dutch Client With TM Trial Looming

By Hayley Fowler

Womble Bond Dickinson can't withdraw from a trademark feud that's dragged on for more than five years between U.S. and Dutch software companies, a North Carolina federal judge ruled, saying the firm's exit at this late stage "would be completely disruptive."

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