Musk Won't Appeal Deposition Order In SEC's Twitter Case

By Hailey Konnath

Elon Musk has agreed to waive his right to appeal a California federal judge's order forcing him to testify again in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's suit over his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, now known as X, according to a stipulation filed Thursday.

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DOJ's Kanter Says AI Cos. Could Exploit Creators

By Matthew Perlman

The head of the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division, Jonathan Kanter, said Thursday that a lack of competition between artificial intelligence companies could allow them to exploit writers, artists and other content creators.

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Jury Awards Electric Jet Startup $72M In Boeing IP Case

By Greg Lamm

A Washington federal jury said Thursday that The Boeing Co. should pay Zunum Aero Inc. $72 million for misappropriating the electric jet startup's trade secrets and souring a deal with a potential investor, in an award partially subject to trebling under state law.

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Autonomy VP Declines To Take Stand As Fraud Trial Nears End

By Bonnie Eslinger

Testimony wrapped Thursday in a California federal criminal trial over claims that former Autonomy CEO Michael Lynch and finance vice president Stephen Chamberlain duped HP into overpaying billions for the British tech company, as Chamberlain opted not to testify in his own defense after Lynch stepped off the witness stand.

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Apple Tells Fed. Circ. Albright Set Transfer Bar Too High

By Adam Lidgett

Apple has asked the Federal Circuit to overrule U.S. District Judge Alan Albright in Texas after he refused to transfer patent litigation against it to the Northern District of California, saying the decision flouted Fifth Circuit precedent.

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Netflix Fails To Show Inventor, Funder Violated Injunction

By Dani Kass

A California federal judge has said Netflix couldn't prove a Finnish inventor violated an injunction tied to his concealment of certain legal funds, or that a litigation fund manager the inventor worked with needs to face claims tied to that concealment.

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VR Fitness App Ends $353M Antitrust Row With Meta, For Now

By Gina Kim

An app developer that sued Meta, Mark Zuckerberg and others seeking $353 million for alleged antitrust violations after the social media platform reneged on a deal to launch the plaintiff's virtual reality fitness app voluntarily dropped his case, for now, according to a notice filed Wednesday in California federal court.

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StubHub Owes TicketManager $16M For Breach, Jury Says

By Craig Clough

A Los Angeles jury has found following a monthlong trial that StubHub owes more than $16 million for breaching its contract with Spotlight Ticket Management, which does business as TicketManager, and interfering in the company's relationship with American Express.

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FTC, SEC Urged To Probe UnitedHealth's 'Negligent' Security

By Allison Grande

The chair of the U.S. Senate finance committee on Thursday pressed the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to hold UnitedHealth Group and its top executives liable for "numerous" cybersecurity failings that fueled a debilitating cyberattack on its Change Healthcare unit. 

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FCC Lifts Freeze On TV Stations Changing Channels

By Nadia Dreid

Class A and low-power television stations will now be able to change the channel with the Federal Communications Commission's blessing, something the agency has announced it is willing to give under the right circumstances for the first time in 14 years.

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FCC Subsidy Reforms Could Be Drafted On Capitol Hill Soon

By Christopher Cole

A working group on Capitol Hill studying a potential overhaul of the Federal Communications Commission's subsidy regime could produce draft reforms soon, but a big stumbling block will be how to expand contributions to the fund, telecom experts say.

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Gov't Broadband Rules Must Not Deter Providers, NTIA Told

By Christopher Cole

Small to medium-size internet providers could shy away from the federal government's massive broadband expansion program if rules requiring low-cost internet service end up being too heavy-handed, industry groups told the U.S. Department of Commerce.

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Full 9th Circ. Won't Rehear Immigration Attys' Privacy Row

By Britain Eakin

The full Ninth Circuit on Thursday declined a request from a filmmaker and two immigration attorneys to rehear a panel decision finding that a purportedly covert government surveillance program tracking journalists and advocates tied to a migrant caravan didn't harm them.

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SEC Cites High Court CFPB Ruling In Market Surveillance Suit

By Carolina Bolado

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has told the Eleventh Circuit that a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision finding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding structure is constitutional should sink a challenge from broker-dealer firms seeking to escape paying for a market surveillance tool.

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Voice Software Co. Gets Bank Customer Privacy Suit Trimmed

By Katryna Perera

A California federal judge has trimmed a consolidated action against Nuance Communications over its voice-detection software that was used by JPMorgan Chase Bank NA, saying that the class members failed to show how Nuance supposedly used the software to assess the truth or falsity of a person's statements by analyzing their vocal characteristics. 

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Travelers Loses Dismissal Bid In BIPA Coverage Dispute

By Jennifer Mandato

A New York federal judge declined to trim a software company's lawsuit seeking coverage from a Travelers unit for underlying claims that the company violated the Illinois Biometric Privacy Act, finding the company's declaratory relief and bad faith claims were not duplicative of a breach of contract claim.

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Divided PTAB Sinks Wildseed Mobile IP In Wins For Google

By Andrew Karpan

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has issued a pair of rulings wiping out claims in two patents asserted by a litigation outfit targeting the way that ads work on YouTube, but the decisions included a rare dissent-in-part from an administrative judge who disagreed on how a 2005 Sony patent application fit into the dispute.

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Apple Gets PTAB To Ax Patent Claims On Waking Up Phone

By Adam Lidgett

Apple has successfully challenged an inventor's patent covering a way for a mobile phone to show information by a user just looking at it, with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board finding several claims were invalid as obvious.

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ITC Judge Clears Amazon In Video Tech Co.'s Patent Case

By Adam Lidgett

A U.S. International Trade Commission judge has found that Amazon hasn't broken federal patent trade law by importing streaming products, dealing a setback to video technology company DivX LLC in its infringement case.

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Only One Landlord Allowed To Duck DC RealPage Suit

By Nadia Dreid

One of several landlords that stands accused by the District of Columbia of using property management platform RealPage to fix the price of rentals has managed to convince a D.C. Superior Court judge to kibosh the claims against the real estate investment trust permanently.

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Albright Urged To Up Flypsi's $12M Trial Win Against Google

By Hannah Albarazi

 A Texas jury verdict requiring Google to pay $12 million in damages to software developer Flypsi Inc. for patent infringement is insufficient, Flypsi has told U.S. District Judge Alan Albright, asking the court to order a damages retrial or award it ongoing royalties and require Google to pay attorney fees.

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State Farm Says Atari Seeks Windfall With IP Suit Over Ad

By Ivan Moreno

State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. has urged a Texas federal judge to dismiss a copyright complaint from Atari Interactive Inc., saying the insurer did nothing wrong when it briefly used part of the 1980s arcade game Crystal Castles in a commercial to attract younger customers.

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Healthcare Data Co. Says Blocked Access Could Kill Patients

By Matthew Perlman

A healthcare data company asked a Maryland federal court on Thursday to stop a rival from blocking access to nursing home patient records it said are needed to identify potential complications that could lead to hospitalization or death.

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ExamSoft, Bar Examiners Face $2M Software Crash Claims

By Aaron Keller

A 68-year-old former paralegal who hopes to become a pro bono attorney has sued the Connecticut Bar Examining Committee and ubiquitous bar exam test-taking software vendor ExamSoft Worldwide Inc. for $2 million, claiming three software crashes stymied her ability to take a exam offered remotely because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Target's Surveillance System Violates BIPA, Shoppers Say

By Gina Kim

Target faces a proposed class action in Illinois federal court filed Thursday accusing it of gathering shoppers' biometric data through surveillance systems and other sophisticated technology in its campaign to prevent organized retail theft, while failing to advise it is doing so or obtaining their permission.

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Solar Tech Co. Faces Investor Suit Over Slow '23 Growth

By Sydney Price

Energy technology company Enphase Energy Inc. has been hit with a proposed shareholder class action alleging the company and its executives failed to disclose slow growth trends, including a decrease in battery shipments, resulting in share price declines when the information was revealed to investors.

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Veradigm Execs Sued Over Company's Nasdaq Delisting

By Katryna Perera

Current and former members of healthcare technology company Veradigm Inc.'s top brass were sued in Illinois federal court by shareholders alleging that the company suffered stock drops following a string of financial reporting blunders starting in 2021, which caused it to overstate roughly $40 million in revenue before facing a delisting notice from Nasdaq.

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Morgan Stanley Helped Musk's Stealth Twitter Buys, Suit Says​​​​​​​

By Hailey Konnath

Elon Musk and his wealth manager tapped Morgan Stanley to help the Tesla CEO quietly acquire billions of dollars in Twitter securities without tipping off the market before he announced plans to take over the social media company, according to an amended complaint filed in New York federal court.

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Deals Rumor Mill: Aramco, Double Eagle, WeWork

By Tom Zanki

Saudi Arabia is planning a stock sale of state-backed oil giant Armaco that could exceed $10 billion, Double Eagle hopes to unload a Permian-based oil producer for $6.5 billion, and Adam Neumman has ended his bid to reacquire WeWork. Here, Law360 breaks down these and other notable deal rumors from the past week.

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Grocery Automation Biz Files Ch. 11 With $13M In Debt

By Rick Archer

E-grocery automation system maker Takeoff Technologies filed for Chapter 11 protection Thursday in Delaware bankruptcy court with nearly $13 million in debt, saying that, after eight years in business, it had been unable to generate the cash flow it needed to turn a profit.

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ACLU Says Aon Hiring Tools Discriminate On Race, Disability

By Grace Elletson

The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation said Thursday it has filed a complaint against Aon Consulting Inc. with the Federal Trade Commission alleging it is using deceptive marketing tactics to push hiring technology that the company claims is bias free in contradiction of research showing otherwise.

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USDA Should Redo $44M Software Order Again, GAO Says

By Madeline Lyskawa

The Government Accountability Office publicly released a decision on Thursday in support of a company's protest of a $44.2 million Department of Agriculture task order for software support for conservation-related programs, concluding the order was not properly issued.

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Alston & Bird Adds IP Litigator From BakerHostetler In LA

By James Mills

Alston & Bird LLP is boosting its intellectual property team, bringing in a BakerHostetler IP litigator as a partner in its Los Angeles office.

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CFPB's Expanding Scope Evident In Coding Bootcamp Fine

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recent penalty against a for-profit coding bootcamp that misrepresented its tuition financing plans is a sign that the bureau is seeking to wield its supervisory and enforcement powers in more industries that offer consumer financing, say Jason McElroy and Brandon Sherman at Saul Ewing.

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BF Borgers Clients Should Review Compliance, Liability

After the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recently announced enforcement proceedings against audit firm BF Borgers for fabricating audit documentation for hundreds of public companies, those companies will need to follow special procedures for disclosure and reporting — and may need to prepare for litigation from the plaintiffs bar, say attorneys at Debevoise.

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Perspectives

Trauma-Informed Legal Approaches For Pro Bono Attorneys

As National Trauma Awareness Month ends, pro bono attorneys should nevertheless continue to acknowledge the mental and physical effects of trauma, allowing them to better represent clients, and protect themselves from compassion fatigue and burnout, say Katherine Cronin at Stinson and Katharine Manning at Blackbird.

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Orrick Leads List Of Top Law Firms For Women, Diversity

By Aebra Coe

Talent strategies firm Seramount released its latest list of the 45 best law firms for women and diversity this week, with the 2024 cohort of winners showing strides over previous years in representation, advancement and benefits for lawyers who are women or from other underrepresented groups.

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Houston Judge's Vast Display Reflects 25 Years On Bench

By Catherine Marfin

Along the hallways leading to U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison's Houston courtroom hang hundreds of notes, photos, thank-you cards and other correspondence, serving as a kind of interactive scrapbook of Judge Ellison's 25 years on the bench.

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Analysis

In Rarity, 1 Party's Judges Gain 100% Control Of Circuit Bench

By Jeff Overley

At the First Circuit, the judges' robes are all black, but the judges are all blue. It's a new and unusual instance of one political party's judicial picks controlling each active seat on a federal appeals court, and the Democratic dominance could prove magnetic for ideologically charged litigation.

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Orrick's $8M Deal To End Data Breach Claims Nears Prelim OK

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal judge indicated Friday that she'll preliminarily approve Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP's $8 million deal to end putative class claims over a 2023 data breach that purportedly exposed personal information for 638,000 individuals, but said the "very broad" scope of the settlement's release "raised my eyebrows."

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Smith Gambrell Faces Slimmed Data Breach Suit

By Emily Sawicki

A California federal judge has trimmed the claims a proposed class of data breach victims brought against international law firm Smith Gambrell & Russell LLP, leaving the firm to face claims of negligence, invasion of privacy and violation of the California Unfair Competition Law.

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Analysis

Del. Chancellor Questions 'Rush' To Amend Corporation Law

By Jeff Montgomery

Weeks before the Delaware State Bar Association sent state lawmakers a draft bill explicitly allowing corporations to broadly cede some governance rights to chosen stockholders, Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick of Delaware Chancery Court made an unprecedented, direct appeal to think twice.

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Trump Condemns NY Trial As Verdict Echoes In DC

By Rachel Scharf

A day after his conviction on 34 felony counts, former president Donald Trump on Friday attacked the Manhattan jury's verdict in a lengthy speech that mischaracterized multiple elements of the case as the decision reverberated through Washington, D.C.

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Trump's New York Prosecutors Called To House Hearing

By Courtney Bublé

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chair of the House Judiciary Committee and its Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, demanded on Friday that Manhattan prosecutors appear for a hearing on June 13 on the prosecution of former President Donald Trump, who was convicted on Thursday of 34 felonies.

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Disbarring Giuliani Would 'Protect The Public,' DC Panel Says

By Alison Knezevich

A Washington, D.C., attorney ethics panel agreed Friday that Rudy Giuliani's role in former President Donald Trump's attempt to overturn Pennsylvania's presidential election in 2020 amounted to misconduct "of the utmost seriousness," and that disbarring him would "protect the public, the courts, and the integrity of the legal profession."

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Texas Judge Opts Not To Recuse And Tosses Chamber Suit

By Emily Sawicki

A Texas federal judge has thrown out the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's suit seeking to block the Federal Trade Commission from implementing a ban on noncompete clauses because a different plaintiff was first to file, adding he declined to recuse himself because no companies in his stock portfolio were parties in the case.

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Illinois Strengthens Atty Ethics Rules For Harassment, Bias

By Celeste Bott

The Illinois Supreme Court has announced that the state's professional conduct rules for attorneys have been amended to deem the act of engaging in harassment or discrimination as professional misconduct, and not just in the event a court or administrative agency finds that a lawyer violated a law prohibiting such actions.

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DOJ Looks To End A Legacy Of Bias In Sex Assault Cases

By Hannah Albarazi

The U.S. Department of Justice says that legal fallacies and misogynistic stereotypes often lead prosecutors to decline to charge alleged perpetrators of sexual violence, but new guidance from the department is pushing prosecutors to give more credence to victims and see that their claims are more thoroughly investigated.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Brewer Attorneys & Counselors, the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation and attorneys Eugene Volokh and Alan Morrison lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the National Rifle Association can proceed with certain claims in the gun rights group's lawsuit against a former New York state official.

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The Top In-House Hires Of May

By Michele Gorman

Legal department hires during the last full month of spring included high-profile appointments at Southwest, Hormel and UnitedHealth. Here, Law360 Pulse looks at some of the top in-house announcements from May.

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Off The Bench: NCAA Transfers Freed, Atty Plays Cards Right

By David Steele

In this week's Off the Bench, the NCAA agrees to more historic rule changes while experts examine its post-House settlement future, and a patent lawyer looks back at his transformation into a poker champion.

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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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