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July 31, 2024
AT&T Faces New Data Breach Class Action By Non-Customers
AT&T, already facing litigation over a data breach it admitted to in mid-July, was hit Tuesday with another putative class action in Texas federal court, this time by two individuals who alleged the telecom giant disregarded the breach's impact on customers of other companies using AT&T's network.
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July 31, 2024
IRL App Cofounder Hit With SEC Suit Alleging $170M Fraud
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued the cofounder of media app In Real Life in California federal court on Wednesday, alleging a scheme to sell $170 million in company stock to investors while omitting that the app's growth was fueled by bot-generated traffic, and using company credit cards on personal expenses.
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July 31, 2024
Live Nation Says In-House Attys Can't Access DOJ Docs
As it warned would be the case, Live Nation is telling a New York federal judge that it has no in-house counsel that will be able to meet his rules on counsel access to highly confidential material in the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust suit against the live events company.
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July 31, 2024
Discover Could Pay $200M In Card 'Misclassification' Fines
Discover Financial Services told investors on Wednesday that it could face $200 million in potential regulatory penalties over its past "misclassification" of certain credit card accounts, an issue that's also led to class action litigation and other scrutiny for the card giant.
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July 31, 2024
Wells Fargo Let Workers' Prescription Costs Soar, Suit Says
A group of former Wells Fargo employees have accused the banking giant of mismanaging its prescription drug benefits program, costing its Employee Retirement Income Security Act plan and employees millions of dollars in premiums and medication costs, according to a proposed class action in Minnesota federal court.
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July 31, 2024
AI Prior Art Is Either Nothing New Or A Red Flag, USPTO Told
Technology companies, drugmakers and various industry organizations have represented to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that they're torn on how artificial intelligence should be used when determining whether something is patentable over prior art.
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July 31, 2024
Netflix's Culture Created A 'Sexual' Workplace, Suit Says
Netflix has been hit with a wrongful firing suit in California state court by a former employee who accused it of fostering a workplace environment that's "very sexual in nature," requiring that employees engage in one-on-one meetings that are "nothing more than speed dating" and that subjected her to unwanted advances.
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July 31, 2024
NFL Finds Judge Open To Tossing $4.7B Sunday Ticket Award
A California federal judge appeared open Wednesday to the NFL's argument that he should throw out a jury's stunning $4.7 billion antitrust verdict over the league's Sunday Ticket television package, saying he has "trouble" with the jury's damages award and suggesting that jurors may have disregarded his instructions.
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July 31, 2024
Trade Secrets Cases To Watch In 2024: A Midyear Report
A Virginia appellate court reversed a historic $2 billion trade secrets verdict in a closely watched case, and the Seventh Circuit emphasized that the federal trade secrets law applies to conduct abroad, expanding the damages landscape. Here are some of the most notable trade secrets cases to watch for the rest of 2024.
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July 31, 2024
Chancery OK Sought For $2.5M BigBear.ai SPAC Suit Deal
GigCapital Global has agreed to pay $2.5 million to settle a Delaware Chancery Court shareholder class action that sought damages for alleged breaches of fiduciary duty and unjust enrichment in connection with the 2021 go-public merger with artificial intelligence company BigBear.ai.
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July 31, 2024
Senators Aim To Increase Injunctions In Patent Battles
A new bipartisan bill in Congress would make it easier for federal courts to issue injunctions in patent cases, but critics say this would primarily help companies "that do not make any products or provide any services."
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July 31, 2024
Judge Rips 'Stinky' Business In Skiplagged Ticketing Suit
A Texas federal judge gave early wins Wednesday to American Airlines Inc. and Skiplagged Inc. in the airline's suit alleging the booking site used a "loophole" in booking connecting flights to sell unauthorized tickets, but he made sure to note his issues with the ticketing firm's business practices.
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July 31, 2024
Fla. Electric Co. Ex-CEO Gets 4 Years For Privatization Plot
A Jacksonville, Florida, federal judge sentenced a former CEO of the city's electric company to four years in prison after a jury convicted him of fraud conspiracy charges in a multimillion-dollar embezzlement scheme connected to a process to privatize the public utility, prosecutors said Wednesday.
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July 31, 2024
Wyo. Biotech Wants Its Ex-CEO Sanctioned In Docs Fight
The former CEO of a Wyoming-based flavoring and aromas business should be sanctioned for failing to produce any documents in a Connecticut state court lawsuit accusing him of withholding company money and property after refusing to work, the plaintiff said.
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July 31, 2024
Sens. Reveal Bipartisan Trade Bill Streamlining Customs Laws
Two senators from opposite sides of the aisle released a discussion draft and bill Wednesday of their proposed Customs Facilitation Act of 2024, which seeks to modernize U.S. customs laws and streamline processing goods and services crossing U.S. borders.
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July 31, 2024
Jury Instruction Error Kills $21M Verdict Over Noncompete
Three former employees of a consulting group who jumped to a competitor in 2016 were let off the hook for a $21 million jury verdict Wednesday by an intermediate Massachusetts appellate court over a prejudicial error in jury instructions.
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July 31, 2024
Antitrust Group Backs Naval Engineers' No-Poach Case
An advocacy group that supports robust enforcement of antitrust laws has urged the Fourth Circuit to revive a case from former naval engineers accusing military shipbuilders of using secret "no-poach" agreements to avoid competing for workers.
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July 31, 2024
SEC Settles Reg BI Case Against Calif. Broker-Dealer
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Wednesday it has agreed to settle allegations that Western International Securities Inc. sold more than $13 million in high-risk debt securities to those with lower risk profiles, marking the potential end of a first-of-its kind enforcement action claiming violations of Regulation Best Interest.
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July 31, 2024
Chancery Goes With Deal Price In Exchange Co. Appraisal
A venture capital firm that sued for an appraisal of its investment in FairXchange Inc. is entitled to $10.42 per share, the same as the $330 million deal price that Coinbase Global Inc. offered when it bought the securities exchange startup in 2022, a Delaware vice chancellor ruled Tuesday.
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July 31, 2024
Ex-Byju's Exec Faces $10K Daily Contempt Fine
A Delaware bankruptcy judge on Wednesday ordered a former executive of the troubled U.S.-based affiliate of Indian educational technology giant Byju's to pay $10,000 a day in contempt sanctions for failing to provide court-ordered discovery, while his attorneys asked for the court's permission to exit the case.
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July 31, 2024
SEC Asked For Public Tax Reporting By Group With $2.3T
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was asked Wednesday to begin a rulemaking procedure to require public country-by-country reporting of tax by nearly 90 investment funds, labor unions, activists and others with combined assets over $2.3 trillion.
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July 31, 2024
Doc 'Muddle' Stalls Trump Media SPAC Figure's Ouster Suit
Pointing to multiple, conflicting operating agreement versions, a Delaware vice chancellor said she was unable to rule Wednesday on a suit to uphold dismissal of the managing member of a blank check company sponsor for the deal that took former President Donald Trump's social media company public.
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July 31, 2024
CrowdStrike Investors Sue Over Stock Drop After Outage
A group of CrowdStrike investors sued the cybersecurity company Tuesday in Texas federal court, alleging that it misrepresented the measures it was taking to prevent a system crash, which caused its stock price to plummet after the platform experienced a massive outage earlier this month.
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July 31, 2024
Dutch Regulators OK Freshfields-Guided Asset Exchange
A Dutch digital asset exchange is touting itself as the first widely accessible and regulated crypto derivatives exchange in Europe after receiving a license from the government of the Netherlands, aided by the guidance of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, the firm has announced.
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July 31, 2024
Insurer Wants Out Of Yacht Brokerage Group Antitrust Suit
A professional liability insurer for a yacht brokerage trade group has told a Florida federal court that it owes no coverage for an underlying proposed class action accusing the group of engaging in anticompetitive conduct, pointing to an exclusion barring coverage for "standard setting" claims.
Expert Analysis
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3 Infringement Defenses To Consider 10 Years Post-Nautilus
In the 10 years since the U.S. Supreme Court’s influential Nautilus ruling, the spirit of the “amenable to construction” test that the opinion rejected persists with many patent litigators and judges, so patent infringement defense counsel should always consider several key arguments, says John Vandenberg at Klarquist Sparkman.
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9th Circ. COVID 'Cure' Case Shows Perks Of Puffery Defense
The Ninth Circuit's March decision in a case surrounding a company's statements about a potential COVID-19 cure may encourage defendants to assert puffery defenses in securities fraud cases, particularly in those involving optimistic statements about breakthrough drugs that are still untested, say attorneys at Cahill Gordon.
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After Years Of Popularity, PAGA's Fate Is Up In The Air
The last two years held important victories for plaintiff-side employment attorneys in California Private Attorneys General Act litigation at the trial and appellate court levels, but this hotbed of activity will quickly lose steam if voters approve a ballot measure in November to enact the California Fair Pay and Employer Accountability Act, says Paul Sherman at Kabat Chapman.
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FTC Focus: Exploring The Meaning Of Orange Book Letters
The Federal Trade Commission recently announced an expansion of its campaign to promote competition by targeting pharmaceutical manufacturers' improper Orange Book patent listings, but there is a question of whether and how this helps generic entrants, say Colin Kass and David Munkittrick at Proskauer.
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3 Recent Decisions To Note As Climate Litigation Heats Up
Three recent rulings on climate-related issues — from a New York federal court, a New York state court and an international tribunal, respectively — demonstrate both regulators' concern about climate change and the complexity of conflicting regulations in different jurisdictions, say J. Michael Showalter and Robert Middleton at ArentFox Schiff.
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National Security And The Commercial Space Sector: Part 1
The recently published U.S. Department of Defense space strategy represents a recalibration in agency thinking, signaling that the integration of commercial space capabilities has become a necessity and offering guidance for removing structural, procedural and cultural barriers to commercial-sector collaboration, say Jeff Chiow and Skip Smith at Greenberg Traurig.
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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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How Employers, Attorneys Can Respond To Noncompete Ban
As the Federal Trade Commission's recently issued noncompete ban faces ongoing legal challenges, now is a good time for employers to consider whether they want to take a wait-and-see approach before halting use of noncompetes and for practitioners to gain insight into other tools available to protect their clients' business interests, says Jennifer Platzkere Snyder at Dilworth Paxson.
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New TSCA Risk Rule Gives EPA Broad Discretion On Science
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recent final amendments to its framework for evaluating the risks of chemical substances under the Toxic Substances Control Act give it vast discretion over consideration of scientific information, without objective criteria to guide that discretion, say John McGahren and Debra Carfora at Morgan Lewis.
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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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What Updated PLR Procedure May Mean For Stock Spin-Offs
A recently published Internal Revenue Service revenue procedure departs from commonly understood interpretations of the spinoff rules by imposing more stringent standards on companies seeking private letter rulings regarding tax-free stock spinoff and split-off transactions, and may presage regulatory changes that would have the force of law, say attorneys at Skadden.
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Fintech Compliance Amid Regulatory Focus On Sensitive Data
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recent, expansive pursuit of financial services companies using sensitive personal information signals a move into the Federal Trade Commission's territory, and the path forward for fintech and financial service providers involves a balance between innovation and compliance, say attorneys at Wilson Sonsini.
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Opinion
Del. Needs To Urgently Pass Post-Moelis Corporate Law Bill
After the Delaware Chancery Court's decision in West Palm Beach Firefighters' Pension v. Moelis sparked confusion around governance rights, recently proposed amendments to the Delaware General Corporation Law would preserve the state's predictable corporate governance system, says Lawrence Hamermesh at Widener University Delaware Law School.
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Cos. Must Stay On Alert With Joint Employer Rule In Flux
While employers may breathe a sigh of relief at recent events blocking the National Labor Relations Board's proposed rule that would make it easier for two entities to be deemed joint employers, the rule is not yet dead, say attorneys at Day Pitney.
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Key Insurance Considerations After $725M Benzene Verdict
The recent massive benzene verdict in Gill v. Exxon Mobil will certainly trigger insurance questions — and likely a new wave of benzene suits — so potential defendants should study Radiator Specialty v. Arrowood Indemnity, the only state high court decision regarding benzene claim coverage, says Jonathan Hardin at Perkins Coie.