Del. Courts Gavel Out 2024 With Fox, Opioid Case Rulings

By Jeff Montgomery

2024 went out with a flurry of rulings in Delaware's corporate and commercial law courts, while the new year saw a Chancery veteran become that court's first senior magistrate. Here's a quick roundup of the latest news in First State courts.

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Tesla Investors Appeal Chancery Rulings In Musk Pay Suit

By Jeff Montgomery

Three Florida-based Tesla Inc. stockholders have moved ahead with Delaware Supreme Court appeals aimed at Court of Chancery decisions that short-circuited the electric car company's 10-year, $56 billion compensation plan for Elon Musk and granted a $345 million cash award for class attorneys who won the decision.

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Terraform Founder Arraigned In NY, Denies $40B Crypto Fraud

By Pete Brush

Terraform Labs creator Do Kwon appeared Thursday before a Manhattan federal judge to deny charges that he orchestrated a $40 billion fraud on customers and investors who backed the cryptocurrency platform based on promises that it had real-world viability.

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Feds Ink $1B Supply Deal With Constellation Nuke Plants

By Dorothy Atkins

The U.S. General Services Administration said Thursday it has cut the largest energy procurement deal in its history after purchasing 10 million megawatt-hours of electricity from Baltimore-based Constellation New Energy Inc. in combined energy contracts totaling more than $1 billion.

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Celsius To Challenge $445M Claim Denial In FTX Bankruptcy

By Rick Archer

Celsius Network's post-Chapter 11 plan counsel filed an appeal on Thursday of a Delaware bankruptcy judge's denial of the cryptocurrency network's amended $444.6 million claim against fellow bankrupt crypto platform FTX.

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Bankrupt Pa. City Must Remit Casino Revenue, County Argues

By P.J. D'Annunzio

Pennsylvania's Delaware County has asked the Third Circuit to undo a bankruptcy court's ruling that the financially ailing city of Chester is excused from paying the county revenue from gambling taxes because of the city's Chapter 9 proceedings, despite an ordinance mandating that the county get a cut of the money.

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'Crush-Resistant' OxyContin Patents Fail At Fed. Circ.

By Andrew Karpan

In one of its last major moves in 2024, the Federal Circuit decided to reject an appeal from the bankrupt maker of OxyContin, which is trying to use patent laws to block the release of a competing "crush-resistant" generic painkiller.

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Brief

Comcast Foe Fails To Resurrect Patent Case Over Xfinity App

By Andrew Karpan

The full Federal Circuit on Thursday denied a request to look at a decision overturning a Delaware federal jury's infringement verdict in favor of a small California company that has been suing Comcast over patent claims for the past five years.

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3rd Circ. Again Remands Honduran Woman's Removal Order

By Rae Ann Varona

The Third Circuit on Thursday again remanded a Honduran woman's removal order challenge back to the Board of Immigration Appeals, saying the agency made mistakes when considering whether she rebutted a presumption that an immigration hearing notice was delivered to her.

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Boston Dynamics Settles Robot IP Suit With Rival

By Adam Lidgett

Boston Dynamics Inc. has agreed to a deal to end a patent infringement lawsuit it launched against competitor Ghost Robotics Corp. in Delaware federal court over artificial intelligence technology tested by the U.S. Air Force.

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Meta Seeks To Pause Social Media MDL Coverage Fight

By Hope Patti

Meta has urged a California federal court to find that its insurers cannot yet litigate to attempt to avoid covering thousands of pending lawsuits accusing the social media giant of deliberately designing its platforms to be addictive to adolescents, arguing that the coverage issues overlap with issues in the underlying cases.

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How Changes In State Gift Card Laws May Affect Cos. In 2025

2024 state legislative movements around the escheatment of unused gift card balances and consumer fraud protections should prompt issuers to consider whether changes in company domicile or blanket cash-back policies are needed in the new year, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.

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Fed. Circ. In December: A Patent Prosecution History Lesson

Despite relying on two rock-solid principles of patent law, DDR lost its Federal Circuit case against Priceline.com, highlighting how a change in the scope of the invention from the provisional to the nonprovisional application can affect the court's analysis of how a skilled artisan would understand claim terms after reading the prosecution history, say attorneys at Knobbe Martens.

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Series

Playing Esports Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Competing in a global esports tournament at Wimbledon last year not only fulfilled my childhood dream, but also sharpened skills that are essential to my day job, including strategic thinking, confidence and networking, says AJ Schuyler at Jackson Lewis.

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Bonus Spotlight

Holland & Knight Matches BigLaw Bonuses In Major Markets

By Anna Sanders

Holland & Knight LLP announced associates in major U.S. markets will receive year-end and special bonuses matching those given by other BigLaw firms, with attorneys working in regional offices making smaller figures, according to a report.

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Biden Honors Del. Jurist For Role In Brown V. Board Ruling

By Jeff Montgomery

President Joe Biden issued a top civilian award, posthumously, to former Chancellor Collins J. Seitz of Delaware Chancery Court, father of the state's current chief justice, for his role in decisions woven into the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling.

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Clyde & Co. Merges With Dallas Insurance Boutique

By Emily Sawicki

Clyde & Co. LLP has announced a merger with Dallas boutique Tillman Batchelor LLP, expanding the global law firm's insurance capabilities in Texas amid its ongoing growth in North America.

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Taft Hired BCLP Comms Director Ahead Of Merger

By Andrea Keckley

Once its merger with Sherman & Howard LLC became effective at the start of the new year, Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP announced Thursday it had hired Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner's former director of communications.

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AI Chatbots Will Transform Legal Scholarship, AI Chatbot Says

By Matt Perez

Generative artificial intelligence like OpenAI's ChatGPT software will redefine legal scholarship, according to a new paper primarily produced by the chatbot.

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States Debate High Court Solution To Election Map Catch-22

By Katie Buehler

Louisiana has implored the U.S. Supreme Court to decisively resolve litigation over its federal election map in one of three ways, suggesting the justices could toss the case on standing, decide the merits, or, preferably, find that federal courts have no role in refereeing redistricting disputes.

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Ex-GMU Prof.'s Accusers Say He Can't Prove $108M Damages

By Aebra Coe

Former FTC Commissioner Joshua Wright allegedly failed to provide information to back his $108 million defamation damages claim and then walked out of a deposition, according to a Virginia court filing by two former students whom Wright sued over their statements to Law360.

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Atty Wants Free Speech Suit Over Tenn. Court Rule Kept Alive

By Jack Karp

A free speech challenge to a Middle District of Tennessee rule barring attorneys from making "any extrajudicial statements" about cases in the district should be allowed to move forward since the court is not entitled to sovereign immunity, according to the Nashville civil rights lawyer behind the suit.

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Giuliani Says Memory Faulty In Meandering NY Contempt Row

By Pete Brush

A Manhattan federal judge mulled a bid to hold Rudy Giuliani in contempt of a $148 million defamation judgment Friday, during a day of sparring in which the former New York City mayor repeatedly told counsel for two defamed Georgia poll workers that he doesn't remember case details.

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Battling Berts: Judge Enjoins Ga. Law Firm In Trademark Row

By Kelcey Caulder

A Georgia federal judge Friday temporarily barred an Atlanta-based law firm from advertising and promoting its personal injury legal services through messaging like "If You're Hurt ... Call Bert!" and "If You're Hurt, Call Bert," ruling that it is too similar to another personal injury firm's trademarked slogan.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

How to deal with diversity, climate change and artificial intelligence are the key issues giving general counsel night terrors at the start of the new year. And in Delaware, the Chancery Court is allowing a stockholder suit to move forward against Fox Corp., related to its false reports of voting fraud in 2020.

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

By Laura Stewart Liberty

This past week in London has seen Chris Eubank Jr. hit with a libel claim from a boxing promoter, a perfume boss face proceedings from his businesses following sanctions violations claims, and Israeli broadcasters file intellectual property claims against BT and Sky. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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