Technology

  • January 30, 2025

    Ex-FCC Member Wants Stiffer Penalties For Broadband Sabotage

    There's a broadband equipment vandalism problem that no one is doing much about, a Republican former Federal Communications Commission member said in a new opinion piece, arguing that "certain criminal elements" view the theft as a path to "fast cash."

  • January 30, 2025

    Calif. AG Asks 9th Circ. To Block Meta's MDL Discovery Win

    The California attorney general urged the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday to block orders requiring third-party state agencies to respond to Meta Platforms' discovery demands in multidistrict litigation over social media's alleged harms, arguing in a mandamus petition the "clearly erroneous" ruling "runs roughshod" over the state's constitutional divisions of power.

  • January 30, 2025

    House Rep. Introduces Bill To Create New Piracy Sites Laws

    Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren, who represents Silicon Valley in the U.S. House of Representatives, introduced a bill that seeks to create new site-blocking laws that require U.S. internet service providers to make "a good faith effort" to disable access to pirate websites and seek relief in federal court.

  • January 30, 2025

    PayPal Beats Investor Suit Over Inflated User Metrics Claims

    A New Jersey federal court has dismissed a proposed class action that accused PayPal of misleading investors with user metrics inflated by a scam that took advantage of a PayPal promotion that paid people to set up new accounts, saying the investors did not show PayPal knew of the alleged scam when certain statements were made.

  • January 30, 2025

    Hotel Guests Get Backing For Algorithmic Pricing Suit

    Hotel guests accusing a group of Atlantic City properties of using shared software to fix room rates are getting a helping hand in their Third Circuit fight to revive their suit from antimonopoly interest groups, who filed in separate amicus briefs in support of their effort this week.

  • January 30, 2025

    Sheriffs Raise Concern About New FCC Prison Phone Caps

    A sheriffs' group brought concerns to the Federal Communications Commission about recently adopted caps on prison phone rates, saying the exclusion of certain cost categories would lead to less access to services for the incarcerated.

  • January 30, 2025

    Supreme Court Urged To Clarify Alice, End 1-Line Orders

    The owner of a pair of invalidated patents covering medical machinery has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to look at what it called "confusion" stemming from the high court's Alice decision and also at the Federal Circuit's practice of issuing one-line orders.

  • January 30, 2025

    Google Judge Leery Of Administration Of $90M Antitrust Deal

    A California federal judge overseeing Google's $90 million antitrust deal with Play Store developers expressed "doubt" Thursday about the decision of counsel representing smaller developer plaintiffs to stay with an administration company handling the settlement distribution, two months after criticizing the administrator's work as "the worst performance I've seen."

  • January 30, 2025

    Circle K Gas Franchise Hit With Data Breach Class Action

    Gas and convenience store chain Circle K was hit with a proposed class action in Georgia federal court over allegations that it failed to adequately safeguard the sensitive personal information of its employees during a May 2024 data breach.

  • January 30, 2025

    Senate Bill Requiring AM Radio In Cars Is Back Again

    Almost half the Senate has signed on to co-sponsor a bill that would block automakers from removing AM radios from the cars they produce, with the reintroduced AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act already set for a committee hearing early next month.

  • January 30, 2025

    Investors Push To Consolidate Suits On Cash Sweep Programs

    Investors claiming brokerage firms' cash sweep investment programs unfairly enriched the brokers at the expense of customers asked the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation Thursday to consolidate their suits, arguing they risk ending up with wildly different judicial rulings without it.

  • January 30, 2025

    Meta VR Headsets Are Not 'Wireless Telephones,' Judge Says

    A federal judge in the Western District of Texas has decided Meta's Quest brand of virtual reality headsets can't be considered "wireless telephones" in a patent lawsuit just because they come preinstalled with the Messenger app, which can take calls.

  • January 30, 2025

    FCC Hunting For Ads On NPR, PBS Local Stations

    The newly installed head of the Federal Communications Commission says he plans to investigate whether local NPR and PBS stations are using underwriting spots to air commercial advertising.

  • January 30, 2025

    Ancestry.com Beats Proposed Privacy Class Action, Again

    An Illinois federal judge granted summary judgment Wednesday to Ancestry.com in a proposed class action accusing the online company of stealing yearbook photos and identities to advertise its services without consent, finding no evidence that the information was publicly used or displayed.

  • January 30, 2025

    YouTube's 'Nelk Boys' Sued Over 'Snake-Oil' NFTs

    A buyer of an apparently worthless crypto product has filed suit against a pair of influencers behind the YouTube channel "Nelk Boys," calling them "snake-oil salesmen" and claiming they talked up the products online, saying they were valuable when, in reality, the promised perks and returns on investment never materialized.

  • January 30, 2025

    Semiconductor Co. Eyeing $5M Award Can't Get Asset Freeze

    A California federal judge has denied a Chinese semiconductor company's request to bar a commodity trading firm from dissipating its assets while the two are locked in an arbitration battle over a contract for lithography machines, saying the trader, now aware of the litigation, had not sold off its assets or indicated an intention of doing so.

  • January 30, 2025

    Samsung Gets PTAB To Review 2 Smart Ring Patents

    The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has agreed to hear Samsung's challenge to a pair of patents owned by a company that makes smart rings, finding there was a reasonable chance the electronics giant could potentially prevail in the fight.

  • January 30, 2025

    Ligado Creditor Pans 'Exorbitant' Fees For $115M DIP Loan

    Satellite communications company Ligado Networks LLC's largest unsecured creditor asked a Delaware bankruptcy judge to reject the company's proposed $115 million Chapter 11 financing package, saying Ligado's secured lenders were seeking to help themselves to $100 million in fees as part of the deal.

  • January 30, 2025

    Crypto Cos. Seek $6.3M From Travelers Over Building Fire

    A pair of cryptocurrency mining companies accused two Travelers units of exacerbating their fire loss, telling a Michigan federal court that they negligently allowed individuals to steal their mining machines and hired a debris removal contractor that caused the property to collapse, seeking more than $6.3 million in damages.

  • January 30, 2025

    Telecom Loses $23M Pa. Tax Case Over Private Line Services

    A telecommunications company is liable for $23 million in gross receipts tax assessed on its services' fees because the private line services it contested were not exempt, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court held.

  • January 30, 2025

    M&A Shot To $3.7T In 2024 As IT/Tech, Finance Shined

    Mergers and acquisitions deal values and volumes rebounded significantly in 2024 after a slow 2023, with the IT/tech and financial services sectors leading the way, according to a Thursday report from data firm PitchBook.

  • January 30, 2025

    Technology Group Of The Year: Orrick

    Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP's technology practice has advised on a range of high-value deals and litigation matters in the sector over the past year, including handling over $20 billion in venture financing transactions for artificial intelligence companies and overturning a $2 billion trade secrets verdict, earning the firm a spot among the 2024 Law360 Technology Groups of the Year.

  • January 30, 2025

    NC Biz Court Bulletin: Sanctions Miss, Philip Morris Refund

    In the second half of January, the North Carolina Business Court tussled with sanctions against a biogas company, heard claims an insurer tried to deliberately embarrass Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP and ordered an $11 million tax refund for Philip Morris.

  • January 30, 2025

    Ex-Charter Communications IT Exec Says Noncompete Is Void

    A former Charter Communications Inc. executive has asked a Connecticut federal judge to throw out the company's trade secrets claims against him or at least transfer the case to Colorado, arguing that his ex-employer has failed to say what secrets he allegedly took to his new job and that his noncompete agreement is void.

  • January 30, 2025

    SCOTUSblog Publisher Can't Shield Home From Forfeiture

    SCOTUSblog publisher Tom Goldstein won't be able to shield his Washington, D.C., residence from forfeiture by substituting various properties in South Carolina as he battles charges that he dodged taxes and used his law firm's money to pay off gambling debts.

Expert Analysis

  • Promoting Diversity In The Selection Of ADR Neutrals

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    Choosing neutrals from diverse backgrounds is an important step in promoting inclusion in the legal profession, and it can enhance the legitimacy and public perception of alternative dispute resolution proceedings, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • Series

    Playing Ultimate Makes Us Better Lawyers

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    In addition to being fun, ultimate Frisbee has improved our legal careers by emphasizing the importance of professionalism, teamwork, perseverance, enthusiasm and vulnerability, say Arunabha Bhoumik and Adam Bernstein at Regeneron. 

  • Tracking The Slow Movement Of AI Copyright Cases

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    The tech community may be expecting a prompt resolution on whether products generated by artificial intelligence are a fair use of copyrighted works, but legal history shows that a response to this question — at the heart of over 30 pending cases — will take years, say attorneys at White & Case.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On Metadata

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    Several recent rulings reflect the competing considerations that arise when parties dispute the form of production for electronically stored information, underscoring that counsel must carefully consider how to produce and request reasonably usable data, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • The 3rd-Party Bankruptcy Release Landscape After Purdue

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    In its Purdue Pharma ruling prohibiting nonconsensual third-party releases, the U.S. Supreme Court did not comment on criteria to render a third-party release consensual, opening a debate in the bankruptcy courts on the permissibility of opt-out versus opt-in releases, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Comparing Antitrust Outlooks Amid Google Remedy Review

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    As the U.S. Justice Department mulls potential structural remedies after winning its recent case against Google, increased global scrutiny of Big Tech leaves ex post and ex ante antitrust approaches ripe for evaluation, say Nishant Chadha at the Indian School of Business and Manisha Goel at Pomona College.

  • What New Int'l Treaty Means For Global AI Regulation

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    Lawyers at Bird & Bird consider how global artificial intelligence regulation will be affected by the first international AI treaty recently signed by the U.S., EU and U.K., as well as its implications for business and several issues that stakeholders should be aware of.

  • How The Presidential Election Will Affect Workplace AI Regs

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    The U.S. has so far adopted a light-handed approach to regulating artificial intelligence in the labor and employment area, but the presidential election is unlikely to have as dramatic of an effect on AI regulations as it may on other labor and employment matters, say attorneys at Littler.

  • Opinion

    PREVAIL Bill Is Another Misguided Attempt To Restrict PTAB

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    The decade-long campaign against the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Patent Trial and Appeal Board — currently focused on the PREVAIL Act that's slated for markup in the Senate — is not really about procedural issues, and it is not aimed at securing more accurate patentability decisions, says Clear IP's Joseph Matal, former acting director at the USPTO.

  • Striking A Balance Between AI Use And Attorney Well-Being

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    As the legal industry increasingly adopts generative artificial intelligence tools to boost efficiency, leaders must note the hidden costs of increased productivity, and work to protect attorneys’ well-being while unlocking AI’s full potential, says Ed Sohn at Factor.

  • A Novel Expansion Of Alien Tort Statute In 9th Circ.

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    The Ninth Circuit's Doe v. Cisco rehearing denial allows a new invocation of the Alien Tort Statute to proceed, which could capture the U.S. Supreme Court's attention, and has potentially dramatic consequences for U.S. companies doing business with foreign governments, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • Empathy In Mediation Offers A Soft Landing For Disputes

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    Experiencing a crash-landing on a recent flight underscored to me how much difference empathy makes in times of crisis or stress, including during mediation, says Eydith Kaufman at Alternative Resolution Centers.

  • Series

    Being An Artist Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My work as an artist has highlighted how using creativity and precision together — qualities that are equally essential in both art and law — not only improves outcomes, but also leads to more innovative and thoughtful work, says Sarah La Pearl at Segal McCambridge.

  • How Judiciary Can Minimize AI Risks In Secondary Sources

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    Because courts’ standing orders on generative artificial intelligence and other safeguards do not address the risk of hallucinations in secondary source materials, the judiciary should consider enlisting legal publishers and database hosts to protect against AI-generated inaccuracies, say attorneys at Lankler Siffert & Wohl.

  • 3 Steps For Companies To Combat Task Scams

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    On the rise in the U.S., the task scam — when scammers offer a victim a fake work-from-home job — hurts impersonated businesses by tarnishing their name and brand, but companies have a few ways to fight back against these cons, says Chris Wlach at Huge.

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