Telecommunications

  • January 17, 2025

    Supreme Court Upholds TikTok Sale-Or-Ban Law

    The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a federal law Friday requiring TikTok to be divested from its Chinese parent company by Sunday or face a nationwide ban.

  • January 16, 2025

    GM, OnStar Agree To FTC's Ban On Location Data Sharing

    General Motors and OnStar agreed to a five-year ban on disclosing geolocation and driver behavior data to consumer reporting agencies to resolve the Federal Trade Commission's allegations that the companies didn't get drivers' consent before sharing, the agency announced Thursday.

  • January 16, 2025

    FCC Rejects TV License Attacks As Leadership Switch Nears

    The Federal Communications Commission rejected four controversial petitions targeting major news broadcasters Thursday, dispensing with the cases just days before Donald Trump reclaims the White House and installs a Republican majority on the commission.

  • January 16, 2025

    Biden Makes Final Push To Fortify US Cybersecurity Posture

    President Joe Biden took the latest step toward boosting the nation's cybersecurity Thursday, issuing an executive order that requires software vendors that work with the government to prove they're meeting certain security standards and promote the use of artificial intelligence for cyberdefense.

  • January 16, 2025

    DC Circ. Mulls 'Colorability' In India's Test Of $156M Award

    A D.C. Circuit panel wrestled Thursday with what constitutes a "colorable" assertion of sovereign immunity in arbitration enforcement proceedings as India seeks to undo a $155.8 million judgment against it stemming from an arbitration over a soured satellite licensing deal.

  • January 16, 2025

    Gov't Wants Time During Epic, Google's 9th Circ. Face-Off

    When Epic Games and Google face off next month at the Ninth Circuit, the federal government is hoping it will get a few minutes to state its case for why the appellate court shouldn't overturn an order forcing Google to allow alternative app stores on its platform, the government said in a recent motion.

  • January 16, 2025

    Allstate Hit With Class Action Over Driver Data Collection

    Allstate illegally obtained the personal driving data of millions of policyholders via software embedded in third-party apps and secretly used that data to hike premiums, deny claims or drop policyholders from coverage altogether, according to a proposed class action filed in Illinois federal court.

  • January 16, 2025

    Initial Green Light Given to UnitedHealth's Deal In TCPA Suit

    A Washington federal judge gave a $2.5 million settlement between UnitedHealthcare and a class of Telephone Consumer Protection Act claimants preliminary approval, signing off on a deal that class counsel says would net each class member over $90, if all applied.

  • January 16, 2025

    FTC Elevates Snap AI Chatbot Case To DOJ

    The Federal Trade Commission took the rare step Thursday of revealing its referral to the U.S. Department of Justice of its complaint alleging Snap Inc. deployed an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot that harmed young users, prompting incoming Republican Chair Andrew Ferguson to slam the allegations as an "affront to the Constitution and the rule of law."

  • January 16, 2025

    Lawmakers Ask Biden To Pause TikTok Sale-Or-Ban Law

    A group of lawmakers has urged President Joe Biden to extend a Sunday deadline for TikTok to divest from its Chinese parent company over national security concerns or face a nationwide ban, saying presidential action is needed to avoid "catastrophic" effects of the wildly popular social media platform going dark.

  • January 16, 2025

    Trump Names Senate Commerce Aide As FCC Commissioner

    President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday named Olivia Trusty, a top Republican aide on the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, as his pick for the next GOP commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission.

  • January 16, 2025

    1st Circ. Vacates Most Of Atty's Marijuana Bribe Conviction

    The First Circuit vacated a pair of fraud convictions for a Massachusetts attorney charged in a marijuana bribery scheme, finding that sending an iMessage through an Apple cellphone is not enough to satisfy the wire fraud element requiring interstate communication.

  • January 16, 2025

    UK Probes Keysight's £1.2B Offer For Telecoms Biz Spirent

    Britain's antitrust authority said Thursday that it has launched a formal probe into the £1.16 billion ($1.42 billion) takeover offer made by U.S. technology company Keysight Technologies for Spirent Communications, a U.K. telecoms testing specialist.

  • January 15, 2025

    Amazon Sr. Counsel Moves To Mintz's Tech, Telecom Practice

    Mintz has tapped a former senior counsel at Amazon to join its Washington, D.C., office as a member and boost Mintz's decades-old technology, communications, and media practice, the global law firm announced Wednesday.

  • January 15, 2025

    Alaska Says Death Of USF Would Be 'Devastating' For State

    The people of Alaska will suffer if the U.S. Supreme Court does not undo a Fifth Circuit decision demolishing the Federal Communications Commission's multibillion-dollar subsidy fund, which reduces phone and internet costs for schools, libraries and low-income households, the state has told the justices.

  • January 15, 2025

    Colo. Panel Mulls If Atty Violations Can Nix Gov't Immunity

    A Colorado appellate panel on Wednesday pressed a utility regulator staffer who accused state lawyers of smearing her at work, questioning whether nixing the lawyers' governmental immunity based on alleged professional misconduct would go too far.

  • January 15, 2025

    Incoming FCC Chair Blasts Agency's Salt Typhoon Response

    The Federal Communications Commission's incoming chair on Wednesday blasted an as-yet-unreleased agency decision meant to address network vulnerabilities in the wake of the Salt Typhoon cyberattack that he said misreads federal law.

  • January 15, 2025

    Outgoing FCC Chair Touts 'Wins On The Board'

    With less than a week left in office, the chief of the Biden-era Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday highlighted the accomplishments of her tenure, including efforts to connect more Americans and advance space-based communications, but warned that a number of problems ranging from cybersecurity threats to the digital divide persist.

  • January 15, 2025

    FTC Defends Authority To Bring Amazon Antitrust Case

    The Federal Trade Commission is pushing back on Amazon's claims that the commission can't bring an antitrust case in federal court without first launching an administrative complaint, telling the Washington federal judge overseeing its case against the e-commerce giant that the Ninth Circuit has already cleared such a move.

  • January 15, 2025

    Samsung Slams Epic's Antitrust Suit Over Google Play Store

    Samsung moved to end Epic Games' suit alleging it colluded with Google to skirt an impending injunction forcing Google to permit competition with its Play Store by installing an auto blocker feature on Samsung devices, telling a California federal judge Wednesday the feature is a product improvement shielded from antitrust scrutiny.

  • January 15, 2025

    Fubo Subscriber Sues Disney For Alleged Antitrust Practices

    A Fubo subscriber has filed an antitrust lawsuit in New York federal court alleging the Walt Disney Co.'s ownership of ESPN allows it to dominate the broadcasting licenses for professional sports, enabling Disney to monopolize and inflate prices within the paid, live-streaming television market.

  • January 15, 2025

    FCC Warns Convincing Mortgage Lender Scam Afoot

    The Federal Communications Commission is putting the word out about a new scheme aimed at tricking people into thinking their homes will be foreclosed on unless they make emergency payments into an account controlled by the scammers.

  • January 14, 2025

    FCC Reverses Judge, Rejects Disputed C-Band Payment

    Reversing an in-house judge's decision, the Federal Communications Commission has denied a further payment of nearly $70,000 to a company that claimed it was owed more for relocating from the C-band airwaves to make way for 5G wireless.

  • January 14, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Judge Chides Attys For Omitting Key Argument

    The Federal Circuit's chief judge got frustrated Tuesday when neither party in a dispute over a 3G messaging patent had addressed what she considered to be the analysis' starting point.

  • January 14, 2025

    Texas Porn Law Unlikely To Alter Justices' Free Speech Views

    Texas' push before the U.S. Supreme Court for a relaxed standard of judicial review in First Amendment cases is unlikely to come to fruition, as decades of precedent work against the state's law requiring age verification on pornography sites.

Expert Analysis

  • Challenging Prosecutors' Use Of Defendants' Jail Phone Calls

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    Although it’s an uphill battle under current case law, counsel for pretrial detainees may be able to challenge prosecutors’ use of jail-recorded phone calls between the defendant and their attorney by taking certain advance measures, say Jim McLoughlin and Fielding Huseth at Moore & Van Allen.

  • Opinion

    Now More Than Ever, Lawyers Must Exhibit Professionalism

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    As society becomes increasingly fractured and workplace incivility is on the rise, attorneys must champion professionalism and lead by example, demonstrating how lawyers can respectfully disagree without being disagreeable, says Edward Casmere at Norton Rose.

  • A Refresher On Calculating Political Advertising Costs

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    With election season well underway, it is important for broadcasters, political candidates, time buyers and others concerned with how the cost of broadcast political advertising is determined to know what the Federal Communications Commission factors into lowest unit calculations, and how the commission has defined "commercial advertisers," says Gregg Skall at Telecommunications Law Professionals.

  • Series

    Serving In The National Guard Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My ongoing military experience as a judge advocate general in the National Guard has shaped me as a person and a lawyer, teaching me the importance of embracing confidence, balance and teamwork in both my Army and civilian roles, says Danielle Aymond at Baker Donelson.

  • Big Business May Come To Rue The Post-Administrative State

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    Many have framed the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decisions overturning Chevron deference and extending the window to challenge regulations as big wins for big business, but sand in the gears of agency rulemaking may be a double-edged sword, creating prolonged uncertainty that impedes businesses’ ability to plan for the future, says Todd Baker at Columbia University.

  • A Midyear Forecast: Tailwinds Expected For Atty Hourly Rates

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    Hourly rates for partners, associates and support staff continued to rise in the first half of this year, and this growth shows no signs of slowing for the rest of 2024 and into next year, driven in part by the return of mergers and acquisitions and the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence, says Chuck Chandler at Valeo Partners.

  • Opinion

    Cell Tech Patent Holdup Is Stalling Automaker Innovation

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    Courts and Congress should seek to stem anticompetitive harm caused by standard-essential patent holders squeezing automakers with unfairly high royalties for cellular connectivity technology, says Charles Haake at Alliance for Automotive Innovation.

  • Mitigating Risks Amid 10-Year Sanctions Enforcement Window

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    In response to recent legislation, which doubles the statute of limitations for actions related to certain U.S. sanctions and provides regulators greater opportunity to investigate possible violations, companies should take specific steps to account for the increased civil and criminal enforcement risk, say attorneys at Freshfields.

  • Opinion

    States Should Loosen Law Firm Ownership Restrictions

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    Despite growing buzz, normalized nonlawyer ownership of law firms is a distant prospect, so the legal community should focus first on liberalizing state restrictions on attorney and firm purchases of practices, which would bolster succession planning and improve access to justice, says Michael Di Gennaro at The Law Practice Exchange.

  • Series

    Solving Puzzles Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Tackling daily puzzles — like Wordle, KenKen and Connections — has bolstered my intellectual property litigation practice by helping me to exercise different mental skills, acknowledge minor but important details, and build and reinforce good habits, says Roy Wepner at Kaplan Breyer.

  • Series

    After Chevron: FCC And Industry Must Prepare For Change

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    The Chevron doctrine was especially significant in the communications sector because of the indeterminacy of federal communications statutes, so the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of the doctrine could have big implications for those regulated by the Federal Communications Commission, bringing both opportunities and risks for companies, say Thomas Johnson and Michael Showalter at Wiley.

  • Texas Ethics Opinion Flags Hazards Of Unauthorized Practice

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    The Texas Professional Ethics Committee's recently issued proposed opinion finding that in-house counsel providing legal services to the company's clients constitutes the unauthorized practice of law is a valuable clarification given that a UPL violation — a misdemeanor in most states — carries high stakes, say Hilary Gerzhoy and Julienne Pasichow at HWG.

  • Why High Court Social Media Ruling Will Be Hotly Debated

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    In deciding the NetChoice cases that challenged Florida and Texas content moderation laws, what the U.S. Supreme Court justices said about social media platforms — and the First Amendment — will have implications and raise questions for nearly all online operators, say Jacob Canter and Joanna Rosen Forster at Crowell & Moring.

  • In Memoriam: The Modern Administrative State

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    On June 28, the modern administrative state, where courts deferred to agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes, died when the U.S. Supreme Court overruled its previous decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council — but it is survived by many cases decided under the Chevron framework, say Joseph Schaeffer and Jessica Deyoe at Babst Calland.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Expect Limited Changes In USPTO Rulemaking

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling overturning Chevron deference will have limited consequences for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office given the USPTO's unique statutory features, but it is still an important decision for matters of statutory interpretation, especially those involving provisions of the America Invents Act, say Andrei Iancu and Cooper Godfrey at Sullivan & Cromwell.

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