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Telecommunications
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June 26, 2024
House GOP Gears Up For The End Of Chevron Deference
A new memo outlines how House Republicans are gearing up for the U.S. Supreme Court to potentially overturn the decades-old precedent that courts defer to agencies' interpretations of ambiguous statutes, as an opportunity to roll back the Biden administration's policies and reclaim Congress' power.
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June 26, 2024
FCC Allows Foreign Stake In Montana Telecom After Review
The Federal Communications Commission is allowing a pair of foreign nationals to move forward with their acquisition of Montana telecommunications company iSmart and its multinational parent, saying the federal government concluded a national security review of the transfer and that iSmart's parent company, Truphone, satisfied requirements from a 2022 consent decree it entered with the FCC.
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June 26, 2024
AT&T Strikes Deal To Exit Former Exec's Age Bias Suit
AT&T reached a deal Wednesday to resolve a former assistant vice president's suit alleging he was fired because he's a 58-year-old white man, a filing in Georgia federal court said.
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June 26, 2024
High Court Axes Challenge To Biden Admin's Social Media Work
The U.S. Supreme Court wiped out a Fifth Circuit order prohibiting the Biden administration and several federal agencies from working with social media platforms to combat the spread of misinformation Wednesday, finding the states and individuals challenging the collaboration don't have standing to sue.
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June 25, 2024
Disney Must Face Trimmed ESPN Streaming Fee Antitrust Suit
A California federal judge on Tuesday threw out some antitrust claims in a sprawling proposed class action over Disney's ESPN livestreaming carriage agreements, although he permitted other portions of the suit to proceed, finding that consumers have adequately alleged Disney's actions could have hobbled competition.
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June 25, 2024
NFL Moves To Sack Commercial Class In Sunday Ticket Trial
An attorney for the NFL argued on the eve of closing arguments Tuesday that jurors shouldn't be allowed to consider damages for one of two plaintiff classes in a multibillion-dollar antitrust trial over the league's DirecTV Sunday Ticket television package.
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June 25, 2024
Google Says Epic's Play Store Changes Could Cost $137M
Google urged a California federal judge Monday to reject Epic Games' proposed Play Store remedies following Epic Games' antitrust jury trial win, arguing that the changes could cost up to $137 million plus ongoing maintenance costs and create new security risks while potentially harming Google's reputation.
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June 25, 2024
AT&T Says No Windfall From FirstNet Managing 4.9 GHz Band
AT&T is finally weighing in on the robust debate over whether the FCC should hand over control of the recently revamped 4.9 gigahertz public safety band to an entity with strong ties to the telecom behemoth, denying that it would get a "windfall" if the agency were to go through with it.
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June 25, 2024
Verizon To Pay $1M For Southeast 911 Outage, FCC Says
Verizon has agreed to pay just more than $1 million and follow a compliance plan after a December 2022 breakdown of 911 connectivity throughout the Southeast, the Federal Communications Commission said Tuesday.
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June 25, 2024
No Need To Ship Net Neutrality Appeals To DC, 6th Circ. Told
The Sixth Circuit should stand up to the "concerted effort" to push administrative law matters out of other appellate courts and into the D.C. Circuit by refusing to transfer a bundled set of challenges to the FCC's new net neutrality rules, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has said.
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June 25, 2024
FCC Says Anti-Redlining Rule 'Dutifully' Carries Out Law
The Federal Communications Commission has urged the Eighth Circuit to toss multiple industry challenges to its rules against discrimination in broadband deployment, saying its use of a wide-reaching standard for prohibited bias fits the law's requirements.
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June 25, 2024
Sinclair Accused Of Violating Video Privacy Law
Sinclair Inc. was hit with a lawsuit in Illinois state court Monday alleging it uses tracking technology to see which videos users watch on its tennis streaming service and target advertisements to them accordingly, in violation of the Video Privacy Protection Act.
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June 25, 2024
Noteholder Deal Spares Telecom WOM From Ch. 11 Dismissal
Chilean telecommunications company WOM told Delaware's bankruptcy court it reached a deal with a group of noteholders and the unsecured creditors committee to resolve their bid to dismiss the debtor's bankruptcy case.
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June 25, 2024
EU Opens Microsoft Case, Unappeased By Teams Unbundling
European Union antitrust authorities opened a formal complaint against Microsoft on Tuesday over the company's bundling of its Teams communications program with its Office 365 suites, calling out as insufficient the disconnection of the services Microsoft initiated last year to appease enforcers.
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June 24, 2024
Localities Redouble Effort To Block House Broadband Bill
The U.S. Conference of Mayors is leaning on Congress to abandon the American Broadband Deployment Act of 2023, saying the bill is trying to cut red tape for broadband permitting at the expense of local governments' control over their own territories.
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June 24, 2024
DC Circ. Affirms Verizon Win In Conspiracy Defamation Row
The D.C. Circuit upheld the toss of a conservative commentator's defamation suit over a Yahoo News podcast that covered the 2016 killing of a Democratic National Committee staffer and the conspiracy theories the homicide produced, ruling that the commentator's allegations fell short of the actual malice threshold.
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June 24, 2024
Harvard Prof Calls NFL Sunday Ticket 'Highly Anticompetitive'
A Harvard law professor testified Monday in a multibillion-dollar antitrust lawsuit over the NFL's Sunday Ticket that pooling teams' television rights into exclusive deals is not like Beyoncé having an exclusive music distributor — as an NFL expert testified — but like Beyoncé, Rihanna, Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish pooling rights.
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June 24, 2024
Apple, Amazon Assail Hagens Berman's Class Rep 'Charade'
Apple and Amazon.com blasted Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP for trying to "have it both ways" in an antitrust suit over a pact between the companies restricting Amazon iPhone and iPad sales to approved vendors, arguing the firm cannot withdraw its original named plaintiff without forcing him to testify.
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June 24, 2024
Sirius XM Made Millions Off Hidden Royalty Fee, Suit Alleges
Sirius XM Radio Inc. has been tricking customers into paying an extra 21% every month by tacking a hidden "royalty fee" onto bills, according to a new proposed class action alleging that the fee is responsible for every bit of the company's profits for the last several years.
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June 24, 2024
Broadband Advocates Urge FCC To Revisit Subsidy Fees
Advocates for broadband expansion are asking the Federal Communications Commission to revisit an April decision that exempted internet service providers, at least for now, from contributions to the FCC's telecom subsidy program.
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June 24, 2024
AT&T Must Keep Basic Services Intact, Calif. Regulators Say
California regulators have required AT&T to maintain its commitment to basic phone service by denying its bid to withdraw as a "carrier of last resort," a decision that has prompted the company to pursue legislation that would maintain the designation only for rural communities that have limited options for telecom service.
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June 24, 2024
Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court
Amendments to Delaware's General Corporation Law topped the news out of the Court of Chancery again last week, as the hotly contested measure sailed through the state's legislature. Tesla and its shareholders continued their tug-of-war over attorney fees for Chancery litigation about Elon Musk's pay package, and new cases were filed involving biotechs, car rental companies, workout platforms, telecom towers, and a cargo ship fire in Brazil.
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June 24, 2024
Defense Contractor Gresham Inks $83M SPAC Merger
Defense contractor Gresham Worldwide Inc. and special-purpose acquisition company Ault Disruptive Technologies Corp. agreed Monday to merge in a deal that values Gresham at $83 million and enlarges the company's profile, steered by two law firms.
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June 24, 2024
High Court Passes On Religious Webcasters' Royalty Hike Suit
The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to review the federal Copyright Royalty Board's latest hike in royalty rates webcasters must pay to play audio recordings, turning away a radio trade group's appeal challenging one of the increases on religious freedom and administrative procedure grounds.
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June 21, 2024
Drug Cos., IP Attys Back Cellect In High Court Efforts
A petition by patent litigation outfit Cellect that is looking to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to wade into a double patenting dispute has drawn support from even more lawyers as well as a handful of major drugmakers and small tech companies like Sonos.
Expert Analysis
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Think Like A Lawyer: Follow The Iron Rule Of Trial Logic
Many diligent and eager attorneys include every good fact, point and rule in their trial narratives — spurred by the gnawing fear they’ll be second-guessed for leaving something out — but this approach ignores a fundamental principle of successful trial lawyering, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.
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The Art Of Asking: Leveraging Your Contacts For Referrals
Though attorneys may hesitate to ask for referral recommendations to generate new business, research shows that people want to help others they know, like and trust, so consider who in your network you should approach and how to make the ask, says Rebecca Hnatowski at Edwards Advisory.
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SEC Off-Channel Comms Action Hints At Future Enforcement
Although the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s recent enforcement action against Senvest does not shed light on how the agency will calibrate penalties related to off-channel communications violations, it does suggest that we may see more cases against standalone investment advisers, say attorneys at Sidley.
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Series
Being An Equestrian Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Beyond getting experience thinking on my feet and tackling stressful situations, the skills I've gained from horseback riding have considerable overlap with the skills used to practice law, particularly in terms of team building, continuing education, and making an effort to reset and recharge, says Kerry Irwin at Moore & Van Allen.
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Fintiv Denials Are On The Rise At PTAB
Following last year's CommScope v. Dali decision, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board is increasingly using Fintiv factors to discretionarily deny inter partes review petitions — and attorneys ignore it at their peril, say Josepher Li and Michelle Armond at Armond Wilson.
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4 Ways To Refresh Your Law Firm's Marketing Strategy
With many BigLaw firms relying on an increasingly obsolete marketing approach that prioritizes stiff professionalism over authentic connection, adopting a few key communications strategies to better connect with today's clients and prospects can make all the difference, say Eric Pacifici and Kevin Henderson at SMB Law.
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Practical Pointers After Fed. Circ. Double-Patenting Decision
With the Federal Circuit recently denying a full court review of In re: Cellect, a decision regarding obviousness-type double-patenting, affected patent family holders should evaluate their rights through both patent prosecution and future litigation lenses to minimize risks, say Austin Lorch and Jeff Wolfson at Haynes Boone.
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Patent Lessons From 8 Federal Circuit Reversals In March
A number of Federal Circuit patent decisions last month reversed or vacated underlying rulings, providing guidance regarding the definiteness of a claim that include multiple limitations of different scopes, the importance of adequate jury instruction, the proper scope of the precedent, and more, say Denise De Mory and Li Guo at Bunsow De Mory.
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Series
Whitewater Kayaking Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Whether it's seeing clients and their issues from a new perspective, or staying nimble in a moment of intense challenge, the lessons learned from whitewater kayaking transcend the rapids of a river and prepare attorneys for the courtroom and beyond, says Matthew Kent at Alston & Bird.
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This Earth Day, Consider How Your Firm Can Go Greener
As Earth Day approaches, law firms and attorneys should consider adopting more sustainable practices to reduce their carbon footprint — from minimizing single-use plastics to purchasing carbon offsets for air travel — which ultimately can also reduce costs for clients, say M’Lynn Phillips and Lisa Walters at IMS Legal Strategies.
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Cos. Should Mind Website Tech As CIPA Suits Keep Piling Up
Businesses should continue evaluating their use of website technologies and other data-gathering software and review the disclosures in their privacy policies, amid an increase so far in 2024 of class actions alleging violations of the California Invasion of Privacy Act's pen register and trap-and-trace provisions, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.
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Questions Persist After Ruling Skirts $925M TCPA Award Issue
After an Oregon federal court's recent Wakefield v. ViSalus ruling that the doctrine of constitutional avoidance precluded it from deciding whether a $925 million Telephone Consumer Protection Act damages award was constitutionally sound, further guidance is needed on when statutory damages violate due process, says Michael Klotz at O'Melveny.
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Practicing Law With Parkinson's Disease
This Parkinson’s Awareness Month, Adam Siegler at Greenberg Traurig discusses his experience working as a lawyer with Parkinson’s disease, sharing both lessons on how to cope with a diagnosis and advice for supporting colleagues who live with the disease.
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Cos. Should Prepare For Foreign Data Transfer Regulations
A new regulatory regime designed to protect U.S. sensitive data from countries of concern may complicate an already intricate geopolitical landscape and affect even companies beyond the data industry, but with careful preparation, such companies can endeavor to minimize the effect on their business operations and ensure compliance, say David Plotinsky and Jiazhen Guo at Morgan Lewis.
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Why Incorporating By Reference Is Rarely Good Practice
The Federal Circuit’s recent ruling in Promptu Systems v. Comcast serves as a reminder that while incorporating by reference may seem efficient, it is generally prohibited by courts and can lead to sanctions when used to bypass a word count limit, says Cullen Seltzer at Sands Anderson.