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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.
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July 31, 2024
Copyright Office Warns Of 'Urgent Need' For Deepfakes Law
The U.S. Copyright Office said Wednesday that "there is an urgent need" for new federal legislation to tackle the proliferation of deepfakes created through artificial intelligence, saying in a long-awaited report with recommendations to Congress that "an era of sophisticated digital replicas has arrived."
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July 31, 2024
Del. Justices Reject 'Half-Hearted' Arbitration Bid In Fee Fight
Delaware's Supreme Court has affirmed a ruling that an entity that invests in tech companies waited too long to try to arbitrate a manager's legal fee advancement suit, rejecting a "half-hearted suggestion" that it was unaware of an arbitration provision until "its third set of counsel" joined the case.
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July 31, 2024
TaxAct Customers' Attys Want $5.8M Fee For $23M Deal
The attorneys for TaxAct Inc. customers who secured a $23 million deal to resolve claims that the company was secretly sharing confidential taxpayer information with Meta and Google asked a federal judge to award them more than $5.8 million in fees for their work.
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July 31, 2024
Ameriprise Chief Privacy Officer Joins Fisher Phillips
A chief privacy officer at Ameriprise Financial Services LLC has joined Fisher Phillips in Detroit as a data privacy and cybersecurity of counsel, the firm has announced.
Expert Analysis
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What 100 Federal Cases Suggest About Changes To Chevron
With the U.S. Supreme Court poised to overturn or narrow its 40-year-old doctrine of Chevron deference, a review of 100 recent federal district court decisions confirm that changes to the Chevron framework will have broad ramifications — but the magnitude of the impact will depend on the details of the high court's ruling, say Kali Schellenberg and Jon Cochran at LeVan Stapleton.
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Patent Damages Jury Verdicts Aren't Always End Of The Story
Recent outcomes demonstrate that patent damages jury verdicts are often challenged and are overturned approximately one-third of the time, and successful verdict challenges typically occur at the appellate level and concern patent validity and infringement, say James Donohue and Marie Sanyal at Charles River.
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FTC Noncompete Rule May Still Face Historical Hurdles
The Federal Trade Commission's final rule banning noncompetes might face challenges that could have been avoided with more cautious consideration of the commission's long history of failed lawsuits that went beyond the agency's statutory authority, as well as the mountain of judicial precedent justifying noncompete agreements in employment contracts, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.
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Justices' Title VII Ruling Requires Greater Employer Vigilance
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Muldrow v. St. Louis ruling expands the types of employment decisions that can be challenged under Title VII, so employers will need to carefully review decisions that affect a term, condition or privilege of employment, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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Opinion
SEC Should Be Allowed To Equip Investors With Climate Info
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's new rule to require more climate-related disclosures will provide investors with much-needed clarity, despite opponents' attempts to challenge the rule with misused legal arguments, say Sarah Goetz at Democracy Forward and Cynthia Hanawalt at Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change.
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Why High Court May Have Rejected IP Obviousness Appeal
Attorneys at Womble Bond analyze possible reasons the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Vanda Pharmaceuticals' request to review the Federal Circuit’s reasonable expectation of success standard for determining obviousness, including that the court was unpersuaded by the company's argument that Amgen v. Sanofi places a bind on drug developers.
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New Federal Bill Would Drastically Alter Privacy Landscape
While the recently introduced American Privacy Rights Act would eliminate the burdensome patchwork of state regulations, the proposed federal privacy law would also significantly expand compliance obligations and liability exposure for companies, especially those that rely on artificial intelligence or biometric technologies, says David Oberly at Baker Donelson.
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How Cos. Can Comply With New PFAS Superfund Rule
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's new rule designating two per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances as "hazardous substances" under the Superfund law will likely trigger additional enforcement and litigation at sites across the country — so companies should evaluate any associated reporting obligations and liability risks, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.
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Ill. Justices' Ruling Answers Corporate Defamation Questions
The Illinois Supreme Court's recent unanimous decision in Project44 v. FourKites provides needed certainty and direction for lower courts considering defamation cases involving communications to corporate officers from third parties outside the corporation, which could result in fewer unwarranted motions to dismiss in trial courts and nonmeritorious appeals, says Phillip Zisook at Schoenberg Finkel.
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As Arbitrator Bias Claims Rise, Disclosure Standards Evolve
The growth in post-award challenges based on arbitrators' alleged conflicts of interest has led to the release of new guidance and new case law on the topic — both supporting the view that professional familiarity alone does not translate to a lack of impartiality, say attorneys at Skadden.
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Social Media Free Speech Issues Are Trending At High Court
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision examining what constitutes state action on social media can be viewed in conjunction with oral arguments in two other cases to indicate that the court sees a need for more clarity regarding how social media usage implicates the First Amendment, say attorneys at Kean Miller.
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Opinion
CFPB Could, And Should, Revise Open Banking Rulemaking
In light of continued global developments in open banking, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau should evaluate whether it actually should use its proposed rule on Section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Act to amplify personal financial data rights in the U.S., says Brian Fritzsche at the Consumer Bankers Association.
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How Cos. Can Protect IP In Light Of FTC Noncompete Rule
While several groups are challenging the Federal Trade Commission’s recently approved rule banning noncompetition agreements, employers should begin planning other ways to protect their valuable trade secrets, confidential information and other intellectual property, says Thomas Duston at Marshall Gerstein.
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Tylenol MDL Highlights Expert Admissibility Headaches
A New York federal court's decision to exclude all plaintiff experts in a multidistrict litigation concerning prenatal exposure to Tylenol highlights a number of expert testimony pitfalls that parties should avoid in product liability and mass tort matters, say Rand Brothers and Courtney Block at Winston & Strawn.
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Recent Wave Of SEC No-Action Denials May Be Slowing
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in March granted no-action relief to Verizon and others on the grounds that a director resignation bylaw proposal would mean violating Delaware law, bucking recent SEC hesitation toward such relief and showing that articulating a basis in state law is a viable path to exclude a proposal, say attorneys at Winston & Strawn.