Trump Undoes Biden's AI Safeguards With Executive Order

By Rae Ann Varona

President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order upending the former Biden administration's consumer and national security safeguards on artificial intelligence, saying former AI policies must be investigated to see if they thwart the new Trump administration's quest to position the U.S. as the "global leader in AI."

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Trump Forms Crypto Working Group To Create Fed. Framework

By Aislinn Keely

President Donald Trump took another step towards fulfilling his campaign promises to the cryptocurrency industry on Thursday with an executive order that directs regulators to get to work establishing a federal framework for digital assets and prohibits the creation of a central bank digital currency.

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Federal Agencies Must Order Full Return To Office By Friday

By Irene Spezzamonte

Federal agencies will order employees to return to the office by Friday at 5 p.m. to end the "national embarrassment" that remote work policies have fueled, the Office of Personnel Management said, following President Donald Trump's executive order.

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Intuitive Judge Walks Back 'Inappropriate' Witness Instruction

By Bonnie Eslinger

Counsel for Intuitive Surgical objected Thursday to a California federal judge's "inappropriate instruction" to a witness testifying in a trial over allegations it abused its market power by blocking hospitals from using a refurbished part for its surgery robot, prompting the judge to walk back the direction.

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GenapSys Says Paul Hastings Can't Keep Privileged Docs

By James Mills

GenapSys is pushing back on Paul Hastings LLP's bid to force it to turn over documents that it had inadvertently released during discovery in a legal malpractice suit alleging that the law firm improperly drafted board documents that led to the "demise and liquidation" of the genetic-sequencing company.

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Calif. Kids' Privacy Law Ignores 1st Amendment, Judge Says

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge appeared open Thursday to preliminarily blocking for the second time a landmark California law requiring tech giants to bolster privacy protections for children, telling the state's counsel that nothing shows the Legislature "cared one whit about the Constitution," and "now you're trying to reverse engineer it."

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Meta Wants Mass. Justices To Intervene In AG's Suit

By Julie Manganis

Meta Platforms has urged Massachusetts' highest court to take up its challenge to a pending lawsuit brought by the state attorney general's office, which accused the social media company of intentionally designing Instagram to be addictive to children and teenagers.

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Nvidia Wants AI Antitrust Suit Sent To California

By Ali Sullivan

Nvidia Corp. is asking a Texas federal judge to transfer to California an antitrust and patent infringement lawsuit accusing it, Microsoft and a patent risk management company of colluding to suppress the price of key technology used in powering artificial intelligence.

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AI Chatbot Co. CEO, Atty Spouse Indicted On $60M Fraud

By Jessica Corso

Federal prosecutors in California arrested the former CEO of an artificial intelligence company Thursday alongside his lawyer wife, accusing the duo of a $60 million fraud scheme in which they allegedly lied to investors about the company's financial state and diverted funds to pay for their wedding.

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House Bill Filed To Renew FCC Auctions, Spectrum Pipeline

By Christopher Cole

A Republican lawmaker introduced a bill Thursday that would give the Federal Communications Commission authority to auction the airwaves and direct the government to turn over at least 2,500 megahertz for private sector or shared use in the next five years.

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Maxell Can't Recharge Battery Patents At Fed. Circ.

By Andrew Karpan

Japanese consumer electronics outfit Maxell lost another appeal Thursday over its setbacks at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board in its fight with a major Chinese rival in the lithium-ion battery market.

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Ryanair's 'Piracy' Jury Win Over Booking.com Gets Undone

By Andrew Karpan

A federal judge has decided that Ryanair failed to show that Booking.com made enough money scraping flight data from the discount Irish airline to justify a verdict in its favor, overturning a jury verdict out of Delaware last year that found the website broke computer fraud laws.

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Chinese Ride Co. Ordered To Produce Regulator Testimonies

By Sydney Price

A New York federal judge ordered Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Global Inc. to provide testimony about its interactions with Chinese regulators before its 2021 initial public offering, rejecting the company's claim that Chinese law prevents disclosure.

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Amazon Gets Patent Case Shipped From WDTX To Calif.

By Adam Lidgett

A Texas federal magistrate judge has sent a suit accusing Amazon of infringing a pair of computing patents to California, but agreed to stay the transfer until next month.

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Chancery Tosses Suit Challenging $10.2B Zendesk Sale

By Jeff Montgomery

Rejecting stockholder claims of misstated or omitted deal terms, a Delaware vice chancellor on Wednesday dismissed a suit accusing managers of software-as-a-service venture Zendesk Inc. of taking the company private at a $10.2 billion price far below earlier offers.

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Think, McFly! 'Back To The Future' Writer Says No Apple Theft

By Craig Clough

The co-writer of "Back to the Future" suggested to a California federal jury Thursday that an independent filmmaker suing Apple and acclaimed director M. Night Shyamalan for copyright infringement should make like a tree and get out of the courtroom because her film bears no resemblance to the Apple TV+ show, "Servant."

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Netflix, Litigation Funder Fight Over Docs In Subpoena Row

By Adam Lidgett

Intellectual property strategy service AiPi LLC says it has been abiding by an order to produce documents relating to patent litigation against Netflix, while the streaming giant says "AiPi's attempt to appear reasonable is contrivance."

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HP Says Ill. Ink Antitrust Claims Fall 'Woefully Short'

By Lauraann Wood

HP urged an Illinois federal judge on Thursday to toss out customers' lawsuit accusing it of anticompetitively blocking them from using third-party ink cartridges in their machines, arguing that they haven't come close to showing how it tied customers' printer purchases to the alleged restriction.

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Micron CEO Accused Of Insider Trading In Fla. Investor Suit

By David Minsky

A Micron Technology Inc. shareholder has accused the company CEO and several board members of insider trading after selling $70 million worth of stock just before the release of disappointing financial results regarding demand for its semiconductors.

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Welder Sues Bezos' Blue Origin Over Sex Discrimination

By Carolina Bolado

A former welder at Jeff Bezos' aerospace company Blue Origin Florida LLC filed a discrimination lawsuit Wednesday claiming her supervisors forced her to sew buttons on their shirts and would tell her she was a "welder in a man's world."

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AT&T, Dish Owe FCC $20.6M In Unverified Subsidy Payments

By Nadia Dreid

AT&T and Dish Network will have to repay the Federal Communications Commission the more than $20 million it took in early pandemic broadband subsidy funds because they failed to verify that the people they used those funds for were eligible for the program.

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Fitbit To Pay $12M Fine For Ionic Smartwatch Burns

By Rae Ann Varona

Fitbit has agreed to pay a $12.25 million fine to resolve the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's allegations it failed to immediately report that its Ionic smartwatches were overheating and leaving some consumers with second- and third-degree burns, the consumer safety agency announced Thursday.

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Ex-Amazon Exec Will Oversee Google, Apple Probe In UK

By Nadia Dreid

The U.K.'s competition enforcer said Thursday it will be looking into how Google and Apple's "mobile ecosystems" have been affecting competition for both consumers and businesses, an announcement that comes just days after the watchdog booted its leader for a former Amazon head honcho.

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Brief

Section 702 Searches Require A Warrant, Judge Says

By Nadia Dreid

Courts generally need a warrant to use the backdoor known as Section 702 to search through an American's communications, a New York federal judge has ruled in an opinion that the American Civil Liberties Union is calling the "first of its kind."

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Inside New Commerce Tech Restrictions: Key Risk Takeaways

While there are a few limitations on the scope of a new final rule restricting certain foreign adversary products and technologies, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security retains sweeping authority to regulate an array of risk areas, says Peter Jeydel at Troutman.

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What Nearshoring Growth In Americas Means For Patents

With the new U.S. administration potentially focused on implementing draconian trade restrictions, nearshoring in the Americas is expected to grow, and patent prosecution attorneys will be kept on their toes as the patent landscape from country to country continues to evolve, says Ernest Huang at Procopio.

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What Insurers Should Know About AI Use In Litigation

As the use of artificial intelligence in litigation evolves, insurers should note standing court orders, instances of judges utilizing AI to determine policy definitions and the application of evidentiary standards to expert evidence that incorporates AI, says Sarah Abrams at Baleen Specialty.

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Algorithm Price-Fixing Ruling May Lower Antitrust Claims Bar

A Washington federal court's refusal to dismiss Duffy v. Yardi Systems, an antitrust case over rent prices allegedly inflated by revenue management software, creates an apparent split in the lower courts over how to assess such claims, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

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Series

Coaching Little League Makes Me A Better Lawyer

While coaching poorly played Little League Baseball early in the morning doesn't sound like a good time, I love it — and the experience has taught me valuable lessons about imperfection, compassion and acceptance that have helped me grow as a person and as a lawyer, says Alex Barnett at DiCello Levitt.

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Companies Risk White House Wrath By Keeping DEI Programs

By Sarah Jarvis

For companies pushing forward with their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives amid a torrent of attacks from President Donald Trump and his allies, there are myriad potential risks ahead — and murky questions about the legal parameters of Trump's anti-DEI agenda.

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Law Students Scramble As Federal Gov't Yanks Job Offers

By Alison Knezevich

Law students across the country are scrambling to figure out their next steps after a range of federal agencies yanked job and internship offers this week because of the new hiring freeze imposed by the Trump administration.

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Mass Tort Atty Files Ch. 11 Owing $202M To Litigation Funders

By Hilary Russ

A Houston plaintiffs attorney has filed for personal Chapter 11 protection with more than $202 million of litigation funding liabilities, according to his petition in the Southern District of Texas.

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Feud Heats Up Over Estate Of Wife Killed By Ex-BigLaw Atty

By Emily Johnson

The godson of a Georgia woman killed by her husband, former Fisher Phillips partner Claud "Tex" McIver, has said her cousins shouldn't get proceeds from a settlement of an underlying wrongful death suit, calling them "strangers" to her and claiming "the redistributive windfall" they're asking for "has no place in Georgia law."

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Boston Firm Says IT Vendor Holding Computers 'Hostage'

By Julie Manganis

Boston-based law firm Melick & Porter LLP says a company it hired to manage its information technology is now holding its computer network and data "hostage" by refusing to cooperate with the transition to a new vendor unless Melick pays it $380,000.

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In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Phillips Black Inc., Ridley McGreevy & Winocur PC and King & Spalding LLP lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court revived claims from a woman on death row in Oklahoma that prosecutors unfairly sex-shamed her and relied on gender-based stereotypes to convince a jury that she had killed her estranged husband for insurance money.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

A new Law360 Pulse survey shows that more than 90% of in-house counsel have no regrets about their decisions to join companies. In litigation stemming from Purdue Pharma's sales of OxyContin that fueled the opioid crisis, the Sackler family would lose control of Purdue and pay $6.5 billion in the latest proposed settlement. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.​

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

By Max Austin

This past week in London has seen Axa Insurance and Admiral face a claim from a former lawyer recently exposed for personal injury fraud, the owner of Reading Football Club sue a prospective buyer and mobile network Lycamobile tackle action by Spanish network Yogio. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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