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WASHINGTON, D.C. — In consolidated cases before the U.S. Supreme Court in which Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. assert constitutional challenges to the Federal Communications Commission’s enforcement of monetary forfeitures under the Communications Act, Verizon and AT&T on April 13 filed a reply brief, arguing that the FCC’s forfeiture orders are unlawful because they impose monetary penalties without a jury trial.
BOSTON — The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on April 10 affirmed a trial court’s ruling denying dismissal by Meta Platforms Inc. and Instagram LLC in a suit filed against them by the commonwealth of Massachusetts alleging that Instagram’s design features cause addiction in youth, finding that interlocutory review is appropriate and Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act does not bar the commonwealth’s claims because the alleged harm results from the way in which the platform is designed rather than the content of the information published.
BALTIMORE — Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown said on April 9 that the state has reached a settlement in principle with the owner and technical manager of the ship M/V Dali, which allided with and destroyed the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore on March 26, 2024, noting that the settlement resolves a potion of the state’s claims in an exoneration lawsuit.
DENVER — Colorado’s Artificial Intelligence Act (CAIA), set to take effect in June, must be enjoined as it is “an effort to embed the State’s preferred views into the very fabric of AI systems” rather than “a prohibition on so-called ‘algorithmic discrimination’” as the state has alleged, X.AI LLC (xAI), the developer of Grok, claims in an April 9 complaint filed against the Colorado attorney general.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) had substantial evidence to support its rejection of a Dominican Republic tobacco company’s challenge to a CBD vape manufacturer’s application for a trademark on a stick-figure logo with limbs splayed out in the shape of the letter X, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed.
PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania federal judge dismissed in part a putative class action against DraftKings Inc., a gambling company that offers online betting, and related entities, asserting claims for violations of a Pennsylvania consumer protection law, unjust enrichment and intentional misrepresentation related to “deceptive” advertising for certain betting promotions, finding that some of the claims under state law failed because the plaintiffs did not show “ascertainable loss” and the losses asserted were “inherently speculative.”
WILMINGTON, Del. — In the latest decision in a long-running case brought by shareholders regarding the merger between M&T Bank Corp. and Hudson City Bancorp Inc., a federal judge in Delaware granted summary judgment in favor of the banks and their respective directors, finding that the banks did not provide any misleading information in their joint proxy statement informing shareholders of the merger.
SALEM, Ore. — An Oregon trial court made a prejudicial error when it instructed a jury in Phase I of a bifurcated trial seeking damages from a power company accused of negligence that caused multiple Oregon wildfires in September 2020 “that it could ‘assume that the evidence at the trial applies to all class members,’” an Oregon appellate panel ruled April 8, reversing the verdicts of millions of dollars for economic and noneconomic damages.
SAN DIEGO — A California appellate panel on April 9 partly reversed a jury’s verdict in favor of a California mortuary accused of breach of contract and violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) after it returned the wrong body to a grieving family while the body of their loved one was accidentally cremated in Texas, remanding part of the mortuary’s defense for a new bench trial.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A man diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer who requires ongoing treatment from medical providers in California was unable to convince the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPMDL) that his case should not be transferred to the multidistrict litigation involving the recall of approximately 10.8 million continuous positive air pressure (CPAP) sleep apnea devices pending in a Pennsylvania federal court.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on April 7 granted three Exxon Mobil entities’ motion for summary affirmance of the confirmation of an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) award worth roughly $1 billion against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela for expropriating oil investments, writing that identical issues to those in the appeal were addressed and resolved by existing precedent.