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Appellate
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July 23, 2025
Full Fed. Circ. Won't Disturb Machine Learning Patent Ruling
The full Federal Circuit on Wednesday declined to reconsider its first-ever patent eligibility decision involving machine learning, leaving in place a panel's April findings that applying established machine learning methods to a new area cannot be patented.
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July 23, 2025
9th Circ. Clarifies Bored Ape NFTs Are Trademarkable Goods
The Ninth Circuit issued a significant ruling for digital asset creators Wednesday finding that Yuga Labs' Bored Ape Yacht Club nonfungible tokens are protectable "goods" under federal law, while also reversing Yuga Labs' $8 million summary judgment win and ruling that a jury must decide whether rival NFTs confuse consumers.
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July 23, 2025
Hinshaw Must Face Malpractice Suit, Fla. Panel Says
A Florida appeals panel overturned Wednesday a lower court decision favoring Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP in a malpractice claim brought by a pilot safety training company, ruling that the company didn't abandon its claims by settling an underlying arbitration.
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July 23, 2025
Trump Admin Appeals Ruling On NCUA Board Member Firings
The Trump administration has asked a Washington, D.C., federal judge to pause a ruling reinstating two ousted Democratic members of the National Credit Union Administration board, arguing the decision represents an "extraordinary intrusion" into presidential power and is being swiftly appealed.
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July 23, 2025
France Must Pay For Historic Fla. Shipwreck, 11th Circ. Told
An underwater salvage outfit urged the Eleventh Circuit Wednesday to revive its suit against the French government seeking compensation for finding a 16th-century shipwreck off the Florida coast, claiming it remains disputed whether the wreck is covered by a federal bar against salvage awards.
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July 23, 2025
Texas Appeals Court Says TCPA Motion Was Filed Too Late
A Texas appeals court on Wednesday found a company that was supposed to buy several orthodontic business assets filed a bid for dismissal under the state's anti-SLAPP laws too late, saying the motion was filed outside the 60-day window outlined in the statute.
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July 23, 2025
Pa. Justices Will Weigh Rollover For Other States' Pensions
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court will weigh whether a teacher's years of service in another state can count toward her Pennsylvania retirement benefits after she had already cashed out her retirement account from her previous state.
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July 23, 2025
9th Circ. Revives Barrett Business Services' Secrets Case
The Ninth Circuit has reinstated Barrett Business Services Inc.'s claims of trade secret theft against two former employees, their wives and a competing company they started.
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July 23, 2025
3rd Circ. Backs Off 2nd Look At Class Action Fraud Sanction
The Third Circuit has reissued an opinion upholding the conviction of a man accused of defrauding shareholder settlement funds, but saying it should not have previously ordered the lower court to potentially increase the $31 million judgment against the man.
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July 23, 2025
8th Circ. Tosses FCC Dems' Local Media Ownership Rule
The Eighth Circuit on Wednesday threw out local media ownership rules passed a year and a half ago by Democrats on a split Federal Communications Commission vote.
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July 23, 2025
Trump Wins 9th Circ. Block On Order Providing Reorg Plans
The Ninth Circuit greenlighted the Trump administration's request to pause a lower court ruling requiring the government to turn over its layoff and reorganization plans in the case disputing whether the president can lawfully reshape federal agencies without congressional approval.
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July 23, 2025
Mich. Panel Orders Hearing In 'Confession Tapes' Murder Case
A woman whose story was featured in a Netflix television series on false confessions has won a new hearing on the reliability of her murder confession and the methods used to investigate her daughter's 2002 death in a house fire. Â
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July 23, 2025
False Ad Ruling Expanded Patent Law, Crocs Tells Justices
Shoemaker Crocs Inc. has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to look at a Federal Circuit decision reviving false advertising claims that its shoes were made with "patented, proprietary, and exclusive" materials that weren't actually patented, arguing that the ruling would allow an "end run" around Congress' limitations on false marking suits.
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July 23, 2025
6th Circ. Questions Officials On Search: 'Pretty Darn Obvious'
Sixth Circuit judges on Wednesday grilled Michigan zoning and building officials seeking immunity from an improper-search lawsuit, repeatedly suggesting it was "obvious" the officials should have known they were crossing property lines to look at dwellings and areas protected by the Fourth Amendment.
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July 23, 2025
NJ Panel Tosses Conviction Over Fair Trial Violation
A New Jersey state appeals panel has reversed the conviction of a man found guilty of weapons violations and criminal restraint, finding that it was unfair of prosecutors to tell his jury that the defendant's daily attendance at the trial indicated he was fabricating testimony.
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July 23, 2025
Creek High Court Grants Freedmen Descendants Citizenship
The (Muscogee) Creek Nation Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a lower court's decision to give citizenship to two descendants of those once enslaved by the tribe, saying a 19th century treaty that required the Five Civilized Tribes to abolish slavery should have applied to their applications seven years ago.
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July 23, 2025
9th Circ. Partially Revives UPS Workers' Wage Claims
Four former United Parcel Service seasonal employees supported their claims for unpaid wages and late payments after their termination, a Ninth Circuit panel said Wednesday, but ruled that their breach of contract claims are preempted by federal labor law.
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July 23, 2025
11th Circ. Throws Cold Water On Ga. County's Spaceport Suit
An Eleventh Circuit panel signaled Wednesday that it was not buying a Georgia county's claims that it should be able to claw back $2.6 million it put down on a property where it intended to construct a commercial spaceport after the county's voters repealed authorization for the project in a referendum.
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July 23, 2025
SEC Asks 8th Circ. To Rule On Abandoned Climate Regs
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission asked the Eighth Circuit on Wednesday to decide the fate of Biden-era climate disclosure rules that the agency has said it will no longer defend against challenges brought by Republican-led states and business interests.
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July 23, 2025
4th Circ. OKs Firing Of Worker After Pregnancy Complications
The Fourth Circuit upheld a win for media giant Nexstar in a former account executive's pregnancy disability discrimination suit, finding the accommodations she'd proposed for her postpartum health issues were not reasonable for the company.
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July 23, 2025
Wash. Counties Can Sue State Over Public Defense Funding
A Washington state appeals court has ruled that a coalition of counties has standing to sue the state to force it to provide adequate funding for indigent defense services, saying the coalition had shown that it had been harmed by the current funding system.
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July 23, 2025
Fed. Circ. Deems 'Kist' And 'Sunkist' Marks Confusingly Alike
The Federal Circuit on Wednesday reversed a trademark tribunal's conclusion that "Kist" and "Sunkist" soft drink marks were not confusingly similar, saying the board was wrong to distinguish the goods by focusing on images of red lips and the sun in marketing materials for the products.
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July 23, 2025
Split Conn. High Court OKs Eyewitness ID In Armed Robbery
Connecticut's Supreme Court has narrowly ruled that in the case of a masked armed robbery at a Smashburger, though a victim may have been scared, high, not wearing glasses and directed toward a suspect, her identification of the perpetrator was reliable.
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July 23, 2025
ACLU's Brief Rejected In Ex-Yale Student's Defamation SuitÂ
The ACLU's Connecticut litigation arm and five other legal advocacy groups cannot file friend-of-the-court briefs in former Yale University student Saifullah Khan's defamation case against 16 others that filed a rejected amici brief in a separate state Supreme Court matter, a state appeals court has ruled.
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July 23, 2025
Firm Can't Arbitrate After Filing Suit, 4th Circ. Says
A Maryland law firm and a debt buyer cannot force a debt collection dispute into arbitration, the Fourth Circuit ruled Wednesday, finding they waived their right to arbitrate when they filed their own collective action.
Expert Analysis
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Series
My Opera And Baseball Careers Make Me A Better Lawyer
Though participating in opera and the world of professional baseball often pulls me away from the office, my avocations improve my legal career by helping me perform under scrutiny, prioritize team success, and maintain joy and perspective at work, says Adam Unger at Herrick Feinstein.
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High Court ACA Ruling May Harm Preventative Care
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Kennedy v. Braidwood last week, ruling that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services secretary has authority over an Affordable Care Act preventive care task force, risks harming the credibility of the task force and could open the door to politicians dictating clinical recommendations, says Michael Kolber at Manatt.
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Opinion
Subject Matter Eligibility Test Should Return To Preemption
Subject matter eligibility has posed challenges for patentees due to courts' arbitrary and confusing reasoning, but adopting a two-part preemption test could align the applicant, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the courts, says Manav Das at McDonnell Boehnen.
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8 Ways Lawyers Can Protect The Rule Of Law In Their Work
Whether they are concerned with judicial independence, regulatory predictability or client confidence, lawyers can take specific meaningful actions on their own when traditional structures are too slow or too compromised to respond, says Angeli Patel at the Berkeley Center of Law and Business.
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Kousisis Concurrence Maps FCA Defense To Anti-DEI Suits
Justice Clarence Thomas' recent concurrence in Kousisis v. U.S. lays out how federal funding recipients could use the high standard for materiality in government fraud cases to fight the U.S. Justice Department’s threatened False Claims Act suits against payees deviating from the administration’s anti-DEI policies, say attorneys at Miller & Chevalier.
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Justices' Review Of Fluor May Alter Gov't Contractor Liability
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to review Hencely v. Fluor, a case involving a soldier’s personal injury claims against a government contractor, suggests the justices could reconsider a long-standing test for determining whether contractors are shielded from state-tort liability, says Lisa Himes at Rogers Joseph.
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Google Damages Ruling Offers Lessons For Testifying Experts
The Federal Circuit's recent decision in EcoFactor v. Google represents a shift in how courts evaluate expert testimony in patent cases, offering a practical guide for how litigators and testifying experts can refine their work, says Adam Rhoten at Secretariat.
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Series
Law School's Missed Lessons: Communicating With Clients
Law school curricula often overlook client communication procedures, and those who actively teach this crucial facet of the practice can create exceptional client satisfaction and success, says Patrick Hanson at Wiggam Law.
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One Year On, Davidson Holds Lessons On 'Health Halo' Claims
A year after the Ninth Circuit's Davidson v. Sprout Foods decision — which raised the bar for so-called health halo claims — food and beverage companies can draw insights from its finding, subsequently expanded on by other courts, that plaintiffs must be specific when alleging fraud in healthfulness marketing, say attorneys at Sidley.
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Justices' NRC Ruling Raises New Regulatory Questions
In Nuclear Regulatory Commission v. Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court avoided ruling on the NRC's authority to license private, temporary nuclear waste storage facilities — and this failure to reach the merits question creates new regulatory uncertainty where none had existed for decades, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.
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Rocket Mortgage Appeal May Push Justices To Curb Classes
Should the U.S. Supreme Court agree to hear Alig v. Rocket Mortgage, the resulting decision could limit class sizes based on commonality under Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Evidence as opposed to standing under Article III of the U.S. Constitution, say attorneys at Carr Maloney.
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3 Judicial Approaches To Applying Loper Bright, 1 Year Later
In the year since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Chevron deference in its Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo decision, a few patterns have emerged in lower courts’ application of the precedent to determine whether agency actions are lawful, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.
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Trending At The PTAB: Shifts In Parallel Proceedings Strategy
Dynamics are changing between the Patent Trial and Appeal Board and federal courts, with two recent discretionary denials and one Federal Circuit decision offering takeaways for both patent owners and challengers navigating parallel proceedings, say attorneys at Finnegan.
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What Businesses Need To Know To Avoid VPPA Class Actions
Divergent rulings by the Second, Sixth and Seventh Circuits about the scope of the Video Privacy Protection Act have highlighted the difficulty of applying a statute conceived to regulate the now-obsolete brick-and-mortar video store sector in today's internet economy, say attorneys at DTO Law.
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Series
Adapting To Private Practice: From US Rep. To Boutique Firm
My transition from serving as a member of Congress to becoming a partner at a boutique firm has been remarkably smooth, in part because I never stopped exercising my legal muscles, maintained relationships with my former colleagues and set the right tone at the outset, says Mondaire Jones at Friedman Kaplan.