A consortium of investors led by Elon Musk said Monday it has offered to pay $97.375 billion to buy artifical intelligence platform OpenAI, drawing a quick and snarky rejection from Sam Altman, who co-founded the platform with Musk. 
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TOP NEWS

Elon Musk-Led Group Makes $97.4B OpenAI Takeover Bid

By Al Barbarino

A consortium of investors led by Elon Musk said Monday it has offered to pay $97.375 billion to buy artifical intelligence platform OpenAI, drawing a quick and snarky rejection from Sam Altman, who co-founded the platform with Musk. 

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9th Circ. Tosses Slack Investor Suit After High Court Battle

By Jessica Corso

The Ninth Circuit on Monday released Slack Technologies Inc. from an investor dispute that was previously ruled on by the U.S. Supreme Court, with the circuit court going a step further than the high court in ruling that none of the suing investors' claims were salvageable due to the unique way that Slack went public. 

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'Noxious' Anti-Qualcomm Media Blitz Won't Be Blocked

By Andrew Karpan

A Florida federal judge said Friday he won't tell a company that used to make automated video cameras to stop its Glenn Beck-aided media blitz connecting its patent campaign against Qualcomm Inc. to conspiracy theories involving former President Barack Obama, "regardless of how noxious it may be."

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AI Copyright Plaintiffs Say Google Is Raising 'Marginal issues'

By Andrew Karpan

Artists and authors suing over how Google trains its artificial intelligence software say that the tech giant is disputing "marginal issues" that other tech giants facing similar copyright lawsuits over similar technology haven't brought up.

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GenapSys Can't Claw Back Some Docs From Paul Hastings

By Craig Clough

A California judge ruled that GenapSys Inc. can claw back some documents it inadvertently released during discovery in a legal malpractice suit against Paul Hastings LLP, but that some documents discussed during depositions cannot be clawed back because attorneys for GenapSys did not lodge proper objections during the proceedings. 

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Megan Thee Stallion's Trial Lies Suit Survives Dismissal Bid

By Carolina Bolado

A Florida federal judge has largely kept alive Megan Thee Stallion's lawsuit accusing a social media personality of acting as a paid surrogate of her convicted shooter, fellow rapper Tory Lanez, to spread lies about the trial and for promoting an AI-generated pornographic video that appears to depict her.

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Tesla Seeks Chancery Toss Of Challenge Over Texas Move

By Jeff Montgomery

Delaware's chancellor said Monday she would issue a "short" letter reply to calls for dismissal of a stockholder claim that Tesla Inc. failed to secure a required supermajority vote to move its charter to Texas, following arguments that the court recently approved a simple majority vote in a similar case.

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Mass. Judge Temporarily Blocks NIH Funding Cuts

By Carolyn Muyskens

A Massachusetts federal judge issued a temporary hold Monday on a Trump administration plan to slash grant funding provided by the National Institutes of Health after 22 states sued to block the cuts.

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POLICY & REGULATION

GOP Sens. Restart Effort To Get Lawmaker OK For Major Regs

By Christopher Cole

It could become tougher for the Federal Communications Commission to adopt new rules for the telecom industry under a bill Republicans have reintroduced that would require a congressional green light for major new regulations.

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SEC Grants Short-Selling Disclosure Reprieve, CAT Relief

By Tom Zanki & Katryna Perera

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is providing a temporary exemption in order to allow investment managers more time to comply with new rules requiring increased disclosure on short selling, and separately said it will no longer require certain personally identifiable information to be reported to the market database known as the Consolidated Audit Trail.

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FCC Ready To Lower The 'Boom' On Raucous Commercials

By Christopher Cole

The nation's telecommunications regulator will consider this month whether new rules are needed to cut the volume on blaring commercials that upset the relative calm of TV shows they accompany, according to a recent notice of proposed rulemaking.

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Prison Phone Co. Tells FCC Rate Cap Rules Cost Too Much

By Nadia Dreid

Prison phone company NCIC Correctional Services thinks the Federal Communications Commission messed up by preempting state and local laws to ban "site commissions," service provider-to-prison payments that critics call kickbacks.

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LITIGATION

Apple Urges 9th Circ. Not To Revive Web App Antitrust Suit

By Bonnie Eslinger

Apple asked the Ninth Circuit on Friday to affirm a lower court's dismissal of a case from iPhone buyers accusing it of violating antitrust law by preventing iPhones from running web-based apps, saying the suit alleges a "highly indirect and speculative" harm that's not even an antitrust injury.

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Former X Workers Can't Force Arbitration For Their Claims

By Emmy Freedman

A California federal judge refused to force X to arbitrate several former workers' claims that they say should have already proceeded through arbitration but for the social media company's unlawful dragging of its feet, saying none of the parties can arbitrate their disputes in his district.

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EV Biz Faraday Future Wins Chancery Toss Of Go-Public Suit

By Rae Ann Varona

Delaware's Court of Chancery on Monday tossed a proposed class action challenging electric vehicle maker Faraday Future's $1 billion take-public deal, saying that a stipulation in a $7.5 million settlement reached in a related case "unambiguously" precluded stockholders' claims against the California-based startup.

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Grayscale Beats Bitcoin Rival's $2M Unfair Practices Suit

By Brian Steele

A Connecticut state court judge has handed digital asset management firm Grayscale Investments LLC a summary judgment win on a smaller rival's $2 million unfair trade practices suit over a bitcoin feud, finding that the relevant state law does not apply to the dispute.

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Apple Says Child Porn Detection Suit Can't Stand

By Emily Field

Victims of child sexual abuse materials can't bring a proposed class action accusing Apple of spreading the videos and images, the tech giant has told a California federal court, arguing the company is protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

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QXO Rips Roofing Co. For Misleading Investors On $11B Offer

By Grace Dixon

QXO Inc. accused Beacon Roofing Supply Inc.'s board of directors on Monday of "cherry-picking" and manipulating performance metrics in statements urging shareholders to reject an $11 billion hostile takeover bid, adding that its offer is compelling, especially given the lack of competing proposals.

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Amazon Used App Toolkit To Harvest User Data, Suit Says

By Rachel Riley

Amazon has used Candy Crush Saga, Subway Surfers and other mobile apps as a "Trojan Horse" to ingrain secret tracking mechanisms in hundreds of millions of consumers' smartphones through a software development kit for developers, according to a new proposed class action in Seattle federal court.

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DEALS

Emerson Butts Heads With Elliott On $7.2B AspenTech Deal

By Al Barbarino

Global technology company Emerson said Monday that its $7.2 billion offer to buy the remaining shares in AspenTech that it does not already own represents "compelling and certain value" for shareholders, pushing back after activist investment firm Elliott ripped the bid as an undervaluation.

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Lexitas Selling Registered Agent Unit To Dutch Co. For $415M

By Al Barbarino

Austin, Texas-based legal services provider Lexitas said Monday that it has agreed to sell its Registered Agent Solutions Inc. unit to Dutch information services company Wolters Kluwer Financial & Corporate Compliance for approximately $415 million in cash.

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ENFORCEMENT

Apple Pushes DC Circ. To Pause Google Search Case

By Matthew Perlman

Apple told the D.C. Circuit on Monday it did not become clear that it needs to intervene in the government's search monopolization case against Google until enforcers proposed remedies that affected Apple's conduct too.

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FTC Can't Get Cap On Meta's Up To 86 Antitrust Trial Witnesses

By Bryan Koenig

A D.C. federal judge refused Monday to limit the number of witnesses in the Federal Trade Commission's monopolization lawsuit against Meta Platforms, rejecting agency assertions that plans by the Facebook parent company for up to 86 witnesses are "unreasonable."

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Baltimore Man Charged After Flying Drone Over NFL Game

By Elaine Briseño

The federal government has criminally charged a Maryland resident after he allegedly flew a drone over M&T Bank Stadium during the Jan. 11 NFL Wild Card game between the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

How Cos. Can Use Data Clean Rooms To Address Privacy

Implementing comprehensive administrative controls, security processes and vendor management systems are vital steps for businesses leveraging data clean rooms for privacy compliance, especially given the Federal Trade Commission's warnings of complicated user privacy implications, say attorneys at Troutman.

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5 Key Takeaways From Energy Secretary's Confirmation

The recent confirmation hearing for U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright highlighted several important themes, including his vision for transforming the DOE, his nuanced stance on renewables, and a renewed emphasis on energy abundance and affordability, says Connor McCulloch at Ankura Consulting Group.

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What Employers Should Know For Next Round Of H-1B Filings

With the fiscal year 2026 H-1B visa period opening soon, employers should brush up on the registration and filing procedures, as well as organize applicable data, to ensure they are ready for this dynamic, multistep process, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

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Lights, Camera, Ethics? TV Lawyers Tend To Set Bad Example

Though fictional movies and television shows portraying lawyers are fun to watch, Hollywood’s inaccurate depictions of legal ethics can desensitize attorneys to ethics violations and lead real-life clients to believe that good lawyers take a scorched-earth approach, says Nancy Rapoport at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

Injury Attys Admit 'Embarrassment' Of AI-Hallucinated Cites

By Lauren Berg

Morgan & Morgan PA and the Goody Law Group expressed "great embarrassment" Monday when they told the Wyoming federal judge overseeing a personal injury lawsuit against Walmart over an allegedly defective hoverboard that the pretrial motions they filed did, indeed, contain case law hallucinated by artificial intelligence.

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Goldstein Rearrested After Feds Say He Hid Millions In Crypto

By Phillip Bantz, Ali Sullivan

U.S. Supreme Court lawyer and SCOTUSblog publisher Tom Goldstein was arrested again Monday following his earlier release on criminal tax evasion charges, after prosecutors alleged that he secretly made millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency transactions in recent days and was a serious risk to flee.

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Experts Sound Alarm After Musk, Vance Float Ignoring Judges

By Jack Karp

Attorneys and constitutional experts say the warning lights "are blinking red" after Vice President JD Vance and Trump confidante Elon Musk took to social media to attack the independence of the judiciary over the weekend.

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Ex-FTC Commissioner's Accusers Call Damages Bid 'Fiction'

By Emily Sawicki

Women who accused former FTC Commissioner Joshua Wright of sexual misconduct stemming from his role as a law professor have told a Virginia judge that his damages expert in his defamation lawsuit against them failed to do his homework and his testimony shouldn't be allowed at the upcoming trial in the case.

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Orrick Lands 13-Atty VC Team From Gunderson Dettmer In LA

By Rose Krebs

Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP announced Monday that it has hired a 13-attorney team from Gunderson Dettmer, including the co-founders of its Los Angeles office, to bolster its tech company and venture capital services.

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DOJ Brass Want Bribery Charges Against NYC Mayor Dropped

By Rachel Scharf

The U.S. Department of Justice has moved to drop public corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, an extraordinary development in the wake of a public courtship between the embattled mayor and President Donald Trump.

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Morgan Lewis Adds 5 Knobbe Martens IP Attys On West Coast

By James Mills

Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP continues expanding its intellectual property team, announcing Monday it is bringing in a team of five Knobbe Martens IP litigators as partners in its West Coast offices.

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Roundup

What Judges Want You To Know: You Can't Fool The Court

By Dani Kass

Federal judges regularly sit on panels at conferences and similar events, sharing their best practices and most valuable pieces of advice with patent lawyers and others in the room. In the first installment of a two-part series, Law360 has pulled together advice over the last few years that remains as relevant as ever. 

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Fragomen Opens Pittsburgh Shop With 6 Dentons Attys

By James Boyle

A team of six attorneys recently moved its immigration-focused practices from Dentons Cohen & Grigsby to help Fragomen open a new office in Pittsburgh, the firm announced Monday.

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House Dems Form Rapid Response Litigation Working Group

By Courtney Bublé

House Democrats announced on Monday a new litigation initiative to confront the Trump administration and the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, which has been slashing federal funding, from stopping some government services and firing workers without Congressional approval.

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Law360 Seeks Members For Its 2025 Editorial Boards

Law360 is looking for avid readers of our publications to serve as members of our 2025 editorial advisory boards.

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COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Amazon.com Inc.

American Bar Association

American College of Trial Lawyers

Ankura Consulting Group LLC

Anthropic PBC

Apax Partners

Apple Inc.

Atreides Management LP

Baltimore Ravens Inc.

Beacon Roofing Supply Inc.

BetterHelp

Brennan Center for Justice

Capita Group

Catalent Inc.

Databricks Inc.

Digital Currency Group Inc.

Elliott Investment Management LP

Epic Games Inc.

Faraday & Future Inc.

Gemini Trust Co. LLC

GenapSys Inc.

Genesis Capital

GoodRx Holdings Inc.

Google LLC

Grayscale Investments LLC

Instagram Inc.

Interactive Advertising Bureau Inc.

Investment Company Institute

JAMS Inc.

Jetson Electric Bikes LLC

Lexitas Legal

Liberty Energy Inc.

M&T Bank Corp.

Meta Platforms Inc.

Microsoft Corp.

NASDAQ Inc.

ParkerVision Inc.

Pittsburgh Steelers

Public Citizen Inc.

QUALCOMM Inc.

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.

Slack Technologies Inc.

Southwest Airlines Co.

Tesla Inc.

The New York Times Co.

The Trade Desk Inc.

Twitter Inc.

University of California Davis

University of Southern California

Valor Equity Partners LLC

Walmart Inc.

Wolters Kluwer

eBay Inc.

LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Abrams & Bayliss

Allen Dyer Doppelt

Bathaee Dunne

Binder & Schwartz

Binnall Law Group

Bleichmar Fonti

Bragar Eagel

Carlton Fields

Clarkson Law Firm PC

Continental PLLC

Cooley LLP

Cotchett Pitre

Covington & Burling

Crowley Fleck

DLA Piper

Davis Polk

Dentons

Finn Dixon

Fragomen Del Rey

Freshfields

Garman Turner

Gibson Dunn

Goodwin Procter

Goody Law Group

Gunderson Dettmer

Hach Rose Schirripa

Hancock Daniel

Hirschler

Joseph Saveri Law Firm

Kaskela Law

Keker Van Nest & Peters

Kellogg Hansen

Kirkland & Ellis

Knobbe Martens

Latham & Watkins

Lauro & Singer

Lerch Early

Lesnick Prince

Lichten & Liss Riordan

Lockridge Grindal

McCollom D'Emilio

McCoy Leavitt

McKool Smith

Morgan & Morgan

Morgan Lewis

Morrison Foerster

Munger Tolles

Orrick Herrington

Patterson Belknap

Paul Hastings

Paul Weiss

Pollack Solomon

Prickett Jones

Quinn Emanuel

Richards Layton

Ropes & Gray

Sidley Austin

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP

Skadden Arps

Stradling Yocca

Stubbs Alderton

Sullivan & Cromwell

Toberoff & Associates

Troutman

Vasseghi Law

Wiggin & Dana

Williams & Connolly

WilmerHale

Wilson Sonsini

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

California Privacy Protection Agency

City and County of San Francisco, California

Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Delaware Court of Chancery

Executive Office of the President

Federal Aviation Administration

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Communications Commission

Federal Trade Commission

Los Angeles Superior Court

National Institutes of Health

New York County District Attorney's Office

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

U.S. Agency for International Development

U.S. Attorney's Office

U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland

U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

U.S. Department of Energy

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of Transportation

U.S. Department of the Treasury

U.S. District Court for the Central District of California

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland

U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts

U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. Supreme Court

United States District Court for the District of Wyoming