“At first glance, it may seem as though Big Tech can’t figure out how to make money off its foray into podcasting. In early May 2022, Meta announced that it was abruptly ending Facebook’s podcast integration less a year after it launched. Facebook had offered podcasters the ability to upload their,” reports John Sullivan in The Conversation.

“Meanwhile, Spotify’s own expensive gamble on podcast integration within its music streaming service hasn’t resulted in the surge of new listeners that it had hoped and what about the emergence of social audio platforms like Clubhouse that promised to re-imagine podcasting as live audio chatrooms hosted by celebrities and public.”

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“On March 22, the Ninth Circuit reversed the trial court’s order and underlying decision in Wit et. al. v. United Behavioral Health and Alexander et al. v. United Behavioral Health (Case Numbers 20-17363, 20-17364, 21-15193, and 21-15194). In doing so, the court undid a pair of orders that had required UnitedHealthcare Group, Inc.’s (United) behavioral health unit to reprocess thousands of claims for substance abuse and mental health treatment after finding United’s coverage guidelines were improper — and thus its denials were unreasonable,” reports Top Class Actions in their JDSupra.

“The Ninth Circuit considered, in large part, whether United’s internal guidelines for mental health and substance abuse coverage contravened generally accepted standards of care. It held that United’s interpretation — that the plans did not require consistency with the generally accepted standards of care — was not unreasonable. In so holding, the Ninth Circuit ruled that the lower court was wrong in finding that United abandoned its duties under ERISA.”

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“Intellectual property may be among the most important assets in online 3D virtual worlds such as Meta’s metaverse, but guarding those assets will likely invite a flurry of complex, new legal challenges,” reports Matthew Cutler & Mark Spinelli in JD Supra.

“The proponents of “Web 3.0” have lofty goals to create a collaborative space that comprises a seamless experience across the virtual world(s) designed by developers and companies. These virtual worlds come with their own complex economy involving digital assets—both virtual and tangible—and each grounded heavily in decentralized finance.”

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“The Russian government is pushing forwards with plans to undermine intellectual property rules and reverse the rights of Western patent holders, in an effort to counter the impacts of Western sanctions,” reports Louis Goss in City A.M.

“The Russian government this week said Russian companies have no obligation to pay patent holders from countries that sanctioned Russia for use of their intellectual property, according to local media reports.”

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“The repercussions of the Russian invasion of Ukraine could extend deeply across the American economy, extending ultimately to corporate governance. Farfetched? An exaggeration? Think again,” reports Michael Peregrine in Forbes.

“Harsh new global realities arising from the invasion are likely to impact political discourse, government priorities, labor sentiment and consumer confidence. The stock market is expected to suffer, at least in the near term. Economic sanctions may accelerate inflation and exacerbate supply chain problems.”

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“Potentially as soon as late 2022 or early 2023, a new U.S. regulatory requirement will come into effect which will affect over 25 million existing business entities and another 3-4 million new entities each year,” reports Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner in JD Supra.

“The Corporate Transparency Act (“CTA”) will require small legal entities, both domestic and foreign, to file information about themselves and the individuals who formed, own and control them with a division of the U.S. Treasury Department.”

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“To invalidate patent is a common attack method in the “patent war”, especially when patentee uses the patent to litigate or demand high licensing fee,” reports Peter ZHANG in JD Supra.

“I divide the patent invalidation proceedings into three stages: preparation stage, oral hearing stage, and invalidation decision stage.”

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“U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission SEC Chair Gary Gensler will lean on corporate disclosures as the Biden administration sets its eyes on curbing anti-competitive behavior. In a meeting of the newly formed White House Competition Council set to take place later this week, Gensler will also,” reports Brian Cheung in Yahoo Finance.

“The SEC is one of six independent agencies scheduled to meet with eight cabinet secretaries in the council’s first-ever meeting on Friday at 10 a.m. ET, according to sources familiar with the matter. The White House announced the formation of the council in July, aspiring to address overconcentration, monopolization, and unfair competition.”

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“From stretched valuations to Federal Reserve tapering and a resurgence of Covid virus variants, there is no shortage of worries for stock investors. But anyone feeling tempted to bail might consider this: executives in charge of U.S. companies are stepping up their purchases. Corporate insiders,” reports Lu Wang and Elaine Chen in Bloomberg.

“Whose buying correctly signaled the bear-market bottom in March 2020, are not afraid of chasing the record-setting rally. More than 1,000 corporate executives and officers have snapped up shares of their own firms this month, the most since May of last year, according to data compiled by the Washington Service.”

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“U.S. stocks are firing on all cylinders with the major stock indexes hitting new highs in this month. On Aug 24, the S&P 500 Index recorded its 50th closing high year to date and a new all-time high. The Nasdaq Composite registered fresh closing and all-time highs. The Dow is hovering around its all-time high,” reports Yahoo Finance in their blog.

“Year to date, the three major stock indexes the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite have rallied 15.6%, 19.4% and 16.5%, respectively. By any means, this is an impressive performance considering that we are still not out of the pandemic. Moreover, Wall Street has witnessed this impressive performance after finishing an astonishing.”

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“Burlington Stores, Inc. Nyse Burl, a nationally recognized off-price retailer of high-quality, branded apparel at everyday low prices, today released its third annual Corporate Social Responsibility Report. This report highlights the important progress the Company has made across its Environmental,” reports Intrado Globe News Wire in their blog.

“Jody brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in several areas critical to our continued growth including, Compliance, Governance, Intellectual Property, ESG, M&A and general corporate matters that will surely have a positive impact on our mission of Building for Life. DeStefanis will oversee G-CON’s IP estate,”

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“Investors are betting that cash-rich companies will increase spending on everything from factories to share buybacks, a combination many believe can boost stocks in coming months. Businesses including Tyson Foods Inc., consumer-products firm Newell Brands Inc., Morgan Stanley,” reports Hardika Singh in The Wall Street Journal.

“They plan to build factories, expand research budgets, pay down debt or seek acquisitions while also giving priority to dividends or share repurchases. The hoard of cash held by U.S. companies is a key comfort for U.S. investors, despite worries that the spread of the Delta variant of coronavirus could dent the burgeoning recovery.”

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“A startup is founded, first product ships, customers engage, and then a larger company’s corporate development team sends a blind email requesting to connect and compare notes. If you’re a venture-backed startup, it would be wise to generate a return at some point, which means either get acquired,” reports Todd Graham in Tech Crunch.

“If you’re going to get acquired, chances are you’re going to spend a lot of time with corporate development teams. With a hot stock market, mountains of cash and cheap debt floating around, the environment for acquisitions is extremely rich. And as I’ve been on both sides of these equations, an increasing number.”

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“Reputation is the most important asset you’ll ever own. A recent study found that 70% of a company’s reputation is attributable to the perception of their CEO. Unfortunately, many CEOs don’t know what appears when searching their name in Google search results or on social media until it’s too late,” reports Chris Padilla in Chief Executive.

“Luckily, there are simple and effective ways to establish an online presence that can withstand negative media campaigns. For example, one of our clients is a technology industry veteran. In 2015, she was the target of an accusatory and baseless article—an article that, unfortunately, gained a lot of traction because of its inflammatory wording. It quickly rose to the first page of her Google search results.”

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“In the wake of George Floyd’s murder, corporate America pledged to do better, saying it would diversify its leadership, encourage equity and take concrete actions to root out systemic racism. But a USA TODAY analysis of previously undisclosed hiring records from dozens of top firms found that more than a year later, executive roles remain overwhelmingly white and male. Black and Hispanic workers, particularly women, tend to be concentrated in the lowest ranks, and some of the nation’s most powerful brands still refuse to disclose data on the gender, ethnic and racial makeup of their workforce,” reports Charisse Jones, Jayme Fraser and Dian Zhang in USA Today.

“They revealed that while Black and Hispanic employees are often overrepresented as compared to U.S. census data on the nation’s workforce among the technicians, administrative assistants and laborers who form the backbone of many organizations, they are less likely to be found at the company’s senior levels, or in other professional positions.”

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“Over the past four years, U.S. companies have been forced to expand their compliance programs to comply with an expanding array of international and U.S. state privacy laws. The wave of privacy laws began in May 2018, when the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) became effective, triggering new compliance obligations for U.S. companies with operations in the European Union. On the heels of the GDPR, other countries such as Brazil, Australia, India, Canada and China passed or expanded new privacy legislation, further expanding the scope of privacy compliance for U.S. multinationals,” reports Philip N. Yannella, Kim Phan and Gregory Szewczyk in Mondaq.

“In the U.S., there has likewise been a creeping expansion of state privacy laws. In 2020, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) became effective, triggering new legal requirements for U.S. companies that conduct business in California and generate yearly revenues of greater than $25,000,000.² Other states, such as Nevada, Utah, and Maine, have since passed smaller less comprehensive privacy laws.”

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“Approved by Congress in January 2021, the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) is a new federal law requiring many business entities to identify to the Treasury Department the individuals who own a 25 percent or greater interest in the entity or who otherwise exercise substantial control over the entity. The CTA seeks to identify entities used for money laundering and other criminal activities by requiring entities to disclose their ownership and control,” write Melissa W. Bailey and Mark Davidson in Brooks Pierce Client Alerts.

“While further guidance on how the CTA will be enforced has not yet been issued by the Treasury, there are several things businesses owners and their advisors should know now.”

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“In its latest assignment for longtime client General Mills Inc, Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath is advising the company on its $1.2 billion all-cash purchase of Tyson Foods Inc’s pet food business,” reports Sierra Jackson in Reuters’ Legal.

“Tyson Foods turned to a team from Hogan Lovells for the sale, which comes as people are increasingly adopting cats and dogs amid the COVID-19 pandemic.”

“Minneapolis-based General Mills announced the acquisition plans on Friday as part of its efforts to reshape its pet food portfolio, which will add the Nudges, Top Chews and True Chews brands to its holdings.”

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“Boeing quietly agreed to repay the U.S. $10.7 million after a three-year investigation concluded it had double-billed the military for taxes paid to foreign governments on overseas employees, according to a document and officials,” reports Tony Capaccio of Bloomberg in the Seattle Times’ Business.

“The overcharges “affected hundreds of contracts across numerous Department of Defense entities,” according to the latest edition of an in-house training newsletter of the Defense Contract Management Agency highlighting contract irregularities. The agreement, reached in September, wasn’t previously disclosed.”

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“Apple has been ordered to pay $308.5 million to Personalized Media Communications (PMC) after a federal jury in Texas came to the conclusion that the latter’s patents were infringed,” reports Campbell Kwan in ZDNet.

“One of the patents in question is a ‘method of decrypting programming at a receiver station’, which the jury found Apple had used without permission for its digital rights management technology, FairPlay.”

“Despite PMC not being a creator or seller of any products, the court found that the company was not a patent troll as it licenses its own internally invented patent on an exclusive basis.”

“The $308.5 million figure is the culmination of royalties from when Apple first infringed the patents. In addition, the jurors have also directed that Apple pay a running royalty to PMC for when the patent is used in its products, which is based on the amount of sales of a product or service.”

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