The FCC violated the Administrative Procedure Act when it amended rules incorporating four new equipment testing standards, and did so without the proper notice and comment protocol, alleged iFixit, Public Resource and Make Community in the opening brief Wednesday (23-1311) of their petition for review at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The opening brief asks that the court remand the rules to the FCC for what the three organizations contend should be a proper rulemaking (see 2311090002).

Three more antitrust lawsuits were filed Tuesday against Apple, bringing to seven the number of similar suits, including the complaint brought March 21 by DOJ and 16 attorneys general over Apple's allegedly anticompetitive and exclusionary conduct in the smartphone market (see 2403210042).

Altice’s March 19 reply in support of its motion to dismiss the contributory copyright infringement complaint brought by 54 record labels and music publishers (see 2312080050) repeats “two fundamental errors” from its opening brief that are “fatal to its motion,” said the recording industry’s surreply Tuesday (docket 2:23-cv-00576) in U.S. District Court for Eastern Texas in Marshall in opposition to the motion to dismiss.

Mark Changizi, Michael Senger and Daniel Kotzin seek U.S. Supreme Court review of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' judgment affirming the district court’s finding that they lacked Article III standing to bring First Amendment social media censorship claims against the Department of Health and Human Services, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, said their cert petition Tuesday.

Andy Bechtolsheim, co-founder and chief architect of Arista Networks, agreed to pay a $923,740 penalty to settle an insider trading fraud case, said the SEC in a news release Tuesday. Bechtolsheim, Arista chairman at the time of the cited misconduct, also agreed, "without admitting or denying the allegations in the SEC’s complaint," to be barred from serving as an officer or director of a public company for five years, it said.

Article III ensures that federal courts don’t become forums for venting public grievances, but the complaint alleging that the State Department is running an egregious campaign censoring the right-leaning press “violates that foundational constitutional principle in textbook fashion,” said DOJ’s motion to dismiss Monday (docket 6:23-cv-00609) in U.S. District Court for Eastern Texas in Tyler.

The defendants in a trademark infringement lawsuit brought by Amazon over a scheme to sell counterfeit Amazon Fire TV remotes in its store are in default, and the prerequisites for default judgment have been met, said Amazon’s ex parte motion Monday (docket 2:23-cv-01060) for default judgment and permanent injunction against Li Qiang, Shenzhen Yinxi Electronic Commerce and “John Doe” defendants in U.S. District Court for Western Washington in Seattle.

The Center for Countering Digital Hate took to X Monday, pinning a tweet that trumpeted its court victory over Elon Musk's breach-of-contract lawsuit. “A huge win for everyone working to hold social media giants to account,” tweeted CCDH.

There’s “no solution” for the “core deficiency” in the New York Times’ copyright infringement complaint in that it alleges “not a single real-world instance of someone using the GPT-based products” in a way that violates the Times’ rights or “harms its interests,” said Microsoft’s reply memorandum Monday (docket 1:23-cv-11195) in U.S. District Court for Southern New York in Manhattan in support of its motion to dismiss (see 2403050038).

Here are Communications Litigation Today's top stories from last week, in case you missed them. Each can be found by searching on its title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.