On June 11, 2025, Disney (including Lucasfilm, Marvel, and 20^th Century Studios) and Universal Pictures (including DreamWorks) filed a Complaint for direct and secondary copyright infringement in the Central District of California against artificial intelligence (“AI”) firm Midjourney for its alleged “calculated and willful copyright infringement”. This suit marks the first time major Hollywood studios have taken the enforcement of their copyrights into their own hands and directly gone after a generative AI company.

In the suit, the studios attack Midjourney for ...

July 1^st Minimum Wage Increases

Each year on July 1^st, a number of local municipalities and the County of Los Angeles raise their hourly minimum wage, based on changes to the consumer price index, and as required by local minimum wage ordinances.  California’s minimum wage remains set at $16.50 per hour; and as we previously reported here, California customarily issues its annual hourly minimum wage rates each January 1^st.

Beginning July 1, 2025, the following increases will apply to employers in the designated areas:

On June 11, 2025, in likely the most significant ruling of the longstanding feud between the social media website, Reddit, Inc., and the founder of its notorious “WallStreetBets” subreddit community, Jaime Rogozinski, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (Case No. 24-735) affirmed a district court’s dismissal with prejudice of Mr. Rogizinski’s lawsuit alleging that Reddit continued to infringe upon the “WallStreetBets” trademark.

The principal issue in the Ninth Circuit’s ruling was the ownership of the trademark at issue, the starting point for any ...

In the recent decision in Sanders v. Superior Court of Los Angeles County, the California Court of Appeal reinforced the consequences for employers who fail to timely pay arbitration fees in employment disputes.  This decision is another in a long line of cautionary reminders for employers to timely pay arbitration fees, as the failure to do so will result in not only the loss of the right to arbitrate, but also potentially severe sanctions.

Sanders tells an all too familiar story: after Sanders was terminated, she filed a putative class and Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA ...

On May 14, 2025, the California Court of Appeal issued a decision in Rose v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., addressing whether the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency (LWDA) can be held liable for an employer’s litigation costs in an unsuccessful Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) action where the LWDA was not an active participant.

The plaintiff, a former cashier at Hobby Lobby, filed a representative PAGA action alleging violations of California’s “suitable seating” requirements. Following a nine-day bench trial, the court ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby ...

In Chavez v. Hi-Grade Materials Co., the California Court of Appeal issued a ruling that significantly impacts how and when employees can appeal orders denying class certification, especially in cases involving both class claims and a Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”) claim. This decision is particularly important for California employers wary of facing wage-and-hour class actions and PAGA lawsuits.

The plaintiff, a former employee, brought a putative class action alleging various wage-and-hour violations and sought penalties under PAGA. After the trial court ...

On April 15, 2025, after jurors found a line of dolls from the toymaker, MGA Entertainment, Inc. (“MGA”), infringed the trade dress rights of a pop group owned by music artists Clifford "T.I." Harris and Tameka "Tiny" Harris, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (Case No. 2:20-cv-11548-JVS-AGR) granted entry of an approximately $71 million judgment in favor of the Harrises. In the same order, however, the Court denied the Harrises’ motion for a permanent injunction enjoining MGA’s continued infringing use of the trade dresses at issue after ...

On April 30, 2025, the Federal Circuit issued a decision in Fintiv, Inc. v. PayPal Holdings, Inc. (No. 23-2312), issued on April 30, 2025, upholding the invalidation of Finitiv Inc.’s (“Finitiv”) mobile wallet patents related to cloud-based transaction systems based on the Court’s finding that the patents were indefinite because they described the result of the invention instead of the process to achieve the result.

Fintiv sued PayPal for infringing U.S. Patent Nos. 9,892,386; 11,120,413; 9,208,488; and 10,438,196. The parties’ dispute centered on how the term ...

In a significant development for California employers, the Court of Appeal in Williams v. Alacrity Solutions Group, LLC recently affirmed the dismissal of a Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”) claim brought solely on behalf of other employees, holding that a PAGA plaintiff must assert a timely individual claim to maintain standing.

The plaintiff, a former insurance adjuster, alleged various Labor Code violations during his employment, including unpaid overtime and inaccurate wage statements. However, he waited more than a year after his employment ended to file the ...

On April 28, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Celanese International Corp.’s challenge to a Federal Circuit decision which found the company’s patent on the process to create the artificial sweetener used in Coke Zero to be invalid. The Federal Circuit decision affirmed a holding from the U.S. International Trade Commission which initially deemed the patent invalid due to the on-sale bar.

The underlying issue in the case is whether Celanese’s patent, which covers an improved process for making acesulfame potassium (Ace-K), was invalid due to the on-sale bar. The ...