The FCC’s Nov. 20 order, published Jan. 22 in the Federal Register, purports to implement congressional “instruction” to facilitate equal broadband access under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, but it gives the commission “unprecedented authority to regulate the broadband internet economy,” said the Ohio Telecom Association’s (OTA) petition for review Tuesday (docket 24-3072) in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

U.S. District Judge Brett Ludwig for Eastern Wisconsin in Milwaukee entered judgment for Verizon and against Milwaukee, ordering the city to issue Verizon its requested permits within seven days so it can begin ordering small cells and custom-designed poles for installation in time for July’s Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum, said the judge’s signed decision and order Monday (docket 2:23-cv-01581).

A 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel 2-1 decision in Apple's favor in SaurikIT’s antitrust case against the tech giant “modifies what constitutes an overt act,” said the Committee to Support the Antitrust Laws (COSAL) in an amicus brief Monday (docket 22-16527) in support of SaurikIT's petition for rehearing and rehearing en banc (see 2401190065).

The recording industry in recent years has sought to “install” ISPs as the internet’s “copyright police,” said Altice USA’s motion Monday (docket 2:23-cv-00576) in U.S. District Court for Eastern Texas in Marshall to dismiss the copyright infringement complaint brought Dec. 7 by 54 record labels and music publishers (see 2312080050). The complaint alleges that Altice has knowingly contributed to, and reaped “substantial profits” from, massive copyright infringement committed by thousands of its internet subscribers.

The counsel for a former Amazon third-party seller urged the U.S. District Court for Southern New York in Manhattan to deny Amazon’s Jan. 11 motion for Rule 11 monetary sanctions against her for submitting legal arguments she knew to be frivolous (see 2401120032), said her opposition Friday (docket 1:23-cv-03334).

Comcast is asking the U.S. District Court for Southern New York in Manhattan to dismiss MaxLinear’s misappropriation of trade secrets counterclaims in their entirety under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim, said Comcast’s memorandum of law Friday (docket 1:23-cv-04436) in support of its motion to dismiss.

LoanDepot has made little information available regarding the data breach it announced in a Jan. 8 SEC filing, said a complaint Monday (docket 8:24-cv-00194) in U.S. District Court for Central California in Santa Ana.

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.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau should change tactics to avoid the risk of targets making an end run around its processes by taking advantage of recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions to drag the agency into litigation, said former FCC General Counsel Tom Johnson in a white paper sponsored by CTIA and published Monday by Wiley, where he's a partner.

SolarWinds and Tim Brown, its chief information security officer, seek the dismissal of the SEC’s fraud complaint arising from the December 2020 Sunburst cyberattack waged by the Russian government. The case is “fundamentally flawed,” said their memorandum of law Friday (docket 1:23-cv-09518) in U.S. District Court for Southern New York in Manhattan in support of their motion to dismiss.