All Perspectives

Headlines that Matter for Companies and Executives in Regulated Industries

ArentFox Schiff represented BMG in the Berlin-headquartered global music company’s single largest catalog acquisition in the company’s history.

A proposed settlement in a Pennsylvania case and a citizen suit letter in South Carolina signal that discharging plastic into rivers and streams may trigger liability under the Clean Water Act (CWA) and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Manufacturers who use plastics in their products or processes should evaluate if any plastic releases exceed their current permit conditions.

In this episode of Baker Tilly’s “Up to Speed” podcast, our partner Mike McMahan shares his insight on the legal considerations dealerships must address as they integrate AI solutions into their operations.

On August 22, the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) issued a proposed rule establishing a new Proposition 65 no-significant-risk level (NSRL) for diethanolamine (DEA), first listed for cancer in 2012.

The Medicaid Drug Rebate Program (MDRP) Summit 2025 will be held in Chicago, IL, from September 15-17, 2025. This hybrid event is hosted by Informa Connect and will feature topics such as 340B, drug pricing policy, and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), designed to aid attendees in mastering complex regulatory guidelines.

Anthropic PBC entered into a proposed class-wide settlement that would resolve Bartz et al. v. Anthropic PBC, No. 3:24-cv-05417 (N.D. Cal.), a high-profile copyright infringement action challenging the company’s use of millions of books to train its Claude large language models.

ArentFox Schiff is pleased to announce that San Francisco Managing Partner and Sports Practice Co-Leader Richard Brand has been named among Daily Journal’s “Top 100 Lawyers” for the fourth year in a row and fifth time overall for his continuing impact on the legal profession.

The Federal Circuit’s decision in PowerBlock Holdings, Inc. v. iFit, Inc., No. 24-1177 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 11, 2025) offers new subject matter eligibility guidance under 35 U.S.C. § 101 for mechanical-automation patents reciting physical components as opposed to purely software-based automation patents.

On August 28, President Trump directed federal agencies to investigate the use of federal grant funds where taxpayer funds are being spent on “grants with highly political overtones,” noting that “possible use of Federal grants as slush funds for political and legislative advocacy raises serious legal concerns.”

Federal enforcement of information blocking rules has entered a new era.

Partner Janine Carlan will speak at the 2025 Women’s IP Forum in Ashburn, Virginia on September 16, 2025.

Welcome to the September 2025 issue of “As the (Customs and Trade) World Turns,” our monthly newsletter where we compile essential updates from the customs and trade world over the past month. We bring you the most recent and significant insights in an accessible format, concluding with our main takeaways — aka “And the Fox Says…” — on what you need to know.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has submitted a proposed revision to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) reporting rule for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review.

The affected facilities, which are owned by companies based in South Korea and Taiwan, will have to contend with licensing requirements in order to receive exports, re-exports, and transfers of controlled items from their parent companies and suppliers.

Headlines that Matter for Companies and Executives in Regulated Industries

Industrial property transfers are drawing renewed interest from both domestic and foreign investors. These assets can be attractive, but US environmental law imposes strict, often joint and several, liabilities that can create significant risk for buyers.

On July 22, President Trump announced that the United States and Japan had reached a bilateral trade agreement.

Over time, trusts have become much more complicated. They may own a wide variety of assets, including residences, real estate, interests in family business, and interests in increasingly complex financial instruments.

Dr. David Spiegel, a Yale University professor, developed a new approach to targeted protein degradation using MODA technology (bi-functional synthetic molecules for degrading extracellular proteins).

The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recently announced that it will be overhauling the overall assignment search experience by replacing two legacy search applications — Patent Assignment Search and Assignments on the Web — with a single, unified Assignment Search application.

Headlines that Matter for Companies and Executives in Regulated Industries

In July, then-Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA) announced that he would be “relinquish[ing] the gavel” to allow him to “put Georgians’ interests first.”

This year, the environmental agenda has focused on “deregulation” to promote industrial competitiveness, as well as a sharpened focus on energy generation and transmission to support economic growth.

In a recent alert, we highlighted the United Kingdom (UK) benchmark manipulation cases of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo from 2015 and 2019, respectively. Hayes was the first banker to be jailed in the LIBOR scandal.