All Perspectives

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Headlines that Matter for Companies and Executives in Regulated Industries

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.

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

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.

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).

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.

Headlines that Matter for Companies and Executives in Regulated Industries

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.

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.”

ACTEC Trust & Estate Talk Podcast, “Estate Planning Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) Part 2: Qualified Opportunity Zone (QOZ) Planning Strategies Post OBBBA”

After a three month wait, the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has finally caught up with the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in relaxing restrictions on trade with Syria, but this time in the export control world.

In an order filed on August 12, the US District Court for the Eastern District of California ruled that California’s Proposition 65 cancer warning requirement for certain listed forms of titanium dioxide (airborne, unbound particles of respirable size) in cosmetics and personal care products is unconstitutional under the First Amendment.

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.

Customs & Import Compliance Practice Group Leader Angela Santos was quoted on the federal appeals court’s ruling that the Trump Administration could not use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to authorize sweeping worldwide tariffs.

Headlines that Matter for Companies and Executives in Regulated Industries

ArentFox Schiff proudly announces its 2025 class of AFS Fellows, featuring exceptional attorneys from across our industry teams, practice groups, and offices, who will begin a three-year professional development program.