Alerts

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.

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 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.

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.”

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.

Headlines that Matter for Companies and Executives in Regulated Industries

A recent decision by the Massachusetts Superior Court in Ford v. Vacationeer, LLC, et al. confirmed that commissions are not due or payable as wages until they are definitely and arithmetically determinable, and commissions are not determinable until all contingencies in the commission pay plan have been satisfied.

Columbia Sportswear and Columbia University both use the word mark “COLUMBIA” on apparel. To prevent confusion and avoid a trademark fight, the parties entered into a co-existence agreement in 2023 to let the University keep selling school merchandise but only if it paired “COLUMBIA” with clear references to the school (for example, “University,” the school shield, or “1754”).

On August 11, the California Supreme Court issued a significant decision in Hohenshelt v. Superior Court addressing the interplay between the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) and California’s statutory requirements for timely payment of arbitration fees in employment and consumer disputes.

Certain businesses implement dynamic pricing based on individual preferences or previously collected consumer data. This practice may soon be prohibited in New York if those websites fail to state, “THIS PRICE WAS SET BY AN ALGORITHM USING YOUR PERSONAL DATA.”