In December, Northern District of California Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley indicated that the court “does not condone [plaintiff ALD Social LLC’s] attempt to monetize Apple’s pandemic-era effort to save lives”. The court also agreed with Apple that the case that ALD Social filed against it “lacked merit”; however, it refused to shift attorney fees against ALD Social, its counsel Ramey LLP, or its alleged funder AiPi Solutions, ruling that Apple “fails to show by a preponderance of the evidence [that] ALD Social’s conduct in this case warrants an exceptional case finding”, swatting away some of ALD Social’s behavior as mere “bad manners”.