| Blizzard sued over game fonts copyright
Beijing Founder Electronics Co Ltd said yesterday it has sued US game company Blizzard Entertainment over alleged copyright infringement of its fonts.
The case is the latest in a string of lawsuits launched by Chinese companies against US firms recently as the rift over intellectual property rights protection continues.
Beijing High People's Court has accepted Founder Electronics' case.
Founder Electronics is asking for compensation of 100 million yuan for the alleged infringement - the largest amount claimed by a Chinese company in a copyright case.
Founder Electronics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Founder Group, is the nation's largest font supplier and has developed hundreds of multi-language fonts that are widely used in the country.
Podcaster loses Simpsons site 'cybersquat'
A US podcaster has lost the right to operate a website using the name of The Simpsons Movie to attract fans of the cartoon series to sites related to his own internet output. An arbitrator for the United Nations' patent agency, WIPO, ruled that New York-based Keith Malley must cede control of the "thesimpsonsmovie.com" site to Twentieth Century Fox, the News Corp unit which owns the Simpsons trademark. The movie starring the cartoon family premiered July 20 in Springfield, Vermont, ahead of its release on Friday. The World Intellectual Property Organization ruling found that Malley had registered the domain name to divert business to linked sites promoting and selling merchandise associated with the popular "Keith and the Girl" podcast he produces. The arbitrator said the creation of the Simpsons Movie Web site amounted to "bad faith registration and use" of the address - a practice known as "cybersquatting." The case, which highlighted the difficulties involved in managing the Internet, was brought by Twentieth Century Fox in May.
Large New Jersey Firms Approve Midyear Pay Hikes for Associates
Increasing pressures to match the pay offered elsewhere have impelled some New Jersey firms to a midyear hike, a sampling of large New Jersey law offices shows. (See chart.) Day Pitney in Florham Park announced on July 27 it would increase first-year salaries to $135,000 in January 2008, a jump of $15,000. "We did an assessment of what we thought we needed to do to provide comparable salaries in our markets to attract the top-quality associates. There's no other science to it," says managing partner Dennis LaFiura. Lerner, David, Littenberg, Krumholz & Mentlik in Westfield decided on July 1 to boost first-year salaries by $10,000, to $140,000, starting in January. Lerner David's pay level equals that of Lowenstein Sandler of Roseland as the highest among firms whose main office is in New Jersey.
Translating Harry Potter lands young Muggle in trouble
A young wizard of translation, who posted his own French version of the latest Harry Potter book online, has been detained and questioned by French police. Police in Aix-en-Provence picked up the 16-year-old boy, a secondary school student, on Monday and released him Tuesday after questioning. They also shut down a website where he had posted three French-language chapters of a translation of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. English-language copies of J.K. Rowling's latest book about the boy wizard went on sale around the world on July 21. But Parisian-based publishing house Gallimard won't have its official translation into French bookstores until Oct. 26. Official Harry Potter translator Jean-Francois Menard has not yet finished work on the book, titled in French Harry Potter et les reliques de la mort.
Global relief as court rejects Novartis' patent claim
Chennai/New Delhi, Aug 6: In a judgement with global healthcare ramifications, the Madras High Court Monday dismissed a controversial patent claim by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis that would have prevented Indian companies from manufacturing cheap generic versions of life saving drugs.The ruling was immediately hailed by civil society around the world as a victory for the rights of patients in poor countries to access affordable Indian-made medicines."This is a huge relief for millions of patients and doctors in developing countries who depend on affordable medicines from India," said Tido von Schoen-Angerer, director of the Mdecins Sans Frontires (MSF) Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines. Novartis had moved the court when the Assistant Controller of Patents, Chennai, rejected its application for a patent for the beta-crystalline version of its drug, imatinib mesylate, which is sold under the brand name Glivec and is used in the treatment of blood cancer.Nationally, the judgement is a major victory for campaigners who say multi-national companies try to patent life-saving drugs by merely producing new forms of existing compounds, or by twisting the intellectual property law by a process dubbed "ever-greening" - indefinitely perpetuating patent protection by passing off variants and derivates as fresh inventions.Globally, hundreds of millions of patients, particularly in the poorest regions of the world will breath a sigh of relief - for many of them Indian generic drugs often mean the difference between life and death."The Court's decision now makes Indian patents on the medicines that we desperately need less likely.
Wellmark names new general cousel
George B. Hanna has been named senior vice president, general counsel, and business ethics and compliance officer for Wellmark, Inc.
Previously, Hanna was general attorney and associate general counsel for AT&T, Inc. in Atlanta, Ga., after its merger with BellSouth.
During his 12-year career at BellSouth, he served in various roles, including vice president and group general counsel for its advertising and publishing group, its intellectual property group, and its international operations.
He was also a senior associate for Fowler, White, Burnett, Hurley, Banick & Strickroot in Miami, Fla.
Hanna replaces F. Joseph Du Bray, who is retiring after more than 13 years at Wellmark.
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