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A fantasy sports league is facing a very real lawsuit from Major League Baseball, and the U.S. Supreme Court is deciding right now whether it wants to play ball. At issue is a big case roiling the sports world: Can MLB and its players charge fantasy leagues for the right to use their names and statistics? Fantasy leagues are operated by players who manage imaginary teams based on the stats of real-life athletes. Depending on how their players perform, their fantasy teams thrive or dive in carefully monitored standings. A St. Louis-based company called CBC Distribution and Marketing Inc. says...

ROSEBUD burger baron Ian Macdonald almost bit off more than he could chew when he went public about his bunfight with fast food giant McDonald's. Yesterday his business, Macdonald's Gourmet Burgers, had the busiest day in its short history as it was flooded with supportive customers. "I am on my way to buy another 150kg of beef now because we have completely sold out," Mr Macdonald said yesterday afternoon, before reopening for the dinner rush. "It has been absolutely crazy. I really have to apologise to everyone for the delays, but it was just so unexpected." .......

Congress moved Monday to improve trademark protection in legislation that had its origins in a dispute between a famous lingerie retailer and an adult novelty store. The legislation, approved by voice vote in the House and sent to the president for his signature, makes it easier for the owner of a well-known trademark to take legal action against imitations that could impair its distinctiveness or undermine its reputation. Congress turned to the issue after the Supreme Court in 2003 ruled against lingerie giant Victoria's Secret, which filed trade infringement and dilution claims against an Elizabethtown, Ky., adult novelty shop originally...

Peter Demers says growing a business is tough enough “without being trampled over by a media giant.” Demers publishes the AmericanDad.com Web magazine out of a small office in the South End. The site, described as “an online resource for guys with kids” has offered parenting tips, advice on academics, ideas for hobbies and activities for children and other resources for dads since August 2003. It’s a small operation. The site gets about 1,800 to 2,000 visits a day. Demers says AmericanDad is trying to create a brand and community around fatherhood, and has ramped up marketing efforts recently to...

Even today, sources on inventions list six by Franklin that are still in active use today. One of those sits in my back hall, cheerfully and economically heating the back of my home – the Franklin stove. Another sits on the bridge of my nose as I write this – a pair of bifocals. But this is about Franklin’s greatest invention, one that the lists never mention because it is mere words, not a physical object. Franklin made seven trips to Europe, as a diplomat and scholar. He was welcomed into all the learned societies that existed in Europe then....

It has Jimi Hendrix version of the Star Spangled Banner in the background....the flag is waving and up comes the following messages, "Because our government has sold out to coporations"....."because conusmerism has become the new reilgion"...."because we forgot the real meaning of freedom"....as the rest of the flag comes into view the stars on the blue backdrop are replaced by corporate emblems.... brought to you by www.unbrandAmerica.org ANSWER and other America-haters flew this flag daily at their RNC protests in New York City daily last September... a truly disgraceful display of a desecration of the American Flag by CNN on...

BELSANO, Pa. -- One sells doughnuts, the other sells ice cream. One's been in business since 1937, the other since 1968. But most importantly, one makes enough money to have more than 390 stores in 45 states and six countries while the other makes enough to employ a husband and wife full time and help a handful of teenagers each summer earn extra money for college. And now, the musclebound company, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc., is on the verge of suing Krispy Kream Drive-In for stealing its company name.

"ST. HELENS, Ore. - So far as she knows, Pufferbelly Toys owner Stephanie Cox hasn't been passing any state secrets to sinister foreign governments, or violating obscure clauses in the Patriot Act." "So she was taken aback by a mysterious phone call from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to her small store in this quiet Columbia River town just north of Portland. " " Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said agents went to Pufferbelly based on a trademark infringement complaint filed in the agency's intellectual property rights center in Washington, D.C."

<p>While we were all popping the cork on New Year's Eve, a dubious milestone was quietly passing: The United States and Europe wrapped up their 20th year of failed trade talks on wine. Bilateral negotiations began in 1983, under the Reagan administration.</p>

The justices let stand a U.S. appeals court ruling that reinstated Parks' false advertising and publicity claims against OutKast and three Bertelsmann AG (news - web sites) units -- LaFace Records, the record producer, and Arista Records and BMG Entertainment, the distributors. Parks made history in 1955 when she refused to give up her seat to a white man and move to the back of a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Her arrest, which became a defining moment in the civil rights movement, led to a 381-day boycott of the bus system by blacks. It resulted in the end...

WASHINGTON -- The Washington Redskins, again confronted by American Indians who find the team's name offensive, asked a judge to overturn a ruling that revoked the team's federal trademark protection. "My clients honor -- they don't ridicule," said Redskins lawyer Robert Raskopf, echoing the NFL team's long-held contention that its use of the nickname is meant as a tribute. Seven American Indians successfully argued otherwise in 1999, when the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board granted their petition to cancel the team's trademark registrations because of a federal law that prohibits registering "disparaging" names. The Redskins appealed, and U.S. District Court...

Don't Use Those Words: Fox News Owns Them By Jack M. Balkin, Jack M. Balkin teaches constitutional law at Yale Law School. Fox News is suing comedian and writer Al Franken in the New York courts, attempting to stop the sale of his forthcoming book, "Lies, and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right." Fox claims that Franken may not use the expression "fair and balanced" because it has been trademarked by Fox News and that Franken's book would confuse viewers about the source of the book and about the objectivity of its...

<p>NEW YORK (AP) Fox News Channel has sued liberal humorist Al Franken and the Penguin Group to stop them from using the phrase ''fair and balanced'' in the title of his upcoming book.</p> <p>Filed Monday in Manhattan, the trademark infringement lawsuit seeks a court order forcing Penguin to rename the book, ''Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right.'' It also asks for unspecified damages.</p>

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.One of the strongest brands ever to be developed in Minnesota is under attack. The trademark for the Honeywell Round T87 Thermostat, released 50 years ago this August and still made in Golden Valley, is being challenged in court. An Indiana startup manufacturing company is suing Morristown, N.J.-based Honeywell for the right to make and sell a round thermostat and overturn Honeywell's trademark. Eco Manufacturing Inc., based in Lebanon, Ind., won the first round in court June 20 when U.S. District Court Judge David Hamilton in Indianapolis declined to uphold an injunction...

The owners of the MacCoffee brand have challenged the right of McDonald's Russia to the similar sounding McCafe logo as the former prepares to launch a chain of coffee shops in Moscow. Future Enterprises Singapore claims the fast food giant's trademark sounds confusingly similar to its instant coffee label and has appealed to Russia's trademarks and patents agency, Rospatent. According to Sudip Nair, the head of FES's Moscow office, the appeal points out that his company has held the right to the brand since 1998. FES has sold its instant coffee under the MacCoffee name since 1994. The company also...

"We distort. You comply"Even in a down economy, there are some business models that still work -- selling T-shirts comparing Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly to Hitler, for example. - - - - - - - - - - - -By Katharine MieszkowskiJune 26, 2003  | Nothing boosts lefty T-shirt sales like an officious, bullying cease-and-desist letter from Fox News. Agitproperties.com in Austin, Texas, sells "Faux News Channel" T-shirts that mock the Fox logo with the slogan "We distort. You comply." The company is an equal-opportunity network mocker -- it also sells "Pentagon News Network" T-shirts parodying the CNN logo....

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — The Hungarian patent office ruled against a Czech brewery's right to use the ``Bud'' trademark in Hungary, but said that the company could continue using the ``Budweiser'' name there, the head of the office's international department said Tuesday. The decision was part of long-standing battle over the rights to the Budweiser and related names between U.S. brewer Anheuser-Busch Inc. and state-owned Czech rival Budejovicky Budvar. The Hungarian Patent Office decided in Anheuser-Busch's favor in the cases of the ``Bud'' and ``Budvar'' names and related variants. ``We found...