Apple v. Amazon complaint alleges trademark infringement

HERE is the complaint filed by iPhone maker Apple against Amazon.  Apple alleges that Amazon's use of the phrase App Store for sale of Android phone applications infringes Apple's trademark in the term App Store which was recently registered with the US Patent and Trademark Office.  The registered mark is described by Apple in the registration statement below.  Apple alleges likelihood of confusion.

APP STORE  [U.S. Serial # 77525433]
Goods and Services IC 035. US 100 101 102. G & S: Retail store services featuring computer software provided via the internet and other computer and electronic communication networks; Retail store services featuring computer software for use on handheld mobile digital electronic devices and other consumer electronics. FIRST USE: 20080306. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 20080710
IC 038. US 100 101 104. G & S: Electronic transmission of data via the internet, global computer networks, wireless networks and electronic communication networks; Providing access to global computer networks, wireless networks and electronic communications networks for transmission or receipt of data. FIRST USE: 20080306. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 20080710
IC 042. US 100 101. G & S: Maintenance, repair and updating of computer software; Providing a website featuring technical information relating to computer software provided; Providing computer software consulting services; technical support services, namely, troubleshooting in the nature of diagnosing and repairing computer software problems; computer services, namely, providing search engines for obtaining data via electronic communications networks; Providing temporary use of non-downloadable computer software to enable users to program, organize and access audio, video, text, multimedia content and third-party computer software programs; Internet services, namely, creating indexes of information, sites, and other resources available on global computer networks for others; Searching and retrieving information, sites, and other resources available on global computer networks and other electronic communication networks for others. FIRST USE: 20080306. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 20080710

Final  refusal by Examiner, who considered the mark to be merely descriptive (3/19/2009)
Microsoft has objected to the trademark, saying the term is a generic one.  Pleadings before the Trademark Trial & Appeal Board (TTAB) are HERE

Limits on Malpractice Awards Show Mixed Results - NYTimes.com

Limits on Malpractice Awards Show Mixed Results - NYTimes.com

Report cites design flaw in BP well blowout preventer

the last line of defense - the blowout preventer

The Times reports that an engineering firm has identified flaws in the blowout preventer at the BP Deepwater Horizon oil well.

OTHERWISE: Leonard Weinglass remembered - Newark and the Chicago 7

OTHERWISE: Leonard Weinglass remembered - Newark and the Chicago 7

OTHERWISE: Geraldine Ferraro remembered

OTHERWISE: Geraldine Ferraro remembered

Detroit: A Dream Still Deferred - NYTimes.com

Detroit

 by Thomas J. Sugrue, a professor of history and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, the author of “The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit.”



AT first glance, the numbers released by the Census Bureau last week showing a precipitous drop in Detroit’s population — 25 percent over the last decade — seem to bear a silver lining: most of those leaving the city are blacks headed to the suburbs, once the refuge of mid-century white flight.
But a closer analysis of the data suggests that the story of housing discrimination that has dominated American urban life since the early 20th century is far from over. In the Detroit metropolitan area, blacks are moving into so-called secondhand suburbs: established communities with deteriorating housing stock that are falling out of favor with younger white homebuyers. If historical trends hold, these suburbs will likely shift from white to black — and soon look much like Detroit itself, with resegregated schools, dwindling tax bases and decaying public services.......A Dream Still Deferred - NYTimes.com

OTHERWISE: ABA backs Right to Counsel for Civil Contempt in Child Support in Supreme Court filing

OTHERWISE: ABA backs Right to Counsel for Civil Contempt in Child Support in Supreme Court filing

Supreme Court Rejects Bright-Line Test for Materiality and Scienter Allegations in Securities Fraud Case

from Skadden Arps

Matrixx Initiatives, Inc. v Siracusano, No. 09-1156 (Mar. 22, 2011) 

A unanimous United State Supreme Court this morning held that a securities fraud complaint, based on a pharmaceutical company's alleged failure to disclose reports of adverse events associated with a product, may state a claim, even if the complaint does not allege that the company knew of a statistically significant number of adverse events. In an opinion by Justice Sotomayor, the Court rejected a bright-line test that would require an allegation of statistical significance in order to satisfy the materiality and scienter requirements under Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5.

In finding that the plaintiffs had adequately alleged material omissions, the Court noted that neither drug regulators nor medical professionals limit the evidence considered for purposes of assessing whether a product causes harm to statistically significant data. "Given that medical professionals and regulators act on the basis of evidence of causation that is not statistically significant, it stands to reason that investors would as well." The Court cautioned that its ruling would not require disclosure of all adverse events, but only those that would significantly alter the total mix of information.

In addressing the scienter issue, the Court first noted that it was assuming (but not deciding) that "deliberate recklessness" would satisfy the scienter element. This leaves for another day the question of whether recklessness constitutes scienter. The Court rejected the drug company's argument that, because plaintiffs did not allege that the company knew of statistically significant evidence that the drug at issue caused harm, there is no basis to infer scienter. The Court held that "Matrixx's proposed bright-line rule requiring an allegation of statistical significance to establish a strong inference of scienter is just as flawed as its approach to materiality."

Supreme Court Rejects Bright-Line Test for Materiality and Scienter Allegations in Securities Fraud Case

Separate and Unequal - Bob Herbert - NYTimes.com

Bob Herbert writes:

I favor integration for integration’s sake. This society should be far more integrated in almost every way than it is now. But to get around the political obstacles to school integration, districts have tried a number of strategies. Some have established specialized, high-achieving magnet schools in high-poverty neighborhoods, which have had some success in attracting middle class students. Some middle-class schools have been willing to accept transfers of low-income students when those transfers are accompanied by additional resources that benefit all of the students in the schools.

It’s difficult, but there are ways to sidestep the politics. What I think is a shame is that we have to do all of this humiliating dancing around the perennially uncomfortable issue of race. We pretend that no one’s a racist anymore, but it’s easier to talk about pornography in polite company than racial integration. Everybody’s in favor of helping poor black kids do better in school, but the consensus is that those efforts are best confined to the kids’ own poor black neighborhoods.

Separate but equal. The Supreme Court understood in 1954 that it would never work. But our perpetual bad faith on matters of race keeps us trying.

Separate and unequal - Bob Herbert - NY Times

Apple Sues Amazon Over Term 'App Store' - WSJ.com

Apple Sues Amazon Over Term 'App Store' - WSJ.com