■ Copyrights
Starbucks to sue `imitator'
Coffee shop giant Starbucks is suing a Shanghai coffee shop for allegedly stealing its logo, a news report said yesterday. The US chain says it is taking its case to court after warning the Shanghai Xingbake Cafe for four years not to use Starbucks' distinctive circular green and black logo. Starbucks, which has 83 coffee shops in China, filed for trademark infringement after the coffee shop opened a second outlet in Shanghai using the same logo. However, the South China Morning Post reported that the coffee shop denied any infringement of Starbucks' trademark and insisted it would not change its name. The lawsuit is being handled by Starbucks' Hong Kong-based law firm Baker & Mackenzie and will be heard by the Second Intermediate People's Court of Shanghai, the newspaper said.
■ Beverages
Coca-cola denies fraud
The Coca-Cola Company Friday dismissed fresh accusations it inflated sales figures by shipping surplus beverage concentrate to domestic and overseas bottlers. The world's top soft drink maker was responding to a Wall Street Journal article quoting three former executives who said they witnessed a scam in which Coca-Cola sent the larger-than-needed quantities of concentrate to the bottlers. A Coca-Cola spokesman told reporters there was no basis for the accusations. In 2000, a group of Coca-Cola stockholders filed suit against the company accusing it of shipping a 600-million-dollar surplus of concentrate to bottlers in Japan, North America, Europe and South Africa.
■ Stocks
Jakarta probes irregularities
Indonesia is probing allegations that the local stock market's strong performance in recent months was driven by criminals laundering money through the exchange, a news report said yesterday. Yunus Husein, chairman of the Financial Transaction and Report Analysis Center, said his agency has launched a money laundering investigation in connection with the Jakarta Stock Exchange which reached all-time highs earlier this month. "We don't have any numbers yet but we did receive reports on the matter and an investigations is already under way," Husein said according to The Jakarta Post. Husein could not be reached for further comment. The stock market is up 8 percent this year, after rising 63 percent last year. The bourse was Southeast Asia's second leading performer last year behind Thailand.
■ Airlines
Ryanair loses court battle
Ryanair said Friday it would increase its ticket prices after a London court ruled in favor of a disabled man who sued the low-cost Irish carrier for charging him for a wheelchair. Bob Ross, 55, who suffers from cerebral palsy claimed the £18 (US$32) fee he was charged at Stansted airport near London in 2002 was discriminatory. The Central London County Court ruled in his favor and ordered Ryanair to pay £1,336, amounting to twice £18 for the outward and home journeys, £300 for a wheelchair subsequently bought by Ross and £1,000 for injury to his feelings. Disabled groups welcomed the ruling, but a Ryanair spokesman said it was "defective." The company would in future charge every passenger £0.50 to meet the cost of providing wheelchair assistance.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day