LG Electronics Sues Whirlpool

There are many types of refrigerator out in the U.S appliance stores. As we see, everyrefrigerator looks the same. Due to technicians using similar systems to manufacture a refrigerator, every companies’ refrigerator looks similar.

On Oct. 7, LG filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Whirlpool in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey. As stated by a company spokes person, the lawsuit was a file claimed against LG's "ice-makingsystem in a fresh food compartment" patent.

The judge, that resides in the U.S. International Trade Commission, ultimately denied the final claim made by Whirlpool Corp on the LG Electronics patent. As stated by another blogger, In Soo Nam, "the ruling stated that LG refrigerators were "not covered by less than one of Whirlpool's patents". Of Whirlpool's original five claims against LG, Whirlpool only claimed one of the five, withdrawing the other four. From this we can determine that LG is a true leader of appliances for American consumers, yet they still promote fair competition with other industries. After the lawsuit Whirlpool filed against LG, LG refuted and filed a lawsuit of their own. This case is scheduled for March in 2010 and not only is LG seeking damages but they are also seeking injunctions against several Whirlpool products.

Everyone knows that it's wrong to copy someone else's work and take credit for it. This blog clearly states that the whirlpool Corp’s copied LG electronics Inc.'s work. Therefore, I believe LG electronics Inc. has full rights to sue Whirlpool Corps. Due to Whirlpool Corp’s actions the company's credibility has significantly dropped and other companies do not want to negotiate with this company. As a result, they will eventually go bankrupt and won’t be able to manufacture any products.

Lawsuit Against Ford Motor Company

As the speeding car fed down the highway, 22-year veteran George Brentar of the Euclid police force died on Wednesday evening when his car crashed in a pole and caught on fire on an etrance ramp to Interstate 90. The road was very slippery at the time, so investigators were assuming that the crash was from the slippery road. Investigators are also stating that Brentar lost control of his car and skidded off the road.

The Ford Crown Victoria Lawsuit was flied 2 year later on October 6 in Cuyahoga County Court in Ohio by Brad Lakin and Charles Chapman of LakinChapmen, LLC. The lawsuit states that Ford is being held responsibly for putting the gas tank in the rear crush zone of the police car. It also says that Ford is being held negligent in failing to place the CVPI with an Electronic Stability Control (ESC) system.

The ESC is used to allow systems to automatically brake and to control the steering wheels under all of the driving conditions such as rain, sleet, snow, and the occational hail. Back in the late 1900's, it was used to prevent the wheel from locking up and the car from skidding.

Personally, i think that Ford is, as a matter of fact, in fault here because Lakin said that there has been over 50 crashes containing the CVPI . But also, in my opinion, the Police department should have looked into Ford's cars instead of just "assuming" that they were police work material. If there were this many crashes, Ford should have known to be more careful on how they built there cars. But in lack of negligence, Ford had no intentions to put the ESC or the CVPI in any cars, escpecially in the police cars. No fire and no burns would have happened if Ford would have not located the CVPI in the rear crush zone.Documentations were filed against Ford after these accomidations occured.

An agreement was signed by Ford stating that Ford would make the standarized ESC's by the end of 2009. Currently, Ford has approximately 4 million automobiles aroudn the world with the standarized ESC inside them.

To accomidate the crash, Lakin and Chapman won the case with $43 million dollar verdict against ford in 2005 for the same cause, only it was with an elderly coupe whose Lincoln Town Car bursted into flames after being rear ended in the back.

Chicago Cubs Sold to Ricketts Family

On opening day of the 2007 baseball season, Sam Zell, owner of the Tribune co. and Chicago Cubs, announced that the Chicago Cubs were for sale and would be sold to the highest bidder. There were multiple bidders including the billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team , Marc Cuban.


The process to sell the team was very long and therefore it took a while for Zell to find a potential buyer. Zell had the list narrowed down from ten buyers down to three buyers by July 2008. The three bidders were Owner of the Dallas Mavericks Marc Cuban, Sports Properties Acquisition Corp., and The Ricketts family. All bids were expected to exceed the amount of 1 billion dollars. However when the economy starting dropping, the price of the team was expected to drop as well. Late in Janurary Zell finally picked the buyer of the team. He picked billionaire Tom Ricketts, a die hard Cubs fan and a member of the family who founded TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. In addition to that he is the chief executive of In Capital LLC. Although, it would have made the most sense to chose Cuban who had the most money, but that didn't work out becuase Cuban was later indicted. Instead in the end Zell made the right choice by choosing owners who had their heart and soul invested in this team. That is the Ricketts family becuase they are so dedictaed to the cubs and really want them to win a world series. I feel that these owners finally have the passion for this team to finally win a world championship.

After the Ricketts were selected there was even more to do. In order for the team to be sold there had to be a two thirds vote of all major league baseball owners approving the sale. On October 6th the vote was unanimous in favor of the team being sold to the Ricketts family. Now the only thing standing between Ricketts and the Cubs are the details. The team is projected to sell for 900 million dollars. A big improvement compared to the twenty one million dollars that the Tribune Co. bought the team for in 1981. In addition to the buying the Cubs, the deal includes Wrigley field and twenty five percent interest in the Comcast Sports Network, with Zell retaining five percent of the Cubs for tax purposes.

This is a good turn around for the Cubs. The Ricketts family's networth is approximatley 2.1 billion dollars. However the Cubs have a ridicoulus 134 million dollars locked up in players salaries. Even though these players don't deserve it. This gives the Ricketts little chance to show what they can do. It forces them to spend more money on their over paid major league players and less on their farm system where the money is much needed. Also, because of the poor condition of Wrigley Field, the Ricketts family is obligated to spend even more money maintaining the stadium. In other words, I don't think fans will not see immediate improvements as a result of the team's new owners, but in a few years they will hopefully see many changes that lead to a World Series title.

David Letterman's Scandal

Everyone has heard about a time when a two people who worked with eachother have had a sexual relationship. This is a very common thing that is heard about throughout the world and very normal. But is it always heard about with a famous person like David Letterman? David Letterman is a very well known comedian. He is famous throughout the world. Letterman made a mistake by cheating on his wife and having sexual relations with someone who worked on the set of his T.V. show. Just because he is so famous, does that mean it's okay to gossip about his whole life? Just because he is caught in a celebrity scandal does not mean that every move he makes should be watched. "I have sex with women who work for me on the show" Letterman admitted to his audience one night.

If matters couldn't get worse for Letterman, his case keeps getting more embarrassing. A man named Robert Joel Halderman got involved by blackmailing Letterman. The man gave Letterman a one-page screenplay treatment depicting the talk- show host as a great success whose "world is about to collapse around him." Halderman also provided photographs to go along with this screenplay. This is absolutely disgusting to me. In no way does Letterman's situation have anything to do with anyone else. Letterman wrote the man a fake $2 million check to keep him from speaking out. When the man knew it was fake he gave Letterman's limo driver a one-page draft of the screenplay and included his whole love life. It is disturbing that this man spent so much time investigating his love life and making it all his business.

If the man thinks this is such sexual harassment that Letterman committed he should check again. It is not sexual harassment if the girl was happy and in a relationship with Lettermen. Letterman may have slept around with some of the woman but most of them had strings attached. They actually had realtionships. None of the woman were tricked into having sex with him or lead to believe there relationship was something when it wasnt. I do not agree with her being under age or the fact that he cheated on his wife, but i don't think it is any ones business but Letterman's. Sexual harassment has to be viewed again and closely looked at. Under the definitions of sexual harassment, it says"the harasser's conduct must be unwelcome." Letterman could have been convicted due to the under age woman. However, Letterman's neighbors told the press they saw the Letterman take the woman out on dates and "the woman seemed very happy" according to Law.com. Another thing said of sexual harassment is, "Unlawful sexual harassment may occur without economic injury to or discharge of the victim." That means that the victim is injured. None of these woman were injured or pushed into having intercourse with him. Sexual harassment isn't a funny thing. It is sick and cruel. What makes it even crueler is being accused of committing it, when you never did, especially when you are on national television and the amount of viewers you have will decrease.

Cases of sexual harassment that have happened in the past are way worse than this. Those ones should be payed close attention to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SriJ3WOZaXU

Halderman "plead not guilty, and he stands by that plea," Mr Shargel, Halderman's lawyer, said after the arraignment in a telephone interview. There are two sides to every story and everyone knows that. However, there is no need for everyone to be in someone's business and start to blackmail. Letterman has enough in his life going on at the moment rather it was his fault or not. He has made a huge mistake and will suffer on his own without someone black mailing him about it. Jay Leno's T.V. show, "The Tonight Show," has gone up 20% due to people not watching Letterman as much.

Although this was a terrible thing that happened, and shouldn't have happened, it got way blown out of proportion and it was his business only. Robert Halderman should have never gotten involved. Sexual harassment violates the Title VII of the Civils Rights Act of 1964. It is not something that should be joked about or taken as an oppertunity to get money from a black mail.

At this point, Letterman is trying to make amends with his wife. He feels terrible for everything that has happened and is trying to apologize to everyone affected. "I want to apologize to all of my staff and wife for my stupid behavoir" Letterman said.

Michael Crabtree finally signed with 49'ers!

On October 7, 2009, 49'ers first round draft pick, Michael Crabtree, signed with the team after a six month hold out. It is reported that the 49'ers and Crabtree agreed to a six year, 32 million dollar contract. But it gets better. The 49'ers are willing to bump that six year 32 million dollar deal, to a five year 40 million dollars if Crabtree can acheive certain tasks. A certain source tells ESPN that if Crabtree can make it to the Pro Bowl in one of his first four years, and play 80 percent of the offensive snaps, of a season where the 49'ers make it to the playoffs, the 49'ers are willing to drop the six year deal to a five year deal. Another way that the 49'ers could lower his contract years is if he goes to the Pro Bowl in one of first four years, and goes to the Pro Bowl again in his fifth year. Overall, Crabtree is guaranteed 17 million dollars from his 32 million dollar contract, but is looking to make 19 million dollars over three years, and 23 million dollars over four years. In my opinion, I believe it was worth waiting this long to get business done. Most people criticized Crabtree, for his greediness and stupidness to wait so long to get a contract, but I believe it was smart for him to do this. One: he got what he wanted as far as money in his contract. Two: this contract will make Crabtree work harder so he can gain respect from his teammates, and also prove himself that he is worth the money. Lastly, his working hard could possibly earn him more money if he makes it to the Pro Bowl. On the other hand, this is risky business, seeing that not all college players live up to their hype in the NFL. But in this case, I believe he will do really well in the NFL, and not be one of those "only good in college" players. In the end, I think he is worth the money, and he will prove to everyone that he is worth the money this season.

How Family Photos Ruined a Family's Reputation

I’m sure almost everyone who is reading this has a picture of themselves in the bathtub when they were very young. The Demarees did the same thing, taking cute pictures of their kids with their arms around each other in the bathtub. Soon after, the family took their pictures to Wal-Mart to be developed and printed, just like we all have done many times. Without telling the family, a Wal-mart photo devoloper contacted the police to investigate if the photos in the bathtub contained child pornography. That set in motion a chain of events that is hard to believe. According to ABC News, the children were taken away from their parents for more than a month, Lisa Demaree was suspended from her job as a teacher for a year, and the Demarees have had to incur more than $75,000 in legal fees to defend themselves. The Demarees were found to have done nothing wrong; they were cleared of all charges and the pictures were found not to contain any pornography at all.

While I am as concerned as anyone else about the dangers of child pornography, Wal-Mart did not handle this the right way, ruining the lives of innocent people who did nothing wrong.

Wal-Mart should not have contacted the police in the first place. The pictures were obviously typical of those that parents take of their children everyday. There was nothing in the pictures that was even remotely pornographic. Wal-Mart also did not have a policy that warned their customers about the sorts of pictures they would find unacceptable; nor did they warn the parents they might be contacting the police.

People have a right to privacy. When people bring their pictures in to be developed, they have a right to expect that those pictures will be kept confidential and will not be screened by store employees who have no business looking at them. By needlessly reporting this to the authorities, Wal-Mart created a nightmare for this family.

The Demarees say that they have lost a year of their children’s lives, losing memories they will never be able to recover. They are scared about any photos they might take in the future. The people at Wal-Mart who decided that the photos were inappropriate were unqualified and should be fired. They had no criteria for making the decision. At a minimum, Wal-Mart should have had a clear policy that was communicated to their customers warning them about the sorts of pictures that they regard as offensive. If Wal-Mart thought that taking family pictures of children in the bathtub was out of bounds, they should have said that to their customers.

The Demaree family is now taking the offensive. They have filed two different lawsuits. The first case is against Arizona, Peoria. The lawsuit alleges that Arizona, Peoria and the state Attorney General's Office claims employees from each entity defamed the Demarees by telling friends, family members and co-workers that they had "sexually abused" their children by taking pornographic pictures of them. By defamation they are saying that untrue statements were made about them, and that they have ruined their reputation.

The second lawsuit was filed against Wal-Mart. The family is saying that says the company is at fault for not telling Anthony Demaree that it had an "unsuitable print policy" and could decide to turn any photos over to law enforcement.

It is too soon to tell whether Wal-Mart or Arizona officials are going to be liable for what they have done. However, I believe that what happened to the Demaree family was wrong and should not be allowed to happen again. The best way to avoid this in the future is by requiring photo developers like Wal-Mart to publish clear policies about what sorts of pictures they consider to be inappropriate, and the circumstances when they make contact to the authorities.

Ecuador v. Chevron

It's October 15, 2000 and Chevron has just agreed to buy Texaco for the price of $36 billion. By merging together the companies believed they would be able to compete with other major gasoline suppliers. The deal between the companies was swap their stocks for Texaco's. Once the merge was made the company would be renamed Chevron-Texaco. With the combined revenues of the companies estimated at $66.5 billion this sounds like a sweet deal. Because of Texaco's recline in the oil business, the merge would help to boost the company's production. This would also help Chevron from being taken over by the larger companies.

Well eight years later irony strikes. In a sixteen year conflict Chevron is being sued by residents of the Amazon for a sum of $27 billion for the alleged dumping of toxic wastes into the environment. The conflict stems from Texaco's dump of oil into the surrounding rain forests of Ecuador. The Plaintiff claims that polluted water had been dumped into the environment for almost twenty years. The dumping of the toxic waste water amounted to almost 18 billion gallons; and almost 17 million gallons in crude oil. The effects of the pollution have led to cancer, birth defects, and micarriages. This pollution of the Amazon has been dubbed "the rain forest Chernobyl". The suit, since filed in 1993 has seen little improvement in a decade.

In current news the judge ruling over the hearings was accused of bribery by Chevron. Judge Núñez Recusal was secretly taped in conversation saying he believed Texaco guilty. Due to this scandal Chevron asked that the trial be held out of Ecuador's judicial system. This was asked by Chevron accusing the court of breaking a bilateral treaty between the U.S. and Ecuador. As the trial goes on its basically being dragged out so that the trial won't be finished anytime soon.

So basically the people of Ecuador are right to be mad. The pollution of their land was was wrong and they had no right. If they don't want to pay the price for the suit then they shouldn't have done the deed. I'm not saying that Chevron is bad or anything I think it was just a unwise move buying Texaco. Though they did not technically pollute Ecuador, Chevron should still assist the residents of the polluted Amazon. Since they bought Texaco knowing that they had polluted. The responsibility falls on them to aid Ecuador. They should not try to cover this conflict up with petty claims. Chevron should at least create an organization to help the natives, and provide them with clean water. If someone came into your home and started to mess it up wouldn't you want the ones responsible to pay?