J.K. Rowling, Scholastic and AOLTW receive $50k in sanctions against party that had alleged infringement and apparently fabricated evidence.

Scholastic et. al. v. Stouffer, no. 02-9405 (2d Cir Dec 2, 2003).

Via the new Sports Law Blog, this ESPN article re Kim Clijsters (No. 2 ranked woman tennis player) that she will not play in the Olympics for her native Belgian team, as her contract with Fila prohibits her from wearing other vendor’s apparel, while the Belgian team’s sponsor, Adidas, will require team members to…

According to this article in the New York Lawyer, IP Boutique Pennie and Edmonds charges the following hourly rates for its associates:

1st-year, $190; 2nd, $215; 3rd, $230; 4th, $260; 5th, $280; 6th, $300; 7th, $320; and, 8th, $340.

Text of Australian decision: Nokia prevails in counterfeiting case.  Coverage from World Trademark Law Report here.

Broadspire, an IT services company, announced that it sued Plaitnum Equity, which re-named its Kemper Insurance division Broadspire.  The suit was filed in Central District Court in California,

Interesting decision from Judge Posner of the Seventh Circuit on copyright misuse: Assessment Technologies v. WireData.

How Appealing interview Judge Posner here.

Via Internetnews.com, discussion of how manufacturerers such as IBM, HP and Microsoft, have responded to SCO’s claims of Unix/Linux copyright infringement, with regard to indemnifying their customers (HP and Microsfot have, IBM hasn’t).

Via The Smoking Gun, a copy of the Trademark Office’s Preliminary Refusal to register KABBALAH RED STRING for Kabbalah Red Strings.  Apparently adherents to the Kabbalah, a Jewish form of mysticism made trendy recently by Madonna, wear red strings on their wrist to ward off evil.