Riley Cooper and Teammate Cary Williams had an altercation in practice. Allie LaForce and Doug Gottlieb discuss.
Showing posts with label fight. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fight. Show all posts
Friday, 20 September 2013
Saturday, 14 September 2013
50 years after Birmingham bombing, U.S. mayors vow renewed racism fight
By Verna Gates
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama | Thu Sep 12, 2013 6:29pm EDT
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (Reuters) - From lunch counters to public buses, the battle over racism in the United States during the 1950s and 60s took place in cities, and five decades later mayors of some of the country's largest urban areas have vowed to carry on the fight for civil rights.
Meeting in Birmingham, Alabama on Thursday where the 50th anniversary of the bombing of a black church will be remembered this week, civic leaders called for an end to modern discrimination in areas like jobs, housing and transportation.
"Cities are the place where hope hits the street, and where the hard work of government happens," said Mitch Landrieu, mayor of New Orleans, during a U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting taking place this week.
Landrieu was among 50 mayors nationwide who on Thursday joined a newly created U.S. Coalition Against Racism and Discrimination by signing a pledge to end racism in their own cities.
The 10-point plan calls on mayors to use their bully pulpits to push for diversity and equality while enacting policies that support programs such as post-release employment for prisoners, affordable daycare, fair housing, community events and education celebrating diversity.
The action comes as Birmingham remembers the 50th anniversary this week of the racial bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church that killed four girls and galvanized the civil rights movement.
On Friday, as part of its commemoration activities, the conference will host former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was an 8-year-old girl in Birmingham at the time and lost her friend, 11-year-old Denise McNair, in the explosion.
The official ceremonies feature U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and will happen on Sunday, September 15, in Birmingham.
McNair, as well as 14-year-olds Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley perished in the blast. The bomb set by members of the Ku Klux Klan sparked passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Fifty years on, however, black children are still three times more likely to be impoverished, blacks and Hispanics have a higher unemployment rate than whites, and minorities are disproportionately imprisoned, according to the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
Birmingham was the epicenter of the civil rights struggle as its citizens enacted change on a local level long before federal law caught up to them.
Clashes over whites-only waiting rooms in train stations, segregated bathrooms and water fountains, and other disparities in the laws regarding minorities resulted in change that turned activists like Rosa Parks, who refused to give her seat to a white person on a city bus in 1955, into civil-rights heroes.
"The marches in Birmingham were about toilets, parks and zoning, the things real people can change," said Christopher Cabaldon, mayor of West Sacramento, California, who signed the pledge. "Cities have always been the center, the focus, of civil rights progress."
(Reporting by Verna Gates; Writing by Karen Brooks; Editing by Greg McCune and Andrew Hay)
Fashion designers look to patents to fight knockoffs
By Erin Geiger Smith
NEW YORK | Thu Sep 12, 2013 7:32am EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Design companies tending to the details of fashion shows have more to think about than skirt lengths and handbag clasps - they must decide whether to seek U.S. patent protection for their looks.
Diane von Furstenberg, famous for her wrap dresses, has a design patent on a chain mail-style bag. The popular French line Celine has one on the envelope-style handbag sported by countless fashion experts at New York Fashion Week.
This summer alone, brands including Alexander Wang, Balenciaga and Tod's all were granted design patents by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on accessory designs, records show.
Because U.S. copyright and trademark laws often do not apply to new, logo-free designs, designers are applying for design patents to protect clothing and accessories from being targets for knock-offs, industry attorneys said.
While some brands, such as Gucci, have been obtaining design patents for decades, it is becoming more the norm for fashion companies to do the same, said intellectual property attorney Steve Nataupsky.
Design patents protect the way something looks, as opposed to more commonly known utility patents, which protect the way something is used and works.
Design patents have garnered attention in recent years due to the high-profile, high-stakes legal battles between Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co over smartphones and tablets.
A jury awarded Apple more than $1 billion last year, although a federal judge eventually cut the award by 40 percent and ordered a retrial on some of the damages.
While statistics are not available for all fashion-related design patents specifically, design patent applications have increased overall each year since 2009.
Because design patents are only available for creations with some originality, companies must carefully evaluate which designs, or portions of designs, deserve protection, said attorney Harley Lewin, who represents brands including Wang and von Furstenberg.
Fashion companies patent designs that they anticipate are going to be "big style setters" and "have a lifetime of at least a couple of years," said attorney Stephen Soffen, who has worked with Valentino and Versace.
Wang, for example, in 2011 was granted a patent for a "stud with grooves." He wanted a patent because he intended to use the studs on handbags and garments and felt they would be identifiable to his brand, Lewin said.
Wang also got patents for several other versions of studs, as well as a shoe with a cape flowing from the ankle strap, U.S. patent records show.
Savvy fashion brands also evaluate what not to patent, said attorney Elizabeth Ferrill.
If a design patent covers an entire design, those who copy it can generally escape liability as long as there are some differences between its product and the original.
And if part of a design, such as a complicated purse handle, is particularly expensive or complex, it is less likely a company seeking to make a cheaper version will copy that portion, Ferrill said.
As a result, companies might exclude that element from the patent application, so if someone copies the rest of the item, the brand will have leverage to stop them.
Design patents, which last 14 years, also offer an advantage to designers who want to keep their looks secret until they hit the runway, lawyers said.
Although applications are generally filed before goods are shown to the public, the U.S. patent office does not publish the applications until a patent is granted.
That publication typically happens a year or more after the filing, giving the goods time to find space on boutique shelves.
(Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Leslie Adler)
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