Google's use of trademarked names as keywords to trigger advertising by rival companies is legal, according to a ruling Wednesday by US District Judge Leonie Brinkema. Insurance giant Geico brought suit in US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, claiming that Google's use of the word "Geico" in keyword advertising violates its trademark [...]

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Peter Henning, Wayne State University Law School: "An article in the New York Times (Dec. 15) states that Time Warner is preparing to announce a settlement in a long-running SEC and Department of Justice investigation into accounting issues at its American Online unit (AOL), including a $400 million transaction between AOL and Bertelsmann in 2000.  [...]

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The International Court of Justice at The Hague ruled Wednesday that it could not hear a case brought by Serbia and Montenegro against eight NATO countries – Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Canada, the Netherlands and Portugal – in respect of NATO's 1999 bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, then led by President Slobodan Milsoevic, now on [...]

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Critics of a new draft Russian anti-terror law said Wednesday that the legislation recently introduced in the Russian parliament by pro-Kremlin legislators in the wake of the Beslan school massacre this fall is far too broad, and is unduly restrictive of public and press freedoms. The 50-page draft authorizes the declaration of a "state of [...]

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A circuit court judge in rural Alabama created a constitutional stir Tuesday by wearing a robe embroidered with the text of the Ten Commandments on the bench and insisting on carrying on with a trial despite objections by an attorney appearing before him who said that the display was distracting. Covington County Presiding Circuit Court [...]

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The European Parliament in Strasbourg voted Wednesday to support the immediate start of European Commission talks with Turkey that could result in Turkey joining the European Union. The non-binding resolution passed 407-262. The MEPs did, however, insist on closely monitoring Turkey's progress in improving human rights, religious freedom and women's rights, and indicated that talks [...]

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