July 20, 2021, 8:42 PM
A Russian hacker who was once labeled one of the world’s most notorious spammers was spared additional prison time by a federal judge in Connecticut.
Peter Levashov, 40, was sentenced to time served on Tuesday during a remote proceeding before U.S. District Judge
Levashov had asked Chatigny to spare him from additional prison time, …
The royal was among thousands affected by the computer security failure of the Madrid health system. The breach meant people’s private data such as their telephone number, social security number and address could be accessed by just having their ID number, Telemadrid reported.
Their vaccination data such as when and when they received their jab and which shot they were given could also be accessed.
Thousands of people have reportedly been affected by the glitch.
The security failure has mainly affected people living in Madrid.
Felipe is among high-profile figures whose data has been exposed in the breach.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s data has also been exposed.
And former Spanish prime minister José María Aznar and ex-deputy prime minister Pablo Iglesias were affected.
READ MORE: Teen Spanish Princess Leonor holds first solo public engagement
“It is false that any citizen can enter the web pages of the Ministry of Health of the Community of Madrid to obtain the Covid certificate and that confidential information such as clinical data of the king, the president of the Government or other former presidents can be accessed.”
They added that “in any case the incident did not affect clinical data and, of course, did not compromise the alteration of any information in the databases.
“In addition, to access that information, the ID of the person in question would be needed.
“We insist that this gap is already blocked.”
By mid-afternoon on Wednesday the data was no longer visible.
As one of the largest private employers in the world, it probably shouldn’t come as too big a surprise that McDonald’s is fairly protective of its trademarks. The company, large legal coffers though it has, is not undefeatable, however. It was only a year or so ago, for instance, that McDonald’s famously lost its “Big Mac” trademark in Europe when another chain, Supermacs, got it cancelled as it expanded into more European markets.
Well, now Mcdonald’s is facing another trademark issue in Australia. Down Under, there is a fast food chain called Hungry Jack’s, which is actually a part of Burger King. Burger King, of course, is McDonald’s chief global rival. There is something of a proxy war currently being waged over Hungry Jack’s “Big Jack” sandwich, with McDonald’s crying trademark infringement over its “Big Mac” trademark.
McDonald’s Asia-Pacific filed Federal Court proceedings on August 28 against Hungry Jack’s over its rival’s new burger trademark, which it claims is “substantially identical with or deceptively similar” to its own Big Mac trademark.
Hungry Jack’s has been the owner of the registered trademark “Big Jack” since November last year but McDonald’s says the trademark “is liable to be cancelled, and should in the exercise of the court’s discretion be cancelled” on a number of grounds, including that it is “likely to deceive or cause confusion” among consumers.
So let’s stipulate immediately that the rival for McDonald’s absolutely constructed a sandwich burger that has a lot of similarities to a Big Mac. The construction of the food is similar and the names both have the word “Big” in them, and then culminate in designators for the companies selling them, but those names rhyme. Big Mac. Big Jack. You get it.
So, with all of that stipulated, is this trademark infringement? Well, as always, that comes down to the question of whether there will be public confusion as to the source of the products. And Hungry Jack’s is apparently prepared to argue that there won’t be.
In a defence filed in the Federal Court on Friday, lawyers for Hungry Jack’s said consumers were “well aware” of the “competitive rivalry between Hungry Jack’s and [McDonald’s]” and it had not infringed the latter’s trademarks. Consumers would not be deceived into thinking the Big Jack was a McDonald’s product, they said.
Hungry Jack’s said it was entitled to use the Big Jack trademark, which played on the company’s name and the name of “its founder and current owner, Jack Cowin”. The word Jack was “closely associated by consumers with Hungry Jack’s’ goods and services”, the company’s lawyers said.
Add to the above that much of the complaints McDonald’s lodges aren’t relevant in a trademark dispute. The recipe for the sandwich doesn’t really matter, unless McDonald’s has trademarked this construction. If it has done so, it certainly hasn’t said as much. The word “Big” in the name of each product basically doesn’t matter, since it is both descriptive and in common use in trademarks all over the place. Instead, this is going to come down to whether “Jack” is too similar to “Mac”, sufficiently so to lead to public confusion.
Which is where Hungry Jack’s point is made. The rivalry between these two is as famous in Australia as Burger King versus McDonald’s is in America. Given that notoriety, and the simple fact that the dispute is over two words that very specifically designate the origin of the product, it’s hard to imagine the public being confused by any of this.
In other words, it would seem that McDonald’s would need to bring instances of actual confusion to court to make this lawsuit successful.
No matter what your political leanings are, this is just a very dumb thing to do. (via BentFranklin in the Techdirt Chat window):
The mother of the boy in the iconic “Success Kid” meme has threatened to sue Representative Steve King for using her son’s image in his campaign. In a series of tweets Monday, Laney Griner said she never gave his campaign permission to use the meme and called King a “vile man.”
Griner claimed King used an infamous copyrighted image of her son Sam, a minor, to raise money in a fundraising campaign without her permission.
Here’s the Facebook post by Rep. Steve King that got Griner so upset she’s threatening to waste money on a losing lawsuit (via Eric Hananoki):
The post isn’t smart or funny and suggests King’s supporters can only meme effectively by using other people’s money. It’s unclear how much money is needed to trigger liberals with bad memes, but the number of emojis deployed suggests it might be a lot.
Griner demanded “immediate removal” of the pictures of her meme son. King’s people complied. She also demanded King post an explanation stating that it was used without permission and for all donations resulting from the post be refunded to donors. It’s unknown if this has happened.
She’s also threatening a lawsuit, which seems like a really bad idea. Griner may not want her son associated with Rep. King (and really, who can blame her) but this also seems to be about something else: money.
“The majority of U.S. consumers reject your political and other views, often vehemently, as they have a right to do,” Griner’s attorney said in the cease-and-desist letter. “Those people may be repelled by any association with your politics and campaign and, therefore, unwilling to purchase products from legitimate licensees of the ‘Success Kid’ meme.“
I’m not sure what the overlap between Steve King fans and people-who-buy-licensed-meme-goods is, but I’m guessing probably not enough to show any substantial loss in the income column. This is about politics, rather than unlicensed use, as Griner’s tweets make perfectly clear.
It’s highly unlikely anyone viewed Steve King’s post and thought the 11-month-infant (who is now a 13-year-old boy) supports King and his extremely controversial views. Enforcing IP rights selectively is always a bad look — one that makes rightsholders look opportunistic, rather than truly wronged by whatever incident has prompted the enforcement effort. According to Know Your Meme, there were 66,000 instances of the meme using her copyrighted photo at Quickmeme alone. And that was in 2011. No one’s making any noise about these but when Steve King uses it, suddenly it’s a whole thing.
This isn’t about IP protection. It’s about politically-expedient enforcement. Griney could have asked Steve King to take it down and told everyone how displeased she was with this use. But she didn’t do that. She hired a lawyer, issued a cease-and-desist, and threatened a lawsuit. Sure, she’s well within her rights. But she’s not doing anything to erase the perception that copyright is a handy tool for censorship and the silencing of people you just simply don’t care for.
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