Finnish mobile handset giant Nokia has found itself in the midst of a legal dispute in Brazil over its Ovi brand. Brazilian firm Ouvi Divulgacao e Marketing em Celulares Ltda claims that Nokia is abusing the Ovi brand in the country to compete directly with Ouvi. Nokia believes the brand, introduced in 2007, is different enough from Ouvi to co-exist, and points out that it is a Finnish word with a different meaning (windows, doors).
“What Nokia apparently has not realized is that the 190 million inhabitants of Brazil speak Portuguese and not Finnish,” said Tore Haugland, chief executive of Ouvi told Reuters. “We are sure that the Brazilian court will rule in our favor and we look forward to Nokia removing the Ovi brand from all the phones that have been shipped in Brazil and stopping using and mentioning this brand in Brazil.”
Ouvi also registered the ovi.com.br domain name in 2004 because the pronunciation of Ovi and Ouvi in Brazilian Portuguese is the same. “We have our brand name also as part of the company name, which in Brazilian law counts higher than a registered trademark,” Ouvi’s Haugland said. A court decision on the case is expected any day.
Result for: isp
Iowa senator Tom Harkin recently became chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, following the death of Senator Ted Kennedy. On Monday, Harkin vowed to look into the possibilities of cancer risks from mobile phone use. He said he was concerned that nobody was able to definitively prove that mobile phones could not cause cancer.
“I’m reminded of this nation’s experience with cigarettes. Decades passed between the first warnings about smoking tobacco and the final definitive conclusion that cigarettes cause lung cancer,” Harkin said. It is estimated that 4 billion people worldwide use mobile phones regularly.
Harkin called a hearing of the Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, to examine the issue on Monday. “I will pursue this beyond this panel, with the National Institutes of Health,” he said afterward.
However, Harkin should be aware that an enormous amount of research has been conducted already on this issue, and no link has ever been found to prove that mobile phones do cause cancer. Simply saying that nobody has been able to disprove it does not make it more plausible, and it is slightly concerning at least that an elected Senator would pursue something on the grounds that nobody could disprove its existence - but it isn’t surprising.
Of course, there are reports occasionally that do show that there “might” be links in cases, and just recently the Environmental Working Group showed that radio wave emissions vary from one mobile phone brand to the next. Even with this taken into account however, all the research has shown that mobile phones do not emit waves capable of damaging DNA in cells in a human body.
[More]>>
Result for: isp
BT, the British ISP and one of the region’s largest companies has announced they will be offering employees the opportunity to take one year off of work in exchange for a 75 percent price cut for that year.
Any employee who takes the pay cut and vacation will receive the 25 percent remaining of their salary as an upfront payment.
BT is desperately trying to cut costs after posting a massive 1 billion pound loss for the Q1 2009.
The telecom has also said it will be laying off over 15,000 of its 100,000 employees over the next year. Employees are also being given larger incentives to work part-time.
