As Borders prepares to auction off what it hopes will prove to be valuable intellectual property, including its Borders Rewards customer data, the company has gone to court to protect those assets from infringement by a former Borders vendor. The complaint filed in New York bankruptcy court charges that Next Jump, the company hired in 2007 to operate Bordersrewardperks.com–a website to provide rewards from third-party vendors to Borders customers–has used its access to the book chain’s customer list to steer half a million people or more to a separate website, OO.com, owned by Next Jump. Significantly given the upcoming auction, Borders says […]
Legal
BAMM Gets OK To Take Over Borders Store Leases; Promotes Finley To President & COO
On Monday afternoon in federal bankruptcy court Judge Martin Glenn gave his approval for Books-A-Million to take over 14 of Borders’ store leases by September 20 after some objections, mostly to do with how much money BAMM must pay landlords, were worked out. “I’m glad that everyone was able to work out the objections,” Judge Glenn said, according to a report from Dow Jones. Books-A-Million also announced that Terrance Finley had been promoted to president and coo of the company, replacing Clyde Anderson, who relinquished the role (though he remains ceo and chairman.) Finley was previously EVP & chief merchandising […]
Mortenson Case Back On Air, and In the News
The controversy over alleged misrepresentations in Greg Mortenson’s books is back in the news for a number of reasons. Sunday night 60 Minutes rebroadcast the April episode that first presented the case against Mortenson (and launched Jon Krakauer’s ebook on the topic, THREE CUPS OF DECEIT, without acknowledging that Krakauer’s research and manuscript were driving the investigation). The charity Mortenson founded, the Central Asia Institute, finally made it clear that its legal advice rather than medical counsel which is keeping Mortenson from responding: “Greg Mortenson is recovering from his open-heart surgery and making good progress with cardiac rehabilitation. On advice […]
Saatchi UK Suit Aims At Non-Compete Clauses
Charles Saatchi has brought a lawsuit in London against Phaidon Press, which published his 2009 book My Name is Charles Saatchi and I Am An Artoholic and contracted that year for two additional books. He appears to aim at what many would recognize as standard non-compete language. According to the Telegraph, the suit cites “a section of the agreement [that] prevents him from preparing, editing or licensing any work which forms part of the two books, or which might compete with the titles, for the life of the agreement. A judge is due to decide whether this amounts to an […]
Chorion Reportedly Close to Bankruptcy After Two Key Executives Resign
Literary brand management company Chorion, which controls the rights to the estates of Agatha Christie, Raymond Chandler and other notable crime writers, along with UK children’s properties like Noddy and Mr. Men, may be forced into administration by its lenders after failing to raise funds, according to a report in the Sunday Times. Though the paper indicated that Deloitte has been retained to oversee a potential bankruptcy “as soon as this week,” the Telegraph quotes a “source close to one of the banks” as indicating that several options were being considered. “Administration is not something we are about to push the […]
Google Settles with La Martiniere; Will Launch Google eBooks In France
Google has settled its differences with another French publisher, La Martiniere. Perhaps more importantly, they acknowledge that Google eBooks is coming to France. (Now we just need to know when.) The companies will work together to put the publisher’s out-of-print, in-copyright books online, which “effectively ends the legal dispute” between the two. In 2009 a French court ordered Google to pay La Martiniere a small fine for scanning their books without permission. (They sought 15 million euros in damages, and were awarded 300,000 euros.) AFP says Google has now withdrawn their legal appeal–but indicates the company has not settled yet […]