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WASHINGTON BUSINESS
LOCAL DIGEST
Google denies fault in lawsuit
over Web ads
ADVERTISERS BLAMED
Rosetta Stone claims trademark infringement
By Don Jeffrey
Google Inc., owner of the
world’s most popular Internet search engine, will try to con- vince a federal judge that it didn’t infringe
Rosetta Stone Inc.’s
trademarks, in part because it’s not responsible for the content of advertisements placed on its Web site.
Rosetta Stone, the Arlington
ELAINE THOMPSON/ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Service Employees International Union doubled fourth-quarter lobbying expenses as major health-care legislation cleared Congress.
LABOR
REGULATORS
SEIU lobbying up in fourth quarter
The Service Employees Inter-
national Union spent $683,371 lobbying the federal government in the fourth quarter on issues such as health care, labor laws and immigration. That’s up from the nearly $353,531 in the year-ago period, but down from the nearly $791,228 it spent in the third quarter of 2009. The District-based SEIU — which has 2.2 million members, among them health-care workers and public employees — lobbied on issues including the health- care overhaul legislation that President Obama signed into law last week. The SEIU also lobbied the
House and the Senate on issues such as labor law, immigration, banking reform, elections and clean energy, according to a re- port filed March 4 with the House clerk’s office. The union also lobbied both houses of Con- gress and the Department of Homeland Security on security policy.
—Associated Press
AT&T and Verizon object to FCC move
AT&T and Verizon Wireless faulted federal regulators for re- stricting the airwave leases that the two companies can negotiate with a wholesaler of wireless Internet service. The Federal Communications Commission on Friday approved Harbinger Capital Partners Funds’ acquisition of SkyTerra Communications, a Reston pro- vider of mobile satellite services that plans to sell access to broad- band network operators. But the FCC required SkyTerra to seek approval before leasing services to the “the largest or second- largest wireless provider,” a con- dition Harbinger had proposed. Verizon Wireless is the biggest wireless company, followed by AT&T. “The commission is setting a
very disturbing precedent,” James Cicconi, AT&T’s senior ex- ecutive vice president for ex- ternal and legislative affairs, said in an e-mailed statement. “This action is manifestly unwise and potentially unlawful.”
—Bloomberg News
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
Blackboard closes deal for N.C. firm
District-based Blackboard Inc. announced Monday that it has completed the acquisition of pri- vately held Saf-T-Net, a company that provides messaging and mass-notification services used in schools. The local education technol-
ogy firm paid approximately $33 million in cash for the Raleigh, N.C.-based company. Saf-T-Net employs about 65 people and has more than 2,000 schools as cli- ents. Blackboard said the com- bined operations should expand the company’s opportunities and allow for savings.
—Mike Musgrove
HOSPITALITY
DiamondRock wins new terms on debt
DiamondRock Hospitality of
Bethesda amended certain parts of its debt secured by a resort in the Virgin Islands, the real estate investment trust said Monday. The deal waives penalty inter-
est and provides an extension of the limited-recourse mortgage loan secured by Frenchman’s Reef and Morning Star Marriott Beach Resort. Meanwhile, DiamondRock will prefund some construction projects in an escrow account and pay its lender a $150,000 modification fee. First-quarter results will re- verse a $3.1 million penalty inter- est that accrued last year. DiamondRock owns 20 hotels, with 9,600 rooms.
—Associated Press
CONTRACTING
SAIC to provide IT services to Army
Defense contractor Science Applications International Corp. of McLean said Monday that it received a contract to provide planning and management ser- vices to a U.S. Army office that provides information technology support throughout the Military Health System. The contract has a one-year base period and four possible one-year extensions; in total, the deal would be worth $22 million.
—Associated Press
maker of language-learning soft- ware, and Google filed motions for summary judgment March 26 in U.S. District Court in Alexan- dria in the trademark-infringe- ment case brought against Goo- gle in July. A hearing on the mo- tions, parts of which are under seal, will be April 23. “Advertisers are responsible for the content of their ads, not Google,” lawyers for Mountain View, California-based Google said in their motion for summary judgment. Rosetta Stone claims Google sold to advertisers the right to use trademarks registered by Ro- setta Stone, or similar words and phrases, as keywords for paid ads called sponsored links. The links directed Web users to sites run by Rosetta Stone’s competitors or counterfeiters of its software, ac- cording to the complaint. “Google has confused con- sumers, diluted Rosetta Stone’s marks and diverted Rosetta Stone’s customers to competitors and counterfeiters, while reaping millions of dollars in advertising profits for itself,” attorneys for Rosetta Stone said in their sum- mary judgment motion. Google, in its motion for judg- ment, also said it’s not liable be- cause it promptly removes in- fringing ads when informed about them and because Rosetta
“We’ve found no evidence that using trademarks as keyword triggers causes
consumer confusion.”
— Andrew Pederson, Google
spokesman
Rosetta Stone, founded in 1992, provides software and ser- vices for learning more than 30 languages to schools, companies, governments and individuals. Google auctions the placement of ads in its sponsored links to the highest bidders and receives most of its revenue from advertis- ing on its search site. Typing the words “Rosetta
Stone” into Google’s search en- gine Monday turned up three sponsored links atop the list of re- sults. The first was for Rosetta Stone Inc., the second was for sales of Rosetta software on Ama- zon.com, and the third was for the sale of Rosetta programs on EBay.com.
— Bloomberg News
Stone hasn’t shown proof of con- fusion resulting from the ads. “Users searching on Google
benefit from being able to choose from a variety of competing ad- vertisers, and we’ve found no evi- dence that using trademarks as keyword triggers causes con- sumer confusion,” Andrew Peder- son, a spokesman for Google, said in an e-mailed statement. Reilly Brennan, a spokesman for Rosetta Stone, didn’t return messages seeking comment. A European Union court ruled
March 23 that Google shouldn’t be required to block sales of brand names as advertiser key- words. The court also said that Google could be held liable for trademark violations in individu- al cases.
TUESDAY, MARCH 30, 2010
Monitor your investments at washingtonpost.com/markets.
Daily Stock Market Performance
Index
Dow Jones Industrial Average
11,000 10,300 9600 8900 8200 7500
Nasdaq Composite Index
2500 2250 2000 1750 1500
S&P 500 Index
1175
1075 975 875 775
1173.22 +0.6 +5.2 2404.36 +0.4 +6.0
THE MARKETS
Close %Chg
10,895.86 +0.4
Daily
%Chg
+4.5
YTD
Industry Group
Real Estate Mgmt & Dev Metals & Mining
S&P 500 Industry Group Snapshot
Daily
Energy Equipment & Svcs Personal Products
Power Prodct & Enrgy Trdr Commercial Banks Divers Financial Svcs Specialty Retail Multiline Retail Automobiles
%Chg
6.90 2.68 2.11
2.02 1.70
–0.30 –0.33 –0.44 –0.52 –1.66
International Stock Markets
Daily
Americas
Brazil (Bovespa)
Canada (S&P/TSX Comp.)
Mexico (Bolsa)
Europe
Eurozone (DJ Stoxx 600) France (CAC 40)
Germany (DAX)
U.K. (FTSE 100)
Asia Pacific
A M J J A S O N D J
Company
3M
Alcoa
AmExp AT&T BoA
Boeing
Caterpillar Chevron Cisco
Coca-Cola DuPont
Dow Jones 30 Industrials
Daily
Close
81.36
14.44 41.48 26.51 18.04 74.11 63.48 75.23 26.51 54.77 37.72
Exxon Mobil 67.30 GE
Home Depot 32.60 HP
18.40 52.97
%Chg %Chg
0.4
0.9 1.0 0.8 2.1 1.7 1.1
YTD
–1.6
1.2 –10.4 2.4
0.2 0.2 0.1 1.1
0.3
–0.5 –0.8
Other Measures
Index
–5.4 19.8 36.9 11.4 –2.3 10.7 –3.9 12.0 –1.3 21.6 12.7 2.8
Close
DJ Total Stock Market Index 12,203.06 Russell 2000
682.25
Post-Bloomberg DC Area Index 199.20 CBOE Volatility (VIX)
17.59
F M
Company
IBM
Intel J&J
JPMorgCh Kraft Foods McDonald's Merck
Microsoft P&G Co Pfizer
Travelers Wal-Mart Walt Disney
Close
128.59
22.33 64.82 44.86 30.54 67.07 37.89 29.59 63.73 17.28 54.76
United Tech 74.00 Verizon
30.45 55.74 35.16
Daily
0.4 0.7
–0.4 –0.3 –0.3 1.2
–0.2 0.1 0.8 0.8 0.5 0.3 0.4
–0.4
%Chg %Chg
–0.5
YTD
–1.8
9.5 0.6 7.7
12.4 7.4 3.7
–2.9 5.1
–5.0 9.8 6.6
–8.1 4.3 9.0
Daily%Chg YTD%Chg
0.6 0.5 0.4
6.1 9.1 6.3
–1.0 –18.9
Australia (ASX 200) China (CSI 300)
Hong Kong (Hang Seng) Japan (Nikkei)
4897.30 3358.54 21,237.43 10,986.47
Cross Currency Rates
EU €
US $
US $ per EU € per
Japan ¥ per Britain £ per Brazil R$ per
Canada $ per Mexico $ per
0.7418 92.4700 124.6500
0.6673 0.8995 0.0072 1.7954 1.0210
2.4202 0.0194 1.3764 0.0110
12.4373 16.7673 0.1350
Interest Rates
Consumer Rates
Money market funds 6-Month CDs 1-Year CDs 5-Year CDs New car loan Home-equity loan
0.79 0.80 1.17
2.60 6.40 7.80
0.0 2.6 0.9
–0.1
Japan ¥
1.3480 0.0108 0.0080
Britain £
1.4985 0.5571 1.1117
Brazil R$ Canada $ Mexico $ 0.9795 0.0804 0.7266 0.0596
0.4132
138.5600 51.4295 90.5700 7.4350 0.3717
2.6902 1.5299 0.5688
0.6536 0.0537 1.7583 0.1444 0.0821
18.6377 6.9270 12.1812
Close
69,939.12 12,029.72 33,416.10
263.89
4000.66 6156.85 5710.66
%Chg
1.8 0.6 0.8
0.1 0.3 0.6 0.1
YTD%Chg
–7%
–8.0% 0 +8.0%
Commodities
Futures
Copper Corn
Crude Oil Gold
Natural Gas $3.5295
Close %Chg
+4.0
Daily
$3.5700 +0.2 $82.17
$1110.30
Orange Juice Silver
+2.7 +0.5
$3.84 –0.8
Value of $1000 invested for the past:
Daily
0% +7%
Exchange-Traded (Ticker) %Chg
Coffee (COFF.L) Copper (COPA.L) Corn (CORN.L) Cotton (COTN.L) Crude Oil (CRUD.L) Gasoline (UGAS.L) Gold (BULL.L)
1.0 3.2 0.3 0.4 3.4 3.2 1.1
Natural Gas (NGAS.L) Silver (SLVR.L)
Gainers
–0.5 3.3
Gainers and Losers from the S&P 1500 Index
Daily
Theragenics Kid Brands Inc
inVentiv Health Inc
Close %Chg
$1.77 21.2
$8.00 21.2 $22.25 10.9
Southwestern Energy $40.73 8.0 SmithMicroSoftware $9.15 7.3 United Rentals Massey Energy
CBRichardEllisGrp Expedia Inc
TitaniumMetalsCorp Quiksilver
Syniverse Holdings GibraltarIndustries Mariner Energy Inc Brush Engineered GenCorp
Patriot Coal Belden Inc Intl Flavors Timken
0.29% 0.25% 3.25%
Bank Prime Federal Funds LIBOR 3-Month
30-Year fixed mortgage 15-Year fixed mortgage 1-Year ARM
3.22% 4.37% 5.11%
10-year note
Yield:
5-year note
Yield:
3.87 2.60
4:30 p.m. New York time.
$9.00 7.1 $54.27 7.0 $15.98 6.9 $24.35 6.1 $17.18 6.0 $4.85 5.9 $19.53 5.7 $12.96 5.5 $14.89 5.4 $22.54 5.3 $5.59 5.3 $20.78 5.2 $26.92 5.1 $47.96 5.1 $30.14 4.9
Losers
Close %Chg Daily
DreamWorksAnimation $39.34 –8.1 Synovus Financial Mannatech Inc
$3.25 –6.6 $3.41 –5.5
UnitedCommunityBank $4.48 –5.3 Standard Register The Finish Line Zale Corp
Sonic Automotive Neenah Paper Inc
ATC Technology Corp $17.18 –4.7 Peet's Coffee & Tea Enzo Biochem Stratasys Inc
Cal-Maine Foods Cons Graphics Lexington Realty Ryland Group
2-year note
Yield:
6-month bill
Yield:
1.04 0.23
Note: Bank prime is from 10 major banks. Federal Funds rate is the market rate, which can vary from the federal target rate. LIBOR is the London Interbank Offered Rate. Consumer rates are from Bankrate. All figures as of
$5.46 –5.2 $16.12 –5.1 $3.24 –5.0 $11.49 –5.0 $16.32 –5.0
$39.72 –4.7 $5.96 –4.5 $24.83 –4.4
MonarchCasino&Resrt $8.86 –4.4 Nautilus Inc Parexel Intl
$3.29 –4.4 $22.29 –3.8 $35.90 –3.7 $43.28 –3.6 $6.75 –3.6 $23.07 –3.2
Treasury Performance Over Past Three Months
Soybeans Sugar Wheat
day
$800 $1000
Data and graphics by
$1.3500 $17.37
$9.6750 $0.1751 $4.6475
Close %Chg
–0.9 +2.8 +1.6 +3.0 0.0
Daily
month
$1200
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