US fast food giant McDonald’s lost an eight-year trademark battle to prevent local restaurant McCurry from using the ‘Mc’ prefix in a precedent-setting judgment by Malaysia’s highest court.
The Federal Court ruled Tuesday that McDonald’s cannot appeal against another court’s verdict that had allowed McCurry to use ‘Mc’ in its name. The owner says McCurry, which serves Indian food, is an abbreviation for Malaysian Chicken Curry.
The ruling by a three-member panel of the Federal Court ends all legal avenues for McDonald’s to protect its name from what it said was a trademark infringement.
"Fort Boyard is a French game show created by Jacques Antoine that was first broadcast in 1990 (as Les Clés de Fort Boyard, shortened for the second series in 1991) and is popular to this day. It has been remade across the globe, most successfully in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Canada, Russia, Denmark, Belgium, Israel, the Netherlands and recently Poland.
Set and filmed on the real Fort Boyard in France, the programme appears similar to The Crystal Maze (which was indeed created by Antoine for Channel 4 in the United Kingdom after Fort Boyard itself was unavailable to film in because of its then ongoing refurbishment). In both programmes the contestants have to complete challenges to win prize money.
However, while The Crystal Maze varies the type of games quite considerably, Fort Boyard tends to focus mainly on physical and endurance challenges. In later years, although Fort Boyard was something of a pioneer in the area of gameshow fear and adventure; later programmes such as Fear Factor have pushed things even further, requiring Fort Boyard to react and adapt with new twists and games - including a couple of seasons in which the contestants spent the night in the Fort (this was particularly popular in the French version)."
"Fort Boyard is a fort located between the Île-d'Aix and the Île d'Oléron in the Pertuis d'Antioche straits, on the west coast of France. It is 61 metres long, 31 metres wide, and its walls are 20 metres high.
The construction of the fort was first considered during a build-up of the French armed forces undertaken by Louis XIV between 1661 and 1667, but Vauban, his leading military engineer, famously advised against it, saying "Sire, it would be easier to catch the moon with the teeth than take on such an endeavour in such a location". Fort Boyard was to form a line of fortification with Fort Enet and Fort de la Rade on Île-d'Aix to protect the arsenal of Rochefort from Royal Navy incursions.
Construction of the fort did not begin in earnest until 1801, under Napoleon, in order to protect the coast (and especially the arsenal of Rochefort) from possible incursions by foreign (and especially British) navies. At that time, cannons only had a limited range, and the distance between the two islands of Aix and Oleron was too large to block the passage. Fort Boyard with classical sailboat.
Following difficulties in establishing a firm base (stone blocks had to be installed on the sandy sea bed during low tide, where they could still sink under their own weight) the project was suspended in 1809. Construction resumed in 1837, under Louis-Philippe, following renewed tensions with the United Kingdom. The fortifications were completed in 1857, with sufficient room for a garrison of 250 men.
However, by the time of its completion, the range of cannons had markedly increased, making the fort unnecessary for national defence.
Under the Paris Commune of 1871, Fort Boyard was briefly used as a prison, before being abandoned a few years later. Over time, the fort slowly crumbled and deteriorated into the sea as it was left unmaintained.
In 1961 the Commune sold the fort to the département of Charente-Maritime. Six years later, the final scene of the French film Les Aventuriers was filmed at the remains of the fort.
In 1988, restoration work commenced on Fort Boyard, in order to prepare it for a television game show, also named Fort Boyard. The fort was electrified and a contraption similar to an oil rig has been installed on the side in order to facilitate access to television crews. Restoration on the fort finished in 1989 and filming commenced in 1990. Fort Boyard has been used as the set for the show to this present day."
You can have a nice view of Fort Boyard with a boat trip from La Rochelle to l'ile d'Aix.
Fermes les yeux Et laisses les étoiles S'accrocher à tes doigts Comme des papillons, mon amour La nuit est belle Approches-toi de moi Ouvres grand tes ailes La lune est telle un ange Veille sur toi Si tu as peur d'apprendre à voler Les battements de mon coeur Disent je suis tout près J'ai demandé un ciel parfait Pour que tu puisses enfin rever Fermes les yeux La nuit sera ton amie Sens comme le vent Caresse ton visage Gageons que le temps Ne soit juste qu'un mirage La nuit est belle Approches-toi de moi On ne voit plus qu'elle La lune, mon amour Brille pour toi Fermes les yeux Et laisses les étoiles Briller de tout leurs feux Comme d'immenses soleils, mon amour La nuit est belle Approches-toi de moi Ouvres grand tes ailes C'est toi, mon amour Qui brille pour moi C'est toi mon amour Qui brille pour moi.
L'Homme Araignée était de nouveau en Malaisie. Alain Robert, un français, était arrêté hier apres avoir montée le 88 étages la tour Petronas à Kuala Lumpur.
Extrait du "theStar online": KUALA LUMPUR: French climber Alain Robert, also known as “Spiderman,” was arrested Tuesday after successfully scaling the 88-storey Petronas Twin Towers, city police confirmed. Deputy police chief SAC I Abdul Samah Ahmad said the Frenchman was arrested for criminal tresspass. It was Robert’s third attempt to scale the 88-storey structure, at one time the world’s tallest building.
