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Tag: legal battle

  • Court clears South Korean worker of stealing 73-cent snacks

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    A worker accused of “stealing” snacks worth less than a dollar in South Korea has finally been acquitted after a legal battle lasting nearly two years.

    The logistics firm he was working for had filed a claim against him last year for taking a Choco Pie — a popular South Korean snack — and a mini custard worth 1,050 won (73 cents) from an office fridge last year.

    Deeming the offence minor, prosecutors had filed a summary indictment, but the driver insisted he was innocent and requested a formal trial.

    A court found him guilty and fined him 50,000 won — around fifty times the value of what he had eaten.

    But the worker immediately appealed, and finally won the legal challenge.

    “The defendant was acquitted,” an official from the Jeonju District Court told AFP Friday.

    The company had argued that unlike its staff, subcontracted workers like the accused were not allowed to open the refrigerator without permission.

    But the appellate court said in its final ruling that the drivers were in fact told “they could eat snacks in the office, and the security employees ate snacks during night shifts.”

    With 39 other subcontracted workers offering statements that they also ate snack from the fridge, the appellate court ruled that “it is difficult to conclude that the defendant had the intent to steal.”

    The defendant’s lawyer told reporters after the ruling the driver “felt deeply ashamed that it led to a trial,” as “he was simply hungry in the early morning and ate a Choco Pie.”

    “There were various ups and downs along the way, but I am very grateful for this outcome, and I believe the defendant feels the same,” said the defendant’s lawyer.

    The case has sparked public outcry in South Korea, with labour unions comparing the worker to Jean Valjean, the protagonist of French classic novel “Les Miserables” jailed for stealing bread to feed his siblings.

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  • OpenAI can’t use the term ‘Cameo’ in Sora following temporary injunction

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    Cameo, the app that allows people to buy short videos from celebrities, has won an important victory in its legal battle against OpenAI. On Monday, a federal judge granted the company a temporary restraining order against OpenAI, CNBC reports. Until December 22, the startup is not allowed to use the word “cameo” in relation to any features inside of Sora, its TikTok-like app for creating AI-generated videos. The order covers similar words like “Kameo” and “CameoVideo.”

    “We are gratified by the court’s decision, which recognizes the need to protect consumers from the confusion that OpenAI has created by using the Cameo trademark,” Cameo CEO Steven Galanis told CNBC. “While the court’s order is temporary, we hope that OpenAI will agree to stop using our mark permanently to avoid any further harm to the public or Cameo.”

    OpenAI did not immediately respond to Engadget’s comment request.

    Cameo sued OpenAI in October, claiming the company’s use of the term was likely to confuse consumers and dilute its brand. Before filing the suit, Galanis said Cameo tried to resolve the dispute “amicably,” but claims OpenAI refused to stop using the name. Sora’s cameo feature allows users to upload their likeness to the app, which other people can then use in their own videos. US District Judge Eumi K. Lee, who granted Cameo the temporary junction, has scheduled a hearing for December 19 to determine if the order should be made permanent.

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    Igor Bonifacic

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  • Electric Aviation Company Alleges ‘Corporate Espionage’ in Lawsuit Against Rival

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    Two next-generation aviation companies are facing off in a legal battle. 

    Joby Aviation is suing Archer Aviation over allegations that its rival misappropriated trade secrets that were stolen from Joby by a former employee. Joby filed the lawsuit Thursday. It comes as the two companies push to roll out electric air taxi service in the U.S.

    “Archer brazenly used that stolen information to interfere with Joby’s exclusive strategic partnership,” the complaint reads. “This is corporate espionage, planned and premeditated.”

    Both companies are developing electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, meant to operate as air taxis. Santa Cruz, California-based Joby Aviation is targeting Dubai for the initial launch of its first air taxi service before rolling out in the U.S. cities like Los Angeles and New York, in partnership with Delta Air Lines. Archer Aviation is based in San Jose, California, and also aims to roll out its air taxi service in New York City, but in partnership with United Airlines. Both trade publicly on the New York Stock Exchange and have contracts with the Department of Defense for military applications of their technology.

    The lawsuit centers around Archer employee George Kivork, who had previously worked as Joby’s head of U.S. state and local policy. On his LinkedIn, Kivork describes his current role at Archer as general manager. Prior to Joby, he worked as a senior public policy manager at Lyft, in various roles for the city of Los Angeles, and as an attorney in the Department of Commerce’s Office of General Counsel.

    The lawsuit alleges that two days before Kivork left the company, he withdrew “dozens of files” from Joby’s systems, even sending some to his personal email. They allegedly contained confidential and proprietary information about “partnership terms, business and regulatory strategies, infrastructure strategies for vertiports and airport access, and technical information about Joby’s aircraft and operations.” Three weeks later, Joby alleges that Archer approached a major real estate developer that already has a strategic partnership with Joby, and pitched a deal that was “specifically calibrated to undercut Joby’s agreement with the Developer.”

    Archer Chief Legal and Strategy Officer Eric Lentel called Joby’s case “bad faith litigation” in a statement provided to Inc.

    “Joby alleges we used their trade secrets to win a ‘deal’ with a developer but the reality is that Archer has no deal with this developer and Mr. Kivork did not bring any Joby confidential information to Archer,” Lentell said. “Joby knows these facts and is now improperly attempting to achieve through bad faith litigation what it cannot accomplish through fair competition. Archer remains focused on building the future of advanced aviation in America.”

    Archer has been under legal scrutiny before. In 2021, autonomous eVTOL company Wisk Aero sued Archer for alleged intellectual property theft. The company similarly claimed that Archer had acquired the confidential information through a former employee, TechCrunch reported. The two eventually settled in 2023, and per terms of the dispute, Archer agreed to use Wisk as an autonomous partner, according to CNBC. As of 2023, Wisk is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Boeing.

    The final deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, December 12, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.

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    Chloe Aiello

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  • Uncle Nearest CEO Fawn Weaver Alleges Smear Campaign Amid Receivership Battle Over $108 Million Default

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    The CEO of embattled whiskey company Uncle Nearest alleges that an ongoing legal battle with a lender amounts to a smear campaign. Central to it, according to Fawn Weaver, who is also the founder, is a Martha’s Vineyard property the company purchased in 2023.

    “Martha’s Vineyard was a smear campaign tactic,” Weaver said during a fireside chat at the Inc. 5000 conference titled, “Reclaiming Your Company in Turbulent Times.” “Their hope was that the judge would see it, would accept the smear and would turn over keys of my company to them.”

    Whiskey company and distillery Uncle Nearest has been in receivership since August after defaulting on $108 million worth of loans from the lender, Farm Credit Mid-America. Receiverships are powerful legal tools, which involve appointing a third party or “receiver” to oversee and protect a company’s assets and guide restructuring to avoid bankruptcy, according to Investopedia.

    A Black- and woman-owned company, Uncle Nearest was named after Uncle Nearest Green, a formerly enslaved man who taught Jack Daniel to make whiskey in the 1800s. Weaver learned of Green from 2016 reporting in The New York Times, after which she began researching his story. She ultimately wrote a book about Nearest and her own journey, called Love and Whiskey, and founded the company alongside her husband Keith Weaver.

    Today, Weaver says Uncle Nearest is the second best selling Tennessee whiskey in the U.S. after Jack Daniel’s, boasts numerous awards, and has continued to grow sales in spite of an overall downturn in alcohol sales post-pandemic. The company also has made early advances into vodka and cognac, and owns a farm in Tennessee and a chateau in France (for the cognac foray), among other properties, according to Weaver.

    Weaver claims the inclusion of the Martha’s Vineyard property in Farm Credit’s complaint comes down to reputational damage and an effort to “taint the judge, who’s going to be white in eastern Tennessee.”

    Martha’s Vineyard is home to historically Black neighborhoods and has a legacy of generational Black homeownership that dates back to the early 19th century, according to the Vineyard Gazette’s reporting on Martha’s Vineyard: Race, Property, and the Power of Place. To this day, prominent figures including former President and First Lady Barack and Michelle Obama and director Spike Lee reportedly own property there.

    “If you can get the judge to believe that we misappropriated funds to buy a property, a vacation home—let’s be clear, I’m from California, what I’m not going to do is buy a vacation home that’s not on the water in a town that is not sunny nine months out of the year,” she said.

    An August filing from Weaver and Uncle Nearest opposing the receivership request addresses the Martha’s Vineyard property directly. It claims that Farm Credit’s receivership motion “ignores critical context,” and states that the lender did not take adequate legal steps to establish its claim on the property as collateral in case of a default on the loans. It was a point Weaver reiterated at the conference.

    “They didn’t have security over any of our collateral. And the question becomes, why not? Why did you not ask to perfect seven of our eight pieces of real estate? Martha’s Vineyard is just one of them,” Weaver said.

    The August filing also alleges that two Farm Credit executives took a social trip to the Vineyard together with Uncle Nearest’s former CFO, whom Weaver has accused of fraud, noting that they attended Uncle Nearest’s inaugural Gospel Brunch event at the property and provided “unsolicited praise for the acquisition.” Referring to Farm Credit as the plaintiff, the filing states, “Plaintiff’s direct participation and documented support contradict the narrative it now offers in its Motion.”

    Weaver stated at the conference that she had provided some evidence to prove her claim but that there would be more to come. “I still have not filed anything,” she added.

    Uncle Nearest’s appointed receiver did file an initial report on Oct. 1, stating he had found “no evidence of misappropriation, theft, financial impropriety by the company’s founder, its management team or any current employee,” and writing that the odds were “very good” that  the company would successfully emerge from receivership, The Lexington Herald Leader reported. He also detailed that although he didn’t anticipate a fire sale, some unproductive or noncore assets would likely be sold, which could include Uncle Nearest’s cognac and vodka businesses and some real estate holdings, according to The Lexington Herald-Leader.

    “Every entrepreneur is going to have a moment in time where it looks like all is lost,” Weaver said. “The only difference between those who have been the most successful entrepreneurs in American history and those who have failed are those who gave up in the in between.”

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    Chloe Aiello

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