Rosetta Stone Inc, the company providing the "leading language-learning software" said it filed a lawsuit against Google in a U.S. federal court. The reason??? Trademark infringement.

Rosetta Stone alleges that Google is allowing 3rd parties to purchase the right to use its trademarks in Google's Adwords advertising programs. The 3rd parties being allowed to use such words are alleged to include individuals involved in software piracy and the like.

Michael Wu, Rosetta Stone's General Counsel said "Google's search engine is helping third parties mislead consumers and misappropriate Rosetta Stone trademarks by using them as 'keyword' triggers for paid advertisements and by using them within the text or title of paid advertisements." 

Google spokesman Andrew Pederson said that Google allows trademarks to be used as keyword triggers because it benefits the users, in terms of being able to choose from a variety of cometing advertisers.

In an email, Pederson said "Just as it's reasonable to expect a range of brands on any shelf in a grocery store, providing users on Google with more than one option when they search for a brand name or other trademark helps them to find the best product at the lowest price." 

Hm. I can see thier point there.

However, Rosetta Stone also said that last month, Google changed its policy... the new policy states "advertisers will be allowed to use trademark terms in their ad text even if they do not own that trademark or have explicit approval from the trademark owner to use it."

Shady, shady, Google! 

Howard Stern's sidekick on the Howard Stern Show has been charged with driving under the influence after a little accident in New Jersey. Thankfully, nobody was injured.

Lange is expected to make his court appearance on July 16th.

It all began last year...

Power.com (based in Rio de Janeiro) lets users have access to many social networking sites (MySpace, Twitter, etc) all in one place. Facebook, however, is not one of those sites, as they blocked Power.com from adding them to their list of sites people could simulaneously access. Last year, Facebook files a lawsuit against Power.com over this.

So, today (Friday), Power.com countersued in U.S. District Court in San Jose, California. Power.com is claiming that Facebook doesn't follow its own policy which should give users control of the content they share.

Get it? So if Facebook did give users full control of the content they share, then why would they not allow their users to connect with that content from a third-party site.

Wonder how this will all play out... thoughts? Do you think Power.com is correct in that Facebook isn't following its own policy?

Dole Foods (the banana people) have sued a Swedish filmmaker and his company for defamation. They sued them yesterday (Wednesday).

Apparently Fredrik Gertten, the filmmaker, made a film called Bananas! which was a documentary about the alleged incidences of Nicaraguan workers who claimed they were made sterile by a pesticide used at the Dole banana plantations back in the 1970s.

So, the whole thing about workers being sterile turned out to be bullshit. The men who made the claims never worked for Dole, it was all a fraud. 

HOWEVER, Bananas! was completed BEFORE it came to light that it was all a fraud. Hm. Makes you think.

The attorney for Dole, Theodore Boutrous Jr. wrote in the lawsuit, "To screen, promote, and profit from this film, despite the fact that its entire premise has been adjudicated a fraud ... is the epitome of reckless and irresponsible conduct. It cannot possibly be justified or defended. It must stop."

The film was shown twice in June, as "a case study" of what can happen when a story changes AFTER a film is completed.  When shown at the LA Film Festival, it had a long disclaimer at the beginning saying it was not a fair and accurate account.

That should be ok if you ask me. That means they showed Bananas! only after first making it known that the documentary was untrue. So how can they be sued for defamation? Really. Hm. Thoughts???

A dimwit of the drinking and driving persuasion. Nice.

Joyce DeWitt of Three's Company (and pretty much nothing else since) was arrested in Southern California for drunk driving. She was pulled over Saturday afternoon.

Drinking and driving is dumb. 

On his blog this morning, Perez Hilton posted the following statement. Though it appears to be very well thought out, it contains no apology from Perez to Will.I.Am in regards to the idiocy displayed by Perez. Apparently, in his world, there is no need to apologize when you use harsh words against someone, but whatever. That would be his world, not mine.

So, here is his statement... thoughts?

For solicitation. Bummer.

Apparently Midvale Utah police walked in on Jeff Archuleta receiving services. 

Midvale Police Sgt. John Salazar said "Two of our detectives went back to that room to stop the activity. Inside they found a female masseuse and male client. At that time an interview ensued and the male client admitted to receiving sexual gratification from the masseuse." According to court documents, Jeff Archuleta was the male client. Oops.

After being busted at the Queens of Reiki on January 14th, Jeff Archuleta plead no contest and paid a $582 fine.

And so Lindsay Lohan tweeted "OLD PHOTOS. I'm THAT bored." And so we all continue to respond to her non-stop bids for attention.

On another note, do you think she stole the jewelry from the Elle shoot?! A spokeswoman for Elle U.K. said the following in a statement, “Elle has no reason to believe that Lindsay Lohan was in any way responsible and has no further comment to make.”

Hmmm. Ok. So some $400K-ish worth of jewelry goes missing, Scotland Yard is involved, and she's not a suspect? Everybody who was there should be a freaking suspect! Idiots. I mean, maybe she just got bored...  anyway, it's being investigated... wonder who done it!

Ricardo Mendoza, paparazzo who was working for TMZ back on October 18, 2007 had his foot run over by Britney Spears in her Mercedes, back in 2007. Mendoza didn't do anything at the time, instead he waited until this past Friday (yesterday) to file a law suite claiming negligence, battery and assault.

It's claimed that Britney Spears "intentially, deliberately, wantonly, maliciously and with a conscious disregard for the rights, health, and safety of others" drove her car in a manner causing her to "drive, push, ram and/or barrel through a crowd of people...severely injuring plaintiff." That's what the complaint states.

That complaint seems a bit redundant to me... intentially, deliberately, etc. Just pick one.

Anyway, Mendoza is asking for unspecified damages.

It's so annoying when people wait a long to time to do anything about stuff. Seriously.

More assault charges floating around, oh yay.

Country star John Rich is charged with harassment and assault in a dispute with a former Nashville Star contestant, Jared Ashley.

Thursday, John Rich made a statement that he turned himself in to the Nashville police to face the charges file by Jared Ashley. John Rich was released on $3,000 bail. 

He's being charged with 2 misdemeanor counts of assault and 1 misdemeanor count of harassment. John Rich says the charges are false.