McDonald's fails in McCurry suit

PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia » McDonald's has lost an eight-year trademark battle against the Malaysian restaurant McCurry, which serves Indian food.
The country's highest court ruled today that the U.S. fast-food giant cannot appeal against another court's verdict that allowed McCurry to use the “;Mc”; prefix.

The ruling by the Federal Court ends all legal avenues for McDonald's to protect its name from what it said was a trademark infringement.

A three-member Appeal Court panel had ruled in favor of McCurry Restaurant in April. The panel said there was no evidence to show that McCurry was passing off McDonald's business as its own.

Isle company starts Kentucky airline

OWENSBORO, Ky. » A western Kentucky city is reconnected to the world with the start of new airline by a Hawaii-based parent company.

Owensboro Mayor Ron Payne said that KentuckySkies' air service between Owensboro and Nashville, Tenn., comes at a good time for the city, the Messenger-Inquirer in Owensboro reported.

“;We're retooling the city,”; he said. “;This sends a signal that Owensboro is alive and aggressive.”;

The new airline is run by Hawaii-based Pacific Wings and will add flights through Nashville to Atlanta this month. Flights to Atlanta will cost $87 each, said David Jones, the company's chief pilot. Flights to Nashville are $39.

The airline recently flew city and county officials from Owensboro to Nashville to meet with officials from Jackson, Tenn., which it also began serving last week—as TennesseeSkies.

“;These cities were invisible until this week,”; said Greg Kahlstorf, CEO of Pacific Wings, parent company of both KentuckySkies and TennesseeSkies. “;Now they're visible on every airline booking site. You can fly to Owensboro and Jackson from anywhere in the world.”;

Because of the rush to get the air service started, Kahlstorf said, some parts of the service weren't quite ready.

The planes didn't have the new airlines' logos painted on them yet. They were landing on the general aviation and military runways east of the main terminal at Nashville International Airport, and passengers deplaned at the Atlantic Aviation terminal and climbed aboard a shuttle for a quick ride to the main terminal. “;It doesn't take any longer than the shuttle between concourses at LAX (Los Angeles International Airport),”; Kahlstorf said. He hopes to have a gate at the main terminal soon.

The airline is using nine-passenger Cessna 208B Grand Caravans on the flights.

Google tackles European concerns

BRUSSELS » Internet search leader Google Inc. is making concessions to European publishers to try to soothe worries over its Google Books project, which aims to put many hard-to-find books online.

Google's digital library has raised hackles among Internet rivals such as Microsoft, Yahoo and Amazon and triggered fears among some European copyright holders that their exclusive rights could be eroded.

Google spokesman Bill Echikson said yesterday the company would appoint two European representatives to a registry that oversees the project—one representative for authors and one for publishers.

He also said Google would do more to check that English-language editions of books originally published in a European language weren't wrongly listed as out of print in the United States. Publishers feared that adding such books to the Google library would lose them sales and hurt their right to sell books in their catalog.

Google is scanning European books only over 150 years of age to avoid infringing on copyrighted material.

Learn to use social media

The Aloha Chapter of Meeting Professionals International offers instruction on maximizing use of Facebook and Twitter.

The luncheon takes place from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. next Tuesday at the Hilton Waikiki Prince Kuhio. Participants should bring wireless-capable laptops. Tickets are $45; call 255-4166.

ON THE MOVE

  » Sheraton Waikiki Resort has named Michael Kaplan as food and beverage sales manager. He previously was a restaurant manager at Morton's the Steakhouse in Los Angeles and also has experience as a senior restaurant manager at Roy's Restaurant in Las Vegas, assistant general manager at Les Artistes Steakhouse at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas and senior restaurant manager at King's Seafood Co./King's Fish House in California and Nevada.

» McDonald's Restaurants of Hawaii has announced the promotion of Martin Lau to multidepartment head from operations manager. He has 27 years' experience with the company, starting as a crew member.

» Philip K. White & Associates has announced Kevin McKee as project architect. He owned and managed Kevin McKee Architecture for 18 years.