legal

Models Win $21 Million in Lawsuit, Must Donate $2 Million to Charity

Filed under: Charity

The New York Daily News reported last week that five women's charities -- including an eating disorder program -- will share $2 million from a class-action settlement with major modeling agencies, as ordered by a federal judge. The money is what is left over after thousands of aspiring and established models got their share of a $21 million settlement with the agencies, including Wilhelmina, Ford and Click. The models sued in 2002, claiming the agencies fixed prices. A settlement was reached in 2005, but legal disputes delayed the final payouts. Manhattan Federal Judge Harold Baer originally ruled that after the models and their lawyers were paid, the remaining $6 million would be divvied up among the charities. The models and their lawyers appealed his decision, and after recalculating the payouts, a $2 million pool was left. Baer signed a final order that included $347,826 for Columbia University's eating disorders program and $173,913 for its heroin detox program. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute will receive $86,956 for its "Heart Truth" campaign and New York University School of Medicine will receive $347,826 for two heart research studies aimed at women.

Tags: charities, charity, justice, lawsuit, legal, model, models

Finalists Announced for Hugo Boss Prize in Contemporary Art

by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art

guggenheim new york We're a step closer to finding out who will win the biannual Hugo Boss Prize, which is bestowed for achievement in contemporary art. Vying for the $100,000 award this year are the finalists just announced by the Guggenheim: Cao Fei from China, Hans-Peter Feldmann from Germany, Natascha Sadr Haghighian from Iran, Roman Ondak from the nation formerly known as Czechoslovakia, Walid Raad from Lebanon and Apichatpong Weerasethakul from Thailand.

In addition to the cash – and possibly more valuable in the long run – the Hugo Boss Prize winner will also get a 2011 exhibition at the Guggenheim in New York. The winners are selected by a panel of art professionals that includes Ysmil Raymond, curator of the Dia Art Foundation; Udo Kittelmann, director of Berlin's Nationalgalerie and Tirad Zolghadr, an independent writer and curator.

Last year, the honor went to Emily Jacir. Previous winners include Matthew Barney, Douglas Gordon, Pierre Huyghe, Rirkrit Tiravanija and Tacita Dean.

Unlike most art prizes, this one stipulates has no age, geographic or medium-specific qualifications. It is as open as open can be.

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Tags: apichatpong weerasethakul, ApichatpongWeerasethakul, art, artist, artwork, awards, berlin, china, czech republic, czechoslovakia, CzechRepublic, douglas gordon, DouglasGordon, germany, guggenheim, hugo boss, HugoBoss, iran, lebanon, legal, matthew barney, MatthewBarney, new york, NewYork, prize, prizes, thailand

Coach Sues Target Over Copycat Bags

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Handbags

Coach and Target are at it again. In 2006 the luxury handbag brand took on the retailer over designs that looked similar to their offerings and that case ended in a private settlement. Now Coach is ready to step back into court with Target over a fresh set of designs that look just a little too close to their own much-more-expensive offerings. Coach filed a complaint last week in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. At issue are Coach's Ergo bags and the Signature Patchwork bags similar to the one shown at right. Coach says that starting this summer Target began to sell knockoffs of these bags.

The craze for the handbags has lead to a rapid uptick in a lookalikes in the past few years. Once a popular style hits the mainstream it is rapidly copied. While out-and-out counterfeits are illegal and relatively easy to identify the business of similarity is far muddier. Earlier this year Gucci took on Guess? Inc. for trademark infringement saying that the company's use of the "g" logo and interlocking G pattens were too similar and damaging to the Gucci brand. Both Coach and Gucci are seeking similar resolution in the form of damages, attorneys fees and injunctions against selling the similar designs.

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Tags: coach, copycat, handbag, lawsuit, legal, target