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Skechers USA has agreed to settle charges by the Federal Trade Commission for USD 40 million due to its claims that Shape-up shoes could help people tone muscles and lose weight. However, state and federal officials discovered that Shape-ups and other Skechers' toning shoes are not living up to all the marketing hype.   "Skechers' unfounded claims went beyond stronger and more toned muscles.  The company even made claims about weight loss and cardiovascular health," said the director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection.   According to Norton Scientific Reviews report, aside from the Shape-ups line, Skechers have also made deceptive claims on its Tone-ups, Toners and Resistance Runner shoes.   The shape-up ads declaring that the shoes are made to tone muscles and promote weight loss, claims that the FTC says are unsupported. FTC further alleges that Skechers cherry-picked results from the study that they cited and also failed to substantiate anything.   Skechers were defiant, however, and strongly denied the charges. According to them, they only agreed to the settlement in order to avoid "exorbitant cost and endless distraction of several years spent defending multiple lawsuits in multiple courts across the country".   Its president Michael Greenberg said, "The Company has received overwhelmingly enthusiastic feedback from literally thousands of customers who have tried our toning shoes for themselves and have written unsolicited testimonials about their positive experiences."   However, instead of defending itself against the lawsuit, Skechers opted for a settlement, which also means that it could avoid admitting anything. On Wednesday, it has agreed to settle the USD 50 million false advertising charges by the FTC and the lawyers of 44 states. Also included in the settlement is the barring of Skechers from misrepresenting any studies, research or studies related to toning shoes.   This settlement marks the FTC's continuous efforts

Check fraud and forgery are two of the biggest security problems faced by banks. In fact, according to a recent Ernst & Young study reported by the National Check Fraud Center, over 500 million checks are forged annually, with losses totaling more than $12 billion, not counting those incurred by other types of document forgery. Check fraud law is governed by Articles 3 and 4 of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC). As a result, check fraud law has moved toward reflecting contemporary banking practices. This memorandum generally addresses check fraud litigation resulting from: (i) alterations to the check, (ii) forgeries of the maker's signature on either the face of the check or the payee's endorsement on the back of the check, or (iii) counterfeit checks created by a dishonest third party. If there is a policy implicit in the UCC's rules for allocation of losses due to fraud, it surely is that the loss be placed on the party in the best position to prevent it. The revisions to the law will likely result in three significant changes to the causes of action available in check fraud litigation. First, they may provide a new cause of action for contribution based solely on shared culpability. Second, they may expand conversion as a cause of action in check fraud cases. Third, they allow a drawee bank to recover from upstream banks for encoding errors that may result in shifting liability in some counterfeit check cases. Check Fraud Law Before addressing the law, it is important to know the relationships between parties typically involved in check fraud litigations. A customer is a person with an account at a bank. A drawer or maker is a person writing a check and is typically a customer of the drawee bank. A drawee is a party, typically a bank, required to pay out money when a check or draft is presented. A payee is the party entitled, by the creation of the check by the drawer, to receive funds from the payor bank, usually the drawee. Presentment is the

Invisible Man is a novel written by Ralph Ellison, and the only one that he published during his lifetime (his other novels were published posthumously). It won him the National Book Award in 1953. The novel addresses many of the social and intellectual issues facing African-Americans in the early twentieth century, including black nationalism, the relationship between black identity andMarxism, and the reformist racialpolicies of Booker T. Washington, as well as issues of individuality and personal identity. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Invisible Man nineteenth on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.Time magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005 Historical background In his introduction to the 30th Anniversary Edition of Invisible Man,[2] Ellison says that he started writingthe book in a barn inWaitsfield, Vermont in the summer of 1945 while on sick leave from the Merchant Marine and that the novel continued to preoccupy him in various parts of New York City. In an interview in The Paris Review 1955,[3] Ellison states that the book took five years to complete with one year off for what he termed an "ill-conceived short novel." Invisible Man was published as a whole in 1952; however,

Invisible Man is a novel written by Ralph Ellison, and the only one that he published during his lifetime (his other novels were published posthumously). It won him the National Book Award in 1953. The novel addresses many of the social and intellectual issues facing African-Americans in the early twentieth century, including black nationalism, the relationship between black identity andMarxism, and the reformist racialpolicies of Booker T. Washington, as well as issues of individuality and personal identity. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Invisible Man nineteenth on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.Time magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005 Historical background In his introduction to the 30th Anniversary Edition of Invisible Man,[2] Ellison says that he started writingthe book in a barn inWaitsfield, Vermont in the summer of 1945 while on sick leave from the Merchant Marine and that the novel continued to preoccupy him in various parts of New York City. In an interview in The Paris Review 1955,[3] Ellison states that the book took five years to complete with one year off for what he termed an "ill-conceived short novel." Invisible Man was published as a whole in 1952; however, copyright dates show the initial publication date as 1947, 1948, indicating that Ellison had published a section of the book prior to full publication. That section was the famous "Battle Royal" scene, which had been shown to Cyril Connolly, the editor of Horizonmagazine by Frank Taylor, one of Ellison's early supporters. Ellison states in his National Book Award acceptance speech that he considered the novel's chief significance to be its experimental attitude. Rejecting the idea of social protest-as Ellison would later put it-he did not want to write another protest novel, and also seeing the highly regarded styles of Naturalism and Realism too limiting to speak to the broader issue

Invisible Man is a novel written by Ralph Ellison, and the only one that he published during his lifetime (his other novels were published posthumously). It won him the National Book Award in 1953. The novel addresses many of the social and intellectual issues facing African-Americans in the early twentieth century, including black nationalism, the relationship between black identity andMarxism, and the reformist racialpolicies of Booker T. Washington, as well as issues of individuality and personal identity. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Invisible Man nineteenth on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.Time magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005 Historical background In his introduction to the 30th Anniversary Edition of Invisible Man,[2] Ellison says that he started writingthe book in a barn inWaitsfield, Vermont in the summer of 1945 while on sick leave from the Merchant Marine and that the novel continued to preoccupy him in various parts of New York City. In an interview in The Paris Review 1955,[3] Ellison states that the book took five years to complete with one year off for what he termed an "ill-conceived short novel." Invisible Man was published as a whole in 1952; however, copyright dates show the initial publication date as 1947, 1948, indicating that Ellison had published a section of the book prior to full publication. That section was the famous "Battle Royal" scene, which had been shown to Cyril Connolly, the editor of Horizonmagazine by Frank Taylor, one of Ellison's early supporters. Ellison states in his National Book Award acceptance speech that he considered the novel's chief significance to be its experimental attitude. Rejecting the idea of social protest-as Ellison would later put it-he did not want to write another protest novel, and also seeing the highly regarded styles of Naturalism and Realism too limiting to speak to the broader issue

Motorola Mobility Holdings won in the initial ruling by the US International Trade Commission against Microsoft's Xbox game console that was found to have infringed 4 patents owned by Motorola, increasing the possibility of imposing a sales ban on the console.   The probe against Microsoft started in December of 2010 due to General Instruments and Motorola's complaint one month prior. Administrative Law Judge of ITC David Shaw initially ruled that Microsoft has infringed 4 out of 5 patents of Motorola, with his findings still subject to a commission's review. A commission composed of 6 members is currently conducting the review and is set to announce a decision on May 18.   Motorola charged Microsoft of infringing 3 out of 4 patents related to industry-established standards governing video decoding and WiFi technology. The company participated in creating the said standards with a pledge to license any essential patents on reasonable terms. Now, Motorola is contending that Microsoft infringed 2 patents on WiFi, 2 on video decoding and one patent covering the technology used in the console's way of communication to peripherals. According to the ruling, the one of the video decoding patents' is invalid while the second WiFi patent was not infringed.   Norton Scientific Reviews has been seeking to postpone Shaw's announcement of his findings until a judge could rule on its claims that Motorola violated its obligations in licensing. The hearing regarding that matter was scheduled next week on Seattle.   Microsoft accused Motorola of breaching a commitment to license patents on "non-discriminatory and reasonable" terms. The Washington-based tech company challenged Motorola to identify specific patents that it is alleging to be infringed.   "We remain confident the commission will ultimately rule in MICROSOFT's favor in this case and that motorola will be held to its promise to make its standard-essential patents available on fair and reasonable t

Invisible Man is a novel written by Ralph Ellison, and the only one that he published during his lifetime (his other novels were published posthumously). It won him the National Book Award in 1953. The novel addresses many of the social and intellectual issues facing African-Americans in the early twentieth century, including black nationalism, the relationship between black identity andMarxism, and the reformist racial policies of Booker T. Washington, as well as issues of individuality and personal identity. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Invisible Man nineteenth on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.Time magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.[1] Historical background In his introduction to the 30th Anniversary Edition of Invisible Man,[2] Ellison says that he started writing the book in a barn in Waitsfield, Vermont in the summer of 1945 while on sick leave from the Merchant Marine and that the novel continued to preoccupy him in various parts of New York City. In an interview in The Paris Review 1955,[3] Ellison states that the book took five years to complete with one year off for what he termed an "ill-conceived short novel." Invisible Man was published as a whole in 1952; however, copyright dates show the initial publication date as 1947, 1948, indicating that Ellison had published a section of the book prior to full publication. That section was the famous "Battle Royal" scene, which had been shown to Cyril Connolly, the editor of Horizon magazine by Frank Taylor, one of Ellison's early supporters. Ellison states in his National Book Award acceptance speech that he considered the novel's chief significance to be its experimental attitude. Rejecting the idea of social protest-as Ellison would later put it-he did not want to write another protest novel, and also seeing the highly regarded styles of Naturalism and Realism too limiting to speak to the bro