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| Breaking Headlines |  |
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| Short news...6/9/04
JUNE 09, 2004 -- The Oregon Federal District Court handed a ruling in regard to Johnson Outdoors' (Ocean Kayak) three-year patent infringement case vs Glenwa (Cobra Kayaks). The verdict was found in favor of Glenwa on all counts. This affirmed a previous ruling by the US Court of Appeals. The ruling invalidated two patents at issue, the '063 and '91281 patents. In addition, the court ruled that Glenwa had not infringed on any part of the Johnson '177 patent and, as a result, granted Glenwa's motion for summary judgment and denied Johnson's motion. Men Exercise For Tone; Women Favor Cardio Well-Being Men are more likely to purchase exercise equipment that stresses muscular development/toning, while women are more likely to purchase equipment that focuses on cardiovascular well-being, according to data in the recently released NSGA report "The Sporting Goods Market in 2004." Males were the dominant purchasers of multi-purpose home gyms (69%), weight benches (85%) and free weights/weight sets (78%). Women led purchases of elliptical/cross trainers (55%) and motorized treadmills (55%). Men and women used stationary exercise bicycles equally (45% each), with 10% of purchases going for "household use." More women (60%) purchased hand/wrist/ankle weights, normally associated with aerobic exercising. "Cardio exercise, in addition to helping achieve and maintain better health, may also indicate a focus on weight reduction and maintenance," said NSGA VP/information & research Thomas Doyle. Exercise equipment represented $4.7 billion of the $21.8 billion athletic and sports equipment market reported for 2003. With clothing and footwear, the "Sporting Goods Market in 2004" placed sporting goods sales at $45.8 billion for 2003 and projects sales of $46.9 billion for 2004. "The Sporting Goods Market in 2004" is available for $235 for retailer/dealer members of the Association and free to manufacturer and sustaining members. For non-members, the cost is $325. For additional information, contact Thomas Doyle, NSGA, 1601 Feehanville Drive, Suite 300, Mount Prospect, IL 60056-6035. Phone: 847/296-6742, E-mail: [email protected], or fax: 847/391-9827. SEC Suspends Trading In Rollerball Stock The SEC temporarily suspended trading in the securities of a number of public companies, including Rollerball International, for ten days because there is a lack of current and accurate information concerning the securities of the issuers who are delinquent in their periodic filings. The trading suspension commenced on June 8 and terminates at 11:59 p.m. EDT on June 21, 2004. In March 2001, Rollerball was unable to file its Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2000, without unreasonable expense and effort due to its inability to compile the information to finish the required financial statements with sufficient time for management to review the financial statements and to prepare the management discussion and analysis. Nothing has been heard since. Rollerball International develops, manufactures, distributes and markets a patented design of inline skates under the registered trademark RollerBall. The company offers consumers a skate that has spherical-shaped wheels instead of the flat, disk-shaped wheels of traditional inline skates, resulting in enhanced performance. The company was been granted several US and foreign patents for its skateball designs and technology. The last trade for the stock was for $0.005. Wal-Mart Is Tops In Selling More To Current Customers In a competitive retail market, retailers' choices for growth are usually limited to selling more to current customers or stealing from competitors. Today's king of the retail mountain, Wal-Mart has been able to excel at both according to information released by BIGresearch. "In order to become the biggest, you have to be able to steal customers from competitors and Wal-Mart has done a great job of this," said Gary Drenik of BIGresearch. "However, in order to stay big, you've got to be able to get an ever increasing share of customer expenditures and Wal-Mart does this better than anyone." An example of Wal-Mart converting current customers to purchase more is in the women's clothing category. When it comes to women's clothing, 48% of the women who buy their clothing at Wal-Mart also buy their shoes at Wal-Mart. By comparison, only 22% of Target's shoppers say the same, 23.5% of Sears, 22.7% of JC Penney and 23.6% of Macy's shoppers. The findings are from the May Consumer Intentions and Action survey of more than 7,400 customers. |
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