BUSINESS

Several years ago, drug giant Pfizer Inc. tried to pull a fast one in Jamaica where several local companies were legally distributing generic versions of Pfizer's formerly-patented blood pressure drug Norvasc (Amlodipine). Though the drug was already off-patent elsewhere, Pfizer still tried to sue the distributors in Jamaica for patent infringement, and is now being summoned to fork over about $1 billion.

It's a bit shocking that until the last year or so, Australia managed to run a trade deficit during a resource boom. The tables below from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade show that from May 2004 to June 2008 - a period during which the All Ordinaries went up 98%, from 3,401 to a high of 6,760 - Australia recorded a trade deficit in 51 consecutive months. We even wrote about a longer streak of 75 consecutive months of trade deficits at the time.

Christian Louboutin, the world-known French shoemaker, won a trademark protection for its women's shoes with red soles and different colored tops.

It is not only Australia that has been negatively affected by the slowdown in the Chinese economy which resulted in a drop in iron ore prices in the world market.

Qantas Chief Executive Alan Joyce said on Sunday that he is expecting the Australian air carrier would break even on its international operations by 2015 with help from the agreement it signed last week with Middle East carrier Emirates.

Unidentified bandits have snatched millions of dollars' worth of maple syrup from the global strategic maple reserve near Montreal, Quebec, according to new reports.

What happened since we left you, Fellow Reckoner? Ah, yes. The Fed concluded its back-slapping fête in Jackson Hole on Friday, with The Bernank going way out on a thin limb:

It is estimated that 85 percent of buying decisions are influenced by visual perception, specifically color. As a merchant, you can use color to increase sales and improve your customers' levels of satisfaction.

Home prices in China are seen stabilising amidst the beginning of traditional peak season which begins this month pushing forward the month of October.

Target Australia Pty Ltd, an Australian department store chain owned by Wesfarmers, is now the target of a legal action after a US cosmetics and fragrance giant found the retailer has been selling fake M·A·C Cosmetics at its stores.

The Australian sharemarket improved for the third time this week, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) rising by 0.4 pct or 17.2 pts to 4348.8. The gains over the last few days have helped the local market break a two week losing streak.

The next iPhone version, set to be unwrapped on Sept 12, will have less Samsung imprints compared to the previous editions, with reports indicating that Apple has rolled out a program that would slowly wean away its products from components manufactured by its South Korean rival.

Mexico has been forced to reduce supplies of natural gas to several of its biggest consumers by almost as much as 45 percent in order to keep up with the increasing demand from steelmakers like Arcelor Mittal and Ternium SA to households.

Baidu Inc., which is China's dominant search engine, has informed that it plans to invest approximately 10 billion yuan, or $1.6 billion, in a cloud computing centre. In addition, the company is creating a Baidu's mobile browser to help secure its share in a mobile Internet market.

The fresh Qantas-Emirates code-sharing deal could spell the end of the national carrier’s international career, analysts said, in return for strong semblance of profitability on the domestic front.

Local stocks are moving higher for a second consecutive session in early trade, on the back of positive offshore moves after the European Central Bank announced plans to tackle the Eurozone crisis head on. The ECB agreed to launch a new bond buying program, designed to restrain borrowing costs for embattled nations. The move saw investors willing to take on more risk overnight, sending European shares higher and Wall Street finish at a four year high. At lunchtime in the East, the All Ordinaries...

The three-week strike that has stopped construction activities at different Grollo sites has just ended. The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) lifted its blockade at the Myer Emporium job site, prompting Grocon Chief Executive Daniel Grollo to agree to resume negotiations with the union.

eMedia Asia Limited, the joint venture subsidiary of Global Sources, has come up with a unique application called eeWeibo that is able to sort through millions of Sina Weibo posts to provide significant and real-time mobile content to professionals employed in mainland China's electronics sector.

- Fortescue's expansion deferral impacts on NRW's revenue forecasts- Brokers do not see guidance reduction as material- NRW offers service diversification and a very good yieldBy Greg PeelMining and energy services provider NRW Holdings ((NWH)) has completed discussion with Fortescue Metal...

U.S.-based China Labor Watch (CLW) has upgraded this week its scathing review on Samsung’s labour practices, highlighting what the activist group called as “illegal and inhumane treatment,” of young Chinese workers tasked to assemble a host of Samsung products.

Bank customers scored a major victory on Thursday after the High Court overturned a Federal Court decision and ruled that bank fees they questioned in a class action suit could be considered penalties.

A report released Friday by Insolvency and Trustee Service Australia pointed to single males in the age bracket 40 to 44 as those at the highest risk of declaring bankruptcy.

By Greg PeelThe Dow rose 244 points or 1.9% while the S&P gained 2.0% to 1432 and the Nasdaq jumped 2.

The Australian sharemarket improved for the second time this week, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) jumping by 0.8 pct or 33.9 pts to 4331.6. Healthcare stocks lost modest ground while all other sectors ended the day higher. The consumer discretionary, mining and energy sectors were the best performers.

It’s official. The Galaxy S3, which debuted in May 2012, is the bestselling Samsung and Android smartphone to date as the South Korean tech giant announce on Thursday that over 20 million units have been scooped up by global consumers so far.

Shares of beleaguered Australian carrier Qantas Airways surged on Thursday after the flying kangaroo announced on the same day it has entered into a 10-year arrangement with Dubai's Emirates that will enable the Australian airline fly to London via Dubai.

A new global Web index launched by Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, has found that Australian ranked eighth best in utilising the Internet to improve people's lives, both socially and politically. Sweden ranked first, followed by the U.S. in second and the UK in third.

A Japanese firm said on Wednesday that it has developed the world’s smallest ceramic capacitor, which is “so small you can barely see it.”

The China Development Bank (CDB), one of the nation's three policy banks known primarily for making big loans to other state-owned entities, has begun lending large amounts of cash to private firms around Asia, reported the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, while other banks cut back on lending amid the present economic climate.