Do BC Pills Really Prevent Cancer of Ovaries and Colon? | Platt ...

REGARDING THE DR. OZ SHOW ON BIRTH CONTROL PILLS

?On Friday, March 9, 2012, the Dr. Oz show talked about how birth control pills provide a 50% reduction in ovarian and colorectal cancer if used for more than 5 years. He had two gynecologists on his program who claimed that BC pills taken for a total of 5 years over a woman?s lifetime will confer these benefits. I have to admit that I am somewhat skeptical of these claims for a number of reasons.

?The 1st has to do with credibility. During the introduction of these women it was stated that at least one of them was a paid consultant for a drug company or companies that manufactures BC pills. Make no mistake, these kind of claims can translate into billions of dollars in added profits to those drug companies manufacturing these products.

?In addition, certain statements made by these women I felt did not give on a true picture. For example, they denied that these pills cause weight gain. Considering that these pills contain 2 synthetic hormones, namely estrogen and progestin, that are lipogenic ? i.e. fat- creating, tends to go against their claim. In addition, these pills prevent ovulation, which means natural progesterone is not being produced. This is the hormone that has a significant influence on controlling insulin ? the number one hormone that creates fat.

?Also, the claim was made that BC pills do not reduce a woman?s libido (interest in sex). Women need two hormones to have a good libido ? one is testosterone, and the other is progesterone which is no longer being produced. In most cases this has to affect libido. One can imagine that it is difficult to get a woman to buy a product that creates fat and lowers their libido.? Could this be the reason they deny these side effects?

?It seems that women have been abused by the pharmaceutical industry for many years. In 2001, the Women?s Health Initiative raised the specter of the dangers of Premarin with regard to the causation of breast cancer. In the 1960s, when Premarin was 1st introduced, it quickly became the number one selling drug in the world. After 10 years they noted that somewhere between 200,000 and 2 million women developed uterine cancer. Instead of removing it from the market, they added Provera to it, creating Prempro. This combination did help to protect women from uterine cancer, but it quadrupled their chances of getting breast cancer.

?Estrogen is known to cause 5 different cancers in women ? breast, uterine, ovarian, cervical, and colon. Interestingly, natural bio-identical progesterone can most likely prevent every one of these cancers providing a 100% reduction rather than the 50% reduction they are claiming by using birth control pills. Even this 50% benefit I feel is questionable.

?I suspect that BC pills are one of the reasons that women wind up with fibroids, endometriosis, fibrocystic disease of the breast, ovarian cysts, gallbladder disease, migraine headaches, and asthma. All these conditions can be caused by estrogen when there is not enough progesterone to protect them. Please understand, the progestins found in BC pills and Prempro are synthetic chemicals bearing very little relationship to natural progesterone.

?My feeling is that if these doctors are really concerned about preventing ovarian cancer, they should use their influence to get insurance companies to pay for a screening test called a CA 125. This test can detect ovarian cancer in its early stages when it is still 100% curable. Once this cancer spreads, it is almost 100% fatal. Not surprisingly, PSA tests as a screen for prostate cancer in men are covered. Gynecologists often denigrate CA 125 tests because they are not diagnostic and there are false positives.? However, if the test is elevated it will at least get the ovaries looked at and possibly save a woman?s life. By the way, PSA tests are not diagnostic and also have mostly false positives.

?I admit that I?m not a big fan of estrogen in any synthetic or non-bio-identical form, including BC pills. The fact that my mother died in 1980 of breast cancer and had been on Premarin reinforced in me the concern about this hormone.

?For those of you who are interested in a natural approach to treating hormonal imbalance plus more discussion about estrogen, I would recommend my book,? The Miracle of Bio-identical Hormones?. It is available on my website: www.plattwellness.com or from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, et al.

?For healthcare practitioners, I have written a manual about my particular approach to achieving hormonal balance and wellness. If interested, please e-mail: questions@plattwellness.com or call: 760-836-3232.

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My entire professional life has been devoted to getting patients well. However, my approach to wellness has been considered outside the standard of care by experts for the medical review board. Their concern was that I treated the underlying cause of a patient?s problem and weaned them off their synthetic medications. Instead of changing my approach to wellness, I have my M.D.,but I am not licensed by choice. My board-certification in internal medicine was taken from me by the American Board of Internal Medicine because I had not done a pelvic exam on a woman I treated for stress incontinence. The medical system is a huge business. Unfortunately, it is not the business of wellness; it thrives on disease and illness. It is not only the drug companies, but also hospitals? people who make up medical equipment, certain doctors, etc. This is why they do not allow preventive medicine in the country. The medical boards I came up against are there basically to enforce the business of medicine. I have always wanted to change health care in this country, but in order to do so the consumer has to be educated, as do doctors who wish to change their approach to medicine. Please read the information that will be forthcoming in future blogs and through my online webinars for both the general public and for M.D.'s , naturopaths and others in the medical/health field. I have written a manual for doctors based on my 20 plus years of experience in bio-identical hormone therapy. I am also concentrating on educating the public to the role of bio-identical hormones in overall health, not just for women but also for men and, in some cases, children. Balanced hormones are part of the key to wellness and play an important role in the overall mechanics of the body. Wishing you hormonal balance! Sincerely, Michael E. Platt, M.D.

Source: http://plattwellness.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/do-bc-pills-really-prevent-cancer-of-ovaries-and-colon/

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Poll Shows Public Supports Obama on Gas Prices

More Americans trust President Obama than congressional Republicans to make the right decisions to bring down the price of gasoline, according to a new poll, although neither side commands a majority.

What?s more, as prices continue to rise and the specter of $5-per-gallon gas for the summer driving season looms over the political landscape, the latest United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll shows the public slightly more supportive of the energy priorities of the Democrats and the president than those of the GOP.

Forty-four percent of respondents trust Obama more ?to make the right decisions to help bring down the price of gasoline,? versus 32 percent for Republicans in Congress, according to the poll. Only 1 percent said both; 16 percent said neither and 7 percent didn?t know or refused to answer.

Americans put somewhat more stock in the Democrats? policy of conservation and development of alternative energy sources, such as wind and solar power, than they do in the Republicans? emphasis on greater domestic production of oil and gas. Fifty percent of respondents said that the Democratic approach ?would do more to lower fuel prices,? while 42 percent went with the GOP approach.

It?s worth noting that earlier this winter the Congressional Connection Poll found a substantial majority of Americans favoring construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, which has become a rallying cry for congressional Republicans.

This newest survey plumbed Americans? views on what is causing the spike in gasoline prices. When asked what the main reason behind the price increase was, some 38 percent laid the blame on ?the manipulation of prices by large energy companies.? Twenty-eight percent cited ?tension in the Middle East, particularly over Iran and nuclear weapons.? Well down the list were ?the policies of President Obama? (14 percent) and ?the policies of congressional Republicans? (5 percent).

On another contentious issue in Congress?judicial vacancies?the poll showed a plurality of Americans believes that the backlog is due to Senate Republicans ?unreasonably delaying the confirmation process.? Some 44 percent of respondents said that was the cause for the holdup, while 36 percent said that Senate Republicans were ?just doing their constitutional duty.? A full 17 percent of adults responding to the survey didn?t know or refused to answer and 4 percent said they haven?t heard or read about the delays. On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he would take full advantage of his powers to try to break the logjam of judicial nominations.

As the U.S. Postal Service continues to hemorrhage money, a significant majority of survey respondents said that they were willing to forgo Saturday mail delivery in order to save money. But the public appears to be much more wary of paying more for a postage stamp.

Congress is wrestling with the fallout from the Postal Service?s budget shortfalls. The USPS, which is supposed to operate without taxpayer dollars, has been borrowing heavily from the Treasury and will bump up against its $15 billion cap this year. Members of Congress were outraged earlier this year when the postmaster general announced a cost-saving plan that involved everything from closing 223 mail-sorting facilities to ending Saturday delivery.

The poll showed a solid 63 percent of respondents in favor of ending Saturday mail delivery ?as a way for the Postal Service to save money.? Thirty-two percent opposed changing the historic delivery schedule.

A majority who responded to the poll were unwilling to shell out more for a stamp or other postage fees in order to guarantee the continuation of Saturday delivery. Some 42 percent were willing to pay more, but 56 percent were not.
Congress can?t directly stop the postmaster general from implementing his recommendations, but the mere threat of passing measures that could delay or thwart the proposed cuts has made this a hot topic on the Hill, where members of both parties have decried the proposed cuts. The protests have been especially loud from representatives of rural areas, whose constituents would have to travel longer distances for postal services if the cutbacks are implemented.

The poll showed some interesting divides among the respondents on the Postal Service issue. Fifty percent of black non-Hispanics supported the end of Saturday delivery to save money, while 47 percent opposed the idea. Black non-Hispanics were also willing to support a hike in postal rates to preserve Saturday delivery. Support for ending Saturday delivery to save money was slightly weaker in the Midwest and among those earning less than $50,000 annually. White college graduates were most supportive of ending Saturday delivery, with nearly 80 percent backing such a move.

The United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International, which surveyed 1,005 adults by landline and cellular phone March 8-11. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/poll-shows-public-supports-obama-gas-prices-213009838.html

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UCLA scientists find insulin, nutrition prevent blood stem cell differentiation in fruit flies

Public release date: 11-Mar-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Kim Irwin
kirwin@mednet.ucla.edu
310-206-2805
University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences

UCLA stem cell researchers have shown that insulin and nutrition keep blood stem cells from differentiating into mature blood cells in Drosophila, the common fruit fly, a finding that has implications for studying inflammatory response and blood development in response to dietary changes in humans.

Keeping blood stem cells, or progenitor cells, from differentiating into blood cells is important as they are needed to create the blood supply for the adult fruit fly.

The study found that the blood stem cells are receiving systemic signals from insulin and nutritional factors, in this case essential amino acids, that helped them to maintain their "stemness," said study senior author Utpal Banerjee, professor and chairman of the molecular, cell and developmental biology department in Life Sciences and a researcher with the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine at UCLA.

"We expect that this study will promote further investigation of possible direct signal sensing mechanisms by mammalian blood stem cells," Banerjee said. "Such studies will probably yield insights into chronic inflammation and the myeloid cell accumulation seen in patients with type II diabetes and other metabolic disorders."

The study appears March 11, 2012 in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Cell Biology.

In the flies, the insulin signaling came from the brain, which is an organ similar to the human pancreas, which produces insulin. That insulin was taken up by the blood stem cells, as were amino acids found in the fly flood, said Ji Won Shim, a postdoctoral fellow in Banerjee's lab and first author of the study.

Shim studied the flies while in the larval stage of development. To see what would happen to the blood stem cells, Shim placed the larvae into a jar with no food - they usually eat yeast or cornmeal and left them for 24 hours. Afterward, she checked for the presence of blood stem cells using specific chemical markers that made them visible under a confocal microscope.

"Once the flies were starved and not receiving the insulin and nutritional signaling, all the blood stem cells were gone," Shim said. "All that were left were differentiated mature blood cells. This type of mechanism has not been identified in mammals or humans, and it will be intriguing to see if there are similar mechanisms at work there."

In the fruit fly, the only mature blood cells present are myeloid cells, Shim said. Diabetic patients have many activated myeloid cells that could be causing disease symptoms. It may be that abnormal activation of myeloid cells and abnormal metabolism play a major role in diabetes.

"Metabolic regulation and immune response are highly integrated in order to function properly dependent on each other. Type II diabetes and obesity, both metabolic diseases, are closely associated with chronic inflammation, which is induced by abnormal activation of blood cells," Shim said. "However, no systemic study on a connection between blood stem cells and metabolic alterations had been done. Our study highlights the potential linkage between myeloid-lineage blood stem cells and metabolic disruptions."

Going forward, Banerjee and his team are seeking other system signaling molecules that may be controlling blood stem cells in the fruit fly.

"It is known that metabolic dysfunction in mammals causes abnormal inflammatory responses in the blood system. However, how metabolic stresses impinge on blood cell development is still unclear," the study states. "Here, we found that starvation of Drosophila larvae leads to blood cell phenotypes. The most striking effect is acceleration of blood cell differentiation both in time and number of cells affected."

###

The two-year study was supported by the National Institutes of Health and a training grant from the Broad Stem Cell Research Center at UCLA.

The stem cell center was launched in 2005 with a UCLA commitment of $20 million over five years. A $20 million gift from the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation in 2007 resulted in the renaming of the center. With more than 200 members, the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research is committed to a multi-disciplinary, integrated collaboration of scientific, academic and medical disciplines for the purpose of understanding human adult and embryonic stem cells. The center supports innovation, excellence and the highest ethical standards focused on stem cell research with the intent of facilitating basic scientific inquiry directed towards future clinical applications to treat disease. The center is a collaboration of the David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center, the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science and the UCLA College of Letters and Science. To learn more about the center, visit our web site at http://www.stemcell.ucla.edu.

---

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 11-Mar-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Kim Irwin
kirwin@mednet.ucla.edu
310-206-2805
University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences

UCLA stem cell researchers have shown that insulin and nutrition keep blood stem cells from differentiating into mature blood cells in Drosophila, the common fruit fly, a finding that has implications for studying inflammatory response and blood development in response to dietary changes in humans.

Keeping blood stem cells, or progenitor cells, from differentiating into blood cells is important as they are needed to create the blood supply for the adult fruit fly.

The study found that the blood stem cells are receiving systemic signals from insulin and nutritional factors, in this case essential amino acids, that helped them to maintain their "stemness," said study senior author Utpal Banerjee, professor and chairman of the molecular, cell and developmental biology department in Life Sciences and a researcher with the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine at UCLA.

"We expect that this study will promote further investigation of possible direct signal sensing mechanisms by mammalian blood stem cells," Banerjee said. "Such studies will probably yield insights into chronic inflammation and the myeloid cell accumulation seen in patients with type II diabetes and other metabolic disorders."

The study appears March 11, 2012 in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Cell Biology.

In the flies, the insulin signaling came from the brain, which is an organ similar to the human pancreas, which produces insulin. That insulin was taken up by the blood stem cells, as were amino acids found in the fly flood, said Ji Won Shim, a postdoctoral fellow in Banerjee's lab and first author of the study.

Shim studied the flies while in the larval stage of development. To see what would happen to the blood stem cells, Shim placed the larvae into a jar with no food - they usually eat yeast or cornmeal and left them for 24 hours. Afterward, she checked for the presence of blood stem cells using specific chemical markers that made them visible under a confocal microscope.

"Once the flies were starved and not receiving the insulin and nutritional signaling, all the blood stem cells were gone," Shim said. "All that were left were differentiated mature blood cells. This type of mechanism has not been identified in mammals or humans, and it will be intriguing to see if there are similar mechanisms at work there."

In the fruit fly, the only mature blood cells present are myeloid cells, Shim said. Diabetic patients have many activated myeloid cells that could be causing disease symptoms. It may be that abnormal activation of myeloid cells and abnormal metabolism play a major role in diabetes.

"Metabolic regulation and immune response are highly integrated in order to function properly dependent on each other. Type II diabetes and obesity, both metabolic diseases, are closely associated with chronic inflammation, which is induced by abnormal activation of blood cells," Shim said. "However, no systemic study on a connection between blood stem cells and metabolic alterations had been done. Our study highlights the potential linkage between myeloid-lineage blood stem cells and metabolic disruptions."

Going forward, Banerjee and his team are seeking other system signaling molecules that may be controlling blood stem cells in the fruit fly.

"It is known that metabolic dysfunction in mammals causes abnormal inflammatory responses in the blood system. However, how metabolic stresses impinge on blood cell development is still unclear," the study states. "Here, we found that starvation of Drosophila larvae leads to blood cell phenotypes. The most striking effect is acceleration of blood cell differentiation both in time and number of cells affected."

###

The two-year study was supported by the National Institutes of Health and a training grant from the Broad Stem Cell Research Center at UCLA.

The stem cell center was launched in 2005 with a UCLA commitment of $20 million over five years. A $20 million gift from the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation in 2007 resulted in the renaming of the center. With more than 200 members, the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research is committed to a multi-disciplinary, integrated collaboration of scientific, academic and medical disciplines for the purpose of understanding human adult and embryonic stem cells. The center supports innovation, excellence and the highest ethical standards focused on stem cell research with the intent of facilitating basic scientific inquiry directed towards future clinical applications to treat disease. The center is a collaboration of the David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center, the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science and the UCLA College of Letters and Science. To learn more about the center, visit our web site at http://www.stemcell.ucla.edu.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-03/uoc--usf030912.php

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American opens fire on Afghans, 15 dead

BALANDI, Afghanistan (AP) ? A U.S. service member walked out of a base in southern Afghanistan before dawn Sunday and started shooting Afghan civilians, according to villagers and Afghan and NATO officials. Villagers showed an Associated Press photographer 15 bodies, including women and children, who they said were killed by the American.

The shooting could deepen strife between U.S. forces and their Afghan hosts just as weeks of violence set off by the burning of Muslim holy books at a U.S. base had started to die down. The burnings sparked violent protests and attacks that killed some 30 people. Six U.S. service members have been killed in attacks by their Afghan colleagues since the Quran burnings came to light.

NATO officials apologized for Sunday's shootings.

"I wish to convey my profound regrets and dismay at the actions apparently taken by one coalition member in Kandahar province, said a statement from Lt. Gen. Adrian Bradshaw, the deputy commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan.

"One of our soldiers is reported to have killed and injured a number of civilians in villages adjacent to his base. I cannot explain the motivation behind such callous acts, but they were in no way part of authorized ISAF military activity," he said, using the abbreviation for NATO's International Security Assistance Force.

NATO spokesman Justin Brockhoff said a U.S. service member had been detained at a NATO base as the alleged shooter. The casualties were evacuated to NATO medical facilities, he added.

The incident took place in two villages in the Panjwai district of southern Kandahar province. The villages ? Balandi and Alkozai ? are about 500 yards (meters) away from a U.S. base. The shooting started around 3 a.m., said Asadullah Khalid, the government representative for southern Afghanistan and a member of the delegation that went to investigate the incident.

A resident of the village of Alkozai, Abdul Baqi, told the AP that, based on accounts of his neighbors, the American gunman went into three different houses and opened fire.

"When it was happening in the middle of the night, we were inside our houses. I heard gunshots and then silence and then gunshots again," Baqi said. There was no immediate verification of his account.

Helicopters were circling overhead in the village as a delegation from the Kandahar province Gov. Tooryalai Wesa's office arrived to determine exactly what happened in Alkozai and nearby Balandi village.

There were reports of protests in Panjwai following the shooting and the U.S. embassy warned travelers in Kandahar province to "exercise caution."

An AP photographer saw 15 bodies between the two villages. Some of the bodies had been burned, while others were covered with blankets.

Khalid, the government representative, said he had tallied 16 dead, a number that matched accounts from villagers.

Twelve of the dead were from Balandi, said Samad Khan, a farmer who lost all 11 members of his family, including women and children. Khan was away from the village when the incident occurred and returned to find his family members shot and burned. One of his neighbors was also killed, he said.

"This is an anti-human and anti-Islamic act," said Khan. "Nobody is allowed in any religion in the world to kill children and women."

Khan demanded that Afghan President Hamid Karzai punish the American shooter.

"Otherwise we will make a decision," said Khan. "He should be handed over to us."

Residents in Alkozai village also demanded that Karzai punish the American or hand him over to the villagers. The four people killed in the village were all from one family, said a female relative who was shouting in anger. She did not give her name because of the conservative nature of local society.

"No Taliban were here. No gunbattle was going on," said the woman. "We don't know why this foreign soldier came and killed our innocent family members. Either he was drunk or he was enjoying killing civilians."

The Taliban called the shootings the latest sign that international forces are working against the Afghan people.

"The so-called American peace keepers have once again quenched their thirst with the blood of innocent Afghan civilians in Kandahar province," The Taliban said in a statement posted on a website used by the insurgent group.

Just as news of the incident started to break, Karzai stressed the importance of foreign forces leaving Afghanistan to preserve the country's national sovereignty in a speech at a public even in Kabul.

Any international forces that remain after 2014 ? when Afghans are scheduled to take over responsibility for security countrywide ? would have to operate under strict guidelines governing their responsibilities and when they could leave their bases, he said.

"We have a strong army and police, so it is to our benefit to have good relations with the international community, not have international troops in our country," Karzai said. His office had no immediate comment on the shootings in Kandahar.

The president has demanded that international forces stop night raids on the homes of suspected militants as a condition to signing the strategic partnership agreement.

The raids have caused widespread anger among Afghans, who say civilians too often end up the victims of violence or indignities during the raids.

Some of the most egregious examples of misconduct, however, have not come from night raids.

Four soldiers from a Stryker brigade out of Lewis-McChord, Washington, were sent to prison in connection with the 2010 killings of three unarmed men during patrols in Kandahar province's Maiwand district, which is just northwest of Panjwai. They were accused of forming a "kill team" that murdered Afghan civilians for sport ? slaughtering victims with grenades and powerful machine guns during patrols, then dropping weapons near their bodies to make them appear to have been combatants.

And in January, before the Quran burning incident, a video that purportedly showed U.S. Marines urinated on corpses of men they had killed sparked widespread outrage.

President Barack Obama has apologized for the Quran burnings and said they were a mistake.

___

Vogt reported from Kabul, Afghanistan. Associated Press writers Sebastian Abbot and Rahim Faiez contributed to this report in Kabul.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/american-opens-fire-afghans-15-dead-125959711.html

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Trademark Registration ? Legal Terms

As trademark registration is a legal process, there are several legal terms, either formal or informal, with which the applicant should be familiar.

1. Badge of origin: the function of a trademark. It indicates the identity of a?person or business as the source of goods or services.

2. Bare License: Occasionally a trademark owner allows another person or?Organization, through a license, to use the trademark, but fails to maintain effective supervision and quality control of the licensee?s products or services. The original owner may or may not suffer some decrease in legal rights regarding the trademark, depending on circumstances. This situation is termed ?naked licensing? in the United States.

3. Distinctiveness: also termed ?Acquired Distinctiveness.? This status is attained?through the use of the mark, normally for a considerable period of time.

Evidence of use, such as sales receipts, sales figures and reports, and advertising or marketing budgets, are useful evidence.

4. ? Exclusions: Many countries do not permit certain symbols or terms to undergo the Trademark Registration process. National flags, the insignia of royal families and the Olympic Games rings are all excluded.

5. Infringement: the unauthorized use of a trademark. Note that to prevent infringement, the trademark must be registered, or the trademark must have been used for a long enough time so that it has acquired distinctiveness.

6. Passing Off: Regarding an unregistered trademark, this is a situation in which?one person?s or business?s goods or services are manufactured or presented resulting in confusion with another person?s or business?s goods or services. Typically, one unregistered trademark is very similar to another registered or unregistered trademark. To successfully benefit from passing off, a person must be able to prove that the trademark belongs to them. More, they must have established some sort of reputation through use of the mark. Finally, the individual must be able to show he or she has somehow been harmed by another?s use of the mark. Proving a passing off action can be difficult and expensive. Registering the trademark is an easy way to protect against another?s unauthorized use of your trademark.

7. Prior Rights: certain legal rights acquired through use of an unregistered trademark for a long enough time that it has attained local uniqueness.

8. Trademark: a specific sign used by an individual or business to distinguish the products or services provided by that individual or business from those of other people or organizations. A trademark may be traditional, such as a word, phrase, logo, symbol, design, some sort of image or a combination of these. There are also non-traditional trademarks, such as colours, sounds, and even smells. Trademarks are considered as property.

9. Trademark Classes: classification of goods and services into specific classes.?Numbers 1 to 34 include goods/products, while Numbers 35 to 45 include services. This classification arose out of the International (Nice) Classification of goods and services. The purpose was twofold: to decide exactly which goods and services are able to be registered under trademarks and two, to attempt to unify various national classification systems.

For clarification of any of these terms, or guidance in the process of Trademark Registration, interested parties should contact the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO).

Source: http://www.1directory.net/legal/trademark-registration-legal-terms-20226.html

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Greece secures biggest debt cut in history

People wait to receive money from an ATM at an Alpha Bank branch in Athens, on Thursday, March 8, 2012. Greece's race to slice euro107 billion ($140 billion) off its national debt entered the final stretch Thursday, with markets confident enough private investors will decide to accept a deal to write down the value of their Greek bond holdings. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

People wait to receive money from an ATM at an Alpha Bank branch in Athens, on Thursday, March 8, 2012. Greece's race to slice euro107 billion ($140 billion) off its national debt entered the final stretch Thursday, with markets confident enough private investors will decide to accept a deal to write down the value of their Greek bond holdings. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

A pedestrian looks a sign in a shop reading: ''One euro, price haircut'' in Athens on Thursday, March 8, 2012. Greece's race to slice euro 107 billion ($140 billion) off its national debt entered the final stretch Thursday, with markets confident enough private investors will decide to accept a deal to write down the value of their Greek bond holdings. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Pedestrians pass outside the headquarters of the National Bank of Greece in Athens, on Thursday, March 8, 2012. Greece's race to slice euro 107 billion ($140 billion) off its national debt entered the final stretch Thursday, with markets confident enough private investors will decide to accept a deal to write down the value of their Greek bond holdings. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Greece's Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos arrives for a news conference in Athens, Friday, March 9, 2012. Greece has cleared a major hurdle in its race to avoid imminent bankruptcy after persuading the vast majority of its private creditors to slash the value of their Greek bond holdings, a move that should pave the way for the country's second massive international bailout. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Roberto, an English-Italian who lives in Greece with his dog, begs as the sign behind him reads ''Time to be dangerous'' in Athens, Friday, March 9, 2012. Greece took a critical step toward staving off an imminent bankruptcy after securing the support of the vast majority of its bondholders to accept steep losses on their holdings of Greek debt, a move that should pave the way for the country's second massive international bailout. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

ATHENS, Greece (AP) ? Greece has cleared a major hurdle in its race to avoid bankruptcy by persuading the vast majority of its private creditors to sign up to the biggest national debt writedown in history, paving the way for a second massive bailout.

Following weeks of intense discussions, the Greek government said Friday that 83.5 percent of private investors holding its government bonds were participating in a bond swap. Of the investors holding the euro177 billion ($234 billion) in bonds governed by Greek law, 85.8 percent joined.

"We have achieved an exceptional success ... and I believe everyone will soon realize that this is the only way to keep the country on its feet and give it a second historic chance that it needs," Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos told Parliament.

He said he would recommend the activation of legislation known as "collective action clauses" to force bondholders who refused to sign up into the swap. The issue was to be discussed at a Cabinet meeting Friday afternoon.

"A window of opportunity is opening" with the success of the deal to reduce the country's euro368 billion debt by euro105 billion, or about 50 percentage points of gross domestic product, he said.

The investors will exchange their bonds with new ones worth 53.5 percent less in face value and easier repayment terms for Greece. A total of euro206 billion ($273 billion) of Greece's debt is in private hands. The swap will effectively shift the bulk of the remaining debt into public hands ? mainly eurozone countries contributing to Greece's bailouts.

If the exchange had failed, Greece would have risked defaulting on its debts in two weeks, when it faced a large bond redemption. A successful bond swap is also a key condition for Greece to receive a euro130 billion ($172 billion) package of rescue loans from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund.

Eurozone finance ministers said after a conference call on Friday that Greece has fulfilled the conditions to soon get approval for the bailout, most likely on Monday. The IMF has set a tentative date of March 15 to discuss the size of its participation in the bailout.

The ministers also released up to euro35.5 billion ($47 billion) in bailout money to fund the debt swap. Investors exchanging bonds will receive up to euro30 billion ? or 15 percent of the remaining money they are owed ? as a sweetener for the deal and euro5.5 billion for outstanding interest payments.

"The debt exchange represents the largest ever sovereign debt restructuring," said Charles Dallara, the managing director of the Institute of International Finance, the body that negotiated the deal with the Greek government on behalf or large investors.

The bond swap is a radical attempt to pull Greece out of its debt spiral and put its shrinking economy back on the path to recovery. The hope is that by slashing debt, the country can gradually return to growth and eventually repay the remaining money it owes.

Markets, which had rallied on Thursday on expectations of a successful deal, were muted on Friday. The Stoxx 50 of leading European shares was up 0.1 percent, but the main stock index in Athens was down 0.32 percent in midday trading. The euro retreated 0.4 percent from recent highs to $1.3215.

"After quite a rollercoaster ride, it looks like Greece has finally done it ... allowing Europe to avoid what could have been a disorderly default in which the costs do not bear thinking about," said Simon Furlong, a trader at Spreadex.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association was meeting to determine whether the bond swap would be deemed a so-called "credit event" ? a technical default ? which would trigger the payment of credit default swaps, which is essentially insurance against a default.

When the debt relief plan was first announced last year, eurozone leaders and the ECB worked hard to avoid a credit event, because they feared the a payout of CDS could destabilize big financial institutions that sold them.

However, since then a CDS payout has started to look less threatening. The ISDA, a private organization that rules on credit events, said that if triggered, overall payouts on CDS linked to Greece will be below $3.2 billion. That amount is spread over many financial firms and likely too small to significantly hurt any one of them.

A more detailed look at the results of the swap shows that holders of euro172 billion ($228 billion) in Greek- and foreign-law bonds agreed to sign up to the deal. By triggering the collective action clauses to force holdouts to join, Greece will secure a participation level of 95.7 percent, or euro197 billion ($261 billion). The country also extended the deadline for holders of foreign law bonds, of whom 69 percent have so far signed up, until March 23.

EU economic affairs commissioner Olli Rehn said he was "very satisfied" by the high turnout, and urged Athens to press ahead with its austerity program, implemented over the past two years amid deep popular resentment.

"That contribution by the private sector is an indispensable element to ensure future sustainability of the Greek public debt and, thus, a decisive contribution to financial stability in the euro area as a whole," he said.

"I now expect the Greek authorities to maintain their strong commitment to the economic adjustment program and to rigorously and timely implement the policy package."

On the streets of Athens, many were skeptical. Panayiotis Theodoropoulos said the writedown was good "for them."

"For us? Nothing. Everyone looks out for themselves. In a while the people will be living on the streets," he said.

The debt crisis, sparked by years of overspending and waste, has left Greece relying on funds from international bailout loans since May 2010. Austerity measures including repeated salary and pension cuts and tax hikes imposed in return have led to record unemployment with more than 1 million people out of work, a fifth of the labor force.

The national statistical authority said Friday that the recession in the last quarter of 2011 was deeper than initially forecast, reaching 7.5 percent instead of 7 percent. The economy is expected to shrink for a fifth straight year in 2012, stagnate in 2013 and modestly expand in 2014.

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Derek Gatopoulos and Demetris Nellas in Athens, Gabriele Steinhauser in Brussels and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-03-09-EU-Greece-Financial-Crisis/id-554439eb4e534a5aa35f96b3c2466e9e

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