Aurelia Butler

(Reuters) – Bytedance’s TikTok Inc persuaded a federal jury in Los Angeles on Thursday that its Stitch feature does not violate trademark rights belonging to British video-editing company Stitch Editing Ltd.The jury rejected Stitch Editing’s argument that TikTok confuses consumers by using the Stitch name to brand the popular social-media platform’s technology for “stitching” videos together.A Stitch spokesperson said the company was disappointed with the verdict. A representative for TikTok had no immediate comment. Stitch Editing has edited commercials for Nike (NYSE:NKE), Samsung (KS:005930) and Louis Vuitton and music videos for artists like the Rolling Stones and Lady Gaga. It sued in 2021 over TikTok’s Stitch technology, which allows users to splice other videos on the platform into their own.Stitch Editing told the court that TikTok’s use of “Stitch” gave users the mistaken impression that the companies are affiliated and threatened to drown out its brand.TikTok has argued that Stitch Editing’s trademark in its name does not give it a “global monopoly on use of the word ‘Stitch’ to refer to the process of combining video clips together.”Stitch Editing had requested $116 million in damages, a spokesperson for the company said.The case is Stitch Editing Ltd v. TikTok Inc, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, No. 2:21-cv-06636. More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden’s budget proposal, released on Thursday, envisions a dramatic expansion of the federal safety net for children and families. Unlike programs that benefit older Americans, it stands little chance of gaining traction.Biden’s fellow Democrats widely back his family-focused proposals: Tax credits, free preschool, subsidies for child care and paid family leave.But Democrats failed to pass them into law when they controlled both chambers of Congress last year, and Republicans who now control the House of Representatives are considering steep cuts to existing family programs. At a total cost of $1.6 trillion over 10 years, Biden’s family programs would amount to roughly 2% of all federal spending, according to a Reuters analysis, a proposal that Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy called “completely unserious” on Thursday.That would be dwarfed by the $31.8 trillion spent on Social Security and Medicare, the retirement and health plans for people over 65, according to Biden’s budget.Those two programs are due to balloon as the Baby Boom generation ages, with Biden’s budget projecting they will account for 42% of federal spending in 2033, up from 34% today.But Republicans and Democrats have said any cuts to either program are off limits as they gird for difficult negotiations to raise the nation’s $31.4 trillion debt ceiling this year. “I guarantee you I will protect Social Security and Medicare,” Biden said at a rally in Philadelphia on Thursday.That makes good political sense. Republican proposals to scale the two programs back have been met with fierce resistance from Democrats and interest groups over the past 20 years. Even modest efforts to rein them in, such as by adjusting the way benefit increases are calculated, have gotten nowhere in Congress.The 60 Plus Association, a conservative group that backed then-President George W. Bush’s proposal to partially privatize Social Security, now says the program should be preserved as is.Lawmakers have reason to be wary: Older Americans are more likely to vote than their younger counterparts, with Census Bureau data showing that 76% of voters aged 65 to 74 cast a ballot in the 2020 elections, about 10 percentage points higher than the population at large.A presentation by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office to House lawmakers on Wednesday laid out options for addressing the deficit and projected that spending cuts would have substantially less effect on the deficit than increased tax collections.Biden’s budget proposal projects a deficit of $1.7 trillion for the current fiscal year. His proposal would address it by hiking taxes on wealthy Americans and corporations; Republicans have yet to put forward a budget of their own, but many are calling for steep domestic spending cuts.HEAD START: CUT OR EXPAND?One proposal by the conservative Republican Study Committee calls for phasing out the Head Start preschool program for low-income families over 10 years. Another plan circulated by Russell Vought, who served as former President Donald Trump’s budget director, would cut Head Start immediately by 50%.Biden, by contrast, would boost Head Start funding by 9% next year. His proposal comes after a surge of COVID-19 pandemic spending, including child tax credits and expanded benefits for antipoverty programs, that analysts say helped bring a record low child poverty rate of 5.2% in 2021.That tax credit expired at the end of 2021. If revived, it would cost the government $259 billion in the next fiscal year — equal to 4% of total federal spending.Federal spending on children is on track to decline from 9.4% of the budget in 2021 to 6.4% in coming years as growing entitlement spending eats up a growing share of the budget, according to a 2022 report from the Urban Institute think tank.Elaine Maag, who helped author that report, said lawmakers usually do not consider that safety-net programs for children can yield benefits later on, such as higher graduation rates and better physical health.”We generally don’t think about the benefits of these investments in children, we just think about the cost side,” she said. “If we thought more about the benefits, we might do more investing in kids.” More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Biden administration’s budget plan put forward on Thursday includes requests for billions of dollars of funding for the Indo-Pacific region aimed at countering China through infrastructure investments and other support for U.S. partners and allies in the region.Acting Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources John Bass told reporters Washington’s competition with Beijing was “unusually broad and complex” and justified new forms of funding.”Our approach towards the generational challenge posed by the PRC focuses on investing in our own domestic capabilities, aligning our efforts with those of allies and partners and competing with the PRC where interests and values differ,” Bass said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.Biden’s budget proposal already faces stiff opposition from Republican lawmakers, although party leaders generally support efforts to counter China.The budget proposal for 2024 includes $400 million for a fund to “counter specific problematic PRC behaviors globally,” according to a State Department fact sheet.The administration is requesting mandatory spending, in addition to traditional discretionary funding, including $2 billion to support infrastructure projects and $2 billion to strengthen Indo-Pacific economies and support partners to push back against China, Bass said.The budget also includes funding to expand the U.S. presence in the Pacific Islands, a region where Washington is competing with growing Chinese influence, he said.The amount of funding is likely to pale in comparison with China’s own largess overseas through the Belt and Road infrastructure initiative, but officials say U.S. efforts are focused on “high-quality” infrastructure projects and would rally private sector investment.”We are not looking to match China dollar for dollar, in part because any number of Chinese investments… don’t make a lot of commercial sense,” Bass said. More

NEW YORK (Reuters) -New York’s attorney general on Thursday sued KuCoin for failing to register with the state before letting investors buy and sell cryptocurrencies on its platform, as part of her effort to rein in what she calls “shadowy” cryptocurrency companies.Attorney General Letitia James said the fourth-largest cryptocurrency platform violated the Martin Act, a powerful state securities law, by transacting in cryptocurrencies, selling the product “KuCoin Earn” to generate income for itself and investors, and wrongfully calling itself an “exchange.”In papers filed with a state court in Manhattan, James is seeking a permanent injunction to stop KuCoin from operating in New York until it complies with the law.KuCoin did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Launched in September 2017, KuCoin describes itself on its website as the “People’s Exchange,” with more than 27 million users across 207 countries and regions.KuCoin trails Binance, Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) and Kraken in trading volume among cryptocurrency spot exchanges, according to the data company CoinMarketCap. It raised $150 million in a funding round last May, giving it a $10 billion valuation.James said KuCoin has let investors trade popular virtual currencies such as ETH, LUNA and TerraUSD, and that her case is among the first by a regulator calling ETH a security.”One by one my office is taking action against cryptocurrency companies that are brazenly disregarding our laws and putting investors at risk,” James said in a statement.Last month, James sued the CoinEx cryptocurrency platform for failing to register with the state.In January, 10 states including New York secured up to $24 million from the cryptocurrency company Nexo Inc, which they also accused of operating illegally.KuCoin is headquartered in the Seychelles. James said its owners are Mek Global Ltd, also based in the Seychelles, and PhoenixFin PTE Ltd, based in Singapore. More

Good morning. Today we start in the US, where Joe Biden’s administration has imposed fresh sanctions on Chinese companies it said was supplying parts for drones that Russia has used to fight its war in Ukraine. On the topic of sanctions, we also have an exclusive story that Russian billionaires Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven are primed to offload their stakes in Alfa-Bank as they seek to free themselves from western penalties.Here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on in the coming days:Bank of Japan: The central bank will announce its decision on interest rates today. Rapid price growth of popular products — including chicken nuggets, tofu and bidets — exemplifies challenge for central bankers.UK-France summit: UK prime minister Rishi Sunak and his French counterpart, president Emmanuel Macron, will attend their first bilateral summit in five years.Canberra Balloon Spectacular: The week-long event begins in Australia on Saturday.Thank you for reading FirstFT. Have a great weekend. Today’s top news1. US president Joe Biden’s administration has imposed new sanctions against a group of Chinese companies it said was supplying parts for Iranian drones used by Russia to fight its war in Ukraine. The US Treasury on Thursday said five Chinese companies and one individual were “responsible”. 2. Scoop: Russian billionaires Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven are primed to offload their stakes in Alfa-Bank in a $2.3bn sale of Russia’s largest private lender, as they seek to free themselves from western sanctions.3. Roger Ng, a former Goldman Sachs banker, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Thursday in New York. The 50-year-old Malaysian citizen, who was convicted in connection with the multibillion-dollar embezzlement scheme at 1MDB, was found guilty on all three counts in his case. 4. JPMorgan Chase is suing Jes Staley over the Jeffrey Epstein lawsuits, in an attempt to make the former executive liable for penalties the bank might face if it is found to have facilitated the late sex offender’s trafficking crimes. Read more details from JPMorgan’s court filing.Explainer: Why the Epstein scandal continues to haunt JPMorgan and Barclays5. Cash-strapped local governments in China artificially boosted their revenues last year by selling swaths of land to their own investment vehicles, an official think-tank said, raising concerns about the extent of their financial woes. Some of the transactions, the Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences warned, “might be fake”.How well did you keep up with the news this week? Take our quiz.News in-depth

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy justified his stance in defending the city of Bakhmut by claiming Russia was suffering much heavier casualties than Ukraine © FT montage/Dpa/AFP/Getty

Despite western officials and even some Ukrainian soldiers suggesting it might be wise to pull back from the eastern city of Bakhmut, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this week recommitted his forces to defending the city. Our reporters delve into why Zelenskyy has raised the stakes.We’re also reading . . . New cold war: Xi Jinping is not wrong about Washington’s “containment” of China, but encircling Beijing is not a viable long-term strategy, writes Edward Luce.Trade secrets: Being on the receiving end of coercive trade bullying from China isn’t much fun for exporters — and all the more reason to read Alan Beattie’s quick and easy guide for countries resisting Chinese trade coercion.Bad break-up: EY has been thrown into disarray by an internal war over its plan to split in two after its US boss said the deal would have to be paused.Chart of the dayPeanuts are no longer going for well, peanuts. They have become China’s best-performing agricultural commodity as dry weather and Beijing’s policies have eaten into supplies, raising traders’ fears that demand from the world’s largest importer of the legume will push up international prices.Take a break from the newsCal Newport, an MIT-trained computer scientist, has carved out a side career as a productivity evangelist for the masses, with teachings centred around the values of focused work, work-life balance and cutting out digital distractions. What does he know that we don’t?© Justin T Gellerson; Illustrations: Uijung KimAdditional contributions by Darren Dodd and Tee Zhuo More