U.S. court keeps spying claims against Mattel alive - Entertainment News

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Mattel Inc will answer accusations it spied on rival toymakers by infiltrating their private showrooms around the globe, after a U.S. court denied its motion to dismiss claims filed by rival MGA.
In an escalation of a long-running battle over MGA's popular "Bratz" dolls, MGA Entertainment Inc accused Mattel of gaining entry to toy fairs with false credentials to steal trade secrets. It says Mattel then concealed evidence about these activities, according to court filings.
MGA has accused Mattel employees of gaining access to private showrooms of toy makers -- including Hasbro Inc, Lego and Sony Corp -- armed with fake business cards and spy cameras, to steal price lists and other sensitive information.
It made the accusations in August, four weeks after the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco said a lower court judge had wrongly granted Mattel ownership of the $1 billion franchise of multi-ethnic, fashionable Bratz dolls.
Mattel sought to have MGA's most recent trade secret allegations dismissed. But U.S. District Judge David Carter, based in Southern California, ruled the allegations can survive because Mattel has also accused MGA of destroying evidence.
The two sets of allegations "share a logical relationship," Carter ruled.
However, he denied MGA's attempt to recover damages resulting from court injunctions that had once been imposed on MGA, only to be overturned.
MGA Chief Executive Isaac Larian called Mattel's conduct "shameful" on Wednesday. Representatives for Mattel were not immediately available for comment.
Trial is currently scheduled for Jan. 11, though further pretrial motions will be decided before then.
The case in U.S. District Court, Central District of California is Bryant v. Mattel Inc, 04-9049.
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Problem gamblers may recover without quitting - Casino

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Pathological gamblers may often be able to recover from their destructive habits without giving up gambling altogether, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that among nearly 4,800 Australian adults they surveyed, the 44 men and women who appeared to be recovering pathological gamblers had largely beat their problems without completely giving up the habit.
Ninety percent were still sometimes playing the lottery, hitting the casino or betting on sports -- despite no longer screening positive for problem gambling.
The findings, reported in the journal Addiction, are in line with what has been seen in the treatment of alcohol abuse. That is, some people in recovery can successfully cut back on drinking, rather than abstaining completely. This approach is sometimes referred to as "harm reduction."
And the results suggest that problem gamblers, too, can recover even if they do not quit altogether, lead researcher Dr. Wendy S. Slutske, of the University of Missouri in Columbia, told Reuters Health by email.
Traditionally, abstinence has been the cornerstone of treatment for pathological gambling, being strongly espoused, for example, by the support group Gamblers Anonymous. But recent research has suggested that therapy aimed at "controlled gambling" can be effective.
This is important, Slutske's team notes in the report, because if controlled gambling, rather than complete abstinence, is a treatment goal, it's possible that more pathological gamblers will seek help.
The current findings are based on phone interviews with 4,764 Australian twins who were part of a national registry used for health-related research. All completed a standard questionnaire that screens people for lifetime and more-recent gambling problems.
Some signs of pathological gambling include a preoccupation with gambling, feeling the need to take increasingly bigger risks, taking time from work or family life to gamble, and hiding the habit from others.
In this study, 104 participants, or about 2 percent, screened positive for a lifetime history of pathological gambling. Of those men and women, 28 screened positive for the problem in the past year, while 32 met only some of the criteria for pathological gambling in the past year, and were considered problem gamblers.
Another 44 men and women did not report any symptoms in the past year; they were considered the "recovery" group.
Of that recovery group, 90 percent said they still gambled at times -- though considerably less often than their counterparts who did report symptoms in the past year. For example, people in the recovery group gambled on an average of 54 days in the past year, versus 176 days among those who screened positive for pathological gambling in the past year.
The study has its limitations, including the fact that it assessed participants at one time point. A study that follows people over time, Slutske and her colleagues note, could help uncover the factors that allow some gamblers to recover "in the absence of abstinence." It could also show whether their recoveries last for the long haul.
"I don't think that we know yet how people (in recovery) are able to continue to gamble without problems," Slutske said, "and more research might be needed to answer this question."
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