Gates Foundation makes its biggest-ever equity investment in German biotech

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said it would invest $52 million in CureVac, a German biotechnology company that develops vaccines and immunotherapies, marking the foundation's biggest-ever equity investment.

Privately held CureVac uses its proprietary mRNA technology, which allows for rapid low-cost production of drugs and vaccines, to teach the human body to produce proteins capable of fighting a wide range of diseases.

The investment will support development of CureVac's technology and the construction of a production facility. CureVac and the foundation will also collaborate to develop vaccines to fight infectious disease.

"This collaboration will ensure that one of medicine's most promising new technologies is applied to the challenge of reaching all people with the affordable, life-saving vaccines they need," said Sue Desmond-Hellmann, CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The foundation will also fund multiple projects developing vaccines for viral, bacterial and parasitic infectious diseases that disproportionately affect people in the world's poorest countries, apart from the equity investment.

As part of the deal, any Gates Foundation-funded products will be made available by CureVac at affordable prices in poor countries.

Bill Gates, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft Corp , and wife Melinda set up the Gates Foundation to fight disease and poverty around the world.

Established in 2000, the foundation distributed $3.6 billion in grants in 2013, in particular for global health and development, and had $42.3 billion in assets as of late 2014.

Oprah Winfrey prevails in 'Own Your Power' lawsuit

Oprah Winfrey has prevailed in a trademark lawsuit challenging her use of the phrase "Own Your Power" in her namesake magazine, on TV, on websites and in social media accounts.

U.S. District Judge Paul Crotty in Manhattan ruled on Thursday that Winfrey, her company Harpo Productions Inc and her publisher Hearst Corp demonstrated that the phrase "lacks the requisite distinctiveness" to deserve trademark protection.

Crotty also said Simone Kelly-Brown, a motivational speaker and business coach who said she trademarked the phrase in 2008, and her company Own Your Power Communications Inc did not show that Winfrey's use of the phrase would likely confuse consumers.

"Though they may aspire to do so, plaintiffs present no evidence indicating a likelihood of creating a global media presence capable of attracting an audience of millions," Crotty wrote.

Patricia Lawrence-Kolaras, a lawyer for Kelly-Brown, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Jonathan Donnellan, Hearst's deputy general counsel, said the defendants are pleased with the decision.

Crotty previously dismissed the lawsuit in March 2012, only to have a federal appeals court revive it 14 months later because the defendants did not show that their use of "Own Your Power" constituted fair use.

In Thursday's decision, Crotty said the defendants made that showing by having used the phrase in good faith, in conjunction with other words and images associated with Winfrey, and to convey an "overall message of self-empowerment."

Winfrey, 61, is one of the most popular talk-show hosts in history. She runs the cable network OWN, which she created in a joint venture with Discovery Communications Inc.

Forbes magazine on Thursday estimated Winfrey's net worth at $3 billion.

U.S. says inaction on online piracy risks public safety

The U.S. trade office on Thursday urged a crackdown on website name registrars who fail to take action against sellers of illegal goods such as counterfeit medicines and warned that turning a blind eye puts public safety at risk.

The U.S. Trade Representative also said it is keeping an eye on China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's consumer shopping website for sales of fake and pirated goods, but refrained from reinstating the site on its piracy blacklist.

Representatives of Alibaba, the world's largest e-commerce company, had no immediate comment.

USTR named a domain name registrar, a company which manages the registration of internet names, for the first time in its annual "notorious markets" list as an example of concern about some registrars not taking action to block or suspend sites selling illegal goods.

The registrar, Canada's Tucows Inc, said it took down dozen of sites every day but unlike some competitors, it considered all complaints carefully to ensure they were justified.

"We want to make sure that our registrants are protected and respected as well as making sure there are not bad actors on our system, and that requires striking a balance on a daily basis," said Graeme Bunton, Tucows manager of public policy.

USTR cited an Interpol report which found some drugs sold online were adulterated with rat poison and said the public faced "substantial risk" in finding safe online pharmacies.

"Registrars can play a critical public safety role in the Internet ecosystem. Ignoring that role, or acting affirmatively to facilitate public harm, is of great concern," USTR said.

It urged trading partners and ICANN, a California-based organization which oversees the introduction of new internet addresses, to "investigate and address this very serious problem."

USTR named 25 online marketplaces and 19 physical markets in the report. It decided against reinstating Alibaba's consumer-to-consumer shopping website Taobao.com, which was removed in 2012, and said it would continue to monitor the site.

Alibaba says it spent more than 1 billion yuan ($160.7 million) combating fake goods and improving customer protection from the beginning of 2013 to the end of November.

But a Chinese regulator said in January many products sold on Alibaba sites infringed trademarks, were substandard or fake.

Alibaba said in a submission for the review that it would introduce a new system in early 2015 to fast track requests to remove counterfeit items.

Apple Pay stung in transactions using data stolen from retailers -WSJ

Apple Inc's mobile payment system Apple Pay has been hit by a wave of fraudulent transactions using stolen credit-card data from a spate of breaches at retailers, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The transactions stemmed from breaches at retail giants including Home Depot Inc and Target Corp, the Journal reported on Thursday.

The majority of unauthorized purchases have been for big-ticket items bought with smartphones at Apple's own stores, the Journal said.

Apple could not be reached immediately for comment.

U.S. says inaction on online piracy risks public safety

The U.S. trade office on Thursday called for a crackdown on website name registrars who fail to take action against sellers of illegal goods such as counterfeit medicines and warned that turning a blind eye puts public safety at risk.

The U.S. Trade Representative also said it is keeping an eye on China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's consumer shopping website for sales of fake and pirated goods, but refrained from reinstating the site on its piracy blacklist.

USTR named a domain name registrar, a company which manages the registration of internet names, for the first time in its annual "notorious markets" list as an example of concern about some registrars not taking action to block or suspend sites selling illegal goods.

The registrar, Canada's Tucows Inc, said it took down dozen of sites every day but unlike some competitors, it considered all complaints carefully to ensure they were justified.

"We want to make sure that our registrants are protected and respected as well as making sure there are not bad actors on our system, and that requires striking a balance on a daily basis," said Graeme Bunton, Tucows manager of public policy.

USTR cited an Interpol report which found some drugs sold online were adulterated with rat poison and said the public faced "substantial risk" in finding safe online pharmacies.

"Registrars can play a critical public safety role in the Internet ecosystem. Ignoring that role, or acting affirmatively to facilitate public harm, is of great concern," USTR said.

It urged trading partners and ICANN, a California-based organization which oversees the introduction of new internet addresses, to "investigate and address this very serious problem."

USTR named 25 online marketplaces and 19 physical markets in the report. It decided against reinstating Alibaba's consumer-to-consumer shopping website Taobao.com, which was removed in 2012, and said it would continue to monitor the site.

An Alibaba spokeswoman said the company was dedicated to the fight against counterfeits. "We work closely with our government partners, brands and industry associations to tackle this issue at its source," she said.

Alibaba says it spent more than 1 billion yuan ($160.7 million) combating fake goods and improving customer protection from the beginning of 2013 to the end of November.

But a Chinese regulator said in January many products sold on Alibaba sites infringed trademarks, were substandard or fake.

Weather-battered US consumers skip mall, order in and head south

U.S. consumers battered by the wretched winter weather still afflicting much of the eastern half of the country have responded by ordering in rather than eating out, flying more frequently to Florida and cutting out trips to the mall, according to a Reuters review of company data.

Cities ranging from Chicago to Bangor, Maine, set all time records for the lowest February temperatures. Boston got more than 100 inches of snow, crippling mass transit and prompting the system's head to quit. Lexington, Kentucky, is covered in more than 20 inches of snow, the result of the biggest snowstorm since 1943. In Miami, it was 83 under sunny skies on Thursday.

Still, it's not all misery, all the time. While the relentless weather has dented traffic and sales for restaurants and mall retailers and frustrated delivery firms like United Parcel Service Inc and FedEx Corp, it's increased sales of snow shovels and rock salt from local hardware stores as well as Home Depot Inc and Lowe's Cos .

"Cold is like gold," said Matthew Maloney, the chief executive of online meal delivery service GrubHub Inc , based in Chicago and New York and affiliated with about 30,000 restaurants. In the afternoon before winter storm Juno hit the Northeast at the end of January, GrubHub's orders rose 45 percent, with cheese pizza and hot chocolate orders more than doubling, according to company data provided to Reuters.

If and when the weather gets nicer, the home improvement stores will look forward to customers looking to fix damaged lawns, gardens and siding. Carmakers, who posted disappointing February sales, could rebound if consumers opt to replace less reliable or damaged vehicles. Clothing stores may languish further if temperatures don't rise soon enough to persuade shoppers it's time to buy spring apparel.

"If people look outside and see walls of snow, they're not going to buy a t-shirt," said Simeon Siegel, an analyst at Nomura.

February shopper traffic in the U.S. fell 12.5 percent compared with same month last year, and sales overall fell 10.4 percent, according to RetailNext, a research firm.

The decline could have been worse if more of the storms occurred on the weekends because that's when shoppers restock groceries and visit the malls, analysts said.

At Amazon.com, the top sellers on Thursday included humidifiers, snow melt products and a $19.99 device called the Paw Plunger, used to clean Fido's paws, the company said.

Some restaurants will make up for lost sales through deliveries, but not everyone offers those services, and employees working from home because of the weather won't eat out either, said Chris G. Christopher, a global economist at IHS Consumer Markets in Boston.

"People are also skipping dates and family dining at restaurants," he said.

Some Americans sought warmer surroundings. While online travel bookings rose 3 percent in January compared with last year, reservations for travel to the U.S. southeast, including Florida, soared 24 percent, according to internal data provided by the U.S. Travel Association. Did we mention, it's 83 in Miami?

Japan Display says to build new LCD plant

Japan Display Inc said on Friday that it would build a new generation-6 liquid crystal display (LCD) manufacturing plant in Japan, as it targets future growth in demand for them.

The total cost of the plant in Ishikawa, central Japan, is estimated at 170 billion yen ($1.4 billion), Japan Display said in a statement.

Japan Display said it aims to start operations at the plant in 2016 and expects the move to increase its LCD capacity by 20 percent.

Last month, a person familiar with the situation told Reuters that Japan Display was considering building a plant to supply smartphone screens for Apple Inc and was negotiating with the U.S. company for investment in the project. ($1 = 120.0300 yen)