Wal-Mart Pirates...OSHA Goes Ergo...A Wedding Gift to Hold On to
By Carlye Adler With reporting by Nancy Beiles, Beth Kwon, Rathe Miller, Maggie Overfelt

(FORTUNE Magazine) – Wal-Mart Woes, Part II: When Donald Gaffney sued Wal-Mart in 1996 for trademark violation, he never pictured himself at the Supreme Court. But when Wal-Mart lost two lower-court rulings for what a judge called "willful piracy," the giant retailer appealed all the way to the top. Gaffney began to hope that his little case might make a little history. Instead, the Supreme Court last month handed Gaffney and his children's clothing company, Samara Bros., a big disappointment. It reversed the decision against Wal-Mart, which had included a $1.2 million judgment. And, responding to years of conflicting signals from lower courts, the justices sent a message not only to Samara but also to bigger firms, such as Nike and Tommy Hilfiger, which have won millions from Wal-Mart: A company has lots of leeway in knocking off your design. The story isn't over. The justices sent the case back to the lower courts, and intellectual property lawyers say Samara could still win on several related issues. For the moment, Samara has survived. And Gaffney has had the ride of his life....

OSHA's Baaack: Make sure there's extra money in the piggy bank for some wrist rests. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is expected to put its new workplace standards into effect by year's end, despite resistance from the Small Business Administration, which says the provision is too costly. OSHA's latest ergonomics proposal requires companies of all sizes to revamp workplaces to prevent work-related musculoskeletal disorders, called MSDs. The agency says the cost for industry--about $4.2 billion--will be offset by a reduction in workers' compensation claims for MSDs, which account for more than $15 billion each year. Opponents say that small businesses have a lower percentage of incidences of MSDs and that OSHA's estimate of a $150 investment to bring a workstation to standard is low-balled. One height-adjustable chair costs $600 alone....

Marry for Money: If anyone understands what the Internet can do for your business, it's A. Magazine founder Jeff Yang. He was just another print-media guy, producing a nice little magazine. But his only sources of money were friends and family. VC money? Ha! No way. Then Yang wised up. The Asian-American magazine, based in New York City, merged with San Francisco Web-design and Web-marketing company Monkey King Media. The East Coast-West Coast marriage spawned A. Media and quickly turned Yang into--magic!--a dot-com magnate. Now investors are throwing money at the company. For example: $4 million recently from Himalaya Capital and individual investments from partners or directors at Lehman Brothers and other top brokerages. "The phone has been ringing off the hook with investors," says Yang....

I Scream for Good Hires: At least that's the recruiting strategy of Integrated Communications & Entertainment, known as ICE to the digerati. The Web-design firm wanted to reach Silicon Alley's tight supply of digital market talent who would be attending a massive local meeting. Because sponsorship spots inside were sold out, ICE had to resort to novel ways to attract attention, says CEO Doug Keeley. Playing off its name, the company parked a Mister Softee ice-cream truck in front of the conference. It plastered the truck with logos and handed out free cones and coffee drinks. Keeley says the tactic worked. There was a 30% increase in visitors to its job page. So far ICE has gotten 20 employment inquiries from people who attended the ice cream social, and has hired four of them....

Crate & Barrel, a Wedding Cliche? Stockgift.com is a new registry option in which, instead of signing up at Tiffany, you can sign up for Tiffany--stock, that is. Gino Heilizer founded the registry after being haunted by an expensive cheese grater that he and his fiancee registered for and used once. He raised $250,000 from friends and family, hired a Web designer and four employees, and launched in February. The site buys the stocks on behalf of registrants and collects a $19.95 fee for each stock purchased. Heilizer won't disclose the number of registrants but says the site gets 20,000 hits a day.

WITH REPORTING BY Nancy Beiles, Beth Kwon, Rathe Miller, Maggie Overfelt