U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson of Los Angeles granted Lions Gate Entertainment's motion for reconsideration and now is denying the Ameritrade/Havas Worldwide motion to dismiss Lions Gate's trademark dilution litigation, reversing his March dismissal order. In the new order (in Pacer) entered Tuesday, Pregerson said his previous order partially granting the Ameritrade/Havas motion to dismiss did rely -- as Lions Gate argued in its motion for reconsideration (see 1607120017) -- on an outdated statement of law, and the 1006 Trademark Dilution Revision Act now says it isn't necessary to show a junior mark is identical or nearly so to a senior mark. While the Ameritrade/Havas advertising in question used a slogan that was similar to but not identical to the Dirty Dancing line "Nobody puts Baby in a corner," to which Lions Gate holds the trademark rights, that threshold of being identical is no longer applicable as long as they're similar, Pregerson said. Ameritrade didn't comment Wednesday.

The European Commission gave conditional clearance to the Vodafone/Liberty Global merger of their Dutch operations into a 50/50 joint venture, the two said in a news release Wednesday. They said the deal was approved after Vodafone committed to divesting its consumer fixed business before the merger. They also said the divestment might include mobile virtual network operator access subject to an agreement on terms. Vodafone and Liberty Global announced the deal in February and said they hoped to have it complete by year's end (see 1602160018)

Hulu's live-streaming service set to debut next year will be among a number of "virtual MVPDs" that will launch over the coming 12 months, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes said Wednesday. Several Time Warner Turner channels will be part of that live-streaming service, including TNT, TBS, CNN, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, truTV, Boomerang and Turner Classic Movies, Time Warner said in a news release Wednesday, noting it bought 10 percent of Hulu. Financial terms weren't released, and other owners remain Comcast, Disney and 21st Century Fox. In a conference call announcing Time Warner's Q2 results, Bewkes said growth in live-streaming multichannel video programming distributors "will be great both for consumers and our … brands.” The company is making a variety of subscription VOD investments, including rolling out HBO Now to the Nordic region and Latin America and planning other rollouts later this year and an upcoming art house SVOD offering from Turner, Bewkes said. The Hulu investment "fits our strategy like a glove" by further increasing Time Warner exposure to the growing over-the-top market, he said. Bewkes said the Hulu deal did not include content license obligations and when it comes to licensing content to other SVODs or traditional MVPDs, "We'll do that on a stand-alone, arm's length basis." For the quarter, Time Warner sales fell 5 percent from the year-ago period to $7 billion, driven mostly by declines in lower videogame, home entertainment and TV licensing revenue due to particularly high sales in the comparable quarter a year ago, the company said in a news release. Time Warner had net income of $952 million, down from $971 million. Its stock closed Wednesday at $77.83, up 2.7 percent.

Liberty Global signed a deal with All3Media for creation of original content for its European, Latin American and Caribbean customers, Liberty said in a news release Tuesday. Liberty said the deal is for four original drama series over the next two years, with the series to be made available on demand to subscribers. All3Media production companies will produce the series, Liberty said. Liberty and Discovery are joint partners in All3Media, and Liberty and Discovery also renewed their distribution agreement, Liberty said in a separate news release Tuesday. That renewal will keep Discovery networks on Liberty's cable lineups in 12 European nations, and includes digital rights for accessing that programing on various devices and out of the home, Liberty said. Liberty said the deal also includes full Olympic Games coverage through Discovery's Eurosport network.

Despite a loss of 11,000 video customers in Q2, Mediacom ended the quarter with 13,000 additional customers on broadband and phone customer growth, it said Tuesday, announcing Q2 results. Mediacom said it ended the quarter with 842,000 video customers, 1.23 million high-speed data customers and 454,000 phone customers. Revenue rose 4.4 percent to $450.8 million, with big growth in high-speed data and in business services offsetting declines in video, phone and advertising revenue, it said. After expenses, free cash flow rose 7 percent to $55.6 million.

Nokia finished its takeover of Gainspeed, a California startup with a virtual converged cable access platform (CCAP) line, in a bid to broaden its cable access product portfolio and give it a broader footprint there, it said in a news release Monday. Gainspeed will be part of its Fixed Networks business group, Nokia said. Financial terms of the deal announced in June weren't made public. Nokia previously said virtual CCAP is intended to help cable operators increase the capacity of their existing hybrid fiber coaxial infrastructure while cutting headend space and power requirements.

Comcast's creation of a mobile division, plus its activation of the Verizon mobile virtual network operator and participation in the broadcast incentive auction (see 1510270041) indicate it's potentially getting into the mobile business, said Credit Suisse analyst Omar Sheikh in a note to investors Monday. A mobile product offering would help strengthen ties to existing customers and allow potential growth with new ones, Sheikh said. Saying Comcast's X1 platform investment is "paying off," he raised the target price on Comcast from $69 to $75. Sheikh said the 90,000 video subscribers added in the past 12 months are driven largely by X1 and its increasing customer engagement and cutting churn. With only 40 percent of Comcast's video customer base penetrated, Sheikh said, "we see the significant investment in the rollout driving further improvement in cable video operating and financial metrics over the long term."

Comcast violated Washington state’s Consumer Protection Act nearly 2 million times, alleged a lawsuit by Attorney General Bob Ferguson. Ferguson filed the suit Monday in King County Superior Court. Comcast allegedly misrepresented the scope of its service protection plan, charged customers improper service call fees, practiced improper credit screening and deceived customers with its company guarantee, the AG said in a Monday news release. Comcast allegedly misled 500,000 Washington consumers into paying $73 million in subscription fees over five years for a “near-worthless” protection plan, the AG said. The plan doesn’t cover repairs to any wiring inside a wall, which comprises “the vast majority of wiring inside homes,” it said. The suit seeks $73 million in restitution, plus about $1 million for improper service call charges and up to $2,000 per violation of the Consumer Protection Act. The AG also sought a court order requiring Comcast to remove improper credit checks from the credit reports of more than 6,000 customers and an injunction requiring the cable company to clearly disclose limitations of its protection plan in advertisements and through representatives, to stop improper charges and to implement a compliance procedure for improper credit checks. The AG's office informed Comcast of the issues more than a year ago, but the company didn’t start making changes until it was on “the verge of this litigation,” it said. “This case is a classic example of a big corporation deceiving its customers for financial gain,” Ferguson said. “I won’t allow Comcast to continue to put profits above customers -- and the law.” We “will vigorously defend ourselves,” a Comcast spokeswoman said. The protection plan at issue covers more than 99 percent of repair calls, she said. “We worked with the Attorney General’s office to address every issue they raised, and we made several improvements based on their input. Given that we were committed to continue working collaboratively with the Attorney General’s office, we’re surprised and disappointed that they have instead chosen litigation.”

CBS and some production companies are close to mediation talks with parking production attendants suing them for unpaid overtime wages. A memo endorsement (in Pacer) filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan said counsel for the two sides have been discussing potential resolution and are selecting a mediator for a proposed mediation in August; also in that filing, U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe approved a Sept. 15 deadline for a joint status letter updating on where such mediation talks are. The attendants -- who are charged with securing lots and streets during productions being shot in the New York City area -- in their complaint (in Pacer) asked for unspecified lost compensation and damages. Named as plaintiffs in the suit were CBS TV Studios, CBS Broadcasting, Eye Productions and Possible Productions.

A pair of courtroom sketch artists dropped their copyright infringement claims against HBO and two documentary film companies, said a notice (in Pacer) of voluntary dismissal filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Terms of any settlement weren't made public. The mother-daughter team, Shirley and Andrea Shepard, sued HBO, Broad Street Review and Covert Productions in June for the documentary The Newburgh Sting, which allegedly incorporated four of the Shepards' sketches without license or permission. HBO bought the film -- which dealt with the arrest, trial and 2010 conviction of four terror suspects in Newburgh, New York, -- and began airing it in 2014, said the suit (in Pacer).