via BBC News

The German drugmaker Merck KGaA has begun legal action against Facebook after discovering what its lawyer described as the “the apparent takeover of its Facebook page”.

The webpage is being used by the German firm’s US rival Merck & Co.

Merck KGaA said that the social network “is an important marketing device [and] the page is of great value”, adding that since its competitor was benefiting from the move “time is of the essence.”

A Facebook spokeswoman said: “We are looking into it.”

Merck KGaA said it had entered into an agreement with Facebook for the exclusive rights to www.facebook.com/merck in March 2010.

The German firm said a number of its employees had been subsequently assigned administrative rights to the page.

However, Merck KGaA said that when it had checked the site on 11 October this year it had discovered it had lost control of the page, and that content on the site now belonged to Merck & Co.

The two drugmakers both stem from the same firm set up by a pharmacy owner in the German city of Darmstadt in 1668.

The business was split in two after World War I as part of the reparations package imposed on Germany.

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Article courtesy bbc.co.uk

The evolution of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. may be shaped in large part by how well it can live down — and learn from — its past.

Reynolds received another clear example of that reality last week when the Food and Drug Administration requested research on the company’s three innovative dissolvable smokeless products — Camel Orbs, Camel Sticks and Camel Strips — and others being considered.

The Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee was formed as part of the FDA taking on oversight of the tobacco industry last year.

Reynolds said that the flavored, finely milled tobacco products serve as an alternative to cigarettes, giving adults a discreet option in venues where smoking is banned out of concern for secondhand smoke exposure. They are being sold in three test markets, none in North Carolina.

The FDA acknowledges that Reynolds is marketing the products to adult consumers.

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Article courtesy Winston-Salem Journal