Search Results for: German

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE CONCEPT of nation building is not new. Powerful governments have for centuries sought to create pliant political administrations which would do their bidding, without being directly under their control. It is, after all, in noone’s interest for a territory to descent into chaos.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN ATTEMPT by German garden equipment group Viking-Umwelttechnik to have a symbol composed of two rectangles – one green, one grey – registered as an exclusive European Union (EU) trademark has been lost.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that consumers would have difficulty associating the shapes with the company’s products, which include garden choppers and shredders; rotary cultivators; lawn mowers; front mowers; ride-on mowers; lawn aerators; lawn trimmers; hedge clippers; sweeping machines; motor saws; and brush cutters.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the payment by the German government of Euro 25 million in investment aid to Kunz Faserplattenwerk Baruth to help it set up a new medium density fibreboard (MDF) mill, in Brandenburg, eastern Germany. The company is part of the Kunz Group, which develops, produces and markets timber-based material.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
A GERMAN manufacturer of brewery equipment has joined with a Luxembourg beer brewer to commercialise a technique that they claim can save 55 per cent of the energy required for boiling wort, a major process in beer production.…

BY MONICA DOBIE and KEITH NUTHALL
A GROUND-breaking environmental initiative is being developed in Greece involving a desalination plant being powered wholly by the heat of the earth’s upper crust.

The plant’s electricity turbines will be driven by geothermal fluids pumped from deep underground fissures under the island, whose temperatures can reach 100°C.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
GERMAN insurance group Gerling is providing financial and managerial support to a ground-breaking environmental initiative in the hope that it will be copied and that the company will be asked to underwrite similar initiatives because of its expertise.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Intellectual Property Organisation is moving ahead with its project to build a new administrative building at its Geneva headquarters, with Stuttgart architects Behnisch, Behnisch & Partner working to a SFr 157.5 million budget.

They have drawn up plans for a building with a minimum of 560 working places and 280 underground parking spaces.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN AGREEMENT involving UK-based EDF Trading supplying gas to German wholesale company Wingas for 10 years, with a possible five-year extension, have been approved retrospectively by the European Commission’s competition directorate general. Brussels approved the deal for the supplies, (which began in 1998), after the companies agreed to amend their contracts, to block restrictions on other wholesalers being supplied by EdF Trading.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A COORDINATING centre for European digital publishers of academic texts has been launched with a public blitz on the traditional publishing sector, accusing it of being lethargic and vulnerable to unscrupulous reviewer academics who may exploit their contents prior to publication.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE RICHES that can be made from the illegal ivory trade are well known, but what of illicit imports and exports of rare flowers. Shipping protected orchids to Europe, Japan and north America can make criminals a lot of money.…