Dropping dimes: Americans rebounded from a weak holiday season and stepped up spending on retail goods in January, an encouraging sign for the strengthening economy. The Commerce Department says retail sales rose at a seasonally adjusted 0.4% last month. That’s better than December’s downwardly revised flat reading. And when excluding autos and gasoline station sales, retail spending jumped 0.6%—the best showing in three months. Consumers spent less on cars, the report showed, even though automakers previously reported higher sales in January. The reduction suggests dealers offered discounts in order to boost sales. Sales at gasoline stations rose 1.4%, the most in 10 months, while gas prices have risen steadily over recent months.
Naming names: A Chinese company announced today it will ask customs officials to ban imports and exports of Apple’s iPads because of a dispute over ownership of the trademark. All of Apple’s iPads are manufactured in China, meaning global sales of the popular tablet computers might be affected if authorities agreed to enforce such a request by Shenzhen Proview Technology. The dispute with Proview, which won a court ruling that it owns the iPad name in China, has resulted in authorities seizing iPads from retailers in one city. Proview says it has asked for enforcement in 30 other cities. “We are now working on a request to China Customs to ban and seize all the import and export of the iPad products that have violated the trademark,” says Xie Xianghui, a Proview lawyer. He gave no indication when the request might be filed. Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif., defends its ownership of the iPad name. The Associated Press has the full story here.
The love that loves to love the love: On Twitter, men don’t appear to like Valentine’s Day, but women sure do—and The Los Angeles Times reports on a study that claims to prove it. Ladies are twice as likely to tweet about Valentine’s Day as men, according to NM Incites, a Nielsen McKinsey company tracking social media trends. The company also reports that women are twice as likely as men to have positive things to say about the holiday. An analysis of more than 70,000 tweets sent Feb. 10 through Feb. 12 found that 66% of the people tweeting about Valentine’s Day were women. The Valentine’s-related tweets from women broke down like this: 36% were on the subject of not having a date, 32% were about realizing that Valentine’s Day is coming and 10% were about buying a gift. Of the tweets generated by men, 25% were about not having a date, 14% were about sharing advice and 9% were about disliking the holiday, period.
