I WATCH 2000-06-12

Safeway, Pleasanton, Calif., last week said it would cancel a planned $25 million investment in MainStreet USA, Pleasanton, Calif., a technology company studying e-commerce initiatives, headed by former Safeway executives. Safeway also said a subsidiary has invested $10 million in Grocery-Works.com, Dallas, as previously announced. The subsidiary will invest another $20 million at a later date, a spokeswoman for GroceryWorks told SN. GroceryWorks also signed an exclusive product-purchase agreement with Safeway, she added. MainStreet is headed by Bill Tauscher, a Safeway board member, and Gary D. Smith, former head of Internet strategies at Safeway.

Heffernan, ShopEaze founder and president. ShopEaze specializes in extending store brands to the Internet, including on-line shopping capabilities.

Priceline.com, Stamford, Conn., said it will fight to keep the "Name Your Own Price" slogan in the face of a federal lawsuit by Indianapolis-based consultancy Pannell-Christ, which said in the suit that its slogan, "Name Your Price!" has been federally protected since 1995. Pannell-Christ is seeking unspecified damages, attorney fees and a royalty based on Priceline revenues. Pannell-Christ, which uses "Name Your Price!" as a motivational program for salespeople, said Priceline's use of a similar slogan has caused confusion. "When we did trademark research in 1998, we didn't find any restrictions or applications for the slogan," Brian Ek, a spokesman for Priceline, told SN.