Chili's Grill & Bar's Parent Company Lowers Expectations Because Of Payroll Tax Hike, Gas Prices

Feb 27 (Reuters) - Chili's Grill & Bar parent Brinker International Inc on Wednesday tempered its 2013 profit forecast, citing diners grappling with the U.S. payroll tax hike, more expensive gasoline and delayed federal tax refund checks.

The news from Brinker comes just days after a similar warning from rival and Olive Garden parent Darden Restaurants Inc.

Dallas-based Brinker said it now expects 2013 earnings per share, before special items, to be at the lower end of its range of $2.30 to $2.45.

It also expects sales at established restaurants to grow about 1 percent for the year.

Brinker said same-restaurant sales for its current fiscal third quarter were running down 2.2 percent at Chili's as of Feb. 25. Results at Maggiano's, its smaller chain, were flat.

Brinker will report its third-quarter results on April 23.

Also on HuffPost:

Get Alerts

View the original article here

Getting Sued Because I Reviewed A Company!

I own a blog that reviews certain companies and products, but none of the reviews contain personal opinions, in fact they don't contain opinions at all. They are basically summaries about what the company offers and the benefits of their products.

I have received several praises from these companies in the past, however yesterday I received a letter from one saying that I do not have permission to use their logo (It was part of a screenshot that I made of the company's website) or use the name of their products in my review as an "marketing technique" for my website.

Currently the only income I get from my blog are affiliate links from some of the companies I have written about but not every review I wrote about has an affiliate link.

I was wondering what I should do about this.

Your thread title says you are being sued, but you mention nothing about that in the actual post. So I assume a company has contacted and threatened to sue you. From what you describe it doesn't particularly sound like you did anything wrong. Using a companies name and nominal use of it's logo, as in a screen shot, are usually not a problem either, especially in a review. Nobody has a right not to have their company name or product mentioned by others. I have not read the "review" in question but if it is an honest summary of what the company offers then I would have little reason for concern if it were me in your position.

One other note, you mention opinions as though you are safe because yours does not have one. Opinions are fine. In fact, you are usually safer when you are stating things that are your opinion.

Anyway, the easy solution if you want to just avoid problems is to remove the review (probably what they want because they think you are getting their traffic). Or you can leave it up if you wish. I doubt you would get sued unless the review contained misleading or blatantly false information and even then it would be doubtful for them to sue you. They might try to send an unmeritorious DMCA, but that could be solved with a counter notice. How you respond really depends on how comfortable you are with the content you wrote.

View the original article here