age 8 THE BATTALION
I! MONDAY, JANUARY 26, 1981
State /National
Soft drink price war fizzes
United Press international for supremacy in the local market.
LITTLE ROCK — For two But the Great Cola War is over now,
months, Coca-Cola and Pepsi have and both sides say the casualties
skirmished in a soft-drink showdown were heavy.
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However, one clear winner
emerged: the consumer.
Coke and Pepsi slashed prices
almost simultaneously in late
November on their biggest-selling
item, the six-pack of liter bottles.
One day the six-packs were selling
for about $2.25. Then prices began
to slip. In a matter of days, they
plummeted to a low of 69 cents — a
little more than a dime a liter.
Incredulous shoppers grabbed up
shopping carts full of sixpacks at the
near-giveaway price. Regular two-
liter bottles of Coke and Pepsi lan
guished on the shelves at $1.25 each.
Sales of in-house brands collapsed.
But bottlers were still paying full
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price to produce the cola, and for
eight weeks the local Pepsi and Coke
suppliers took it on the chin in a
soft-drink slugfest for a bigger mar
ket share.
“We were, if you’ll pardon the
expression, losing our rear end, ” one
manufacturer said.
Jim Robbins, president of the
Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Arkansas,
and Richard J. Blajsczak, vice presi
dent and general manager of Pepsi
Cola Bottling Co. of Little Rock,
point fingers at each other for start
ing the price war. Exactly who
touched off the battle still is not
clear.
Neither will say how much the
companies lost in the skirmish. And
because soft-drink manufacturers do
not release sales figures outside the
industry, the effect on the market is
unclear.
Pepsi, which trails Coke in Arkan
sas, had the most to gain, Blajsczak
said.
“Coca-Cola, before the pricing
competition, did outsell Pepsi. But
not by a tremendous amount,” he
said. With the lower prices, he
thinks regular Coke drinkers ex
perimented with Pepsi and perhaps
changed their cola preference.
Jury picks bulls creator
Gilley’s bucked ’em first!
ip<
United Press International
HOUSTON—The lawyer for Gilley’s Enterprises
Inc. says he wasn’t surprised at a federal court jury’s
decision to uphold a patent owned by his client and
award his client $300,000 in damages.
“We were not surprised at all on the holding as to
patent validity,” said plaintiffs lawyer Wayne Hard
ing, Friday. “In our view, that’s the way the evi
dence went in and it’s been our view all along that
the patent was obtained according to legal
processes.”
A six-member panel, acting after seven days of
testimony and argument and deliberations that span
ned two days, Friday said Joe D. Turner of Corrales,
N.M., validly claimed to be inventor of the mecha
nical bull made famous in the movie “Urban
Cowboy.”
The jury also ruled that Buck’N Broncos Inc. owed
Gilley’s $200,000 damages and that Southwest
Rodeo Enterprises Inc. and Texas Rodeo Bulls Inc.
owed $50,000 damages each, for a total of $300,000.
The verdict is not ofticial until U. S. District Judge
Woodrow Seals takes the jury’s answers to his ques
tions and writes a final order, but the defendants said
they will ask him to overturn the jury verdict and, if
he refoses, to take the case to the 5th U.S. Court of
Appeals at New Orleans.
“I think I have a good chance of prevailing on an
appeal,” defendants’ lawyer Ned Conley said I
“Judges are usually reluctant to reverse their own!
juries, and I don’t know what Judge Seals will do (oi l
the motion for judgment notwithstanding the ver-; [
diet).”
In final arguments, plaintiffs’ lawyer Wayne Hard
ing told the jury Turner invented the machine acta |
John Travolta rode in the movie, had patented it
legally and sold the rights to Gilley’s for $35,000 plus
a $35 royalty on each bull. More than 1,000 have |
been sold. Gilley’s charges $7,500 each.
Conley countered Turner’s invention was not new |
— that it was merely the obvious combination of old
ideas — and that his patent was not valid because he
misled the U.S. Patent Office about mechanical!
broncs and bulls made before by others.
Harding argued the way to make a machine tl
would buck and spin at the same time was not (
vious before Turner did it. He said no one solved the |
problem even though rodeo trainers had been seel
ing such a device for years.
“If it had been so obvious, why didn’t anybody do
it?” Harding asked the jury. “It (the machine) is likea |
combination lock with four numbers. You have to put
the numbers together. This is what Mr. Turner did
That’s the way most patents are obtained, acombina- j
tion of old elements."
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Three choose private school
despite desegregation order
United Press Internationa!
ALEXANDRIA, La. — Three
white girls trade defiance for avoi
dance Monday, joining 700 other
students who fled the public school
system for all-white private acade
mies after a federal judge issued de
segregation orders.
The 13-year-old girls, caught in a
bitter battle between federal and
state courts to keep them at rural
Buckeye High School, enrolled last
week at Hickory Grove Academy.
They did so despite U.S. District
Judge Nauman Scott’s threat to with
hold their Buckeye credits unless
they attended the racially mixed
school assigned in his desegregation
plan.
Ramona Carbo, Michelle
Laborde and Lynda McNeal start the
new semester at a private school
formed last fall to help students avoid
being bused 21 miles to Jones Street
Junior High.
All 25 of Hickory Grove’s students
attended Buckeye last year, princip
al Jessie Welch said. Of the 109
Buckeye students affected by Scott’s
desegregation order, all but 22 en
rolled in private schools.
Rapides Parish Superintendent of
Schools Allen Nichols said the public
system lost about 700 students dur
ing the year.
Hickory Grove board president
Arlene Nugent said the school,
which holds classes in Holloway Bap
tist Church, received state accredita
tion last week. This meant the facility
and its teachers fulfilled require
ments outlined by the Department
of Education, she said.
Nugent said the girls would be
given placement tests to determine
their level of achievement. She said
the girls would receive credit for
their Buckeye work even though
Scott seized their records.
Scott ruled the credits were never
really earned because the girls
attended Buckeye illegally.
State Judge Richard Lee hasspj
red with Scott throughout the t»
troversy, joining the girls’
remain at Buckeye and risliiij
thousands of dollars in fines fort*
tempt of court.
Lee argued the girls’ educalii
was a domestic matter and therel
the business of his court. Si
however, viewed custody transfe
to keep the girls in the Buckeye z«
as shams to circumvent his
lar desegregation order.
Finally, however, Scott
vailed.
The girls were dropped frot
Buckeye’s rolls and faced the eta
of Jones Street or a private acadent
They stayed away from all classes la e
week, the final one of the fil
semester.
But Lee has yet to surrender,
attorney, Chris Roy, during lk
weekend asked the 5th U.S. Cirai
Court of Appeals in New Orleanst
settle the judges’ jurisdictional I
pute.
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Sec. of Commerce Baldridge says he will
stand by businessmen, stimulate work
United Pn
<EW 0RLE.
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inimous ven
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United Press International
HOUSTON — Secretary of Com
merce Malcolm Baldridge told a
Construction Equipment Exposition
audience Sunday the Reagan admi
nistration’s top priority is putting
Americans back to work.
Baldridge — the first member of
the Reagan cabinet to make a public
appearance — stood by the presi
dent’s inaugural promise that the
government will be beside American
businessmen and not on their backs.
“I’m happy to be heading up the
Department of Commerce when our
principle mission will be to assist
business, not to regulate it,” he said.
Baldridge said the new adminis
tration has been forming a plan for
stimulating work, and he highlighted
a few of his plans.
“Among those actions are tax re
ductions, a more favorable deprecia
tion schedule to encourage growth
and investment, deregulation and ...
reductions in export disincentives. ”
Baldridge’s remarks came at rib
bon-cutting ceremonies at the Hous
ton Astrodome for the world’s largest
private trade fair. The audience in
cluded Texas Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby
and Houston Mayor Jim McConn.
The exposition, nicknamed “Con-
expo”, continues at the Astrodome
complex through Friday. It features
more than $500 million worth of
equipment sprawled over an area the
size of 18 football fields. About
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100,000 people — including 25,01
from overseas — will attend the fail
the first since the Chicago trade fc
of 1975.
Baldridge, a curious blend of Cot
necticut businessman and for
rodeo rider in Nebraska, said
administration will specifically wol
on eradicating regulation that
across manufacturing and services
“Getting our hands on those spt
cifics is a tremendous organizationil
job,” he said. “Mainly it will be
question of reaching out to snia!
business people as well as large bus
ness people to find out what roai
locks they have in their growl!
paths.
“As President Reagan said k
Tuesday in that wonderful inaugur;
address, the business of our nati®
goes forward, our objective must I*
a healthy vigorous, growing
nomy and putting Americans backtf
work,” said Baldridge. “And
‘Amen’, to that.”
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