Congress will weigh key high-tech issues this year, and some bills will stir fierce fights, while industry will get quick wins on others, Rep. Boucher (D-Va.) told the Computer & Communications Industry Assn. (CCIA) Wed.
Congress will weigh key high-tech issues this year. Some bills will stir fierce fights, while industry will get quick wins on others, Rep. Boucher (D-Va.) told the Computer & Communications Industry Assn. (CCIA) Wed. The Congressional Internet Caucus co-founder predicted easy decisions on sweeping patent reform, a hard deadline and subsidy model for DTV transition and Internet-specific Telecom Act updating. But the broadcast flag and digital content reproduction and fair use issues will be more contentious.
A hearing on Lexar’s request for an injunction barring U.S. import of Toshiba flash memory products has been postponed until June, CFO Brian Mcgee told the CIBC Communications & Technology Conference in N.Y.C. The hearing was set for May 16 in Cal. Superior Court, Santa Clara, but the judge on the case broke an arm, Mcgee said. Earlier this year a superior court jury capped a 6-week trail by awarding Lexar $465.4 million, upon finding Toshiba stole flash-related trade secrets involving CompactFlash, Secure Digital, xD and NAND. Lexar sued in Nov. 2002, alleging theft of trade secrets and breach of fiduciary duty in connection with Toshiba’s 1997-1999 representation on Lexar’s board. Later, with Lexar rival SanDisk, Toshiba formed the Flash Vision joint venture, which operates a factory in Japan. The jury awarded Lexar $255.4 million in damages for Toshiba’s alleged misappropriation of trade secrets; $58.7 million for breach of fiduciary duty; $8.2 million in pre-judgement interest; and $84 million in punitive damages. “We're going to pursue this aggressively,” Mcgee said. A separate infringement suit in U.S. Dist. Court, San Francisco, involving 9 patents is set for trial in early 2006, he said. Toshiba originally sued in Nov. 2002, seeking to have Lexar’s patent declared invalid. Lexar volleyed with counterclaims. The case also involves Toshiba customers Fuji, Memtek and PNY. Toshiba later withdrew its claim that Lexar’s patent was invalid, but in Jan. 2003 filed a separate suit, alleging Lexar products infringed Toshiba patents. Meanwhile, Lexar, which has a brand licensing agreement with Kodak, expects Kodak- branded flash memory cards to account for about 20% of its total revenue by year-end. That’s up from less than 10% of $232.4 million in revenue in the first quarter, Mcgee said. The increase will come from expanded distribution. Lexar sells Kodak branded cards through 23,000 storefronts worldwide, largely in the food, drug and mass distribution channels, he said. CE retailers have been less willing to carry the line, preferring to sell higher-speed cards, he said. Retail accounted for 85% of Lexar’s first-quarter revenue, which included sales through 67,000 storefronts, up 2,000 from the 4th quarter, Mcgee said. Lexar’s OEM business, which includes deals with Dell and Viking for flash drives, accounted for the other 15% of revenues, Mcgee said. Lexar also recorded $800,000 in licensing and royalty revenue in the first quarter, largely from an April 2001 agreement with Samsung. Under that contract, which runs through March 29, 2006, Lexar buys most of its flash memory from Samsung.
The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) has issued its 43rd Annual Report for Fiscal Year (FY) 2004. The FMC states that the Annual Report highlights areas of particular interest, and then provides an office-by-office synopsis of each unit's activities and accomplishments during FY 2004. The following are "highlights" of the FMC's report:
With FCC broadcast flag rules invalidated by a sweeping decision of the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C. (CD May 9 p1), the unanswered question at our Mon. deadline was whether the debate would shift to Congress and affect a DTV transition bill to establish a hard deadline for return of the analog spectrum.
With FCC broadcast flag rules invalidated by a sweeping decision of the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C. (WID May 9 p1), the unanswered question at our Mon. deadline was whether the debate would shift to Congress and affect a DTV transition bill to establish a hard deadline for return of the analog spectrum.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued an administrative message stating that it has made a change for Northern Border direct arrival truck entries (mode of transportation - 30 and 31). CBP states that this change will allow CBP to make a district/port of entry change on an entry, in some cases.
With FCC broadcast flag rules invalidated by a sweeping decision of the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C. (CED May 9 p1), the unanswered question at our Mon. deadline was whether the debate would shift to Congress and affect a DTV transition bill to establish a hard deadline for return of the analog spectrum.
The Washington File reports that the State Department's publication Country Reports on Terrorism 2004 identifies 40 Foreign Terrorist Organizations and also identifies another 40 terrorist groups or organizations that were active in the past year. According to the Washington File, designation of a group as a Foreign Terrorist Organization results in the U.S. government blocking assets held at U.S. financial institutions, denying its members visas, and making it a crime for U.S. citizens or others within U.S. jurisdiction to provide it with support or resources. The State Department's publication is available at http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/c14813.htm(Washington File Pub 04/27/05, available at http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2005&m=April&x=20050427155413dmslahrellek0.2537195&t=is/is-latest.html)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued another administrative message on Remote Location Filing (RLF) for in-bonds, which is transcribed below: