LAS VEGAS -- A backlog of perhaps several hundred TV license renewals persists at the FCC (CD Feb 8 p3/07) because the stations are the subjects of old indecency complaints and the commission is awaiting rulings on several court cases, industry lawyers said Monday. Speakers on an NAB panel complained that some licenses have been held up for years. They said the FCC has asked licensees that needed renewals to sell stations to agree to let the FCC take enforcement action for an indefinite time in exchange for clearance. Under acting Chairman Michael Copps, the period is down to two years, they said.
CBP has posted April 15, 2009 versions of five "pending release" editions of existing Importer Security Filing transaction sets. According to CBP sources, these pending transaction sets will become effective no sooner than May 18, 2009. CBP will notify the trade approximately one to two weeks in advance via a CSMS message when a definitive date is determined. The transaction sets are:
Funai wants the FCC to strike Vizio’s March 30 reply in Vizio’s request for temporary relief on DTV patents (CED April 1 p6) because waiving the rules to allow the reply isn’t warranted, Funai said in a Thursday filing at the commission. Vizio’s claim that a waiver is warranted to respond to new developments in the patent battle “is utter nonsense,” Funai said. That a Patent and Trademark Office examiner rejected Funai’s claims on its “'074” DTV patent as invalid is irrelevant to the case, Funai said. Vizio’s action “is nothing more than another self-serving attempt to manipulate the commission’s rules and procedures for Vizio’s on private gain,” Funai said. “By its own terms,” Vizio is seeking FCC action “to alter the expected outcome of the pending investigation by the International Trade Commission involving the ‘074 patent,” Funai said. In fact, the ITC Friday issued a final determination and remedy order finding that Vizio and others have infringed Funai’s DTV ‘074 patent. The decision upholds an administrative law judge’s ruling last November. In a statement late Friday, Vizio said it will be free to continue importing DTV sets under a 60-day presidential review period, during which it will “pursue all legal remedies.”
The International Trade Commission has instituted a section 337 patent-based investigation of certain light emitting diode chips, laser diode chips and products containing same pursuant to a complaint.
The International Trade Commission has released an upgraded version of its Electronic Document Information System (EDIS), which allows users to file documents electronically and view/research documents filed in all ITC investigations.
The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau has issued a temporary final rule which, effective April 1, 2009, increases federal excise tax rates and imposes a floor stocks tax1 on a larger scope of imported tobacco products, cigarette papers, and cigarette tubes.
Funai’s opposition to Vizio’s request for temporary relief on DTV patents failed to disclose that two days before Funai’s filing, the Patent and Trademark Office had rejected the company’s claims on its “'074” patent as invalid, Vizio said in a reply filed Monday at the FCC. Vizio is asking the commission to accept its unusual reply into the case record because it’s “limited to new matters raised” in Funai’s opposition, Vizio said (CED April 1 p6). The PTO’s decision March 11 on the ‘074 patent doesn’t square with an International Trade Commission finding that the patent is valid and Vizio infringed it, Vizio said. It said the “validity of the ‘074 patent, and any claims that Funai is making under that patent, is very much in question.” Funai’s outside counsel, Cheryl Tritt, didn’t reply right away to an e-mail seeking comment.
ITC Institutes Patent Investigation on Certain Samsung Handheld Wireless Communication Devices, Etc.
The International Trade Commission has instituted a section 337 patent-based investigation of certain electronic devices, including handheld wireless communications devices pursuant to a complaint.
A programmer alleging discrimination by four cable operators objected to their request to show the administrative law judge hearing the case a video. Bright House Networks, Comcast, Cox and Time Warner Cable have said the 25-minute video compares the programming of WealthTV, the complainant, with that of Mojo, a channel they're accused of having favored. “Naturally, the clips are selected and presented in a way that reflects a biased view of the programming,” WealthTV said in an FCC filing Thursday. The video, it added, “is anything but representative of the two programming services and their similarities.” The sides separately asked the judge to let them trade legal briefs April 6, one business day later than scheduled. They want to swap witness lists Friday.
The International Trade Commission has instituted a section 337 patent-based investigation of certain electronic devices having image capture or display functionality and components thereof pursuant to a complaint.