The Dept. of Justice is taking enforcement of intellectual property (IP) laws seriously but could do more to ensure IP protection remains a high priority, the DoJ Task Force on Intellectual Property concluded. The task force released a lengthy report Tues. proposing increased DoJ resources for IP and examined copyright legislation on the Hill. Without endorsing or opposing any legislation, it opposed the aim of a fair use bill by House Internet Caucus Co-Chmn. Boucher (D-Va.) and supported efforts to target inducement of copyright infringement.
The Mo. Court of Appeals, St. Louis, reversed and remanded a 2003 Mo. PSC decision to reject tariff amendments filed by a group of rural incumbent telcos that would have applied terminating access charges to all wireless calls terminating in their local exchanges. The court said the PSC incorrectly applied federal law in rejecting the tariffs. The rural carriers had sought to amend their tariffs going forward and have access charges applied retroactively to Feb. 1998. The PSC rejected the tariffs, saying the wireless traffic was local, not interexchange, so access charges couldn’t apply. The PSC also said the tariffs conflicted with federal laws that established reciprocal compensation for intercarrier compensation on local calls. But wireless carriers protested that the PSC’s definition made local all wireless traffic within a major trading area (intraMTA), contrary to FCC rules that carried out the reciprocal compensation provisions of the Telecom Act. The Mo. appeals court in Case WD-62961 said federal law didn’t control this situation because the wireless carriers never started negotiations to establish local reciprocal compensation rates. The court said the rural telcos’ only recourse was to file access charge tariffs under state law, because they had no power under federal law to force wireless carriers into reciprocal compensation negotiations. The court turned against the PSC as it cited past PSC decisions that found application of intrastate access charges to intraMTA wireless traffic was an appropriate interim means for dealing with terminating local wireless traffic until other compensation arrangements could be put in place. The court said the PSC in this case didn’t offer any reasonable explanation for refusing to allow the rural telcos to collect access charges until local reciprocal compensation rates could be negotiated. The court remanded the case to the PSC for new hearings.
The Journal of Commerce Online reports that the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America (NCBFAA) is urging ocean carriers and terminal operators to meet to discuss service issues, as well as charges and delays for accessorial services such as Customs exams for containers. (JoC Online, dated 09/21/04, www.joc.com)
The Journal of Commerce Online reports that the container congestion that has affected the Los Angeles - Long Beach harbor for the past three months will continue for at least four to eight weeks, or even longer, due to higher than projected cargo volumes, compounded by lack of capacity on railroads serving the docks and a severe shortage of longshore labor. (JoC Online, dated 09/29/04, www.joc.com)
The International Trade Administration (ITA) and the International Trade Commission (ITC) have issued various notices, each initiating automatic five-year sunset reviews on the above antidumping (AD) duty orders and countervailing (CV) duty order.
The Journal of Commerce Online reports that the U.S. has suspended plans to include the Dominican Republic in the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) after Dominican lawmakers passed a 25% import tax on corn syrup during the week of September 20, 2004. (JoC Online, dated 09/28/04. www.joc.com.)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a press release detailing the emergency interim measures being implemented at all land border ports in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and in El Paso, TX as a result of the detection and confirmation of adult Mediterranean Fruit Fly (ceratitis capiata, Medfly) in the municipality of Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico.
According to Reuters, on September 27, 2004, the World Trade Organization (WTO) launched a probe into a complaint by the European Union (EU) that the U.S. had failed to drop illegal import duties on certain EU steel products from Britain, France and Spain. The article states that the panel request followed consultations where the EU stated that the U.S. had not removed all safeguard duties, while the U.S. stated that they had been adjusted after the WTO ruled them illegal two years ago. (Reuters dated 09/27/04, available at http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=businessNews&storyID=6344486 )
According to The Journal of Commerce Online, the Port of Los Angeles-Long Beach will delay its implementation of the nation's first-ever charge ($20 per TEU) for moving containers during daytime hours to a date in the first quarter of 2005 (rather than November 1, 2004 as originally planned). The article states that the delay is needed due to a shortage of longshore labor and delays in setting up collections by PierPass, the organization established by terminal operators to manage the program. (Joc Online, dated 09/22/04, www.joc.com )
A federal appeals court returned to the ITC Gemstar- TV Guide International’s high-profile legal battle with Scientific-Atlanta (S-A). The trade commission’s decision that S-A’s set-top boxes (STB) didn’t infringe parts of electronic program guide (EPG) patents was “based on erroneous [claims] constructions,” the U.S. Appeals Court, Federal Circuit, ruled Thurs.