In ThyssenKrupp Acciai Speciali Terni S.P.A. et. al. v. U.S. et al., the Court of International Trade denied the U.S.' motion to dismiss two counts of a four-count complaint involving the International Trade Administration's (ITA) Section 129 determination on the 1999 Antidumping Order applicable to ThyssenKrupp's stainless steel sheet and strips (SSSS) from Italy.
Nintendo’s Wii legal troubles mounted Wednesday as Hillcrest Labs became the latest company to sue the console maker on patent-infringement allegations. Hillcrest filed separate complaints with the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington, D.C., and a U.S. district court in Maryland. The Rockville, Md., technology company claimed Nintendo violated four pieces of Hillcrest’s intellectual property: U.S. Patent Nos. 7,158,118, 7,262,760, and 7,414,611 relating to a handheld 3D pointing device, and U.S. Patent No. 7,139,983 relating to a navigation interface display system that graphically organizes content for display on a TV. Since 2001, Hillcrest has offered technology that would allow consumers to interact with digital media on TVs using motion-control and pointing techniques, it said, saying it holds 29 patents in this area worldwide and has filed for more than 100 related patents. CE companies, not all publicly disclosed, have licensed Hillcrest’s technology for use in their products. Hillcrest said it “has a great deal of respect for Nintendo and the Wii,” but said it believes “Nintendo is in clear violation of its patents and has taken this action to protect its intellectual property rights.” Comment wasn’t immediately available from Nintendo of America. Nintendo was found to have infringed Anascape patents for vibration technology (CED May 16 p7). Last month, U.S. District Court Judge Ron Clark in Lufkin, Texas, put on hold an injunction covering Wii Classic Controllers, the GameCube controller and the GameCube Wavebird wireless controller in that case after Nintendo promised to appeal to the Federal Circuit (CED July 25 p4).
U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued an interim rule, effective June 13, 2008, which amended Subpart J of 19 CFR Part 10 as well as Parts 24, 162, 163, and 178 for the preferential tariff treatment and other customs-related provisions of the U.S.-Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA).1
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a CSMS message announcing that it has completed the necessary Automated Broker Interface (ABI) system changes for the trade to submit the additional data elements (export price, export charges, and importer declaration indicator) for 'specified' softwood lumber and softwood lumber products as required by the 2008 Farm Bill1.
Glu Mobile is upbeat on next-generation mobile devices, including the iPhone 3G, but CEO Greg Ballard’s company initially has “taken a measured approach” to launching games for Apple’s new device, he said. Glu has released only one game for the iPhone 3G launch as it studies which pricing and types of games fare best on Apple devices, Ballard said in a Tuesday quarterly earnings call.
The International Trade Administration and the International Trade Commission have each issued notices initiating automatic five-year Sunset Reviews on the above-listed antidumping duty orders.
The following Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) and Court of International Trade (CIT) cases on international trade issues were dated or decided during the period of July 14-16, 2008:
The Senate passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (H.R. 4040) Conference Report on July 31, 2008, one day after House passage of the bill.
Postponement of talks on an EU complaint that the U.S. Internet gambling ban violates World Trade Organization rules could signal that “things are getting more serious,” said Nao Matsukata, a policy adviser at Alston and Bird and a former Bush administration trade official. In December European online gambling operators formally complained to the European Commission that the U.S. Department of Justice violates international law by threatening and pressing criminal charges against foreign online gambling companies while letting U.S. operators flourish (WID Dec 21 p3). In May, the EC queried U.S. officials seeking information on the country’s practices, said the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative. The U.S. Trade Representative’s brief response was signed by a midlevel official, Matsukata said, apparently to keep the discussion at a lower level. Talks on the EC probe were set for July 28 but delayed at the last moment, probably until September, he told us. Many reasons could explain the delay, he said. Many USTR officials would have been attending that day’s WTO Doha trade negotiations, he said. The gambling dispute has a higher profile in the U.S., which may mean the USTR is taking it more seriously and needs time to prepare, he said. “We're not reading too much into the delay, but it’s likely to put back the timetable for conclusion of the EU’s investigation,” Remote Gambling Association CEO Clive Hawkswood told us. “As of today the two sides still seem a long way apart.” A WTO case filed by the EC will break new ground, said Matsukata. The case is aimed at Justice Department enforcement of the law, and no one wants a debate on the “very tricky area” of national sovereignty, he said. An impending change of U.S. administration is a “hindrance,” since there will be a gap in political oversight of the USTR and the Department of Justice, Hawkswood said. Longer term, he said, changes could be beneficial. Matsukata predicted movement on the issue before the election due to growing congressional interest, It’s unclear whether either major candidate would handle the situation differently from what has been done so far. But the matter isn’t likely to languish long after Congress returns, he said. A USTR spokeswoman said “there are no ‘discussions’ or ’talks'” between the EU and the U.S. “We conducted negotiations with the EU which resulted in a mutually acceptable outcome last December,” she said, but at the request of private parties, the EC is doing an internal examination of the matter. The USTR is providing facts to help the EC, she said.
A September trial is set for Silicon Image’s suit accusing Analogix of copying the register maps and configuration software for DTV chipsets. Silicon Image sued Analogix in U.S. District Court, San Jose, in January 2007, alleging that the chip developer’s ICs violate its copyrights by being designed to “mirror” its products and “mimic” their numbering schemes.