Compliance or lack thereof with 1998 Justice Dept. (DoJ) guidelines for the 3C Group’s patent pooling plan likely will be a key point of scrutiny in the ongoing class-action antitrust suit by 2 Chinese DVD manufacturers against 3C pool members LG, Philips, Pioneer and Sony, lawyers familiar with the case told Consumer Electronics Daily.
A long-simmering spat over DVD royalties seems to have boiled over into U.S. courts, with 2 Chinese makers of players reportedly suing the 3C patent pool on antitrust grounds for alleged unfair competition.
The House Select Committee on Homeland Security has issued a press release announcing that on January 4, 2005, the House of Representatives approved the creation of a permanent standing Committee on Homeland Security. This move follows the 9/11 Commission's recommendation that both the House and Senate should create a single, principal point of oversight and review for homeland security. (House press release, dated 01/04/05, available at http://hsc.house.gov/release.cfm?id=296,)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued its seventh version (dated January 12, 2005) of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) and responses regarding its final rule requiring the advance electronic presentation of information for inbound air cargo.
Foreign telecom companies strongly disputed the allegations CompTel/Ascent, ECTA and others filed in comments (CD Dec 27 p4) with the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) last month. They said the comments of the 2 groups representing competitive industry in the U.S. and Europe were identical and in many ways repeated their year- earlier comments. Some companies also said that many statements in the comments were incorrect. The comments came as part of USTR’s annual review of the operation and effectiveness of all U.S. trade agreements on telecom products and services.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a memorandum containing its instructions on the filing and substantiation of claims for preferential tariff treatment made under the U.S.-Australia Free Trade Agreement (UAFTA), as highlighted below.
Education groups and fixed wireless providers asked the FCC to make some key changes to a June 2004 order providing revised rules for ITFS and MDS operators in the 2495-2690 MHz band -- designed to promote wireless broadband by revising the 40-year-old rules that governed how the spectrum was used. An agreement by the Catholic TV Network (CTN), the National ITFS Assn. (NIA) and the Wireless Communications Assn. (WCA) precipitated the order. But the 3 groups all raised objections, filing petitions for reconsideration and arguing that the order deviated from their proposal in critical ways.
Education groups and fixed wireless providers asked the FCC to make some key changes to a June 2004 order providing revised rules for ITFS and MDS operators in the 2495-2690 MHz band -- designed to promote wireless broadband by revising the 40-year-old rules that governed how the spectrum was used. An agreement by the Catholic TV Network (CTN), the National ITFS Assn. (NIA) and the Wireless Communications Assn. (WCA) precipitated the order. But the 3 groups all raised objections, filing petitions for reconsideration and arguing that the order deviated from their proposal in critical ways.
The U.S.’s failure to regulate Internet gambling is pitting it against the rest of the world, the head of a U.K. gaming company said Tues. American policy-makers agree with their international counterparts on the key problems involved in online gambling, but Congress’s inability to enact proper rules is making those problems worse, said Nigel Payne, CEO of Sportingbet. He said the U.S. will be even more isolated if a World Trade Organization (WTO) appeals panel upholds last fall’s WTO decision that the U.S. can’t bar Americans from using offshore gambling websites (WID Jan 11 p7).
With interest in ultra wideband (UWB) on the rise in the U.S. and parts of Asia, Europe is wrestling with whether and how to regulate the new technology. The most vexatious issue -- how to prevent UWB frequencies from interfering with existing services on the same frequencies -- is under study by several groups and the UWB industry is pressing the European Commission (EC) to act, sources said. However, they said, resistance to UWB from some quarters, and the fact that the technology isn’t a top priority for the EC, has left UWB’s status in Europe unsettled.