The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) voted to launch an investigation into Lexar’s claims that Toshiba’s flash chips and memory cards are infringing 3 of its patents, Lexar said. Lexar filed a complaint with ITC in April seeking a permanent exclusion order barring import of infringing Toshiba NAND flash chips and cards, as well as products that incorporate them. Among the Toshiba products that subject to the ITC probe are 16-bit multi-level cell NAND flash chips and 8-gigabit single level cell and multi- level cell flash chips. Products being investigated include Toshiba’s flash chips. Lexar’s complaint also requests a cease-and-desist order to bar further sales and distribution of Toshiba products already imported into the U.S. The case was referred to ITC administrative law judge Robert Barton, who’s expected to issue an initial decision by early- to mid- 2007. The ITC will likely make a final ruling in 3rd quarter 2007. The ITC investigation is separate from Lexar’s on- going legal battle with Toshiba in Cal. Superior Court. A Santa Clara County court jury awarded Lexar a total of $464.5 million last year after finding Toshiba liable for the theft of flash memory-related trade secrets and violating fiduciary duty. A Cal. state judge, however, ordered a new trial in Dec., finding there was “insufficient evidence” to support “any of the economic and monetary” awards granted by the jury (CED Dec 6 p7).
Phone companies will be summoned before the Senate Judiciary Committee to provide information on reports that they're supplying the National Security Agency phone records of ordinary people in the U.S., Senate Judiciary Committee Chmn. Specter (R-Pa.) said Thurs. A USA Today story citing unidentified sources said AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth are secretly providing the records -- a report that provoked demands for hearings on Capitol Hill.
The Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has issued a proposed rule to revise and update its regulations in 50 CFR Parts 10, 13, 17, and 23 that implement the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
Warner Bros. (WB) hooked up with BitTorrent to provide a peer-to-peer (P2P) platform offering legitimate content on a video-on-demand (VoD) and electronic sell through (EST) basis simultaneously with release of TV shows or movie DVDs. The Tues. announcement made WB the first major studio to provide legitimate video content via BitTorrent technology. In 2005 BitTorrent told the MPAA it would work to prevent film piracy and promote innovative online digital content distribution. The service is to launch this summer.
Warner Bros. (WB) hooked up with BitTorrent to provide a peer-to-peer (P2P) platform offering legitimate content on a video-on-demand (VoD) and electronic sell through (EST) basis simultaneously with release of TV shows or movie DVDs. The Tues. announcement made WB the first major studio to provide legitimate video content via BitTorrent technology. In 2005 BitTorrent told the MPAA it would work to prevent film piracy and promote innovative online digital content distribution (WID Nov 23 p9). The service is to launch this summer.
A virtual land deal gone awry has led to a real world court battle pitting a Web-savvy attorney against Second Life, a 3-dimensional Internet world game created by San Francisco-based Linden Lab. The lawsuit, perhaps the first of its kind, was filed in W. Chester, Pa., small claims court. It seeks $8,000 in financial damages, in part for a breach of a virtual land auction contract and for violation of the state’s Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law.
According to a posting on the Web site of the House Committee on Homeland Security, on May 4, 2006, the House of Representatives passed the Security and Accountability For Every "SAFE" Port Act, a comprehensive port security bill that will enhance security at U.S. ports, track and protect containers en route to the U.S., and prevent threats from reaching U.S. soil. (See ITT's Online Archives or 05/04/06 news, 06050405 for BP summary highlighting bill before floor action.) (Committee posting at http://hsc.house.gov/.)
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has issued a notice announcing the closure of review for cases 012-CP-05, protection of worker Rights in Swaziland, and 015-CP-05, protection of intellectual property in Kazakhstan. According to USTR, the Subcommittee of the Trade Policy Staff Committee (TPSC) decided to close these cases following its 2005 Annual Review of petitions concerning the practices of certain beneficiary developing countries of the General System of Preferences (GSP) program. (FR Pub 05/01/06, available at http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20061800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2006/pdf/E6-6536.pdf)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued additional notices stating that effective April 27, 2006, ACS programming now allows the ABI filing of preference claims under the U.S. - Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR). As a result, non-ABI entries are no longer required and any quota entries (textiles or agricultural tariff-rate quotas) that had been held by the ports due to the unavailability of ABI can now be processed through the quota module. (See ITT's Online Archives or 04/27/06 news, 06042705 for earlier BP summary) (QBT-06-014 (textiles), QBT-06-527 (agricultural TRQs), dated 04/27/06, available at http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/import/textiles_and_quotas/qbts/qbt2006/06_014.ctt/06_014.doc and http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/import/textiles_and_quotas/qbts/qbt2006/06_527.ctt/06_527.doc respectively.)
The International Trade Administration (ITA) and the International Trade Commission (ITC) have issued a notice, each initiating an automatic five-year Sunset Review on the above-listed antidumping (AD) duty order.