CBP has posted a directive prescribing CBP policies and procedures for (1) handling debit vouchers resulting from defaulted Automated Clearinghouse (ACH) payments related to Automated Broker Interface (ABI) statement processing, and (2) administering the removal of an ACH payor that is responsible for defaulted ACH payments. This directive supersedes Directive No. 5310-031A (Directive No. 5310-031B, posted 04/23/09, available at http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/trade/legal/directives/5310_031a.ctt/5310_031a.doc)
The International Trade Administration has initiated administrative reviews of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders below, for certain specified companies listed in the initiation notice.
Activision Blizzard was mum after Scratch DJ Game said Monday that a California Superior Court judge granted it a temporary restraining order in its suit against Activision Publishing over the coming videogame Scratch -- The Ultimate DJ (CED April 16 p2). The plaintiff was ordered to comply with the TRO by close of business Monday, said Scratch DJ Game, a joint venture of Genius Products and pro audio equipment maker Numark Industries. Activision Blizzard didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The court last week ordered 7 Studios, recently acquired by Activision, to turn over to Scratch DJ Game within five days all source code related to the game, including 7 Studio’s pre-existing developer software tools and technology that went into developing the game, Scratch DJ Game said. The developer, which Genius hired to make the game for it long before Activision bought 7 Studios, was also named in the suit, along with 7 Studios CEO Lewis Peterson. Scratch DJ Game accused Activision Publishing of “intentional interference with contractual relationship,” unfair competition and breach of contract, among other things. The court also granted an injunction preventing 7 Studios from disclosing or discussing the game code or Scratch trade secrets with Activision or any other third parties, Scratch DJ Game said Monday. Scratch DJ Game “will aggressively pursue its court case against Activision, 7 Studios and Peterson for damages resulting from their actions to delay and take over the Scratch game,” it also said Monday. Separately, Activision Blizzard said in a filing with the SEC that it amended Chief Financial Officer Thomas Tippl’s employment agreement April 15. The term of Tippl’s employment with the company under the amended agreement will expire April 15, 2014. His annual base salary will initially be $750,000 per year, but will be increased annually “in an amount at least equal to the average percentage increase approved by” the Compensation Committee of the firm’s board, the filing said. Tippl will also be eligible to receive an annual bonus with a target amount of 100 percent of his base salary based upon achievement of certain financial and business objectives determined by the Compensation Committee, it said. Tippl will also receive a grant of 1.2 million stock options and 150,000 shares of restricted stock, as well as a grant of 80,000 performance shares.
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.