Apple is on both defense and offense in lawsuits filed this week. ITunes customer David Slattery filed an antitrust case against the company in U.S. Dist. Court, San Jose, for preventing songs from the Internet music service from working on players other than Apple’s iPod, Reuters said. Separately, in Cal. Superior Court, Santa Clara, the company sued ThinkSecret.com, purveyor of “Mac insider news,” for reporting what Apple characterizes as the trade secrets that it plans to offer an inexpensive Macintosh computer and an office software suite, according to published reports.
Infinium Labs abandoned its defense of accusations over a published report on KB’s HardOCP technology news website in late 2003, after a judge ruled Infinium had conceded the merits of the case. Infinium Pres. Kevin Bachus said Wed. his company “simply decided to walk away from the case.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has issued a statement that although Canada has recently announced the finding of an animal suspected of having BSE ("mad cow disease"), it would not alter USDA's implementation of a soon to be published rule that will recognize Canada as a BSE Minimal-Risk Region, as the possibility of additional cases of BSE in Canada was included in the risk analysis conducted as part of the rulemaking. (USDA release no. 0528.04, dated 12/30/04, available at http://www.usda.gov/documents/NewsReleases/2004/12/0528.doc.
On December 30, 2004, the Court of International Trade (CIT) issued a preliminary injunction in U.S. Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel (USA-ITA) v. Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA) et al. which enjoins CITA, during the pendency of this action, from accepting, considering, or taking any further action on requests filed under CITA's textile safeguard procedures that are based on the threat of market disruption upon the elimination of quotas or safeguards on textile or apparel products from China.
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) and countervailing (CV) duty orders.
On May 3 and September 20, 2004, the International Trade Administration (ITA) published notices in the Federal Register requesting comments on its separate rates practice in antidumping (AD) proceedings involving a non-market economy (NME) country.
Effective November 17, 2004, the International Trade Administration (ITA) is revoking the antidumping (AD) duty orders on solid urea from Belarus, Estonia, Lithuania, Romania, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan as the domestic interested parties have waived their right to participate in these sunset reviews and the ITA finds that no domestic interested party is participating in these sunset reviews.
Many World Trade Organization (WTO) member countries fail to comply with their commitments under telecom trade agreements, according to comments filed with the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). Commenters urged the USTR to continue to work with regulators in other countries to enforce the existing trade agreements and negotiate new ones. The comments were filed in the USTR’s annual Sec. 1377 review of the operation and effectiveness of all U.S. trade agreements on telecom products and services. The USTR is expected to conclude the review by March 31.
A former CalAmp controller has agreed to plead guilty to insider trading charges, 3 years after he confessed and walked away from the satellite dish maker. Barry Kusatzky faces up to 27 months in prison and $2 million in fines, according to a plea agreement filed in U.S. Dist. Court, L.A. Kusatzky is expected to enter the plea formally Jan. 10. In the deal, Kusatzky admitted he hid losses and liabilities at CalAmp -- formerly known as California Amplifier -- to meet analysts’ forecasts in 1999 and 2000. Kusatzky allegedly used knowledge of the hidden losses to profit from selling 15,000 stock options at the end of 1999, netting $350,000, the U.S. attorney’s office said. Kusatzky, who joined CalAmp in 1997, was responsible for preparing financial projections. In late 1999, he realized he had underestimated expenses associated with CalAmp’s purchase of a Del. satellite manufacturing firm, according to a court filing. Fearing he would be fired, Kusatzky falsified internal company reports to hide $3 million in costs, the filing states. He continued to hide expenses and liabilities more than a year, faking records to show that CalAmp’s Hong Kong subsidiary with more money in the bank than it actually had. CalAmp overstated profit by about $7.8 million over 2 years as a result of the fraud, court documents state. The fraud wasn’t detected until March 23, 2001, as CalAmp’s auditors started their annual work. The pressure became too much for Kusatzky, who arrived early at the office and wrote a note that he left along with his company ID on his boss’s desk, Stanley Greenberg, his attorney, told the L.A. Times. “I did an incredibly stupid thing,” the note read. “I hid expenses and made the [profit and loss statement] look better.” Kusatzky’s motive was to save his job and “to fit in,” according to the note, which was included in the Justice Dept.’s legal filing. “I have always been shy and find it hard to fit in anywhere,” the note said. “I wanted to fit in - -- be one of the guys.” Securities regulators cleared the rest of the company’s officers of wrongdoing. Kusatzky lives in Ill. and works at a postal packaging service, according to court documents. He still faces civil charges of fraud and insider trading filed by the SEC. A settlement in the SEC case is pending, Greenberg told the newspaper. Meanwhile, CalAmp Solutions Div. Pres. Tracy Trent has resigned and will be replaced by Steven L'Heureux. Under a severance agreement, Trent will be paid $255,000 over a 12-month period in biweekly installments and get Cobra benefits, according to documents filed with the SEC. L'Heureux will receive a $235,000 annual salary and was granted stock options for 100,000 shares. He also will eligible for a bonus of up to 60% of his base salary for the fiscal year ending Feb. 28, 2006.