Aug. 30, 2000
8:00 AM ET.
Alert No. 9. |
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reserved. |
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| News Briefs |
8/29. Micron filed a complaint
against Rambus in U.S. District
Court (Del.) alleging patent infringement. The complaint
alleges violations of the Federal antitrust laws, and
invalidity, non-infringement, and non-enforceability of Rambus
patents. See, Micron
release.
8/29. UC Irvine Prof. Richard McKenzie published a Cato Institute study which
challenges Judge Jackson's conclusions in the Microsoft case.
McKenzie wrote that "Jackson bases his ruling against Microsoft
on the claim that the company’s monopoly in operating systems is
protected by an "applications barrier to entry" made up of
70,000 Windows-based software programs. ... there is a fatal flaw in
the judge's argument: The overwhelming majority of the 70,000
Windows applications that make up the supposedly impregnable barrier
to entry either never existed as unique products, no longer exist,
or are totally out of date. ... Moreover, survey data indicate that
the needs of active computer users are satisfied by a very small
number of applications. That means the barrier to entry into the
operating-system market is nowhere near as impregnable as the judge
has claimed ..." See, summary and full study [PDF].
8/29. The SEC and the U.S.
Attorney (N.D.Cal.) filed separate civil and criminal complaints
against Manu Shrivastava, a former engineer at nVIDIA. Both complaints allege
that Shrivastava illegally traded on inside information of a
contract between nVIDIA and Microsoft, earning $446,724. nVIDIA is a
3D graphics company based in Silicon Valley. See, SEC release.
8/29. Rep.
Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and Rep. Rick
Boucher (D-VA) called for Congressional and administration
action on Third Generation (3G) wireless technology. See, Goodlatte
release.
8/28. FCC Commissioner Susan Ness
gave a speech
in LA bemoaning the lack of women on the boards of high tech and
communications companies. "Our preliminary research shows that
of Fortune Magazine’s top 20 dot-com companies, only 4% of the
board members are women." Ness added: "... when there is a
critical mass of women in key decision making positions within
companies or on boards, good things happen."
Editor's Note: This column includes all News Briefs added to
Tech Law Journal since the last Daily E-Mail Alert. The dates
indicate when the event occurred, not the date of posting to Tech
Law Journal. |
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| New Documents |
Microsoft's
"Applications Barrier to Entry": The Missing 70,000
Programs, by Richard McKenzie, dated 8/31/00. [PDF, Cato web
site]
Remarks
of Commissioner Susan Ness before the Annual Meeting of American
Women in Radio and Television, 8/28/00. [HTML, FCC web site]
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| Quote of the Day |
"The 3G
technologies currently under development will not only lead to
quicker data rates, but they will free consumers from their desktop
PCs, allowing them wireless broadband Internet access from almost
limitless locations ... and Congress must take action to ensure that
the U.S. government facilitates, rather than inhibits, the roll out
of this new service." Rep. Bob
Goodlatte (R-VA), Co-Chair, Internet
Caucus. |
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