Aug. 31, 2000
8:00 AM ET.
Alert No. 10. |
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| News Briefs |
8/30. Intel filed a complaint in
U.S. District Court (Del.) against Broadcom alleging patent
infringement. Earlier this year Intel filed a complaint in
California Superior Court (San Jose) against Broadcom alleging
unfair trade competition and misappropriation of trade secrets in
connection with the hiring of several Intel employees.
8/30. The U.S. Department of Justice
(DOJ) gave its clearance to the wireless joint venture of SBC and BellSouth. The DOJ's
consent decree calls for the resolution of overlapping wireless
properties. No other conditions were imposed. See, SBC
release.
8/30. The Gartner
Group released a report that concluded that "34 percent of
U.S. colleges and universities have banned Napster to Internet users surfing
over campus servers." See, release.
Napster has been sued by record companies for violation of copyright
law.
8/30. Micromuse announced
that it has received U.S. Patent No. 6,108,702 titled
"Method And Apparatus For Determining Accurate Topology
Features of a Network." This patent covers the Network Slice
technology used in Micromuse’s Netcool/Precision root-cause
analysis and auto-discovery software. The Network Slice technology
determines the actual path through which data traverses the network
and obtains detailed connection-related information on network
devices. See, release.
8/30. The USPTO
announced that it will hold three symposia in the states of
Washington and California on patent examination practices in software
and biotechnology. The software segment will focus on
computer-related inventions, including business methods. See,
release
and locations.
The one-day sessions are as follows:
• Sept. 18 - Seattle WA
• Sept. 20 - Millbrae CA
• Sept. 21 - La Jolla CA
8/30. The Senate
Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Technology, Terrorism and
Government Information held yet another hearing on identity theft.
This hearing was conducted in Los Angeles, California, by Sen. Dianne Feinstein
(D-CA), the ranking Democrat on the Subcommittee. Sen. Feinstein
stated that "Identity theft, is perhaps, the signature crime of
the new economy. Modern technology has made vast amounts of personal
information obtainable at the click of a keyboard, leaving our
personal information vulnerable to interception and misuse."
Jeffrey Klurfeld, Director of the Western Regional Office of the FTC
testified. See, prepared
statement, and FTC release.
8/30. Clear Channel
Communications and AMFM
completed their merger, which is
valued at $23.8 Billion. See, Clear
Channel release of Aug. 28 [PDF] regarding divestiture of
stations and Clear
Channel release of Aug. 30 [PDF] regarding closing the merger.
The combined operations will include more than 900 radio stations,
19 TV stations and over 700,000 outdoor advertising displays in 40
countries. AMFM's operations include Internet web sites, streaming
online casts of AMFM's on-air programming and other media, and
promoting emerging Internet and new media concerns. See, Clear
Channel 10-K filing for 1999, at page 12. The Department of Justice (DOJ)
required Clear Channel and AMFM to sell AMFM's partial
ownership interest in Lamar Advertising Company and to divest an
additional 14 radio stations in 5 markets. To accomplish this, on
Aug. 29 the DOJ filed a complaint, proposed consent decree, and
related pleadings in U.S. District Court in Washington DC. See, Stipulation and
Order and DOJ release.
Clear Channel previously sold 122 radio stations to obtain FCC
approval of license transfers. See, FCC
release of Aug. 15.
8/29. The CompTel
named three new members to its board: Frank Semple (President
of Williams Network, a subsidiary of Williams Communications), John
Barnett, (CEO of Data Network Operations of McLeodUSA, Inc.),
and Richard Grange (President and CEO of New Global Telecom).
See, CompTel
release.
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 |
8/30. Prepared
Statement of the FTC on Identity Theft before a field hearing of the
Senate Judiciary Committee. [HTML, FTC web site.]
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| Quote of the Day |
"I would not want to be the university president who neglected
to update the school policy regarding music downloads this year ...
Long legal battles can be costly, and one school could easily be
singled out to set legal precedent this year." Robert Labatt,
principal analyst for Gartner's e-Business Services Group, regarding
universities that allow students to access Napster over university
servers. Source.
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