Oct. 4, 2000
8:00 AM ET.
Alert No. 34. |
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| News Briefs |
10/3. The Senate passed S
2054, the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-first Century
Act of 2000, by a vote of 96 to 1. The bill increases the annual cap
on H1B visas, which enable aliens with tech skills to work in the
U.S. for high tech companies. S 2045 increases the number of
non-immigrant alien workers annually allowed into the country on an
H1B visa from the current level of 115,000 to 195,000 over the next
three years. The current cap of 115,000 visas for FY 2000 was
filled in less than six months. The visa limit drops to 107,500
visas for FY 2001, which began on Oct. 1, and to 65,000 visas in FY
2002. The bill also raises application fees from $500 to $1,000. The
House Judiciary Committee
passed a different H1B bill, HR 4227, the Technology Worker
Temporary Relief Act, sponsored by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX).
That bill would have temporarily removed the cap on H1B visas, but
included several American worker protection provisions. See, Tech
Law Journal Summary of H1B Bills.
10/3. The House passed S 2045, without further amendment, by a
voice vote, after a brief debate. Bill Clinton will sign the bill.
10/3. The Senate
Judiciary Committee passed its H1B bill in March, and the
House Judiciary Committee passed its H1B bill in May. Further
consideration was delayed, as Democrats in the Senate insisted on
attaching unrelated immigration proposals to the H1B bill. Al
Gore released a statement.
Quote: "I am disappointed that the Senate bill does not include
the Latino Immigration Fairness Act." Rep. David Dreier (R-CA)
said, "its regrettable that Democratic gamesmanship held up
this high-tech priority for months." See, release.
10/3. The House passed HR
3850, the Independent Telecommunications Consumer Enhancement
Act of 2000, sponsored by Rep.
Barbara Cubin (R-WY). The bill would provide regulatory relief
for local exchange carriers with fewer than 2% of the subscriber
lines in the U.S.
10/3. The House passed HR
3484, sponsored by Rep.
Bill McCollum (R-FL), the Child Sex Crimes Wiretapping Act of
1999. The bill would provide that certain sexual crimes against
children are predicate crimes for the interception of
communications.
10/3. Rep. Howard Berman
(D-CA) introduced HR ___, the Business
Method Patent Improvement Act of 2000.
10/3. Rep. Chris Cox (R-CA)
introduced HR ___, the Financial Accounting for Intangibles
Reexamination (FAIR) Act. It would delay for one year the proposed
elimination of the pooling
of interests method of accounting for mergers. It
provides that a final decision by the Financial
Accounting Standards Board (FASB) must await the results of a
comprehensive study of the appropriate methods of accounting for
intangibles. Background: The House Commerce Committee's
Finance Subcommittee, of which Rep. Cox is a member, held a hearing
on this issue on May 4. See, hearing
documents.
10/3. The Senate Commerce
Committee held yet another hearing on Internet privacy.
Several bills are pending, including S 2928,
the Consumer Internet Privacy Enhancement Act, a bill introduced by
Committee Chairman Sen. John
McCain (R-AZ). Senators conceded that it is too late in the
106th Congress to pass privacy legislation. Sen. McCain stated that
"I look forward to engaging in this process as move toward the
next Congress and I commit to reporting legislation from the
Committee and working for its passage on the floor." See, statement
[PDF]. See also, prepared testimony of witnesses [PDF]:
George
Vradenburg (AOL).
Simson
Garfinkel (author).
Marc
Rotenberg (EPIC).
10/3. The government filed its response [PDF]
to Microsoft's motion regarding the briefing schedule in the U.S. Court of Appeals (DC) in
the Microsoft antitrust case. It asked for a faster briefing
schedule, and shorter briefs. Under the government's proposed
schedule, Microsoft's principal brief would be due by Nov. 1, and be
limited to 24,000 words. The opposition brief would be due Dec. 8,
and be limited to 24,000 words. Finally, Microsoft's reply brief
would be due by Dec. 22, and be limited to 7,000 words. (Response to
Microsoft's Motion for an Order Governing Further Proceedings,
U.S.C.A. Nos. 00-5212 and 5213.) The SIIA
released a statement
supporting the government's request.
10/2. Microsoft filed its Motion
for an Order Governing Further Proceedings with the U.S. Court of Appeals (DC). It
requested "that each side be given 60 days to prepare its
principal brief and that Microsoft be given 30 days to prepare its
reply brief." It also requested that principal briefs may be
overlength -- up to 56,000 words.
10/3. Pseudo Programs, which
provided streaming media, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the
U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the (SDNY).
10/3. Network Solutions
announced that the NSI Registrar will begin registering domain names
in Chinese (simplified and traditional), Japanese and Korean. See, release.
10/3. ICANN
published a list
of applications for new TLDs.
10/3. The SEC announced six
promotions in its Division of Corporation Finance. It named named Paula
Dubberly Chief Counsel. She replaces Catherine Dixon. The SEC
also named Barbara Jacobs Asst. Director in charge of the
Office of Computers and Online Services. She replaces James Daly.
See, release.
10/2. Rep. Lamar Smith
(R-TX) introduced HR 5350, a bill to exempt agreements relating to
voluntary guidelines governing telecast material, movies, video
games, Internet content, and music lyrics from the applicability of
the antitrust laws.
10/2. The USTR announced results of
its ongoing reviews of Canada and Peru under § 1377 of the
Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988, regarding the
operation and effectiveness of U.S. telecom trade agreements. The
USTR criticized Canada for maintaining a universal service system
which impedes competition. See, USTR
release.
10/2. U.S. Philips Corp. filed a complaint in U.S. District Court (SDNY)
against Analog Devices and five
other semiconductor companies alleging infringement of patent rights
in inter-integrated circuit bus technology. Philips makes consumer
electronics, lighting, and semiconductor products. Analog, based in
Norwood, Mass., makes integrated circuits used in analog and digital
signal processing applications.
9/27. William Reinsch, head of the Bureau of Export Administration
at the Commerce Dept., gave a speech
to the "Information Security Solutions Europe 2000
Conference" in Barcelona, Spain, titled "United States
Encryption Policy." He stated that "cryptography remains a
challenging public policy issue, but the issue of the future will be
our collective ability to avoid the converse of export controls --
protectionist trade barriers or artificial standards, de facto
or de jure, intended to keep foreign software products out
of selected markets."
9/25. Sandra Weisman was named Deputy CFO at the USPTO. She was
formerly at the Dept. of Veterans Affairs. See, release.
9/25. Jing Jing Fan Mou entered a plea of guilty in U.S. District
Court (CDCa)
to two felony counts: conspiracy and trafficking in counterfeit
goods. She had purchased and distributed Microsoft Windows NT
Server and Professional Office 1997 software with a black market
value of more than $600,000. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 4.
See, DOJ 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 TLJ Stories |
Bill
Would Change Business Method Patent Process. (10/3) Rep.
Berman and Rep. Boucher introduced a bill in the House that would
make several changes to the business method patent process. Such
patents would still be granted, but they would be harder to obtain,
and easier to challenge.
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| New Documents |
Berman:
Business
Method Patent Improvement Act of 2000, introduced 10/3
(HTML, TLJ).
Berman:
Statement
re business method patent bill, 10/3 (HTML, TLJ).
Boucher:
Statement
re business method patent bill, 10/3 (HTML, TLJ).
Berman/Boucher: Summary
of business method patent bill, 10/3 (HTML, TLJ).
DOJ:
Response
to Microsoft's Motion for an Order Governing Further Proceedings,
10/3 (PDF, DOJ).
MSFT:
Motion
for an Order Governing Further Proceedings, 10/2 (HTML,
MSFT).
FCC:
Memorandum
Opinion & Order re granting Inmarsat a 9 month extension
of time to conduct IPO, 10/3 (MS Word, FCC).
Reinsch:
Speech
re U.S. encryption policy, 9/27 (HTML, BXA).
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from Around the Web (updated daily).
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| Quote of the Day |
"Two years ago, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal
Circuit ruled in the State Street Bank decision that a patent
could be issued on a method of doing business. Since then, the
Patent and Trademark Office has been deluged with applications for
business method patents. Unfortunately, the PTO has granted some
highly questionable ones. Last year, it awarded a patent to
Amazon.com for its "one-click" method of shopping at a web
site. The press recently reported that the PTO is now on the verge
of awarding a patent covering any computer to computer
international commercial transaction. Something is fundamentally
wrong with a system that allows individuals to get patents for doing
the seemingly obvious. And it has led to a lot of unnecessary
litigation."
Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA)
(source)
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