Oct. 10, 2000
8:00 AM ET.
Alert No. 38. |
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| News Briefs |
10/10.
Microsoft filed three
complaints in U.S. District Court (NDGa)
against three Atlanta area businesses alleging distribution of
counterfeit Microsoft software, including Office 2000, the Windows
98 and Windows NT Workstation operating systems, and BackOffice
Server. See, MSFT
release.
10/9. Atmel and Information Storage Devices (ISD)
settled their lengthy legal disputes, including a lawsuit
pending in the U.S. District Court (NDCa). See, ISD release.
ISD stated that under the settlement agreement, "Atmel granted
ISD a license to certain technology, including U.S. Patent No.
4,511,811, entitled 'Charge Pump for Providing Programming Voltage
to the Word Lines in a Semiconductor Memory Array.' All other terms
of the agreement are confidential." Atmel filed a complaint in
U.S. District Court on June 15, 1995 alleging patent infringement,
trade secret misappropriation, and other causes of action. Atmel
also filed a complaint with the USITC. Atmel, based
in San Jose, Calif., makes advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile
memory, and RF semiconductors. Atmel also provides system-level
integration semiconductor solutions using CMOS, BiCMOS, BiPolar and
SiGe process technologies. ISD, which is now a wholly owned
subsidiary of Winbond Electronics, makes semiconductor voice
products, including ChipCorder. See also, Atmel releases of May 26, 2000
and July 2,
1998, and ISD release of Jan. 6, 2000.
10/9. The BSA presented Irish Prime
Minister Bertie Ahern with its "Cyber Champion
Award." The BSA cited his work in "overseeing legislative
adoption of the most modern copyright and electronic signature laws
in Europe."
10/9. "The Senate
Judiciary Committee held a field hearing in a crowded auditorium
at BYU titled
"Utah's Digital Economy and the Future: Peer-to-Peer and Other
Emerging Technologies." Sen.
Orrin Hatch (R-UT) presided. Napster
founder Shawn Fanning testified.
10/6. The FTC released a report [PDF]
titled "Federal Trade Commission Strategic Plan: Fiscal Years
2000-2005." The report addresses the FTC's plans for enforcing
both consumer protection and antitrust laws. "The
explosive growth of electronic commerce has greatly affected the
FTC's mission," states the report. Also, "the FTC must be
alert to practices designed to entrench market power and deny
consumers the benefit of new forms of competition, such as ... use
of the intellectual property rights in one market to gain
unfair competitive advantage in another market." See also, TLJ story.
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 |
FTC Five
Year Plan Addresses E-Commerce. (10/10) The FTC released a
report outlining its five year plan. It addresses both protecting
consumers from Internet based fraud, and applying antitrust law to
electronic commerce and intellectual property.
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| New Documents |
FTC:
Strategic
Plan for FY 2000-2001, 10/6 (PDF, FTC)
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| New and Updated Sections |
Calendar
(updated daily).
News
from Around the Web (updated daily).
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| Quote of the Day |
"The FTC acts to make sure that no single company monopolizes
research and development and innovation in vital industries such as
computer hardware and burgeoning health care products. Antitrust
enforcement to protect future innovation may not be immediately
measurable in dollars, but protecting avenues for innovation is
likely to be profoundly useful for consumers, as they enjoy the
fruits of new products and services that develop in rapidly
evolving, competitive marketplaces."
FTC's Strategic Plan
(source) |
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