| Documents |
NetZero:
Complaint
for patent infringement against Juno, 12/26 (HTML, TLJ).
Milberg:
securities class action complaint
against Foundry Networks, 12/28 (PDF, Milberg).
Reno: article
re intellectual property crimes, 12/25 (HTML, DOJ). |
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| Quote of the Day |
"Countries that fail to protect intellectual property
will witness the exodus of their best talent, a loss of jobs
and tax revenues, a nutrient environment for official
corruption and an increase in crimes financed by intellectual
property theft."
Janet Reno, Attorney General of the U.S., Dec. 25. |
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| Thursday, Jan. 4 |
| 10:00 AM. The Senate
Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on the nomination
of Donald Evans to be Secretary of Commerce. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)
will preside. Location: Room 253, Russell Senate Office
Building. |
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| News Briefs |
1/2. President Elect George Bush announced three more
nominations: Norman Mineta (D-CA) to be Secretary of
Transportation; Spencer Abraham (R-MI) to be Energy
Secretary; and Linda Chavez (R-VA) to be Secretary of
Labor. Mineta is currently the Sec. of Commerce. He also
represented a House district that included San Jose, Calif.,
from 1974 through 1994. Abraham lost his bid for re-election
to the Senate last November. He was active and supportive of
technology in the Senate. He was the leading advocate of
increased immigration opportunities, including more H1B visas
for high tech workers. He was also one of the leading
proponents of the electronic signatures bill. However, he will
have little opportunity to work on technology issues at the
Dept. of Energy. Chavez was Director of the U.S. Civil Rights
Commission under Ronald Reagan. More recently, she has advocated
the use of porn filtering software on computers used by
children in schools and libraries.
1/2. AT&T announced that
it completed the sale of Kearns-Tribune, which owns the Salt
Lake Tribune, to MediaNews Group for $200 Million. AT&T
acquired its interest in Kearns-Tribune when it merged with
TCI in 1999. See, AT&T
release.
1/2. The FCC has not
yet released a notice of proposed rule (NPRM) regarding
selection and allocation of spectrum for Third Generation
(3G) wireless technologies. Thomas Sugrue, Bureau Chief of
the FCC's Wireless
Telecommunications Bureau, stated on Nov. 3 that the FCC
is "committed to do a Notice of Proposed Rule Making by
the end of the year". He also stated that "our goal
is to have auctions ... by the summer of 2002." See, TLJ
story of Nov. 3. 3G is intended to bring broadband
wireless Internet access to mobile devices. At issue in the as
yet unreleased FCC NPRM is use of the 2500 to 2690 MHz band
that is currently being used for MMDS,
MDS, and ITFS.
1/2. The Infocomm Development
Authority (IDA) of Singapore announced that it will delay
its Third Generation (3G) wireless spectrum auction.
12/25. Outgoing Attorney General Janet Reno published
an article
in The Standard
titled "The Threat of Digital Theft: Intellectual
Property Theft is Faster, Costlier and More Dangerous than
Ever." She stated that "Our citizens, policymakers
and law enforcement experts must understand that stealing
intellectual property will be prosecuted for what it is: not
an exotic, hard-to-prosecute diversion or hobby, but theft,
pure and simple." The Department
of Justice under Reno has been largely silent on intellectual
property issues, and lax in its enforcement of
intellectual property related criminal statutes. Intellectual
property industry representatives have called upon the DOJ to
be more active in this area. President George Bush's nominee
to be Attorney General is John Ashcroft. |
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| Editor's Note: This column includes all News Briefs
added to Tech Law Journal since the last Daily E-Mail Alert.
The date indicates when the event occurred, not the date of
posting to Tech Law Journal. |
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| Securities Law |
12/28. An individual named Michael Clement filed a complaint
[PDF] in U.S. District Court (NDCal)
against Foundry
Networks and several of its officers
and directors alleging violation of federal
securities laws. The plaintiff, who seeks class action status,
is represented by Wm. Lerach of the law firm of Milberg Weiss. The one
count complaint alleges that defendants made false statements
in violation of Section 10(b) of the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934, and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. Foundry,
based in San Jose, Calif., makes high-performance, end-to-end
switching and routing equipment, including Internet routers,
Layer 3 switches and Layer 4-7 Internet traffic and content
management switches. Its products are used by large ISPs,
including AOL, EarthLink, AT&T WorldNet, MSN, and Cable
& Wireless, and by smaller ISPs. Its products are also
used in large enterprise, entertainment, pharmaceutical and
manufacturing companies, and by search engines, e-commerce
sites, universities and government organizations. Milberg
Weiss is a law firm that specializes in bringing securities
class action suits against technology companies when their
stock prices drop.
12/28. The SEC filed a complaint
in U.S. District Court (SDFl)
against a business named Web Hosting Headquarters Partnership,
and several of its principals and telemarketers, alleging that
they engaged in a fraudulent securities offering. The SEC also
sought, and obtained, an emergency temporary restraining order
that bars defendants from continued violation of the federal
securities laws, freezes assets, and appoints a receiver. The
complaint states that defendants ran a boiler-room
telemarketing operation for the sale of partnership interests
in a web site hosting business, and lied to investors about
the business. See, SEC
release.
12/22. The U.S. District Court (CDCal)
granted the SEC's motion
for summary judgment in SEC v.
Telsys Communications, Home Shopping Partners, and Eleazar
Heracleopolis, a civil fraud action pertaining to
the fraudulent sale of securities in an Internet shopping mall
business. Defendants sold securities in the business, but
diverted most of the funds raised to other purposes. The Court
found that defendants violated the antifraud, securities
registration and broker-dealer registration provisions of
various federal securities laws, including §§ 5(a), 5(c) and
17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, §§ 10b-5 and 15(a) of
the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and Rule 10b-5 thereunder.
The Court also permanently enjoined the defendants from
committing future violations of the securities laws, and
ordered Heracleopolis to disgorge $502,812 in misappropriated
investor funds, and pay a civil penalty of $110,000.
See, SEC
release. |
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| About Tech Law Journal |
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