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Tech Law Journal |
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| News, records, and analysis of legislation, litigation, and regulation affecting the computer, internet, communications and information technology sectors | |
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8/31. FTC Commissioner Orson Swindle gave a speech to a Federal Society chapter in North Carolina on antitrust enforcement and high tech companies, titled "Government and the Tech World: Friends or Foes?" 8/31. The NTIA released the agenda for its Sept. 19 Online Privacy Technologies Workshop. 8/31. The U.S. Internet Council released its annual State of the Internet Report 2000. Quote: "Although it remains possible that governments might smother the Internet in regulation, early signs suggest that this is unlikely. The Internet should continue to evolve into an open and global information environment ..." See, release. 8/31. U.S. District Judge Janet Hall (Conn.) released a scathing 103 page ruling in which she awarded Bristol Technology $1M in punitive damages against Microsoft. Bristol filed a 14 count complaint against Microsoft on August 18, 1998 in which it plead a variety of federal and state antitrust, and one count each of unfair trade practices and estoppel. On July 16, 1999, the jury ruled for Microsoft on all counts, except one alleging violation of the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act, for which it awarded a token $1 in compensatory damages. Judge Hall saw the case differently. In addition to the punitives, she enjoined Microsoft from publishing or distributing the WISE Mission Statement. See, Bristol release. See also, and TLJ's summary of Bristol v. Microsoft and story. 8/31. The FCC released a report [PDF] about competition in the market for local telecommunications services. It concludes that CLECs provided about 4% of the 190 million telephone lines that served end-user customers at the end of 1999. About 34% of these lines were local loops that they own, while the remaining lines were served by means of unbundled network elements (UNEs) or services acquired from other carriers. See also, FCC release [MS Word]. 8/31. EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy sent a letter to Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Treasury Stuart Eizenstat stating that proposed modifications to the U.S. Foreign Sales Corporations (FSC) tax scheme are still unacceptable to the EU. See, EU release. The FSC scheme allowed a portion of a U.S. taxpaying firm's foreign-source income to be exempt from U.S. income tax. It benefited software companies, among others. The EU filed a complaint about the FSC scheme with the WTO, alleging that it was a prohibited export subsidy. A WTO dispute settlement panel sided with the EU last fall, and the WTO Appellate Body upheld its findings in February. See also, HR 4986, the "FSC Repeal and Extraterritorial Income Exclusion Act of 2000", sponsored by Rep. Bill Archer (R-TX). For background, see May 2, 2000 press briefings by Lamy and Eizenstat and by Eizenstat and Talisman. 8/31. The FCC amended its rules to allow frequency hopping spread spectrum systems in the 2.4 GHz band. The goal is to allow wider bandwidths so that Internet devices will operate at higher data speeds, thereby enabling the development of new and improved products such as wireless computer local area networks and wireless cable modems. (ET Docket No. 99-231.) See, release [MS Word] and First Report and Order [PDF]. 8/31. The SEC filed a complaint in U.S. District Court (C.D.Cal.) against Mark Jakob alleging that he perpetrated the Emulex Internet hoax on Aug. 25. The complaint alleges that Jakob sent a fraudulent press release to the Internet Wire regarding Emulex, and traded in anticipation of resulting stock price changes. The scheme caused the share price of Emulex, a Southern California high-tech company, to temporarily loose $2.2 Billion in market value. The complaint alleges violation of the antifraud provisions of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. See, SEC release and Emulex release. In addition, the FBI arrested Jakob. 8/31. A jury in the U.S. District Court, EDNY, returned a verdict against Computer Associates (CA) in a shareholder case arising in 1991. The jury found that CA gave differing prices to shareholders when it purchased Online Software International, in violation of the best price rule. 8/31. The Census Bureau estimated that U.S. retail e-commerce sales for the 2nd quarter of 2000 was $5.518 Billion, a 5.3% increase from the 1st quarter. See, release and speech by Commerce Sec. Norman Mineta. 8/31. IMUnified, a coalition of companies which provide instant messaging, announced the completion of technical specifications that will enable functional interoperability among its members' instant messaging services. IMUnified includes AT&T, Excite@Home, iCAST, the MSN, Odigo, Phone.com, Prodigy, Tribal Voice and Yahoo! See, MSFT release. 8/30. U.S District Judge Audrey Collins entered a Final Judgment and Order [1.9 MB PDF file] in FTC v. JK Publications et al., U.S.D.C., C.D.Cal., Case No. 99-0044. The FTC obtained a $37.5 Million verdict against several defendants who ran a web porn operation with an illegal credit card billing scam. Defendants licensed access to databases of a California bank which included over 3.6 Million valid credit card numbers without chargebacks or credits issued. The bank licensed the data for fraud scrub purposes. The porn operation used it to fraudulently bill card holders, many of whom did not even own computers. See, FTC release. 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. See, TLJ story. 8/30. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) gave its clearance to the wireless joint venture of SBC and BellSouth, subject to their divestment of businesses in 16 markets where they have overlapping wireless properties. No other conditions were imposed. See, SBC release. To accomplish this, the DOJ filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Washington DC, as well as a stipulated final judgment. See also, DOJ 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 symposiums 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. 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." 8/28. The Australian Human Rights and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (HREEO) issued an order censoring the web site of the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG). The HREEO determined that the SOCOG "has engaged in conduct that is unlawful under section 24 of the DDA in that it has provided for the use of the complainant a web site which because of his blindness is to a significant extent inaccessible." (Bruce Lindsay Maquire v. SOCOG, Case No. H99/115.) 8/28. The USTR requested formal consultations with the Mexican Government at the WTO to resolve competitive conditions in Mexico's telecommunications market. See also, WorldCom reaction. 8/28. The Commerce Dept.'s Economic Development Administration (EDA) awarded a $1 Million grant to the University of the Sacred Heart, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to aid in the construction of a Multimedia Technology Transfer Facility (MTTF). See, DOC release. 8/25. The Digital Media Association (DiMA) filed an amicus brief [911 KB PDF file] with the U.S. Court of Appeals (9th Cir.) in A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster. The brief argues that U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Patel incorrectly abandoned the "capable of substantial non-infringing uses" test for determining the legality of challenged technologies that the U.S. Supreme Court set forth in the 1984 Sony Betamax case. See, DiME release [PDF]. See also, amicus brief [1.1 MB PDF] of the Ad Hoc Copyright Coalition, et al., amicus brief [861 KB PDF] of the Consumer Electronics Association, et al., and amicus brief [81 KB PDF] of the Assoc. of American Physicians & Surgeons, et al. 8/25. The FCC adopted changes to its rules to remove the financial eligibility restrictions for some C and F block PCS licenses to be auctioned in Auction 35 and in future C and F block auctions. The FCC also revised the service and auction rules for upcoming auctions of C and F block PCS licenses including reconfiguring the size of C block licenses, modifying auction eligibility restrictions for certain licenses in both large and small markets, and retaining the spectrum cap. See, FCC release. 8/25. AT&T filed a challenge in the Ohio Supreme Court to an order of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) that Ameritech Ohio suspend its price ceiling for intrastate access charges. AT&T alleges that the PUCO order "is in direct violation of Ameritech Ohio’s recently-approved alternative regulation plan, which sets the interstate access rates established by the Federal Communications Commission as the price ceiling on these intrastate access charges." See, AT&T release. 8/25. The RIAA announced that "The number of full-length CDs manufacturers shipped to the U.S. market is at an all-time high, growing 6.0% from this time last year ..." The RIAA, and its members, have also brought copyright infringement suits for Internet distribution of music files via peer-to-peer and other systems. See, RIAA release. 8/25. Intel announced the formation of an industry working group to foster standards and protocols for peer-to-peer computing. See, release. 8/25. ICANN responded to NSI's multilingual domain name testbed. It stated that "the internationalization of the Internet's domain name system must be accomplished through standards that are open, non-proprietary, and fully compatible with the Internet's existing end-to-end model and that preserve globally unique naming in a universally resolvable public name space." See, ICANN release. 8/24. The Harrisonburg Police Department (Virginia) and the RIAA Anti-Piracy Unit, executed a criminal search and seizure warrant at Town and Campus Records in Harrisonburg, seizing over 568 alleged bootleg sound recordings, a majority of which were on CD-Rs. 8/24. Network Solutions announced that it will open a testbed for accredited registrars to register domain names in non-English language character sets in .com, .net, and .org. The testbed will allow users to register domain names initially in three languages: Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (traditional and simplified), and soon thereafter in Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic. See, NSI release. 8/24. The DOJ released a Request for Proposals for an "Independent Technical Review of the Carnivore Electronic Communication Collection System". See, Executive Summary, Section C (description of the review), and Section H (provisions regarding data ownership, security, and secrecy). The full 50 page RFP is available in the DOJ web site in both WordPerfect and PDF. See also the FBI's Carnivore web site. 8/23. Bill Clinton decided not to intervene in NTT Communications Corp.'s planned acquisition of Verio. See, Clinton letter to Congress and White House press office release. 8/23. The CTIA filed a Petition to Suspend Compliance Date with the FCC in its CALEA proceeding . In 1994 the Congress passed the CALEA to allow law enforcement authorities to maintain their wiretap capabilities in new telecom devices, by requiring carriers to make their wireline, cellular, and broadband PCS equipment capable of certain surveillance functions. In Aug. 1999 the FCC issued an Order [huge WP file] implementing and expanding the requirements placed on carriers. The CTIA on others filed Petitions for Review. On Aug. 15 The U.S. Court of Appeals (DC Cir.) released its opinion vacating parts of the FCC order. However, the binding deadline of the order remains in place. CTIA seeks to have the deadline suspended until new CALEA rules are in place. See also, CTIA release. 8/23. The FTC and New York Attorney General filed a Complaint for Injunctive and other Equitable Relief [PDF] in U.S. District Court (SDNY) against several porn site operators for fraud and deception. Defendants illegally billed thousands of consumers for services that were advertised as "free," and other consumers who never visited the porn sites. Visa disqualified defendants from using its credit card system; and then defendants moved their merchant banking relationship to Guatemala, adopted several new merchant names, and continued to process credit card transactions. The Complaint alleges defendants' conduct constitute unfair or deceptive practices in violation of § 5(a) of the FTC Act, and similar NY laws. See also, FTC release. 8/23. SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt named Russell Horwitz to the newly created position of Senior Advisor to the Chairman for Policy. Horwitz, 29, has been at the SEC since 1998. Before that he worked in the Clinton White House. See, SEC release. 8/23. The SIIA reported that 1/4 of its open corporate software piracy audits involve high-tech companies. See, SIIA release. 8/23. Verizon said it reached a tentative agreement on a new three year contract with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) in the mid-Atlantic states. Verizon also said that the deal is substantively the same as the Aug. 20 agreement with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and the CWA in New York and New England. 8/23. The USPTO's Patent Public Advisory Committee (PPAC) and Trademark Public Advisory Committee (TPAC) held their inaugural meetings. 8/22. Microsoft filed its Reply Brief with the U.S. Supreme Court opposing direct appeal to the Supreme Court. 8/22. The DOJ filed a brief [PDF] with the U.S. Supreme Court which argues that "If the Court agrees that the appeal meets the Expediting Act’s criterion, but concludes that the Expediting Act does not permit the States to participate as appellees, the Court should review the judgment rendered on the States’ complaint simultaneously through the mechanism of a writ of certiorari before judgment in the court of appeals." 8/22. Sprint filed a series of applications with the FCC to offer fixed wireless broadband service in 45 markets. See, Sprint release. 8/21. 3Com announced on Aug. 18 that it will pursue its patent infringement suit against Xircom. On May 26 3Com filed a complaint in U.S. District Court (Utah) alleging infringement in connection with its PC Cards technology. However, 3Com did not initially serve the complaint upon Xircom. 3Com stated on Aug. 18 that it "had withheld serving the complaint in an effort to negotiate a reasonable business solution to the dispute, but the parties have not been able to come to terms. 3Com has therefore served Xircom with the complaint and will now pursue protection of its intellectual property rights in the courts." See, 3Com release. Xircom General Counsel Randall Holliday responded on Aug. 21 that "Xircom is committed to an aggressive response to 3Com’s decision to pursue this litigation and we are fully prepared and intend to mount an aggressive defense to 3Com’s baseless allegations." See, Xircom release. 8/21. MP3Board.com, which has been sued by record companies for copyright infringement, filed a third party complaint against AOL and Time Warner. The legal theory, which is a part of MP3Board's indemnity strategy, is that AOL and Time Warner developed and distributed the Gnutella software, and thereby "impliedly warranted and represented that a website incorporating Gnutella software would not be subject to claims pursuant to the DMCA or to suit from the RIAA or its member record companies and have thereby become liable to third-party plaintiff for any judgment entered against third-party plaintiff ... " 8/21. The FCC released the full text of its annual report [PDF] on whether "advanced telecommunications capability is being deployed to all Americans on a reasonable and timely basis", as required by §706 of the Communications Act. The FCC approved and released some information about this report on Aug. 3. The report concludes that broadband Internet service is being deployed in a reasonable and timely fashion overall, but adds the usual "digital divide" rhetoric. 8/21. MP3.com and Sony Music Entertainment (SME) announced that they settled SME's copyright infringement claims which are part of a suit brought by the five major recording companies in U.S. District Court in January. Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Music Group, Bertelsmann AG's music arm BMG, and EMI Group Plc previously settled with MP3.com. Seagram Co.'s Universal Music Group is the only plaintiff which has yet to settle. Under the SME settlement MP3.com will make payment for past acts, and MP3.com will enter into a non-exclusive, North American license with SME. See, MP3.com release. The Court ruled in April that MP3.com is liable for copyright infringement. A hearing on the issue of damages is set for Aug. 28. Music publishers are not a party to this suit. 8/21. An undated study in the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center web site concludes that the free rider problem, more than copyright litigation, may doom peer to peer file sharing systems, such as Gnutella. Authors Eytan Adar and Bernardo Huberman conclude that: "An extensive analysis of user traffic on Gnutella shows a significant amount of free riding in the system. By sampling messages on the Gnutella network over a 24-hour period, we established that 70% of Gnutella users share no files, and 90% of the users answer no queries. Furthermore, we found out that free riding is distributed evenly between domains, so that no one group contributes significantly more than others, and that peers that volunteer to share files are not necessarily those who have desirable ones. We argue that free riding leads to degradation of the system performance and adds vulnerability to the system. If this trend continues copyright issues might become moot compared to the possible collapse of such systems." 8/21. The Pew Internet & American Life Project released a report titled Trust and Privacy Online: Why Americans Want to Rewrite the Rules [PDF], which is based on a survey of 2,117 people. Among its many findings are that people are concerned about online privacy, and that they want individual control, but not government regulation. 8/21. A lawsuit alleging securities fraud was filed in U.S. District Court in Utah against e-commerce applications producer Tenfold Corp. The plaintiffs, who are represented by the law firm of Cauley & Geller, seek class action status. 8/20. Verizon, the IBEW, and the CWA announced a tentative agreement in New York and New England on new three year collective bargaining agreements. The proposed contracts cover about 50,000 union employees in New York and New England. The contracts provide that union employees will be given more DSL jobs. More than 35,000 union employees represented by the CWA in the mid-Atlantic states remained on strike. See also, IBEW release. 8/18. Napster, Inc., filed its Opening Brief [216 KB PDF file] with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in its music file copying appeal, Napster Inc. v. A&M Records, et al., Case No. 00-16401. Napster requests that the Appeals Court reverse and vacate the District Court's preliminary injunction entered against it on July 26. See also, Napster release. 8/18. The Bronx District Attorney's Office, assisted by the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) Anti-piracy Unit, executed a search warrant in the Bronx, NY. The DAs arrested Mouhamed Diallo and seized illegal production devices and CDs. See, RIAA release. The Bronx DA stated that "Diallo has been charged with 1 count of Criminal Possession of a Forgery Device, a D Class Felony carrying a maximum term of up to 7 years imprisonment. Additional charges include 1 count of Trademark Counterfeiting in the 2nd degree, and 1 count of Failure to Disclose the Origin of a Recording in the 1st degree. Both are E Class Felonies carrying a maximum sentence of up to 4 years imprisonment for each count." See, Bronx DA release. 8/17. Thomas McLaughlin, President of the Houston-based Net Help Solutions, and others, filed a complaint in state court in Corpus Christi, TX against SBC Communications and its subsidiaries, alleging that defendants provide DSL service at less than their minimum guaranteed speed. Plaintiffs seek class action status. See, release of Berg and Androphy, attorneys for plaintiffs. SBC responded in a release that "SBC's DSL service delivers the speeds as guaranteed, which covers the connection rate between a customer's computer and the SBC central office. Beyond that point, there are many factors that can have an impact on the actual rate at which data is transferred on-line, including Internet congestion, server or router speeds, protocol overheads and more. ... Speeds for accessing newsgroup data are maximized at 128 kilobits per second in order to provide a more reliable service for all our customers using the newsgroups." 8/17. U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan (SDNY) released his Final Judgment and explanatory Opinion [98 pages in PDF] against the remaining defendants in the DeCSS case (Eric Corley and 2600), barring publication of DeCSS information. Corley promises to appeal. See, 2600 release. 8/17. The National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC), located at FBI HQ, began tracking the propagation of a worm entitled VBS/Loveletter.bd, which contains a password stealing agent. See, NIPC Alert 00-053. 8/17. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Carol Kenner (Boston) dismissed an agreement between Toysmart and the FTC. The agreement had placed restrictions on the sale of personal information collected by the Toysmart web site under promise to keep it confidential. See also, FTC's amended complaint. 8/17. Excite@Home and Cablevision announced resolution of the lawsuit between Cablevision and Excite@Home and its cable partners AT&T, Cox and Comcast. The parties agreed to dismiss Cablevision's claims against Excite@Home and its partners immediately, and Cablevision has consented to Excite@Home's completion of the extension of the distribution agreements with AT&T, Cox and Comcast and the restructuring of its Board of Directors. See, Excite@Home release. 8/17. EPIC filed a motion [PDF] in U.S. District Court in DC in its lawsuit against the FBI to obtain Carnivore regards under the FOIA. EPIC seeks an order establishing a schedule for the FBI's processing of agency records responsive to its FOIA request. See, EPIC release. 8/17. The NTIA requested public comment on a draft statement of work that it contemplates will be ultimately incorporated into a request for proposals to manage .us domain space on behalf of the U.S. government. See, release and forthcoming notice in Federal Register. 8/17. MasterCard filed a complaint in U.S. District Court, SDNY, against Ralph Nader, and his presidential campaign committee, alleging violation of proprietary rights arising under copyright and trademark law. See, MC release. Nader has been running TV and cable ads that mimic MasterCard's "Priceless" campaign. Quote from Nader ads: "Grilled tenderloin for fund-raiser: $1,000 a plate. Campaign ads filled with half-truths: $10 million. Promises to special interest groups: over $10 billion. Finding out the truth: priceless." Nader responded to the suit: "lighten up." See, Nader release. 8/17. The RIAA announced that Special Agents from the Arizona Attorney General's Office, with assistance from the RIAA Anti-Piracy Unit, executed two criminal search and seizure warrants on Aug. 9 on two counterfeit music operations in Phoenix, seizing illegal production devices and pirated CDs. See, RIAA release. 8/16. The USPTO announced increases in patent fees to take effect Oct. 1, 2000. Most patent fees will be increased by 2.68%, the current rate of inflation. See, USPTO release. The notice in the Federal Register [PDF] elaborated: "The patent statutory fees established by 35 U.S.C. 41(a) and (b) will be adjusted on October 1, 2000, to reflect any fluctuations occurring during the previous twelve months in the Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers (CPI–U). ... the USPTO uses the Administration’s projected CPI–U for the twelve-month period ending September 30, 2000, which is 2.68 percent. Based on this projection, patent statutory fees will be adjusted by 2.68 percent." 8/16. The FTC announced that it will hold a workshop on identity theft on Oct. 23 and 24. See, FTC release and Federal Register notice. 8/16. The FEC announced that it received a Request for an Advisory Opinion [PDF] on July 31 from a group of five trade associations asking whether the use of an electronic signature constitutes a valid written authorization for a trade association to solicit political action committee contributions from restricted class employees, under the recently enacted E-SIGN Act and the FECA. 8/16. Microsoft announced that the U.S. Customs Service has conducted a criminal investigation and raid of Compunet Systems and Tierra Computer in Atlanta, Georgia, in connection with illegal counterfeiting of software products. See, MSFT release. 8/16. The SIIA announced that Melinda George, who has worked in its government affairs department for five years, will head up its education division. See, SIIA release. |
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