| Nominations |
2/21. President Bush announced his intent to nominate Brenda
Becker to be Assistant Secretary of Commerce for
Legislative Affairs. She is presently the VP of
Congressional Communications for Blue Cross Blue Shield
Associates. See, release.
2/21. President Bush announced his intent to nominate David
Aufhauser to be General Counsel for the Department of the Treasury. He
is currently a partner with the law firm of Williams &
Connolly in Washington DC. Aufhauser worked for the Bush
election team during the Florida election dispute, where he
monitored overseas ballots. See, release.
2/21. President Bush announced his intent to nominate Maria
Cino to be Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Director
General of the United
States and Foreign Commercial Service. She currently
works for the Republican
National Committee. Previously, she worked as
National Political Director for the Bush for President
Campaign. She also worked as a lobbyist at the Washington DC
law firm of Wiley Rein &
Fielding; 1998 lobby disclosure reports list INTELSAT and the PCIA
as clients. She also worked for four years as the
Executive Director of the National
Republican Congressional Committee and as Chief of Staff
for former Rep. Bill Paxon (R-NY); she assisted in organizing
the Republican takeover of the House in the 1994 elections. |
|
|
| Tristani |
| 2/21. FCC
Commissioner Gloria
Tristani gave a speech
in Washington DC to the National
Congress of American Indians on telephone and Internet
services in Indian areas. She stated that "The digital
divide persists for America's minorities, for people with
disabilities, for low-income individuals and for those in
rural communities." The Albuquerque
Tribune reported in a Feb. 8 story
that "Tristani said she is seriously considering running
for office in 2002, but is deciding between the Senate, the
governorship or Rep. Heather Wilson's 1st District House seat.
Tristani's term at the FCC is not up until 2003, but she said
she plans to return to New Mexico by the end of the year
because she cannot campaign while holding her commissioner's
job." |
|
|
| New Documents |
Tristani:
speech
re phone and Internet access in Indian country, 2/21 (HTML,
FCC).
Milberg:
complaint
against Emulex, 2/21 (PDF, Milberg).
Milberg:
complaint
against Northpoint employees, 2/21 (PDF, Milberg).
Milberg:
complaint
against NICE Systems, 2/20 (PDF, Milberg). |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| MSFT & Bristol Settle |
| 2/21. Bristol Technology
and Microsoft
announced an agreement to settle Bristol's antitrust
and related claims against Microsoft. Microsoft stated in a release
that "The terms of the settlement are confidential, but
the claims of both parties are dismissed with prejudice."
Bristol issued an identical release.
Bristol filed a 14 count complaint
against Microsoft on August 18, 1998 in which it pled a
variety of federal and state antitrust, unfair trade
practices, and common law theories. 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. However,
U.S. District Court Judge Janet Hall (DConn) sought a
different outcome. On Aug. 31, 2000, she released a scathing
103 page ruling
in which she awarded Bristol
Technologies $1 Million in punitive damages against Microsoft, based on the
$1 jury award. In addition to the punitive damages, she
enjoined Microsoft from publishing or distributing its WISE
Mission Statement. See also, Bristol
release of Sept. 1, 2000, and TLJ
summary of Bristol v. Microsoft. |
|
|
| Securities Class Actions |
2/20. An individual named Roni Nigri filed a complaint
[PDF] in U.S. District Court (CDCal)
against Emulex and eight
of its officers and directors alleging violation of
federal securities laws. The plaintiff, who is represented by
the law firm of Milberg
Weiss and other law firms, seeks class action status.
Count I alleges violation of § 10b
of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and Rule 10b-5
thereunder (fraud). Count II alleges violation of § 20
of the Act by Emulex, CEO Paul Folino and CFO Rockenbach
(controlling person liability). Emulex (NASDAQ: EMLX) makes
Fibre Channel host adapters, hubs, ASICs and software products
that provide connectivity solutions for Fibre Channel storage
area networks (SAN), network attached storage (NAS) and RAID.
Milberg Weiss is a law firm that specializes in bringing class
action securities suits against tech companies when their
stock prices drop.
2/21. An individual named Frank Blumenthal filed a complaint
[PDF] in U.S. District Court (NDCal)
against Michael Glinsky and Elizabeth Fetter alleging
violation of federal securities laws. Both defendants were
employees of NorthPoint Communications. Plaintiff, who is
represented by the law firm of Milberg Weiss and other
firms, seeks class action status. NorthPoint is a DSL service
provider. It filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in
Bankruptcy Court (NDCal)
on Jan. 16, 2001. It was delisted by NASDAQ on Feb. 8, 2001.
2/20. Several class action securities law suits have been
filed against NICE Systems. See, for example, complaint
[PDF] filed in the U.S. District Court (DNJ) on Feb. 20
by the law firm of Milberg
Weiss. Nice Systems (NASDAQ: NICE) is based in Ra'anana,
Israel; it has subsidiaries and offices in several other
countries, including the U.S. It provides multimedia digital
recording applications and related services for business
interaction management. |
|
|
| More News |
2/21. The Antitrust
Division of the Department of Justice submitted a comment
to the FCC regarding its proceeding on Verizon's Section
271 application to provide long distance service in the
state of Massachusetts. It advised that "Verizon had not
yet shown clearly that it was providing nondiscriminatory
access to DSL lines." See, DOJ
release. Mark Cooper, Director of Research of the Consumer Federation of
America praised the DOJ: "Justice has taken the first
step in restoring discipline to the approval process that was
developed so carefully in the New York proceeding."
2/21. The U.S.
Court of Appeals (DC Cir) heard oral argument in MCI WorldCom v. FCC.
This is a Petition for Review of an FCC's Advanced
Services Order on Remand [MS Word] concerning application
of Section
251 to DSL service.
The FCC ruled that DSL service provided by US West, an ILEC,
is "exchange access" or "telephone exchange
service". Every major telecom company intervened,
including US West, SBC, Bell Atlantic (now Verizon), GTE,
AT&T, Focal, and the Telecommunications Retailers Assoc.
See, TLJ
Case Summary. |
|
|
|
| Law Firm Merger |
| 2/21. The law firms Sidley
& Austin and Brown
& Wood stated that they are in discussions about a
possible merger. A combination would create a firm of more
than 1300 lawyers. Any combination would likely take place in
the second quarter of 2001. See, SA
release and BW release. |
|
|
| Today |
9:30 AM. The Federal
Communications Commission will hold a meeting. The only
item on the agenda
is reports from the eight bureau and office chiefs. Location:
Commission Meeting Room, 445 12th Street, SW, Washington DC.
Deadline to submit reply comments to the FCC in response
to its Notice
of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) regarding implementation of
the Children's Internet Protection
Act [PDF]. This statute provides that in order to be
eligible to receive FCC e-rate subsidies, schools and
libraries that have computers with Internet access must have
in place certain Internet safety policies, such as the use
porn filtering software. See, Federal Register, Jan. 31, 2001,
Vol. 66, No. 21, at Pages 8374 - 8377.
Deadline to file comments with the FCC in response
to its notice
of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) regarding reallocation of
spectrum for use by Third Generation (3G) wireless services.
3G is intended to provide broadband Internet access to
portable devices. See, Federal Register, Jan. 23, 2001, Vol.
66, No. 15, Pages 7438 - 7443. ET Docket No. 00-258.
9:30 AM - 12:00 NOON. The FCC's WRC-03 Advisory Committee's
Informal Working Group 5: 5GHz, 13.75-14 GHz and Maritime
Issues will hold a meeting. Location: PanAmSat, 1133
Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 675, Washington DC. See, notice
of meeting. |
|
|
| People |
| 2/20. A grand jury of the U.S. District Court (NDCal)
returned an indictment
[PDF] of Roby Matheny for five counts of tax evasion
and filing false tax returns in violation of 26 U.S.C. §§
7201 and 7206(1). The indictment states that Matheny is
the President and owner of 100% of the stock of MSIS
Semiconductor, Inc. in San Jose, Calif. He is alleged to have
evaded the payment of $450,000 in taxes owed by him for the
years 1994 and 1995 by failing to report over $1.5 Million in
income. See, USAO
release. |
|
|
| About Tech Law Journal |
Tech Law Journal is a free access web site
and e-mail alert that provides news, records, and analysis of
legislation, litigation, and regulation affecting the computer
and Internet industry. This e-mail service is offered free of
charge to anyone who requests it. Just provide TLJ an e-mail
address.
Number of subscribers: 866.
Contact: 202-364-8882; E-mail.
P.O. Box 15186, Washington DC, 20003.
Privacy
Policy
Notices
& Disclaimers
Copyright 1998 - 2001 David Carney, dba Tech Law Journal. All
rights reserved. |
|
|