| FCC News |
3/16. The FCC suspended
its May 19 deadline for AT&T
to divest cable television assets to comply with its
cable ownership caps. On March 2, the U.S.
Court of Appeals (DCCir) issued its opinion
in Time
Warner Entertainment v. FCC overturning the FCC's
cable ownership caps. However, the FCC rejected Viacom's
request to suspend its 35% broadcast ownership cap by a
vote 3 to 1 (Furchgott-Roth dissenting).
3/16. The FCC began the
process of reallocating TV Channels 52-59 (698-746 MHz
spectrum band) for new commercial wireless and broadcast
services. The FCC also proposed rules for the licensing,
operating, and competitive bidding of wireless and other
licenses in this 48 MHz of spectrum. The FCC is reclaiming
this spectrum as part of its transition of TV broadcasting
from analog to digital transmission systems. The FCC vote was
3 to 1 (with Tristani dissenting in part). See, FCC
release. |
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| eFOIA |
3/16. The GAO
issued a report
[PDF] titled "Information Management: Progress in
Implementing the 1996 Electronic Freedom of Information Act
Amendments". The GAO examined whether federal agencies
are complying with the eFOIA amendments by asking the federal
agencies if they were complying the eFOIA. The resulting
report is a glossy and graphical 54 pages, but lacking the
independent investigation and analysis typical of GAO reports.
3/15. Sen. Pat Leahy
(D-VT) praised the FOIA and eFOIA amendments in a speech in
the Senate. He stated that "Five years ago we updated
FOIA's charter with the Electronic Freedom of Information Act
that I proposed as a way to bring the law into the information
age, recognizing that technology is dramatically changing the
way government handles and stores information. The 'E-FOIA'
law directs federal agencies to make the information in their
computer files available to citizens on the same basis as that
in conventional paper files." He added that "only
constant vigilance will keep Congress from needlessly
whittling away its promise to the American people. We fought
back one such effort last year, and new carve-out proposals
are already in the air." |
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| More News |
3/16. The EU stated that "Europe now has about as many
Internet users as the US." See, release.
3/16. The Administrative Office of U.S. Courts held a hearing
on the privacy and security implications of allowing public
access to federal court documents via the Internet.
3/15. Rep. Robert
Andrews (D-NJ) introduced HR 1047, a bill to amend the
Electronic Fund Transfer Act to prohibit any operator of an
automated teller machine that displays any paid advertising
from imposing any fee on a consumer for the use of that
machine. The bill was referred to the House Financial Services
Committee. |
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| New Documents |
O'Neill: speech
advocating vigilante justice for cyber criminals, 3/16 (HTML,
TLJ).
NCR:
complaint
for patent infringement re Palm and Visor, 3/15 (HTML, TLJ).
USCA: opinion
in Lyons v. Morris re copyright and trademark, 3/16 (HTML,
USCA).
Milberg:
complaint
against New Focus, 3/16 (PDF, Milberg).
GAO:
report
re eFOIA amendments, 3/16 (PDF, GAO). |
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| Quote of the Day |
"So, just as a homeowner may be permitted to defend his
or her home with deadly force, on occasion, when the need
arises, so might in fact individuals on the net be able to use
their own technical prowess to defeat these sorts of
attacks."
Prof. Michael O'Neill, March 16 address
re cybercrime. |
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| Vigilante Justice for
CyberCriminals |
3/16. Law professor Michael O'Neill
gave an address
at a panel discussion on cybercrime in which he argued that private
vigilante justice should be employed to reduce cybercrime.
He stated that "Just as settlers in the old west couldn't
necessarily always rely upon the local sheriff to provide good
crime control, it may be in fact the case that Internet users
may have to rely upon private parties, and third party
concerns, for preventing crime, and enforcing certain criminal
norms." He argued that the federal government lacks the
ability to police cyberspace, and that attempting to do so
would result in privacy violations. He stated that
"private vigilante efforts, by for example, computer
companies, software vendors, Internet servers, who are often
the subject of attacks, may in fact be in the best situation,
both to fend off attacks, and also to retaliate in kind."
He also said that "vigilanteism was actually a fairly
effective means in the old west of allowing criminal control
in the absence of government intervention."
3/16. The Federalist Society's
Criminal Law Practice Group hosted a panel discussion titled
"Law Enforcement in Cyberspace: Who Has the Upper Hand --
the Hackers or the Cops?" The speakers were Orin Kerr of
the DOJ Computer
Crimes and Intellectual Property Section, Michael O'Neill
of George Mason University School of Law, and Marc Rotenberg
of EPIC. Kerr,
a government prosecution, addressed the difficulties faced by
law enforcement in detecting and prosecuting cyber criminals.
Rotenberg argued for enhanced privacy protections for Internet
communications, lamented the "CALEA tragedy," and
criticized the FBI's Carnivore surveillance system. Both Kerr
and Rotenberg rejected O'Neill's private vigilante proposal. Bill
Jordan of the law firm of Alston Bird moderated. |
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| Barney the
Dinosaur |
| 3/16. The U.S.
Court of Appeals (4thCir) issued its opinion
in Lyons
Partnership v. Morris Costumes, a copyright
and trademark case involving Barney the purple dinosaur.
Defendants sold three lines of purple animal costumes --
an unnamed dinosaur, a hippopotamus named Hillary, and a
dragon named Duffy. Plaintiff, which holds trademarks and
copyrights with respect to Barney, filed a complaint in U.S.
District Court (WDNC)
on May 2, 1997 alleging copyright and trademark infringement,
as well as related a state law violations. The trial court
found that the purple dinosaur and Hillary infringed
plaintiff's copyrights and trademarks. However, the court also
held that since plaintiff had notice of the infringement in
April 1993, its claims were barred by the applicable statutes
of limitations and by the doctrine of laches. The
trial court held that the third costume, Duffy the Dragon, did
not infringe. Reversed in part. |
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| Patent Suit |
| 3/15. NCR filed a complaint
in U.S. District Court (DDel) against Palm and Handspring alleging patent
infringement. NCR alleges that Palm's handheld
computers, named Palm Pilot and Palm, and Handspring's
handheld computer, named Visor, infringe two patents issued to
NCR in 1987. At issue are U.S.
Patent No. 4,634,845 (titled "Portable personal
terminal for use in a system for handling transactions")
and U.S.
Patent No. 4,689,478 (titled "System for handling
transactions including a portable personal terminal").
The six count complaint alleges direct patent infringement,
inducement to infringe, and contributory infringement as to
both patents. NCR seeks preliminary and permanent injunctive
relief against both defendants, and monetary damages. |
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| .com Trademark
Registrations |
| 3/16. The USPTO published
in it web site the March
issue [PDF] of USPTO Today. It includes an item titled
"Registration of Domain Names as Trademarks - Looking
Back, Looking Ahead," by Jessie Marshall. She wrote that
the USPTO "received 28,552 applications through the end
of the year 2000 that included .COM in the mark presented for
registration. In the year 2000 alone, the USPTO received
12,840 of those applications." |
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| Securities Class Actions |
| 3/17. Several law firms that file securities class action
suits filed complaints against New Focus. For
example, an individual named L.A. Speck filed a complaint
[PDF] in U.S. District Court (NDCal)
against New Focus, and several of its officers
and directors, alleging violation of federal
securities laws. This plaintiff, who is represented by Milberg Weiss and other
firms, seeks class action status. Count one alleges
violation of § 10b
of the Exchange Act, and Rule 10b-5 thereunder, by all
defendants. Count two alleges violation of § 20
of the Exchange Act (controlling person liability) by the
individual defendants. New Focus, based in San Jose,
California, makes fiber optic products, including fiber
amplifiers, wavelength management equipment, and
optoelectronics. Milberg Weiss is a law firm that specializes
in suing technology companies when their stock prices drop.
New Focus's stock price closed at $16.69 per share on Friday,
March 16. It was trading at over $150 last July. |
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| FEC News |
| 3/15. The Federal Election
Commission (FEC) approved, by a vote of 5 to 1, a draft of
an Advisory Opinion requested by pac.com. The FEC, which is
responsible for enforcing the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA),
opined that a political action committee (PAC) may accept contributions
in the form of stock. The FEC wrote in its draft that
"pac.com may accept the contribution, by an individual,
of stocks that are publicly traded on an exchange, subject to
the limit of 2 U.S.C. § 441a(a)(1)(C). The contribution would
be valued at the closing price of the stock on the day of the
committee's receipt. ... In order to provide a valid basis
upon which the non-publicly traded stock contributed to
pac.com can be valued, the Commission concludes that the
factors described by the IRS for determining the fair market
value (on the date the stock is deemed as contributed to the
donee) of stock of a closely held corporation, or where
selling prices are unavailable, should be applied." See
also, Request
for Advisory Opinion, Supplement 1
and Supplement
2. The FEC has not yet released the final Advisory
Opinion. |
|
|
| People |
3/16. President Bush announced his intent to nominate Samuel
Bodman to be Deputy Secretary of Commerce. He is currently
the Chairman and CEO of Cabot
Corporation in Boston, Massachusetts. See, release.
3/15. Susan
Meyer joined the Orange County office of the law firm
of Latham & Watkins as Of
Counsel in the Venture and Technology group. She practices
intellectual property transactional law, with emphasis on
licensing agreements, e-commerce issues, Internet service and
large systems deals. She previously worked in the Los Angeles
office of Foley &
Lardner. See, release.
3/15. Andrew
McBride joined the Washington DC office of the law
firm of Wiley Rein &
Fielding. He was previously with Cooper Carvin &
Rosenthal. He will focus on state and federal
communications regulation, First Amendment, copyright and
general commercial litigation. See, release.
Recently, he worked on the case Comcast v. Broward County, a
successful challenge to the constitutionality of Broward
County's open access ordinance on First Amendment grounds.
3/15. Matthew
Sonsini joined the Palo Alto office of the firm of Wilson Sonsini as a partner in
the corporate and securities group. He was previously a
partner at Cooley Godward.
He represents technology companies at all stages of their
growth, as well as venture capital funds and investment banks.
See, release.
3/14. Sidley and Austin
announced that Scott Lassar, who is currently the U.S.
Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, will join the
firm when President Bush names his successor. See, release.
3/12. Glen Kohl joined the Palo Alto office of the law
firm of Cooley Godward.
Kohl worked in the Clinton Treasury Department as tax
legislative counsel and later as deputy assistant secretary
for tax policy. He will focus on mergers and acquisitions,
corporate restructurings and corporate tax matters. See, release.
3/12. Alan Albright joined the Austin office of Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich
as a partner in the intellectual property litigation group.
Albright is a former U.S. Magistrate Judge and former partner
in the Austin office of the law firm of Thompson Knight. See, release. |
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| Today |
Deadline to file comments with the The NTIA
regarding its Notice
of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) regarding compensating
incumbent federal agency users in the 1755-1850 MHz band that
may be required to modify their systems as a result of
spectrum reallocation for 3G wireless uses. The NTIA
released the NPRM on Jan. 17. See, TLJ
story.
Deadline to file comments with the FTC regarding its premerger
notification rules. See, Notice
of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) and interim
rules with request for comment. The rules, which implement
the Hart Scott Rodino Act, and amendments passed last year,
require the parties to certain mergers and acquisitions to
file reports with the FTC and the DOJ Antitrust Division and
to wait a specified period of time before consummating such
transactions. The proposed rule changes include amending §801.15
to reflect the $50 million threshold. |
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