Intellectual Capital Consulting filed a complaint at the International Trade Commission alleging violations of Section 337 rules by imports of “vehicular smartwatch systems” marketed by a lengthy list of automakers and electronics manufacturers. ICC alleges the companies are making smartwatch-operated vehicle security systems that copy patented designs used in its “Blackhawk Remote Engine Starter,” which also locks and unlocks cars remotely from the watch, and includes a geofencing feature for parents that sends an alert if the car is driven outside a predefined area, the Oct. 23 complaint published Thursday said. ICC is requesting a limited exclusion order and cease and desist order banning importation and sale of infringing smartwatch systems by Hyundai, General Motors, BMW, Volkswagen, Audi, Volvo, Porsche, Apple, Directed Electronics, Samsung, LG, Sony, Lenovo, Motorola, Station Digital Media and Rego Apps. The ITC is accepting comments until Nov. 6 on public interest issues raised by the complaint.
Eutelsat ordered a high-throughput satellite from Thales Alenia Space as part of its effort to bring broadband connectivity services to Africa, it said in a news release Wednesday. The satellite, using Thales' new Spacebus Neo platform, will launch in 2019 with the aim of providing at least 75 Gbps of capacity across a 65-spotbeam network, Eutelsat said. The satellite follows a joint announcement by Eutelsat and Facebook earlier this month that they plan to use Spacecom's AMOS-6 satellite to jointly provide broadband in much of Sub-Saharan Africa (see 1510050037).
Indonesia will need to address certain localization practices, especially in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector, to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) Global Policy Director Ed Brzytwa said in a blog post Wednesday. Indonesian President Joko Widodo met with President Barack Obama Monday and expressed his interest in joining the TPP. Brzytwa said Indonesia tends to favor local companies and industries over foreign competitors in the ICT space and will need to change certain practices, including a new data localization requirement, to join the TPP. "The data localization requirement will impose higher costs on local companies, especially on small and medium sized enterprises," wrote Brzytwa. "It will also raise costs for U.S.-headquartered companies operating in Indonesia, as well as Indonesian businesses and consumers, undermining Indonesia’s global and regional competitiveness." ITI would "strongly support" including an affirmative statement in Indonesia's Digital Economy 2020 vision that it will avoid and roll back all forced localization measures, Brzytwa said. ITI will engage with Indonesian officials to find more trade and investment friendly approaches in order to meet its objectives, he said.
Three takeaways from FTC Commissioner Julie Brill’s speech Friday before the Amsterdam Privacy Conference, summarized in her Friday tweets: (1) the European Court of Justice’s “invalidation of Safe Harbor is a loss for transparency and FTC enforcement”; (2) the Schrems decision is an opportunity for a broad, honest, holistic discussion between the U.S. and the European Union on privacy; and (3) privacy discussions on technology need to integrate consumer, law enforcement and national security views. “We should recognize that important protections were lost through the Court’s invalidation of the European Commission’s decision in 2000 to approve safe harbor as a data transfer mechanism,” Brill said in her speech. “And they will continue to be lost if we do not have a durable and protective mechanism for information flow between the U.S. and Europe." Safe harbor’s transparency is unmatched by alternatives, Brill said: “We should create a new data transfer mechanism that strengthens the privacy protections that were in the safe harbor principles.” She said the safe harbor principles -- notice, choice, access, security, use restrictions and “other protections that one would expect from a baseline privacy regime” -- were “very expansive and protective.” Historically, privacy conversations in the U.S. have been largely siloed, Brill said. But as law enforcement asks for access to unencrypted versions of encrypted communications, the “debate has started to chip away at the silos,” Brill said. “Although I believe the U.S. consumer privacy framework is strong and multifaceted, I also believe the U.S. needs to go further with its consumer privacy laws to ensure that we are adequately protecting consumers with respect to these new technologies.” Brill said she supports additional privacy legislation, but she doesn’t believe such legislation is a “prerequisite for a post-Schrems data transfer mechanism.”
Ericsson plans to purchase the operations of software developer Ericpol in Poland and Ukraine, Ericsson said in a news release Thursday. Ericsson has concluded a preliminary share purchase agreement with Ericpol, it said, and approximately 2,000 of the developer's employees will join Ericsson upon completion of the acquisition. Pending regulatory approval, the transaction is expected to finalize during Q1 2016, Ericsson said.
Swiss watchmaker Swatch used a Shanghai news conference Tuesday to debut the Swatch Bellamy, a new "pay-by-the-wrist" smartwatch. Swatch will team with payment services provider China UnionPay and the Bank of Communications to introduce contactless payment to China via the Swatch Bellamy, Swatch said in a Tuesday announcement. The Swatch Bellamy, available in four colors, has a built-in near-field communications (NFC) chip hidden under the dial, it said. Like a prepaid bank card, a Swatch Bellamy watch allows customers to pay for items using merchants' contactless NFC-based point-of-sale terminals, it said. The new payment option with the Swatch Bellamy will be rolled out by the partners across China starting in January, it said. The Swatch Bellamy will soon be launched in Switzerland and the U.S. with local banking and “secure-transaction” partners, it said.
The FTC and consumer protection agencies in 33 other countries that are part of the International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network released an updated version of the ICPEN econsumer.gov website Tuesday, a commission news release said. The site is designed to help law enforcement authorities “gather and share cross border consumer complaints that can be used to investigate and take action against international scams,” it said.
Eutelsat and Facebook plan to use Spacecom's forthcoming AMOS-6 satellite as the foundation for joint plan to provide broadband services to much of Sub-Saharan Africa, Eutelsat said in a Monday news release. AMOS-6 is to launch by year end, and Eutelsat and Facebook will share its entire broadband capacity as part of the dedicated system they planned, which also includes gateways and terminals that would provide community and direct-to-user Internet, Eutelsat said. The companies will provide a variety of fixed and mobile Internet services, the satellite company said. Eutelsat said it's establishing a London-based company -- headed by former Tiscali International Network CEO Laurent Grimaldi -- to oversee its African broadband plans and business targeting the premium and professional segments.
The U.S. contains 10 of the world's top 20 regions in terms of fastest Internet speeds, an Akamai State of the Internet report said. Washington, D.C., is the fastest area in America with an average peak connection speed of 72.7 Mbps, the report said. Maryland is the second-fastest, Akamai said, with an average peak speed of 66.5 Mbps, followed by Washington state, Virginia, Delaware, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New York and California, in descending order. Each of the top 10 fastest states had a peak speed of at least 62 Mbps. Globally, D.C. ranked sixth; Singapore topped the list, followed by Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan. The remaining top nine fastest U.S. states placed anywhere from 10th to 20th on the global chart.
MasterCard and Tata Communications partnered to financially empower 25,000 women in developing countries by giving them connected digital financial tools, Tata said in a news release Wednesday. The initiative, announced by both companies at the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting, is part of a larger plan to reach 100 million women globally by 2020, said the release. The businesses, in coordination with a network of partners, will begin with pilot projects in India, Indonesia, Guatemala and Nigeria, said Tata.