The International Trade Administration has issued its preliminary results of the following antidumping duty administrative reviews:

The International Trade Administration frequently issues notices on antidumping and countervailing duty orders, investigations, etc. which Broker Power considers to be "minor" in importance as they concern actions that occur after an order is issued, neither announce nor cause any changes to an order's duty rates, scope, affected firms, or effective period, etc.

GENEVA -- Satellite operators are concerned that regulatory action on unmanned aircraft systems at the next World Radiocommunication Conference could unnecessarily affect their business models, executives said. Airline and spectrum regulators may press for special protection of certain satellite frequencies to spur safety when unmanned aircraft operate in civil airspace, an executive said.

Angry consumers filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to prevent DirecTV from charging a cancellation penalty without written consent until a lawsuit on the matter is resolved. The motion, filed with the Los Angeles Superior Court, said the automatic withdrawal of fees for early cancellation is unlawful and has caused consumers’ checks to bounce and accounts to be overdrawn. The policies for typical term commitments, which last about 18 to 24 months, are not properly disclosed, said Consumer Watchdog, a nonprofit consumer rights group. DirecTV is facing suits in California state court and in federal courts.

The Natural Resources Defense Council will intervene as a co-defendant in a CEA and ITI Council lawsuit seeking to stop the New York City e-waste law from being carrier out (CED July 29 p2), U.S. District Court Judge William Pauley said in an order that the sides in the case had agreed to. The council’s involvement in the case had been expected. CE and IT makers allege that the law is unconstitutional because it exceeds the city’s authority over interstate commerce. The council’s lawyer Kate Sinding, who, according to the order will file an affidavit in the case, has called the allegations bunk. In the order, Pauley appeared to take steps to limit the amount of paperwork in the case. The city and the council have until Oct. 9 to file an opposition to CE maker’s motion for a preliminary injunction. Filed Aug. 7, the motion ran more than 400 pages, including 16 sworn expert declarations from CE environmental executives and others attesting to how the e-waste law would hurt their companies. Pauley wants no more than two declarations to accompany the Oct. 9 opposition, the order said. CE makers may file a reply by Nov. 20 that “shall not exceed 25 pages,” the order said.

The International Trade Administration has made a final negative countervailing duty determination that countervailable subsidies are not being provided to producers and exporters of Ni-resist piston inserts from Korea.

The International Trade Administration is initiating an antidumping duty changed circumstances review of ball bearings and parts thereof from France.

Regulations should be set for cognitive systems and for the protection of other services, the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (APBU) said in preliminary views for the 2012 World Radiocommunication Conference. The union wants to define software-defined radios and cognitive radio systems, including modulation methods, power levels and their ability to sense existing transmitters, it said in a submission to ITU-R. “The technical protection criteria for existing applications in the existing services must be developed band by band,” it said. Protecting cognitive radio systems from existing applications may be difficult because of the inability to detect them, APBU said. While the systems may operate in a fixed broadcasting satellite uplink band without a claim of protection, the systems aren’t feasible for operation in downlinks because of the power flux density in the bands, it said. The devices may also be a candidate for a free to air return link for interactive broadcasting applications, especially below 1 GHz, the union said.

The International Trade Administration has made a final affirmative countervailing duty determination that countervailable subsidies are being provided to a producer and exporter of Ni-resist piston inserts in Argentina.

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. -- An industrywide standard for stereoscopic 3-D games is desperately needed, developers told attendees at the 3D Entertainment Summit Wednesday. There are just too many systems and display formats being used for the technology now, said Andrew Oliver, Blitz Games Studios chief technology officer. But Patrick Naud, an executive producer at Ubisoft, said it could take “a few years” to come up with a standard.