GENEVA -- Work on frequency issues for development of IMT-2000 and systems beyond IMT-2000 are ongoing at the technical level, said the co-chair of a working group of the Conference Preparatory Meeting (CPM) preparing for the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC). The hope is to do the work before CPM ends, but much remains to be done, she said.

New Games: Capcom’s Xbox 360 game Lost Planet: Extreme Condition was again the #1-rented videogame in the U.S., according to preliminary Home Video Essentials data for the week ended Feb. 18. The only new game in the top 10 was Ghost Rider for PS2 from Take-Two Interactive’s 2K Games label, at #5… The next round of cut-price Xbox 360 Platinum Hits games will ship March 16 in N. America, Latin America, Japan and Asia Pacific. U.S. releases, starting at $29.99, will include Battlefield 2: Modern Combat, Burnout Revenge and Fight Night Round 3 from Electronic Arts, Activision’s Call of Duty 2, Tecmo’s Dead or Alive 4, Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter and Take-Two Interactive’s Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis and Top Spin 2. The slates differ in other markets. AAA new 360 releases typically cost $59.99 in the U.S. The Platinum Hits program for 360 kicked off worldwide last fall. Games in the Xbox and Xbox 360 Platinum Hits programs accounted for more than 16.3 million games sold worldwide to date, Microsoft said.

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued its preliminary results of the following antidumping (AD) duty administrative and new shipper reviews:

Movie Gallery met Tues. with lenders in N.Y., hoping to secure $900 million to pay for a previously announced refinancing of its existing senior secured credit facility, said the struggling video rental chain. The financing would come as a $900 million senior secured credit facility made up of a $100 million revolving credit facility expected to be fully available at closing, a $525 million first lien term loan, a $25 million synthetic letter of credit facility and a $250 million 2nd lien term loan, it said. Proceeds also would go to replace existing letters of credit, working capital, pay fees and expenses from the transaction and other “general corporate purposes,” Movie Gallery said. The proposed credit facilities will have a 5-year maturity. Movie Gallery expects the transaction to close by March 15, it said. Goldman Sachs Credit Partners is acting as sole lead arranger. Movie Gallery also announced preliminary financial results for its Q4 and fiscal year ended Dec. 31 but warned they're “subject to change as a result of normal year-end reconciliations and accounting adjustments.” The company expects overall comparable Q4 revenue to fall 2.9%, with comparable sales at its Movie Gallery-branded stores down only 0.3% but those at Hollywood Video-branded stores down 4.1%. The company expects to report fiscal year sales of $2.54 billion, including $868 million from Movie Gallery stores, $1.35 billion from Hollywood Video stores and $325 million from Game Crazy locations. It also expects operating income of $24 million for Q4 and $102 million for 2006. The company expects to announce final Q4 and 2006 results in March, it said.

Creation of Internet red-light zone .xxx again stalled last week as most ICANN directors questioned support for the proposed sponsored top-level domain. A preliminary report on a Feb. 12 special board meeting to consider, among other items, the proposed agreement with ICM Registry, focused on whether .xxx has the adult entertainment industry support to meet ICANN sponsorship criteria. When 10 members, including Chmn. Vint Cerf, noted “serious concerns” about the matter, the board ordered staff to talk with the registry and report before the next meeting, March 13, on whether sponsorship criteria have been met. ICM Registry Pres. Stuart Lawley is disappointed with the action, he said. The board “already determined that the ICM proposal met the sponsorship criteria, and only the contract is on the table,” he told us. The discussion “reflects the fact that about half the board members were appointed after the June 2005 vote” to open contract talks, he said.

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued a notice stating that it is postponing the preliminary antidumping (AD) duty determinations on lemon juice from Argentina and Mexico by 50 days to April 19, 2007.

The Commerce Department's Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA) has posted to its Web site the monthly reports containing official December 2006 trade data from the Department of Census for imports and exports of textiles and apparel:

A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction barring Till Keesmann from ending a Nano-Proprietary license for carbon nanotube technology, the company said. U.S. Judge Wayne Anderson, Chicago, granted Nano-Proprietary’s request for a preliminary injunction this month (CED Feb 5 p5) and the order takes effect when the company posts a $100,000 bond to cover potential costs Keesmann might incur. Nano- Proprietary paid Keesmann $1.2 million in royalties in May 2004 under their agreement. In late 2005, Keesmann asked Nano-Proprietary for the right to auction off its interest in the pact. The company rejected Keesmann’s request, arguing that it wouldn’t release the patents for less than $200 million. Keesmann, who sought to sell the patents to NPV Nano Patent Gmbh, tried to end the deal in March 2005, alleging that Nano-Proprietary didn’t “actively market” the 3 patents and “failed” to identify companies may have infringed the IP. Keesmann allegedly sought to license the technology to Canon. Nano-Proprietary filed a contract breach lawsuit Canon several years ago and the case is expected to come to trial in the spring. Keesmann bought the rights for the carbon nanotube cathode invention from Hubert Grosse-Wilde in 1994 for $6,400 and a promise to pay 30% of any future profits. Nano-Proprietary signed an exclusive licensing agreement with Keesmann in 2000.

Major studios are reluctant to release Blu-ray and HD DVD titles amid a “relatively slow” hardware deployment, Sonic Solutions executives told analysts in a Thurs. quarterly earnings call. Fewer than 2 million Blu-ray and HD DVD players have shipped since the first hardware debuted a year ago, and most of those are videogame consoles, said Exec. Vp-Strategy Mark Ely. Studios won’t quicken the release pace until shipments of standalone next-generation players pass the 2-million-unit mark, he said.

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued its final results of the changed circumstances review of the AD duty order on wooden bedroom furniture from China.