After a marathon hearing, RealNetworks will have to wait a couple of weeks longer to summarize its pitch to a federal judge to lift her ban on selling the RealDVD technology for copying DVDs. Late Thursday, U.S. District Judge Marilyn Patel in San Francisco scheduled for May 21 closing argument on a preliminary injunction sought by Hollywood studios and the DVD Copy Control Association, a RealNetworks spokesman said. Those bodies persuaded Patel in October to issue a temporary restraining order, ordinarily a short-term measure. When the three days that the judge set aside late last month turned out not to be enough for an evidentiary hearing on extending the ban until a trial or settlement, she extended the proceeding to May 7 and 8. The studios claim that RealDVD would violate copyright. The association alleges that the technology violates RealNetworks’ licensing agreement for the Content Scramble System DRM technology for DVDs. RealNetworks contends that it complied with the agreement and that the copyright claims overreach in seeking to prevent a purchaser’s duplication for personal use.
After a marathon hearing, RealNetworks will have to wait a couple of weeks longer to summarize its pitch to a federal judge to lift her ban on selling the RealDVD technology for copying DVDs. Late Thursday, U.S. District Judge Marilyn Patel in San Francisco scheduled for May 21 closing argument on a preliminary injunction sought by Hollywood studios and the DVD Copy Control Association, a RealNetworks spokesman said. Those bodies persuaded Patel in October to issue a temporary restraining order, ordinarily a short-term measure. When the three days that the judge set aside late last month turned out not to be enough for an evidentiary hearing on extending the ban until a trial or settlement, she extended the proceeding to May 7 and 8. The studios claim that RealDVD would violate copyright. The association alleges that the technology violates RealNetworks’ licensing agreement for the Content Scramble System DRM technology for DVDs. RealNetworks contends that it complied with the agreement and that the copyright claims overreach in seeking to prevent a purchaser’s duplication for personal use.
On April 29, 2009, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, in American Trucking Associations, Inc. vs. the City of Los Angeles, et al., issued a preliminary injunction against 7 of the requirements in the Clean Trucks Program Concession Plan that the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach had sought to impose on drayage providers, but refrained from enjoining 11 other of the ports' new rules for truckers, pending a trial set for December 15, 2009.
The International Trade Administration has issued the final results of its countervailing duty administrative review of certain hot-rolled carbon steel flat products from India for the period of January 1, 2007 through December 31, 2007.
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.
The International Trade Administration has issued an affirmative final determination that imports of folding metal tables with legs connected by cross-bars, so that the legs fold in sets, are circumventing the antidumping duty order on folding metal tables and chairs (FMTCs) from China.
Half-thickness EcoDiscs soon will be made in the U.S., as their Swiss-based owner, EcoDisc Technology (ET), announced it has landed its first American-based replicator. But our poll of the major studios found Hollywood generally is keeping its distance. Of those studio executives we polled, few had even the faintest knowledge of the EcoDisc, and none of those who did wanted to comment on the record, citing the EcoDisc’s questionable status under DVD Forum rules for “non-standard” discs.
The International Trade Administration has issued an affirmative preliminary determination that certain tissue paper products from Thailand exported by Sunlake Dcor Co., Ltd. are made from jumbo rolls and/or cut sheets of tissue paper produced in the China, and are circumventing the antidumping duty order on certain tissue paper products from China.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has announced that the U.S. and the European Union have reached a provisional agreement in the EU - beef hormones dispute. The agreement, in principle, would provide additional duty-free access to the EU market for U.S. beef produced from cattle that have not been treated with growth-promoting hormones, and the eventual elimination of U.S. sanctions over a four year period. (See future issues of ITT for BP summary.) (USTR press release, dated 05/06/09, available at http://www.ustr.gov/Document_Library/Press_Releases/2009/May/United_States_European_Union_Reach_Provisional_Agreement_in_Beef_Dispute.html)
The International Trade Administration has initiated a countervailing duty investigation to determine whether manufacturers, producers, or exporters of certain oil country tubular goods from China receive countervailable subsidies.