U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a general notice announcing the two-year extension of the quota preprocessing program (QPP) test, in order to provide for the electronic processing of certain quota-class apparel merchandise prior to the arrival of the importing carrier, through December 31, 2008.
A European standards group reached preliminary agreement on a channel plan for RFID that sets aside four 200 kilohertz channels -- of the 10 available to RFID -- to be used by readers. A European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) task group agreed to a channel plan during a 2-day meeting that ended Wed (Sept. 20). The other channels will be used by tags, an official in the group said. Preliminary agreement was also reached to eliminate the “listen before talk” requirement. An ETSI task group working on standardization of short-range devices was expected to consider aspects today (Fri.).
Electronic Arts (EA) joined the growing list of companies to be targeted by the SEC over stock option grant practices, the publisher said in an SEC filing. Meanwhile, rival Activision, which was already targeted by the SEC over the same issue, was mum Thurs. after being countersued by peripherals maker The Ant Commandos (TAC) in a U.S. Dist. Court in central Cal. over the hit game Guitar Hero.
The PS2 version of EA’s Madden NFL 07 was again the #1- rented videogame in the U.S., in its 4th week, according to preliminary Home Video Essentials data for the week ended Sept. 17. The Xbox version fell 3 to #6 while the Xbox 360 version fell 3 to #9. Making a strong showing was LucasArts Entertainment’s Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy in its first week. The PS2 version was #2, the 360 version #3, Xbox version #5 and GameCube version #10.
The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued a notice announcing that it is initiating an anticircumvention inquiry, as requested by the petitioner, to determine whether certain imports of tissue paper from Vietnam are circumventing the antidumping (AD) duty order on certain tissue paper products from China.
The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued the final results of its antidumping (AD) duty administrative review of certain oil country tubular goods from Mexico for the period of August 1, 2004 through July 31, 2005.
Shippers' NewsWire reports that U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Ralph Basham spoke at the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America's (NCBFAA) Government Affairs Conference and emphasized that he understands the importance of international trade to the economic security of the country and pledged to get the manpower to improve the speed of shipments across the border. Basham also acknowledged that developing the multibillion-dollar Secure Border Initiative (SBI) on the Southwest border has been at the expense of import/export facilitation, cargo security, and other traditional activities. (American Shipper, dated 09/19/06, www.americanshipper.com)
Nvidia didn’t respond to a request for comment by our deadline after Minneapolis-based Scanner Technologies filed a patent infringement suit against the graphics chip maker in an eastern Tex. federal court. Scanner accused Nvidia of “willful and deliberate infringement” of U.S. Patents 7,079,678 and 7,085,411 covering methods of 3-D inspection that allow ball grid array (BGA) devices to be manufactured more precisely and efficiently. BGA is a type of surface- mount packaging used in integrated circuits. The BGA devices in question are components in graphics cards, motherboards, computers, videogame consoles, cellphones and other handheld devices sold in the U.S., Scanner said. The first patent, granted to Scanner on July 18, discloses a patented process for a step in the manufacture of a BGA device. The other patent, assigned to Scanner on Aug. 1, concerns a way to make a BGA device. Scanner CEO Elwin Beaty was listed as one of the inventors of each patented technology. The company accused Nvidia of selling infringing BGA devices throughout the U.S. The suit also claimed Nvidia induced others to infringe. In addition to requesting preliminary and permanent injunctions, Scanner asked the court to award it “reasonable” royalties on infringing products, treble damages and attorney’s fees. Beaty said his company “has been developing, manufacturing and selling vision equipment for the semiconductor industry since 1990 [and] we believe that it is critical to protect our patented innovations, and accordingly took these actions today.”
The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued its preliminary results of the following antidumping (AD) duty administrative reviews:
The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued the final results of its antidumping (AD) duty administrative review of circular welded carbon steel pipes and tubes from Thailand for the period of March 1, 2004 through February 28, 2005.