By Alex Yeager
Last year, the
International Trade Commission made a grab for power – over Internet
signals. While traditionally focused on
screening physical goods, the body attempted to state in a case last year that
it had the ability to
“prevent digital material from crossing the U.S. border.” Last week, however, the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the Federal Circuit limited the Commission’s power to control over “material
things”, a reported victory for internet search providers such as Google,
and a loss for parties that suffer from rampant pirating, such as film studios.
By Justin Kirschner
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has
ruled that the International Trade Commission does not have the power to
prevent the import of patent-infringing digital files like it may patent-infringing
physical goods. Though argued
over imported digital models for invisible orthodontic braces, the Federal
Circuit’s ruling will reverberate across the intellectual property landscape
and be felt acutely in Hollywood and Silicon Valley, two mega-industries battling
over digital piracy that were closely watching this case. On one side are
the content creators—the movie studios, record labels and the like—who
argue that the import of blatantly pirated copyrighted works is killing
their industries, and that the ITC should be empowered to stop it at the
border. On the other side are the digitally native content transmitters, like Google,
and open-internet
advocates who hailed the decision as a bulwark against the over-regulation
of digital commerce. It remains to be seen if the ruling will be appealed to a
full Federal Circuit panel, or even to the Supreme Court.
By Craig Tarasoff
The International Trade Commission launched an investigation
into claims from Ericsson that the iPhone and iPad infringed on up to 41 of its
technology patents. The disputes between these two companies go back to 2008
when a licensing agreement expired. A new agreement on the patents was never
reached. Apple filed a complaint alleging Ericsson was demanding excessive
royalties. According to Macrumors,
if the ITC finds that Apple infringed on the patents, it could prevent the
products from being sold in the US until the case is resolved.
By Craig Tarasoff
After President Obama announced in January that restrictions
on trade with and travel to Cuba would be relaxed, the ITC initiated a study to
learn of the economic effects on exports of goods and services. The ITC will be
preparing a report for the Senate Finance Committee, which will include an
overview of Cuban imports, a description of how US law will affect Cuban
imports on US goods and services, and an estimate of US exports to Cuba. This
analysis will be particularly important for manufacturers with an interest in investing
and trading with Cuba. A public hearing will be held in March. See Industry
Week and National
Law Review for more details.
By Craig Tarasoff
AK Steel, a US-based steel distributor, has seen its stock
rise 7% after the ITC’s ruling against its foreign competitors. The
anti-dumping order was issued after the commission found that electrical steel
imports from several European and Asian countries were damaging the domestic
market. China, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Sweden and Taiwan were found to have
been causing harm to the US market for non-oriented electrical steel, and will
be forced to pay fines as a result. AK Steel now looks to regain losses
suffered from depressed electric steel prices. The
Street has the story.
By Jieying Ding
The United Steelworkers (USW), a union that
represents 850,000 workers, welcomed the International Trade Commission’s (ITC)
decision to continue to investigate antidumping and countervailing duties on welded
line pipe from Korea and Turkey, according to the PR
Newswire. The USW joined the petition, which alleges dumping margins as
high as 221% against Korea and 16% against Turkey. The USW president Leo Gerard
called for fair trade to revitalize manufacturing sector. Welded line pine is
generally used for transporting oil and natural gas from fields to larger
pipelines.
