TCL’s North American smartphone subsidiary became one of the largest importers to join the massive Section 301 litigation when it filed a complaint (in Pacer) Friday in the U.S. Court of International Trade. Like the roughly 3,500 other lawsuits inundating the court, TCT Mobile (US) seeks to get the List 3 and 4A tariffs on Chinese goods vacated and the duties refunded with interest. TCT's claims “accrued with each and every entry of products” with List 3 or 4A tariff exposure, said the company. The action was filed within two years of the date that TCT paid the duties, it said, satisfying the court’s statute of limitations requirement on the timeliness of complaints. “With a mobile handset product portfolio that includes TCL and Alcatel devices,” TCT is “the fourth largest handset manufacturer in North America,” it said. The complaint lists two dozen import categories for which TCT has List 3 or 4A tariff exposure. Most are for capital goods, packaging materials or components, including lithium-ion batteries. Finished smartphones that TCT imports from China under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule’s 8517.12.00 subheading are on List 4B. The Trump administration postponed indefinitely the 15% tariffs on List 4B goods from taking effect in December 2019 after reaching the phase one trade deal with China (see 1912130042).
Court of International Trade activity
Samsung’s eNB LTE network equipment and 5G “access unit” infringe six Ericsson wireless communications patents dating to 2012, alleged a complaint (in Pacer) Friday in U.S. District Court in Marshall, Texas. It's Ericsson’s third patent infringement action against Samsung this month. Comments were due Tuesday at the International Trade Commission on public interest ramifications of the Tariff Act Section 337 import ban Ericsson seeks in a Jan. 4 complaint against Samsung smartphones, tablets and smart TVs for allegedly infringing four of its wireless connectivity patents (see 2101080043). Ericsson made similar accusations against Samsung Jan. 1 in the same Marshall court as Friday’s action (see 2101030001). Through its manufacture and sales of the eNB network equipment and 5G millimeter-wave access unit, “Samsung performed the acts that constitute induced infringement with knowledge or willful blindness that the induced acts would constitute infringement,” said the latest complaint. It seeks punitive and compensatory damages, plus a court declaration that Samsung’s infringement is willing. Samsung didn’t comment Tuesday.
Comments are due Jan. 19 in docket 337-3520 at the International Trade Commission on public interest ramifications of the Tariff Act Section 337 import ban Ericsson seeks in a Jan. 4 complaint (login required) against Samsung smartphones, tablets and smart TVs, said Friday’s Federal Register. Ericsson alleges the Samsung devices with wireless connectivity infringe four of its patents. Ericsson asserted similar against Samsung in a New Year’s Day complaint in U.S. District Court in Marshall, Texas (see 2101030001). Samsung didn’t comment.
Davis Wright adds satellite and telecom lawyer Lafayette Greenfield from Milbank as partner ... Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council hires Fallon Wilson, UmanityEDU founder, as vice president-policy, leading MMTC’s work on technology, data privacy, artificial intelligence and digital-age civil rights; infrastructure, broadband connectivity and digital inclusion; and multicultural media ownership and content diversity ... Herman & Whiteaker promotes Clare Liedquist Andonov to principal, focusing on wireless and wireline broadband, auctions and communications tower compliance ... Access Partnership appoints Dileep Srihari from CompTIA as senior policy counsel, U.S. team.
The U.S. Court of International Trade granted DOJ’s second motion requesting leave to file an updated “schedule of cases” related to the first-filed HMTX Industries-Jasco Products Section 301 complaint, said Chief Judge Timothy Stanceu's order (in Pacer) Tuesday in docket 1:20-cv-00177. The motion “concerns overall case management of an unusually large volume of cases, none of which have yet been assigned to an individual Judge,” said DOJ's Tuesday motion. Roughly 3,700 cases have inundated the court, all seeking to vacate the Lists 3 and 4A tariff rulemakings on Chinese imports and refund the duties. The plaintiffs who responded to DOJ’s Sept. 23 motion (in Pacer) for case management procedures have “generally agreed” the cases other than the HMTX-Jasco action “should be stayed while a test-case procedure is implemented,” said DOJ. The revised schedule of pending cases (in Pacer) attached to the motion spans 194 pages and includes actions filed through Monday. Cases have continued trickling, at least one a day. All assert timeliness under the court’s two-year statute of limitations, dating to first payment of the List 3 tariffs upon the entry of goods in 2018.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., is open to a U.S.-EU technology council effort to address the Privacy Shield and other tech issues, he told us Wednesday: “I am open to suggestions to a very tough, tough problem that may defy a solution.”
The debate on trans-Atlantic data flows is starting to shift as the U.S. and EU increasingly recognize their shared values, officials said Tuesday at a webcast data protection and privacy conference in Brussels. The regions are negotiating a targeted enhancement to Privacy Shield that will comply with the European Court of Justice ruling in Schrems II, withstand further legal challenge and ensure U.S. sovereignty over its national security, said James Sullivan, International Trade Administration deputy assistant secretary for services. The ECJ decision overturned PS (see 2007240031). Any revised accord will have to relieve companies of the need to carry out separate reviews of the national security regimes of countries to which they want to transfer personal data, Sullivan said. Since the U.S. revised its surveillance laws in 2015, it has become the gold standard for protection against data access for national security purposes, he said. One complicating factor in the discussion is that Schrems II caused skepticism from some in the U.S. about making further commitments to Europe that could force changes in U.S. law, doubts reinforced by the EU not scrutinizing at the same level surveillance practices of some of its own members, he said. The European Commission is convinced the intersection of privacy and national security is the avenue to pursue to address the court ruling, said Bruno Gencarelli, head of international data flows and protection unit. He warned there's no quick fix because a solution must be legally and politically defensible. Gencarelli sees much more common ground now between the EU and U.S. and more convergence as more companies adopt data protection practices around privacy laws; nations at the G7, G20 and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development level now realize that like-minded countries should be the ones to define common standards. Talks with the U.S. on an enhanced PS involve a negotiation on complex issues that won't be resolved overnight, Gencarelli said. It's a priority for the EC, and "we expect to move quickly" to agree on several provisions. This isn't a beauty contest about which privacy system is better; it's about finding solutions, he said. Sullivan said both sides have been "very creative" in coming up with solutions to bridge their differences, and challenges aren't insurmountable.
Most observers expect the U.S. Court of International Trade to pick the first-filed Section 301 complaint from HMTX Industries and Jasco Products as the lead case, and to stay the roughly 3,700 other actions while HMTX is litigated, blogged law firm Neville Peterson Thursday. “More than two months after the HMTX case was filed, however, there has been surprisingly little action,” other than “some minor skirmishing from some plaintiffs,” it said. Some litigants favor picking a complaint other than HMTX as the lead case or joining it with other actions that raise constitutional challenges to the Section 301 tariffs, it said. Still others argue HMTX should proceed on its own, since the CIT “will not consider constitutional issues if cases can be decided on non-constitutional grounds,” it said. DOJ’s deadline to file answers to the HMTX action “technically” has lapsed, it said: Though the CIT likely won’t hold DOJ “in default” for failing to respond, “the urgency for establishment of a case management plan is increasing.” Plaintiffs' attorneys on their own have established an “informal” steering committee to manage the case, it said, saying the committee “confers with some regularity.”
President-elect Joe Biden announces his senior staff includes Director, White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs Julie Rodriguez, ex-deputy campaign manager, Biden-Kamala Harris campaign ... Bill Barloon, who recently left Sprint after it was bought by T-Mobile, starts lobbying firm Barloon.co; he will initially focus on tech, telecom, copyright and electronic commerce, he tells us ... Air Force moves Brig. Gen. Douglas Schiess to director-space and cyber operations, Space Force Space Operations Command.
Internet Accountability Project adds Josh Hammer, who remains at Edmund Burke Foundation among other affiliations, as counsel and policy adviser ... Nexstar Media effective Nov. 1 combining "its two primary operating subsidiaries" Nexstar Digital and Nexstar Broadcasting, with Nexstar Broadcasting being renamed Nexstar; digital business unit led by Karen Brophy, who moves to president, digital; Timothy Busch becomes president, broadcasting; and Sean Compton is president, networks and overseeing WGN America, AntennaTV and WGN Radio; President, Nexstar Digital Gregory Raifman leaves company at end of his contract on March 31.