An import ban on certain older-model Samsung mobile devices was set to take effect Tuesday night after U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman declined to veto a limited exclusion order issued by the U.S. International Trade Commission. The Samsung phones and tablets had been the subject of a Section 337 case Apple brought to the ITC. USTR gave Apple a reprieve from a similar import ban in August (CD Aug 15 p10). Samsung said in a statement it’s “disappointed” by the USTR’s decision, saying “it will serve only to reduce competition and limit choice for the American consumer."
US Trade Representative (USTR)
A U.S. Cabinet level position which serves as the President's primary representative, negotiator, and spokesperson regarding U.S. trade policy. The USTR heads the Office of the United States Trade Representative which develops and coordinates U.S. policy for international trade, commodities, and direct investments, as well as overseeing trade negotiations with other countries.
The International Trade Commission said it’s publishing its notice of a limited exclusion order and a cease and desist order against some Samsung mobile devices that infringe Apple’s patents in Thursday’s Federal Register. The commission issued the orders Friday (CD Aug 12 p10). Lawyers previously told us they believed the Samsung import bans won’t be affected by U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman’s veto of an ITC ruling that would have banned early model iPhones and iPads. The patents involved in this case aren’t standard-essential patents. The ITC is setting bond at 1.25 percent of the entered value of infringing Samsung mobile devices during the 60-day period for USTR to review the import ban. The ITC found that Samsung violated U.S. Patent Nos. 7,479,949 and 7,912,501. No. 7,479,949 covers touch-screen heuristics, while No. 7,912,501 covers detection of objects in a headphone jack. The ITC found no infringement on other patents Apple claimed in the same ITC investigation. A Samsung spokeswoman declined to comment.
The U.S. Trade Representative’s (USTR) decision to overturn an International Trade Commission ruling this weekend surprised the patent litigation community, members of which told us the decision could have substantial implications for cases on standard essential patents (SEPs) at the ITC. But lawyers told us the case was unlikely to have a major impact on the bulk of the ITC’s caseload, or on its larger role in patent litigation. They said the ban would likewise not impact two connected patent disputes between Apple and Samsung that are set to advance Friday. Industry analysts told us the USTR decision would create more uncertainty in the industry, but wouldn’t overwhelmingly affect any one company’s business model.
Transparency and copyright limitations and exceptions are needed in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), advocates told negotiators during the first round of negotiations this week in Washington. Civil liberties advocates also discussed the importance of ensuring user privacy as data travels across the Atlantic.
Promoting the free flow of data and better understanding of U.S. privacy standards should be priorities for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in trade negotiations with the EU, trade associations said in response to a call from the USTR for comments on an upcoming trade negotiation between the U.S. and the EU. Public Knowledge advocated that the negotiations -- named the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement (TTIP) -- remain open and not interfere with U.S. copyright law reform.
Governments need to move away from blunt mechanisms like the “Great Firewall of China” as they consider how to regulate the international flow of data and other aspects of e-commerce, said Jonathan McHale, deputy assistant U.S. Trade Representative (USTR)-Telecom and Electronic Commerce Policy, during a Brookings Institution event Tuesday. Brookings published a report Monday that some governments are restricting the Internet “in ways that reduce the ability of businesses and entrepreneurs to use the Internet as a place for international commerce and limits the access of consumers to goods and services” (http://bit.ly/XW2mLH).
The 15th round of Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations is more secretive than previous rounds, said a joint statement from a group of stakeholders attending the talks (http://bit.ly/YxifyU). Unlike previous rounds, the most recent of which took place in Leesburg, Va., in September (CD Sept. 11 p8), stakeholders are allowed on the premises during negotiations only on one of the ten days, said the group. It includes the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Knowledge Ecology International and Consumers International. The negotiations are at the SkyCity Convention Centre in Auckland, New Zealand.
The U.S. is negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement under the “presumption that data should move,” said Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Telecom and Electronic Commerce Policy Jonathan McHale. “There’s some protectionist challenges we have to meet.” He cited governments that demand that data storage companies locate their servers in those countries to sell products and services to their citizens. In many cases, these kinds of protectionist policies can harm not just American companies, but also foreign users, he said at an event at George Washington University on Friday: “There really is a strong understanding that all the commercial entities in these countries and the consumers benefit” from having a free flow of information across borders.
LEESBURG, Va. -- Negotiators from ten countries heard both sides of the intellectual property rights story, at a Sunday stakeholder engagement event hosted by the Office of U.S. Trade Representative. The event was designed to give stakeholders a chance to interact with the representatives of countries that are working on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.
U.S. negotiators should emphasize quality over speed when working on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) analyst Stephen Ezell said during a teleconference about its new report on the TPP (http://xrl.us/bnnig6). The report says U.S. TPP negotiators should work on decreasing market barriers and increasing intellectual property rights protections among TPP participants. “It’s more important to get the TPP done right than to get it done right away,” Ezell said during the teleconference, saying the terms of the TPP will be seen as a “gold standard” across the world and in the future.