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U.S. Firm Fined For Defense Exports
by Winter Casey
A leading manufacturer of military night-vision equipment for the U.S. armed forces has pleaded guilty to sending classified materials overseas, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.
ITT will pay a $100 million fine for exporting defense articles without a license and omitting statements of material facts in arms exports reports. The Justice Department said ITT's fine is one of the largest penalties ever paid in a criminal case. The company also will be the first major defense contractor convicted of a criminal violation under arms export-control law.
"The sensitive night-vision systems produced by ITT Corporation are critical to U.S. war-fighting capability and are sought by our enemies and allies alike," Kenneth Wainstein, assistant attorney general for the national security division, said in a statement. "ITT's exportation of this sensitive technology to China and other nations jeopardized our national security and the safety of our military men and women on the battlefield.
"We commend the prosecution team and ITT Corporation for developing a plea agreement that addresses the violations of the past, ensures compliance in the future, and serves as a strong warning to others who might be tempted by the profits of such illegal exports."
Report Advocates Intellectual Property Harmony
As commerce increasingly becomes more global, support for the harmonization of intellectual property laws is needed, according to new report.
"More than ever, the chain of national intellectual property laws will only be as strong as its weakest link, and the ability to meaningfully enforce rights will be crucial," according to an intellectual property roadmap released Tuesday by the International Chamber of Commerce. "This will accentuate the need for increased international cooperation."
"The challenge to the patent system will be to provide for adequate and balanced protection in" the emerging field of nanotechnology, which focuses on the manipulation of matter at the atomic and molecular levels. "This will be absolutely critical in order to promote investments that will be needed to bring these multi-disciplinary technologies to the marketplace," the report added.
As broadband use increases, the possibility of intellectual property infringement grows, the ICC found. "Some of the new forms of intellectual property do not fall squarely within existing systems of protection, and the latter have to be adopted, or new rights created, to accommodate these new innovations," according to the report.
In other IP news, Singapore is the first nation to ratify an international treaty on trademarks, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization. The Singapore Treaty on the Law of Trademarks was adopted in 2006 as a result of international efforts to update the 1994 Trademark Law Treaty. More than 50 countries have signed the treaty.
Controversy Over Europe's Emergency Number
The European Commission has launched legal action against five European Union nations that have violated a 2002 law on electronic communications. Since the rules were enacted, the commission has launched 13 cases against countries for not providing caller-location information to emergency authorities.
The commission, the EU regulatory arm, requires telecommunications operators to provide location information when they receive emergency calls from landlines and mobile phones. The commission said last week it is referring Italy, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Portugal and Slovakia to the European Court of Justice.
So far, the commission has taken action against Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Slovakia. According to the commission, the cases against Cyprus, Ireland and Luxembourg have been closed.
"When it comes to Europe's emergency number, 112, member states are obliged to ensure that it is fully functional and available," Viviane Reding, the European commissioner for information society and media, said in a statement. "It is unfortunate that several countries are currently putting their own citizens and citizens from other EU countries traveling to their country at risk as they have failed to ensure that caller-location information for emergency calls is fully available."
She urged EU nations to "act now to enhance the safety of EU citizens." Reding said the commission also is referring Estonia to the European Court of Justice for failing to "carry out its market analysis on time."
Since the law took effect, the commission has launched about 90 cases against EU member countries it has accused of failing to properly implement the framework.
In other European news, Germany on Monday announced a $1.5 billion program aimed at strengthening the country's position in the information and communication technologies sector.
In the second half of the 1990s, investments in that sector accounted for 18 percent of Germany's overall economic growth. The country's new program, which runs until 2011, will fund research projects in technology.
U.S., Malaysia Move Toward Trade Pact
The United States and Malaysia have made significant progress toward a free trade agreement after a year of negotiations, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said Friday.
The nations "have agreed to continue working toward our shared goal. and a Malaysian team will come to the United States in mid-April for consultations," USTR said. Some important issues have not been resolved, the office added.
Also on the trade front, the Information Technology Industry Council on Tuesday praised House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., and Trade Subcommittee Chairman Sander Levin, D-Mich., for their work on trade policy.
Rangel and Levin unveiled a Democratic trade policy plan that calls for opening major markets to create opportunities for U.S. workers and businesses while also ensuring that trade agreements raise the standard of living for U.S. workers and create new markets for U.S. goods.
"We commend the hard work of Chairmen Rangel and Levin to provide a roadmap toward passage of free trade agreements and potentially to trade-promotion authority," Rhett Dawson, the group's president and CEO, said in a statement.
The authority allows the president to negotiate agreements that are submitted to Congress for up-or-down votes without changes. The current law is set to expire June 30.
In other news, former FCC Chairman Michael Powell has been tapped to lead an advisory board to Japan's NTT DoCoMo, the mobile communications company announced Tuesday. The U.S.-based advisory board will be chaired by Powell and meet with company representatives twice a year. Board members will have two-year terms.
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