Free Republic

SK Innovation has asked the US president to intervene in its battery patent fight with LG Energy Solution, saying it might have to “abandon” a $2.6 billion production base in Georgia after its defeat last month in the top US trade court. Making a case for a presidential veto of the court decision, the South Korean firm gave a presentation to US government officials, which the Wall Street Journal reported underscored that the Georgia plant will create 2,600 new jobs and contained so far undisclosed plans to expand the complex by investing another $2.4 billion, which would create an additional...

United States Steel Corp. has filed a complaint with U.S. regulators against the biggest Chinese steel producers, accusing them of conspiring to fix prices, stealing trade secrets and skirting duties on imports in the U.S. with false labeling. The big steelmaker is alleging illegal unfair competition by the Chinese producers and their distributors, and is seeking “the exclusion of all unfairly traded Chinese steel products from the U.S. market.” U.S. Steel announced Tuesday that it lodged the complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission. Normally the independent federal agency decides within 30 days whether or not to act. The case...

President Obama vetoes Samsung patent ban on iPhone 4 and select iPads Dante D'Orazio on August 3, 2013 The Obama administration has stepped in today to veto an import ban Samsung won from the International Trade Commission to prevent the iPhone 4 and some iPads from coming into the US. The move marks the first time since 1987 that a President has interfered with an ITC order. Such import bans, which effectively prohibit the sale of certain devices, have come under scrutiny from the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission as more companies are seeking the bans (instead of...

Patent wars are getting dirtier day by day. Not only they result in loss of thousands of dollars for companies, but also result in frustration for consumers. Earlier Microsoft was successful in banning Motorola smartphones. Now Motorola is punching back with Xbox 360 ban in U.S. and the gaming console might get pulled away from shelves in upcoming few months. A judge at International Trade Commission (ITC) has issued a recommendation for import ban on Xbox 360 gaming console. The ban is limited to 4GB and 250GB edition of Xbox 360. The ban is a part of Motorola's complaint filed...

Paging U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab: Please call us on your cell phone. And better do it fast because cell phones may soon be harder to come by thanks to one of the dumber rulings ever by the U.S. International Trade Commission.

Excerpt - A federal agency on Thursday barred the import of new models of cell phones that contain semiconductors made by Qualcomm Inc., because the chips violate a patent held by a rival, Broadcom Corp. The U.S. International Trade Commission's decision represents a compromise between a ban on all phones with Qualcomm chips, as Broadcom requested, and a ban only on the chips themselves, as recommended by an ITC administrative law judge late last year. ~ snip ~

Scheming is afoot in Congress to create an unjustified loophole in the patent laws for foreign infringers despite dampening the incentive to American businesses to invent. Legislation has been proposed that would facilitate the unauthorized importation of products made outside the United States by means of a process protected by a U.S. patent.

A passenger revolt occurred on a Malaga-Manchester flight. Vacationing Brits refused to fly with two Arabic-speaking men. This came in the wake of arrests of 21 British-born Muslims who were plotting to blow up as many as 11 trans-Atlantic flights. A spokesman for Britain’s opposition Tory party said the passengers panicked into “behaving irrationally.” Fancy that, not wanting to fly with members of a faith whose adherents keep trying to blow things up. Oh, how irrational! Within days of this incident, a Lebanese student was arrested for trying to plant bombs on German trains. In India, meanwhile, a group with...

Excerpt - THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Former Liberian President Charles Taylor arrived in the Netherlands on Tuesday for a war crimes trial on charges accusing him in the death, rape or mutilation of hundreds of thousands of people in West Africa. An airport official said Taylor's U.N.-chartered plane landed after a direct flight from Sierra Leone, where he had been in detention since March 29. Two police vans and five motorcycle outriders were waiting on the tarmac at a small commercial airport south of The Hague. ~ snip ~

If the feds really want to help the economy post-Katrina, here are four words: lumber, cement, shrimp and steel. They all have prices higher than necessary because of U.S. anti-dumping trade law. Start with lumber and cement, which will soon be in great demand to rebuild the tens of thousands of damaged homes. Prices are sure to rise as reconstruction begins, but thanks to U.S. tariffs as high as 27% on Canadian lumber, American home buyers already pay an extra $1,000 on average for their shelter. The same goes for U.S. duties on Mexican cement, which have averaged 55% since...

Is there steel in Bush's spine? Posted: November 17, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc. With the World Trade Organization's backing, Europe just issued an ultimatum to the United States. Either President Bush repeals the tariffs he imposed to save the U.S. steel industry, or Europe will slam $2 billion in tariffs on U.S. exports. The European Union is threatening us with a trade war. Predictably, our globalists and Big Media are in a panic, imploring the president to surrender. What Bush decides will tell us what he is made of. Some of us still hope there...

Petition: China illegally dumping low-priced furniture into market GALAX - The factory whistle blew in this factory town, but furniture workers ignored the end-of-break signal. Instead, they lined up to sign a petition that could help save their jobs. And they had their employers' blessing. Amid headboard pieces stacked for assembly and the scent of sanded wood, Reva Lowe waited Tuesday morning for her chance to wield a pen against the threat of Chinese imports. Lowe said she has worked for Vaughan-Bassett Furniture for about 17 years. She said she supports the campaign by a coalition of domestic furniture manufacturers...