WASHINGTON, DC – The Global IP Center is pushing the US Congress to enact a series of IP protection measures this year, including anti-counterfeiting and trademark protection.
For 2010, the center supports passage of the Customs Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Reauthorization Act of 2009, in an effort to stop the flow of counterfeit goods into the US.
The GIPC also promotes the conclusion of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. And it seeks a Department of Justice task force to protect Internet IP and shut down rogue websites.
Founded by the US Chamber of Commerce, the GIPC urges Congress to pass legislation that enhances the US ability to engage effectively with countries that fail to enforce the rights of American innovators or live up to their international IP obligations, including an action plan for Priority Watch List countries.
It encourages the Obama Administration to engage India and China in strengthening their protection and enforcement of IP rights, and urges Congress to maintain a robust level of funding for IP enforcement activities, while planning for funding in 2011.
The center also encourages the government to continue to defend international IP rights by approving trade agreements.
HARTLEPOOL, UK – Stadium Electronics said it expects annual profits before tax to be about £2.5 million, up 15% over the previous consensus outlook.
TAIPEI – The world’s largest contract manufacturer of notebook PCs, Compal Electronics, will build a production facility in Vietnam.
Compal has looked at Vietnam in the past, but with pronounced labor shortages in Southeastern China, the company is revisiting its plans. The new plant is expected to be finished in the second half of 2010 or later, according to published reports.
Compal also is constructing its fifth notebook plant in Kunshan, China.
Other notebook PC makers currently expanding include Inventec in Chongqing.
WESTLAKE, OH -- Nordson Corp. reported first-quarter sales rose 18% year-over-year to $221 million.
EL SEGUNDO – As a result of huge sales and high memory usage, Apple’s iPhone is expected to generate insatiable demand for NAND-type flash in 2010, straining supplies for the year, says iSuppli.
The iPhone is a NAND hog, consuming an average of 35.2 Gb of NAND, iSuppli estimates.
The volume is exacerbated by demand forecasts: iPhone shipments are set to rise to 33 million in 2010, up 31.5% compared to 2009. This growth is likely to lead to periods of undersupply for the year, the firm says.
iSuppli forecasts that mobile handsets with embedded flash units will grow to 732 million units in 2010, up 13.8% year-over-year.
Competitive mobile phones, including Motorola Droid, HTC Android Iris, Palm Pre Plus and Pixie Plus, and Google Nexus One, will aim to match the iPhone spec for spec in terms of memory capacity, boding well for NAND flash vendors.
Other products pushing NAND consumption include eBooks, smartphones and tablet PCs. eBooks contain 512 MB to 2 GB of embedded NAND included in each device. Tablet PCs use an anticipated storage density of 32 to 64 GB.
SALT LAKE CITY – Northrop Grumman Corp.’s navigation systems division has broken ground on a facility expansion to increase factory output for its commercial, defense and national security customers.
SAN JOSE – North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted a 90-day moving average of $1.13 billion in orders in January as the chip equipment recovery continued unabated.
AUSTIN, TX -- Global TV shipments last year far exceeded initial expectations as consumers snapped up discounted products, says a leading research firm.
BRUSSELS – Changes to China’s chemical regulations have been adopted for 2010, showing marked differences from the May 2009 release.
Among the changes to chemicals in products, the new regulation is applicable to products that release “new chemical substances in their normal use," a statement not mentioned in the 2009 proposal.
Furthermore, the 2010 amendment is one of the few Chinese regulations clearly referring to the GHS standards issued in Oct. 2006. This provides a clear link between law and standards, says Young and Global Partners, which has issued a report on the new regulations.
Third, the chemical classification envisaged in 2009 is gone. Three classifications exist under the 2010 amendment: general new chemicals, hazardous new chemicals, and priority hazardous chemicals.
Also, annual reporting may provide a framework to implement PRTR requirements in China long-term. Reporting requirements have been extended for producers or importers of hazardous new chemicals (including priority hazardous new chemicals).
Many promotional provisions for the development and use of environmentally friendly chemicals are in the update, Young and Global said. The Ministry of Environmental Protection may foresee natural phase-out of hazardous chemicals in China, as it imposes six-month earlier reporting requirements on producers or importers of hazardous new chemicals before it starts a periodic five-year review of chemicals to update the Chinese Inventory of Existing Chemicals.
The Ministry may expect hazardous chemicals to have been phased out in the market, making it needless to put them in the Chinese Inventory of Existing Chemicals.
The 2010 proposal has 25% more regulatory text than the 2009 version.