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E.U. Rules Against Patent Play by Google’s Motorola Unit

May 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment

The preliminary finding, which could lead to formal antitrust charges, comes as part of the commission’s battle to ensure that powerful companies with large patent portfolios do not block other companies from using technologies that are vital for smartphones and tablet computers.

“I think that companies should spend their time innovating and competing on the merits of the products they offer — not misusing their intellectual property rights to hold up competitors to the detriment of innovation and consumer choice,” said Joaquín Almunia, the European Union’s competition commissioner, in a statement Monday, before a news briefing on the topic.

The case focuses on how Motorola Mobility sought to legally block Apple in Germany from using a so-called “standard essential” patent that is part of the GSM mobile and wireless standard on which Europe relies.

A statement Monday by the European Commission, the administrative arm of the European Union, said Motorola Mobility’s seeking the injunction against Apple amounted to “an abuse of a dominant position prohibited by E.U. antitrust rules.”

Google officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility, worth about $12.5 billion, cleared its biggest hurdles by winning regulatory approval in the United States and Europe in February 2012.

But in a warning at the same time, Mr. Almunia said his decision to approve that acquisition would not exonerate any wrongdoing concerning patents “by Motorola in the past or all future action by Google.”

In a statement at the time, Motorola Mobility said that it was “confident that a thorough investigation” would show it had honored its “obligations and complied with antitrust laws.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: May 6, 2013

An earlier version of this article misstated the timing of the American and European approval of Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility. It was in February 2012, not February of this year. 

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/07/technology/07iht-google07.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Filed Under: Global Business Tagged With: , ,

Cardinals Discuss ‘Hopes and Expectations’ of New Pope

March 7, 2013 by Leave a Comment

On Wednesday, however, under pressure from their fellow cardinals, the Americans canceled their news briefing and shut down all communication with the news media to address a different problem: rampant leaks to the Italian news media in the delicate period of meetings ahead of the conclave, expected to begin next week.

But the tensions over how to address the news media — with American-style forthrightness or the ancient and more indirect ways of Italy — reflected a deeper culture clash between the Vatican as a global church, whose faithful often expect direct answers, and an Italian institution where secrecy is the rule but leaks often the norm.

That tension is certain to be on the minds of the cardinals as they gather to select the future leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

The cardinals swore an oath of secrecy before the meetings, prohibiting them from discussing their contents. But some cardinals have nevertheless spoken to news outlets from their home countries, including Brazil, Germany and France, sometimes sending what could be interpreted as direct messages to fellow cardinals.

Although the Americans had been the soul of discretion, careful not to violate their vows of secrecy while trying to explain their thoughts on the selection process, their strategy of taking direct questions — including about the sex abuse crisis — seemed to some Vatican observers to veer over the line into a subtle campaign for the papacy.

In the weeks since Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation and retirement, the Vatican has repeatedly said that cardinals selecting the next pope should not be swayed by statements in the news media. The Vatican Secretariat of State even compared news reports to the pressures exerted by foreign crowns to influence conclaves in past centuries.

In a terse statement on Wednesday, Sister Mary Ann Walsh, the spokeswoman for the American bishops, said, “The U.S. cardinals are committed to transparency and have been pleased to share a process-related overview of their work with members of the media and with the public.” They did so, she said, while still ensuring the confidentiality of the General Congregations, in which cardinals assess one another and discuss what they believe the church needs.

“Due to concerns over accounts being reported in the Italian press, which breached confidentiality, the College of Cardinals has agreed not to give interviews,” she added.

Those accounts in the Italian news media included tales of disagreement over the slow pace of the proceedings, and the potential advantage of non-Italian candidates for pope. Some also reported that individual cardinals advanced proposals to make it easier for branches of the Vatican to communicate better.

The leaks revealed a uniquely Italian combination of hierarchy and anarchy, in which cardinals sworn to secrecy — or perhaps their aides — leak juicy gossip and convey messages through their favorite local reporters. Vatican watchers say that approach helped lead to the scandal of leaked documents that contributed to Benedict’s decision to resign, leaving the job to someone younger and stronger.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Wednesday that it was not up to the Vatican to tell the cardinals how to handle the news media, adding that the tradition of the conclave “is also a tradition of reserve to protect the liberty” of each cardinal so he can make his decision freely.

At his daily Vatican briefings, Father Lombardi, an amiable Jesuit with a nervous cough, often combines painstaking attention to liturgical detail with general evasion of thornier questions. Journalists have also been shown silent and surreal video images of the silver, wok-shaped urns in which cardinals will cast their ballots for pope. In the video, a mysterious hand opens the urn, a move more reminsicent of the Home Shopping Network than C-Span.

Daniel J. Wakin contributed reporting.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/07/world/europe/roman-catholic-cardinals-discuss-hopes-and-expectations-of-new-pope.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Noise Level Rises Over Iran Threat to Close Strait of Hormuz

December 28, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Rear Adm. Habibollah Sayyari, Iran’s naval commander, said that “Iran has total control over the strategic waterway,” and that “Closing the Strait of Hormuz is very easy for Iranian naval forces,” in remarks carried by Press TV, an official Iranian news site. Admiral Sayyari, whose forces are in the midst of an ambitious war-games exercise in waters near the Strait of Hormuz, was the second top Iranian official to make such a threat in 24 hours.

Both the Defense Department and the United States Navy’s Fifth Fleet, which is based in Bahrain and patrols the Strait of Hormuz, responded to Admiral Sayyari’s remarks in statements that suggested American warships would stop the Iranians if necessary.

“The free flow of goods and services through the Strait of Hormuz is vital to regional and global prosperity,” Lt. Rebecca Rebarich, a spokeswoman for the Fifth Fleet command in Manama, Bahrain, said in an emailed response. “Anyone who threatens to disrupt freedom of navigation in an international strait is clearly outside the community of nations; any disruption will not be tolerated.”

The statement also said “The U.S. Navy is a flexible, multi-capable force committed to regional security and stability, always ready to counter malevolent actions to ensure freedom of navigation.”

George Little, the Pentagon press secretary, issued a similar warning, but he also pointed out that the Pentagon was “unaware of any aggressive or hostile action directed against U.S. ships” at this time.

France weighed in with a reaction to the Iranian threat as well, calling on Iran to respect international law regarding the strait, which is 21 miles wide at its narrowest point and separates Oman and Iran. Bernard Valero, a spokesman for France’s Foreign Ministry, told reporters at a regular news briefing: “The Strait of Hormuz is an international strait. As a result, all ships regardless of their nationality benefit from the right of transit in line with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and international maritime customs.”

On Tuesday, Iran’s vice president, Mohammad Reza-Rahimi, was the first top Iranian official to explicitly threaten to close the Strait, saying that if Western powers “impose sanctions on Iran’s oil exports, then even one drop of oil cannot flow from the Strait of Hormuz.”

The catalyst for the Iranian threats are new efforts underway by the United States and European Union to pressure Iran into disbanding its nuclear program, which Iran has refused to do despite four rounds of sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council.

Those sanctions have not targeted Iran’s oil exports, the world’s third largest. But in recent weeks, the European Union has talked openly of imposing a boycott on Iranian oil, and President Obama is preparing to sign legislation that, if fully enforced, could impose harsh penalties on all buyers of Iran’s oil, with the aim of severely impeding Iran’s ability to sell it. If successful, the measure would create onerous new pressure on the Iranian economy, which is already fraying from the accumulated effects of the other sanctions.

Iran has said its uranium enrichment is purely peaceful, but an International Atomic Energy Agency report issued last month suggested that Iran may be working on a nuclear weapon and a missile delivery system for it. The United States and its allies have said that a nuclear-armed Iran would be unacceptable.

The Strait of Hormuz, with two mile-wide channels for commercial shipping, connects the Sea of Oman to the Persian Gulf, the principal loading point for oil shipped from Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter. The Strait carried 33 percent of all oil shipped by sea in 2009 and nearly 20 percent of all oil traded worldwide, according to the United States Energy Information Administration, which has called it the world’s most important “oil chokepoint.”

Markets seemed to shrug off Iran’s threats. On Wednesday, the price of the benchmark crude oil contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell for the first time in more than week and was trading at just below $100 a barrel at midday.

Elisabeth Bumiller contributed reporting from Washington.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=d8d8370dce966a038d698872c49d4ec3

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