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  The US International Trade Commission (ITC) on Monday launched a probe into optical disc drives made by Asian companies including those of Japan after an American company filed a complaint alleging its patents had been infringed upon.   The products at issue are optical disc drives for products such as desktop and laptop computers, DVD and CD players, televisions, console gaming systems and other products containing such drives, said the US trade panel in a statement.   Optical Devices LLC, a company based in the US state of New Hampshire, filed a complaint on Sept. 3 with the ITC, claiming the optical devices made by Asian companies such as Nintendo, Panasonic, Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Toshiba Media Tek and their American entities have infringed upon its patents and violated…

  JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) is preparing to pay $13 billion to end U.S. civil probes of its mortgage-bond sales, an amount that ranks among the largest settlements by a single company and dwarfs fines previously imposed by the Justice Department. Past accords include:   -- The $246 billion settlement by the biggest U.S. tobacco companies in 1998 to resolve state government claims for the costs of treating sick smokers. Philip Morris Cos. and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc. were among firms that reached agreement with 50 state attorneys general to pay out the money over 25 years, scale back marketing and take steps to reduce youth smoking.   -- Pledges by Wall Street firms including UBS AG and Citigroup Inc. to repurchase more than $50 billion of auction-rate securities to settle…

El Tribunal Europeo de Derechos Humanos (TEDH) ha sentenciado que la doctrina Parot aplicada por el Tribunal Supremo vulnera el Convenio Europeo de Derechos Humanos y ha dado la razón a la etarra Inés del Río, que, además de quedar en libertad, deberá ser indemnizada con 30.000 euros.     La Gran Sala del Tribunal de Estrasbrugo se ha pronunciado así ante el recurso presentado por el Gobierno español contra la sentencia de julio de 2012 que ya estableció que esta doctrina vulnera el artículo 5 (derecho a la libertad y a la seguridad) y el artículo 7 (no hay castigo sin ley) del Convenio Europeo de Derechos Humanos, tal y como se ha pronunciado hoy el TEDH.   Los 17 magistrados de la sala han considerado, por unanimidad, que la doctrina…

El pleno del Tribunal Constitucional ha admitido a trámite varios recursos de inconstitucionalidad planteados contra varios artículos de la Ley de protección y uso sostenible del litoral y de modificación de la Ley de Costas de 1988 (LA LEY 1531/1988) presentados por el PSOE y por las comunidades autónomas de Andalucía, Asturias y Canarias. Según publica este viernes el Boletín Oficial del Estado, por providencia del 8 de octubre, el Pleno del Tribunal Constitucional ha acordado admitir a trámite el recurso de inconstitucionalidad contra varios apartados del artículo primero y la disposición transitoria primera presentado por el Gobierno de Andalucía.   Además, ha admitido el recurso presentado por el Gobierno de Canarias contra el mismo artículo 1 y las disposiciones adicionales 4, 7, 8 y 9; la disposición transitoria primera, la disposición…

El Pleno del Consejo General del Poder Judicial (CGPJ) ha impuesto este martes una sanción de suspensión de funciones por un año al titular del Juzgado de lo Penal número 4 de Tarragona, Juan Carlos Moreno Gordillo, por una falta muy grave de retrasos injustificados. La sanción, por superar los 7 meses de suspensión del magistrado, conlleva la pérdida de destino, según han informado fuentes de este órgano.   Se ha considerado que Moreno Gordillo, uno de los jueces que menos sentencias dictó a lo largo del pasado año en nuestro país, ha incurrido en una falta prevista en el atículo 417.9 de la Ley Orgánica del Poder Judicial (LOPJ), que considera muy grave la “desatención o el retraso injustificado y reiterado en la iniciación, tramitación o resolución de procesos…

  The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was handed a high-profile loss in a low-stakes case with Mark Cuban’s trial lawyers outmaneuvering those for the regulator.   A federal jury in Dallas yesterday rejected SEC claims that Cuban engaged in insider trading when he sold his stake in a Canadian Internet company nine years ago to avoid a $750,000 loss. Jurors found the information Cuban acted on wasn’t confidential and that he hadn’t promised not to trade on it.   The jury of two men and seven women, in a trial that began with their selection on Sept. 30, deliberated for less than five hours before reaching a verdict.   “Not surprising,” Stuart Slotnick, a white-collar criminal defense lawyer, said of the SEC’s loss.   “They had a case with no confidentiality…

  With statements by foreign leaders about the debt ceiling making daily headlines, it is worth asking what the international organizations charged with managing the global economy say about U.S. fiscal policy. For countries that borrow money from the International Monetary Fund, what the IMF says can change the decisions of governments and affect financial markets. But when countries receive only advice and not money, how much leverage can the IMF have?   In a forthcoming paper in International Studies Perspectives, we have answered this question by studying how Congress and the White House used information from the IMF’s review of the U.S. economy in the summer of 2011. The summer of 2011 is an important time to study the impact of IMF surveillance since it was the last time that Washington went down to the wire over raising the debt…

  A European judgment about an Estonian news site should worry all websites allowing users to comment below online articles.   Until now, prompt removal upon complaint has provided a defence against libel actions. This ruling by the European Court of Human Rights suggests websites need to police their comments and anticipate when a story will attract defamatory posts.   This will place a huge burden on news sites, which will need to review their moderation if the judgment is not challenged and rejected in the ECHR's grand chamber.   The case concerned Estonia's Delfi news website and a story about a ferry company which had changed its routes, damaging ice roads, thus preventing people using them. The ice roads are a cheaper alternative to ferries and a number of people…

  Eike Batista’s OGX Petroleo & Gas Participacoes SA is trading in the bond market as if it will be liquidated after an audit showed reserves at the company’s main oil field are 62 percent less than it had estimated.   OGX’s $2.56 billion of notes due 2018 have sunk 8.9 cents to a record 6 cents on the dollar after reserves-auditing firm DeGolyer & MacNaughton said Oct. 3 the Brazilian company’s Tubarao Martelo field may hold up to 108.5 million barrels of crude, compared with an OGX estimate of 285 million last year. The notes have plunged 93 percent in 2013, the most in emerging markets. OGX is considering filing for bankruptcy protection this month after missing a $45 million interest payment on its 2022 bonds Oct. 1, said two people with knowledge of…

No último dia 16 de setembro, faleceu, em sua residência, em Madri, na Principe de Vergara, o jurista espanhol Eduardo García de Enterría, aos 90 anos de idade (27 de abril foi seu aniversário). Um registro se impõe, e creio que posso faze-lo, em homenagem a esse grande jurista dos séculos XX e XXI. O tempo de um pensador não é o tempo de sua vida, mas do seu pensamento, de suas ideias. E García de Enterría projetou para além do século XX ideias no campo do Direito Público, lançando e edificando os pilares da constitucionalização do Direito Administrativo continental europeu, com larga influencia na América Latina. Sua liderança intelectual foi um diferencial materializado em numerosos doutorados honoris causae recebidos no mundo inteiro, gerados por autêntica admiração, mas também no Curso de…