Panel to Urge Rewriting Rules to Aid Companies
347408
An independent committee will call on Thursday for a sweeping overhaul of securities market regulations.
296651
The US needs to rethink its regulation of companies, a group with links to Treasury  Secretary Henry Paulson says.
208950
A bipartisan group of Senate leaders has asked the country's highest-ranking copyright official to rewrite controversial legislation targeted at companies that profit from encouraging the public to commit copyright piracy.
516657
Responding to complaints that the United States is losing its edge to foreign markets, a panel set up by the nation's biggest business lobby has recommended structural changes at the Securities and Exchange Commission, the end of quarterly earnings guidance and a boost in the nation's retirement savings, The Wall Street Journal reported.
724627
(InfoWorld) - Technology industry executives are pushing the U.S. Congress to reform the way patents are issued in order to process them more quickly while also making sure they are legitimate. Patent reform was one of the major issues discussed at the Tech Policy Summit Monday in San Jose, California. Patent reform legislation considered, but not passed, in Congress last year is expected to be reintroduced. Among the key provisions sought is the hiring of more patent review specialists by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which one critic at the conference said has a backlog of as many as 1 million applications. Another provision would make it more difficult for so-called patent "trolls" to acquire a patent, claim another company infringed on it and then force the company to pay a settlement in order to keep its business going. Lastly, reform advocates seek an improvement in the quality of patents, pointing to cases where patents are issued for innovations that are not unique. They also propose a post-patent review process. In a speech Monday night at the summit, Deborah Platt Majoras, chairman of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, endorsed the idea of post-patent review. "Patents are not a driver of innovation, they are an impediment to innovation," said Mark Lemley, a professor of law at Stanford University Law School, speaking at the summit. "Everyone has an example of silly patents, such as the cat exerciser laser pen," Lemley said, but the problems with the patent law are more serious than that. Often, one company asserts a patent right against another company and forces that company to stop production until the patent issue is resolved. "The patent holdup forces the company to settle for more money than the patent is worth," Lemley said. There are also delays in the process of approving patents. SAP AG, the enterprise software maker, once had to wait 44 months until a patent application was approved, said Tim Crean, chief intellectual property officer and a member of the Coalition for Patent Fairness, an industry group advocating reform. An official of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office said the agency is planning to hire 1,200 patent specialists in fiscal year 2008. The patent office receives half of its patent applications electronically and wants to increase that number. Last year it approved 350,000 patents. But some at the summit want Congress toÂ move cautiously on patent reform. A group called the Innovation Alliance was recently formed to protect companies that patent technology but don't manufacture it. Taraneh Maghame, vice president and emerging technologies counsel for Tessera Technologies, said attempts to limit the rights of companies to defend patent rights could harm legitimate patent protection efforts of some companies. Tessera develops chip packaging technology and licenses it to chip manufacturers, such as Intel. "Not all of the tech industry is behind patent reform," Maghame said. Close to 300 people, including tech executives, advocacy groups and government officials, were expected to attend the Tech Policy Summit, which continues Tuesday.
282527
The Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service Monday gave some breathing room to companies that will be forced to restructure their executive pay plans to comply with new restrictions on deferred compensation that Congress enacted this fall.
275566
Plans to revamp the euro&#39;s battered rulebook won key backing yesterday, as the European Commission bowed to the inevitable and called for more flexible implementation of the single currency&#39;s widely flouted rules.
227121
House and Senate negotiators hope to wrap up work on a major rewrite of corporate tax law that would end a nasty trade dispute with Europe while showering more than $130
55202
Carolyn Kepcher's business how-to book covered how to handle a   difficult boss. Now it's time for a rewrite.
710211
Federal regulators yesterday proposed a revamped package of changes in how US stocks are traded, extending the reach of a rule requiring brokers to obtain the best possible price for customer orders even if it means going to another market and takes longer.
260365
Three former Securities and Exchange Commission officials yesterday asked for permission to intervene in a Supreme Court dispute that could determine whether defrauded investors can recover money from third parties.
454504
Two-and-a-half years after Congress passed the most sweeping corporate reforms since the Great Depression, trade groups are maneuvering to revise them, arguing that they are too expensive, too time-consuming and too much trouble for small businesses.
488023
Christopher Cox will call for the passage of several measures intended to bolster the powers of the board that oversees financial disclosures by state and local governments.
539482
The report proposed strengthening shareholder rights, imposing caps on litigation against accounting firms and refining Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
641968
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is considering softening new American corporate governance rules to ease the burden on foreign companies, its chairman said Tuesday.
507674
Securities regulators yesterday voted to overhaul a corporate rule covering financial risks, reacting to intense pressure from Congress and years of criticism from industry groups who claim the directive proved too expensive and burdensome.
165989
The government must review the help it gives manufacturing firms in a bid to stem job losses, says the TUC.