Trade agreement could help delete counterfeit chips
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The planned international trade agreement to fight piracy and counterfeiting could help reduce the distribution of fake semiconductors, analysts said Wednesday.The U.S. Trade Representative on Tuesday announced that the U.S., European Union, and other countries will negotiate to establish the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which will encourage countries to follow intellectual-property rights established by the World Trade Organization and other global trade groups. The discussions will focus on better international cooperation, best practices, and the establishment of a legal framework to protect intellectual-property rights.ACTA is needed to tackle the proliferation of intellectual-property infringements and to reduce the distribution of counterfeit items, the European Commission said in a study released Tuesday. More than 130 million counterfeit items were seized in 2006.Companies are already taking losses from counterfeit chips, so cracking down on piracy and counterfeiting will ensure reliable electronics and more savings, analysts said.Effective anticounterfeiting measures will ensure electronics contain genuine semiconductors and deliver full performance and reliability, said the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) in a statement, lauding the ACTA announcement. SIA already has its own measures to combat semiconductor counterfeiting, SIA said.Semiconductor counterfeiting revolves around replacing labels, said Daryl Hatano, vice president of public policy at the SIA. Semiconductor labels could be changed by counterfeiters to indicate a different brand or better performance, which could affect devices, Hatano said.&quot;If there&#39;s one bad chip, it can cause the failure of the computer,&quot; Hatano said. People who buy counterfeit chips could lose money too by overpaying for fake chips, Hatano said.Cases of counterfeit semiconductors in distribution has increased over the years, though SIA couldn&#39;t provide numbers. SIA is already working with the U.S. government to combat semiconductor counterfeiting, Hatano said.Counterfeit chips could affect research and development of semiconductor companies, said Jim Handy, an analyst with research firm Objective Analysis. Losses from fake chips cause semiconductor companies to tap into research and development budgets, a move that affects the development of future technologies, Handy said.Many cases of counterfeit semiconductors originate from China, which lacks strong intellectual-property enforcement laws, Handy said. Chinese courts tend to support local companies in patent-infringement cases, Handy said.International treaties need to be written in such a way that Chinese courts are motivated to be unbiased, Handy said.The trade agreement is not about ganging up against China or other countries that are not part of the group, the Commission said in its study. Countries are invited to join the initiative for &quot;stronger enforcement to deal with the challenges of piracy and counterfeiting today,&quot; the Commission said.The U.S. will engage in trade agreement discussions Canada, the E.U., Japan, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, and Switzerland, U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said.
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BRITISH owners of pirated copies of Microsoft&#39;s Windows XP operating system can trade them in for the real thing as part of a bid by the software giant to fight counterfeiting.
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Technical and legal pact calls for product interoperability and legal protections for common customers.
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Deal masks interest in controversial digital distribution patents?
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IBM said on Friday it has developed technology to help drug distributors, manufacturers and retailers prevent counterfeit drugs from making their way into the market.
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China is to make it easier to fight intellectual property right crimes, a move that may ease U.S. concerns over rampant copying of movies, software and other goods that Washington says costs businesses billions of dollars a year.
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China has promised to pursue product pirates identified by American authorities in a new effort to stamp out its thriving counterfeit industry, the head of the U.S. customs agency said Friday.
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SEOUL: South Korean microchip makers said they face a US investigation into a price-fixing conspiracy in which German maker Infineon technologies has already suffered heavy fines.
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Upcoming chip set will include built-in security features for your PC.
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BEIJING - China has promised to pursue product pirates identified by American authorities in a new effort to stamp out its thriving counterfeit industry, the head of the U.S. customs agency said Friday.
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The U.S. hopes to focus certain international trading partners on the piracy problem with a voluntary anticounterfeiting trade agreement.
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By Joe McDonald Associated Press  BEIJING -- China has promised to pursue product pirates identified by U.S. authorities in a new effort to stamp out its thriving counterfeit industry, the head of the U.S. Customs agency said Friday.
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The chipmaker appears to have met its most recent deadline for production of the smaller-featured chips.
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In another indication that one of the most heated intellectual property disputes in the history of telecommunications could end up a near-wash for both sides, a US District Court ruled late last week that two major handset manufacturers will be allowed to export devices with Broadcom chips to the US, despite a pending patent infringement lawsuit from Qualcomm.
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Companies are already reporting losses from counterfeit chips, so cracking down on piracy and counterfeiting will ensure both reliable electronics and more savings, analysts said.
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Owners of pirated copies of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP operating system can trade them in for the real thing as part of a bid by the software giant to fight counterfeiting.
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UK users will be able to replace pirated versions of Windows that they have purchased. Software pirates&#39; increasing skill at creating counterfeit versions of Windows XP has prompted Microsoft to introduce