Ford Pushes 2015 for More Integrated Euro-US Auto Market

Ford, along with allies in Congress, is pushing for a trade deal with the European Union that would allow companies to design one vehicle for sale everywhere in the world. Talk to any automotive enthusiast in the United States and they will tell you that Europe has some great cars. The Ford Focus RS is a vehicle experts would really like to see arrive in the US. Ford Sync, a technology that is present in almost every Ford vehicle in the US, only recently became available in Europe. Each country’s regulations are responsible for differences between the vehicles.

When Ford introduced the newest version of the Fiesta, they pushed the “One Ford” initiative  The goal was to produce one vehicle suitable for all markets. It would reduce production costs. It would make it easier to train employees worldwide (everyone builds the exact same thing). It would also make it easier to diagnose and fix issues. Ford is making strides in this department, but there still are differences between vehicles sold in the United States and ones sold in Europe.

Ford claims this legislation will make things easier for all auto manufacturers by harmonizing regulation. Free trade with Europe is also a subject that Congress and the President can get behind. The President called for these talks during the State of the Union.

While American automakers agree that free trade with Europe is a great idea that would benefit everyone, American manufacturers categorically oppose Japan’s inclusion in this agreement. Japan currently pays a 2% tariff on cars and 25% tariff on trucks imported to the United States. While the United States pays zero in tariffs when sending cars to Japan, the Japanese market traditionally buys Japanese brands. This makes it difficult for the Americans to gain a foothold in car sales there. As a result, the Big 3 has long lobbied Congress to continue to tax Japanese imported vehicles.

Despite this one exclusion, it’s felt that making it easier for everyone in the United States and Europe to gain access to all the same great new-vehicle technologies can only help the industry and be a boon for enthusiasts and shareholders alike.

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• Ford Pushes for More Integrated Euro-US Auto Market
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FTC Won't Make Decision in Google Antitrust Case Until Next Year

 

Seth Fiegerman

The Federal Trade Commission will not make a decision in its antitrust investigation into Google this year, according to multiple reports.
Both Bloomberg and The New York Times report hearing from sources that the government agency will push back its decision until sometime in 2013 -- with the Times saying it will happen in early-mid January -- despite having repeatedly stated their intention to complete the investigation by the end of this year.
The FTC has spent the better part of two years investigating whether Google has unfairly used its dominance in search to give preference to some of its other services over those of competitors.
Earlier this week, Google was rumored to be drafting a letter that would include concessions to end the investigation without having to go through a lawsuit or settlement. The delay suggests that the two sides were farther apart on an agreement than previously reported.
The European Union's antitrust investigation into Google, which is looking into similar complaints of unfair preference for Google services in its search engine, will also extend into 2013. The EU's competition commissioner said in a statement that Google will present a "detailed commitment" to resolve the issue in January, which will then need to be tested online before an agreement is finalized.

keep up with the newest technologies and contemplate about how these will be used in the future. On this blog I'll share my thoughts about the future of technology, based on the high Tech Road Show Blog inventions of today. Enhanced by Zemanta

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Europeans Plan Widespread Protests Against Internet Censorship

Protests against Internet censorship will blanket Europe this weekend, while Germany and Latvia announced Friday they would put the brakes on signing a copyright treaty that has sparked controversy across the continent.

More than 200,000 people have committed to attending rallies in 200 cities to protest the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or “ACTA.”

“The map of planned protests is just breathtaking,” said Holmes Wilson, co-founder of anti-ACTA group Fight for the Future. “You’ve got tens of thousands of people taking to the streets in small cities, in countries where large street protests are not common.” 

Proponents of ACTA say that the treaty will help fight global copyright theft. Opponents, fresh off the SOPA and PIPA battlefields, argue that ACTA will harm free speech on the Internet. They also accuse the treaty’s architects of holding negotiations away from the public eye.“This is truly the Internet’s Arab Spring,” said Fight for the Future co-founder Tiffiniy Cheng. “People are rising up against anti-democratic laws that stifle individual freedoms. And they’re organizing spontaneously, without leaders, using tools available to everyone.”Public opposition to the treaty has already struck Europe. Last month, thousands of people in Poland took to the streets in protest while the European rapporteur for ACTA resigned after calling the negotiation process a “charade.”It appears some European leaders have been listening to ACTA’s naysayers. Germany and Latvia’s decision to delay signing ACTA puts them in league with Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, who have also halted the process.A German foreign ministry spokesperson said that the country needed “time to carry out further discussions” about the treaty, the BBC reported.ACTA was signed by the U.S. and Japan in 2006. Australia, Canada, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea signed on last year and the European Union signed last month, but no country’s legislature has yet ratified the treaty. ACTA will go into force when ratified by at least six countries.

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Dutch court finds Galaxy Ace, S, and S II infringing an Apple patent

A Dutch court just issued a preliminary injunction that bans the sales of the Samsung Galaxy S, Galaxy S II and Galaxy Ace because they infringe on a single Apple patents. The ban should come into effect on October 13th if nobody does something about it. Samsung however is confident they will deal with the supposedly infringed patent by removing the Gallery app from the phones and are taking it easy.

The court ruling hits on Samsung's Netherlands branch, which is reportedly key to Samsung's distribution network in Europe, but the reality is Samsung is unlikely to stop sales.

The good thing for Samsung is that the court ruled Samsung is not infringing any other of the Apple's patents claimed in this case. The Gallery patent is not even that serious as it's not registered in some EU member-states (here's a list of countries in which Apple has the patent registered).

The judge also commented that Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 10.1v are also violating Apple patents but didn’t issue a ban on them. Apple is pursuing a ban on those too, so we'll have to wait and see how this plays out - the Tab 10.1 was already banned in Germany (after a temporary EU-wide ban, which later turned out to be outside of the German court's jurisdiction).

If you're interested, Apple's patents in this claim cover a method of scrolling, a method of unlocking a phone by dragging an image and something about multitouch, which seems part of Android 2.3 itself (rather than TouchWiz). Luckily, the court ruled that Samsung is not infringing on any of these patents except for the photo swipe one.

Related articles

• Apple Wins Samsung Phone Ban In Dutch Court (informationweek.com)
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• Apple scores another patent win: Dutch judge bans Samsung Galaxy S sales (venturebeat.com)
• Netherlands judge rules that Samsung Galaxy S, S II violate Apple patents, bans sales (engadget.com)

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