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Wire & Cable ASIA – September/October 2007
51
From the
americas
The issue ruled on by the ITC is not the sole patent
dispute between Qualcomm and Broadcom. In late May,
in US District Court in Santa Ana, California, a jury found
for Broadcom on its claim that Qualcomm had infringed
three other patents. The technology covered in those
patents includes methods for transmission of high-speed
data over mobile phones.
Other news of patents . . .
The US Supreme Court has made it more difficult to
obtain a patent, to the future benefit of technology
companies and others that are often accused of
infringing on the patents of others. In a decision
that could have far-reaching implications for rights
in intellectual property, the justices on 30
th
April
unanimously ruled that the prevailing test for whether an
invention is ‘obvious’ – and thus not patentable – was
too rigid.
Last year, the nation’s highest court granted patent infringers
more manoeuvrability against injunctions, and this recent
decision suggests a growing trend in favour of frequently
targeted companies. Critics of the new, fairly high standard
for patentability claim that, without the assurance of a
protective patent, investors would be deterred from funding
new products. US patent law is, of course, applicable only
within US borders.
Business
The Small Business Administration
passes on the pain to its clients
The US Small Business Administration has helped many
fledgling enterprises get started. But recent policy changes
and severe budget and staffing cuts are impacting
the mission of the SBA to the nation’s 25 million small
companies, defined as businesses with 500 or fewer
workers. Since 2001, the agency’s budget has been sliced
nearly in half, to $464 million in the proposed federal budget
for 2008. Cuts in personnel have also been deep, with the
agency having lost 31% of its staff.
The SBA, established by Congress in 1953 to ‘aid, counsel,
assist, and protect’ the interests of small business concerns,
has eased the way for some 20 million of them, and its
portfolio of loans makes it the largest single financial backer
of businesses in the country. It has weathered threats to its
existence and an effort by the administration of President
George W Bush to end its loan programme. But recent
economies implemented by the agency are looking to some
small-business advocates like death by a thousand cuts.
A case in point is the SBA primary loan programme, known
as 7(a), for which the agency has cut funding and restored a
higher fee structure. For a loan up to $150,000 a borrower
must now pay a minimum of $2,000 (previously $1,000)
in upfront fees. For a loan up to $700,000 the fee has
gone from 2.5% to 3%; for loans above $700,000 it remains
unchanged at 3.5%. The SBA has also proposed raising
fees in its micro-loan programme for construction and
expansion of facilities.
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Despite the cheese-paring that has been imposed on it, the
SBA notes that its loans still have easier credit terms and
longer repayment periods than those typically offered by
commercial banks. But critics say this rationale obscures an
unacceptable broadening of the definition of small business.
They argue that the agency was founded for worthy
entrepreneurs who may struggle to meet even the cost of a
filing fee.
The higher rates may be having one especially undesirable
effect: diverting borrowers to credit card companies that
pitch to small-business owners, and charge them interest
rates as much as 10 percentage points higher than those
for SBA or other bank loans. The results of a national
survey published 24
th
April by the National Small Business
Association, a private advocacy group, disclosed that
credit cards are a primary source of business funding for
44% of respondents.
The Washington-based NSBA, with a membership of more
than 150,000 small businesses, found that some 71% of
credit-card use for capital needs entails a balance carried
month-to-month, and more of these accounts (71%) carry a
balance now than in 2000 (64%).
In brief . . .
According to the Communications Workers of America,
the US falls well behind some other countries in terms
of how fast data can be moved through the Internet. The
median Internet speed in the US is 1.97 megabits per
second (mbps). The leader, Japan, offers users 61 mbps
at the same price as US service. At least four other
countries also have faster Internet connections than the
US – and there may be more.
As reported by James S Granelli of the
Los Angeles Times
(25
th
June), the communications union advocates measures
to improve access by Americans to faster broadband
connections for business, educational, and medical
purposes. Its report, which relied on the responses of
80,000 Internet users, cited these speeds: South Korea,
45.6 mbps; Finland, 21.7 mbps; Sweden, 18.2 mbps; and
Canada, 7.6 mbps. In the US, Rhode Island had the fastest
median speed, at 5 mbps; Alaska the slowest, at 545 kilobits
per second.
While the median Internet speed in California is, at
1.52 mbps, even slower than the national average, the
big state led by Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger is out
ahead of the pack in ‘smart metering,’ by which power
companies induce customers to voluntarily cut back on
consumption during times of peak demand. Recording
electricity usage at frequent intervals, a smart meter lets
the consumer see the cost of power at particular times
and adjust use accordingly.
California is the leader in installations of these energy-
efficient devices in homes. Within the last year, state
regulators have approved smart meter programmes for
Pacific Gas & Electric and San Diego Gas & Electric, an
affiliate of Sempra Energy. Southern California Edison is
also awaiting approval from California regulators for a new
technology that will allow remote activation of smart meters.
Dorothy Fabian
–
Features Editor
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