Global Marketplace
www.read-tpt.comMarch
2013
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the well and assign percentages of fault to the companies
involved was scheduled to start 25 February in US District
Court in New Orleans.
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BP had not yet reported for 2012 at press time, but in
2011 the company posted profits of more than $25bn.
For Transocean, that year brought a loss of about $5.7bn,
attributed in part to the costs of litigation resulting from the
sinking of the Deepwater Horizon.
In brief . . .
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A uniform patent system has been
adopted for Europe. If it goes
into effect as expected by early 2014,
it would be a step toward a remedy
for the country-by-country approach
whose time and costs have long been
considered an impediment to innovation
across the European Union. Meeting
in Strasbourg on 11 December, the
European Parliament voted 484 to 164
to pass the key plank of the new patent
system. Nation-by-nation vetting of the
new system was set for February, when
governments were expected to sign a
treaty creating special patent courts.
The new system would supplement the
patchwork of EU patent rules. Under
the current system, a ruling in one of
27 countries has no automatic validity
in any other. According to the European
Commission, the executive arm of
the EU, that approach has made the
protection of inventions and innovations
in Europe 15 times more expensive than
in the US.
A new “unitary” patent granted by the
European Patent Office in Munich
would no longer need to be validated
individually in the EU countries where
protection is sought. Nor would it need
to be translated into all local languages:
English, German or French would
suffice. The cost of patent protection
should initially drop to around $8,450
from around $46,790, the EC said.
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Russia is projected to surpass
Germany as the largest car market
in Europe in 2014. According to the
Association of European Businesses,
which tracks sales in an effort to
promote trade between Russia and the
European Union, Russian sales are now
approaching three million cars annually.
Russian buyers are snapping up foreign-
branded cars. The Solaris from South
Korea’s Hyundai was the best-selling
vehicle in Russia in 2011. And Hyundai;
Nissan (Japanese); and Renault (of France) all did well there
in the first 11 months of last year, with sales increases ranging
from 11 to 23 per cent.
Russia’s automobile industry weathered the financial crisis in
part through a willingness to embrace foreign manufacturers
even to the peril of homegrown brands.
In 2012 the last Volga rolled out of the Gorky automobile
factory at Nizhny Novgorod, making space for three foreign
manufacturers: General Motors, of the USA and Germany’s
Volkswagen and Mercedes.