Across the corn belt, more farmers are putting up their own grain bins. In the past year alone, farmers nationwide have added some 300 million bushels of on-farm storage. By storing their own grain, farmers can choose when and at what price they want to sell, and that can translate into thousands of dollars in profit. And this has grain buyers — like grain elevators and ethanol plants –working to keep their edge in the market.
from Morning Edition
Ha ha ha ha!!! What goes around… comes around!
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After losing a trade mark lawsuit last year against a Chinese company, Apple may have to pay a fine and stop selling and marketing the iPad in China. An ironic outcome in the Counterfeit Republic of China, if it finally goes through. More »
from Gizmodo
Verizon and DVD kiosk company Redbox said Monday that they’re teaming up on a streaming video partnership, a move that puts Netflix squarely in their crosshairs.
Citibank won approval to issue its own credit card in China, making it the first non-Asian bank to enter that market.
Two more Japanese auto industry suppliers, Yazaki and Denso, have been fined by the U.S. Department of Justice and four executives from Yazaki will go to jail, according to reports in the New York Times and Automotive News. Yazaki’s $478 million fine and Denso’s $78 million fine come on top of the $200 million penalty paid by another Japanese supplier, Furukawa Electric Company, last November as part of a probe into price fixing. Three Furukawa execs also were sentenced to prison.
The DoJ opened the investigation two years ago into collusion among firms setting prices for parts like wire harnesses and ECUs, but is said to have found evidence of such practices since 2000. Yazaki was charged with three felonies, fixing the prices of wire harnesses, instrument panel clusters and fuel senders. Denso was charged with two felonies, conspiring to fix the prices of ECUs and heating control units. Four Yazaki employees, working mainly for its North American operations in Ohio and Kentucky, were charged with violating the Sherman Antitrust Act and will serve from 15 months to two years in prison.
Both companies have pledged to retrain their employees and bolster their antitrust compliance, and both Yazaki’s Chairman and CEO said they would return half their pay for three months. The Justice Department investigation continues, and said the CEO of the Original Equipment Suppliers Association, “I’m dead certain that there has to be a lot of concern out there.”
Feel free to read over the official statements from both Yazaki and Denso after the break.
Continue reading Two Japanese suppliers plead guilty for bid-fixing, will pay record fines
from Autoblog
There’s another legal brouhaha brewing in Germany, where Motorola today won an injunction against Apple’s iCloud. In a decision handed down from the infamous Mannheim Regional Court this morning, Judge Andreas Voss issued a permanent injunction against Cupertino’s cloud-based service and any devices that use it, following a complaint that Motorola originally filed in April of last year. The two companies, as you may recall, have been going at each other rather aggressively in Germany, where Motorola scored a similar victory, back in November. At issue in today’s ruling is a European Patent that outlines a “multiple pager status synchronization system and method,” upon which iCloud, Motorola claims, infringes. The injunction, as FOSS Patents explains, targets Apple’s Ireland-based European distribution branch, but it only applies to the German market — not Europe, as a whole. And while it’s technically “permanent,” it’s still “preliminarily enforceable,” which means Apple can (and likely will) appeal. Motorola, meanwhile, can seek to enforce it, if it’s willing to post a €100 million bond. Apple had been seeking a bond of €2 billion, but was ultimately denied. For more of the legal nitty gritty, check out the source link below.
Update 1: Citing a statement from Apple, Germany’s Deutsche Presse-Agentur news agency is now reporting that the company has pulled the iPhone 3G, the iPhone 3GS, and the iPhone 4 from its German online store, along with any 3G/UMTS-enabled iPads. The move appears to come in response not to today’s ruling, but to a decision issued in December, when Motorola won an injunction against Apple, on the grounds that its 3G/UMTS technology infringes upon one of Moto’s European patents. According to FOSS Patents, Apple presumably lost its appeal to the Karlsruhe Higher Regional Court, after Motorola sought to enforce the injunction.
Update 3: And just like that, the BBC is reportingthat Apple’s exhortations have been heard, and the ban has been lifted. Details are few, but Cupertino had this to say about this latest turn of events:
“All iPad and iPhone models will be back on sale through Apple’s online store in Germany shortly.”
from Engadget
