COMPETITION IN FREIGHT RAILWAYS: "ABOVE-THE-RAIL" OPERATORS IN CENTRAL EUROPE AND RUSSIA

The railways of Russia and the Central and Eastern Europeancountries are in the process of restructuring. In most cases,the "vertical separation" reform model is being pursued, andreformers are seeking to introduce competition among freighttrain operators through the provision of "open access" to themonopoly infrastructure. This paper shows that, in two countries,Poland and Romania, a good deal of competition has been createdby the entry of new freight operators, many of them either largeshippers integrating upstream or former freight forwarders.However, in other countries, the incumbent freight operatorsretain virtually 100 percent of the market. In particular, Russiahas taken only the very first steps toward creating competitionin this sector, and new freight train operators face significantbarriers to competing with the incumbent.     

Comment on Forni's "Using Stationarity Tests in Antitrust Market Definition"

Economic analyses of prospective mergers must typically be undertakenwith limited data. Often prices are the only available data,so it is tempting to use their time series alone. Certainly,simple and robust measures of the extent of the market basedon limited data would aid merger analysis immensely. However,a couple of examples show how Forni's suggested methodologycan lead one astray. Consider a differentiated products market with demand systemln D_i(p_i, p_j) = 1 – ln p_i + ln p_j, i, j = 1, 2, i j,with associated constant marginal costs c₁ = _t c, c₂     

Guidance for industry: donor screening for antibodies to HTLV-II; availability--FDA. Notice

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing the availability of a document entitled "Guidance for Industry: Donor Screening for Antibodies to HTLV-II." The guidance document provides information regarding human T-lymphotrophic virus type II (HTLV-II) screening tests for Whole Blood and blood components. This guidance document is a further effort of FDA to help ensure a safe blood supply for the United States of America (U.S.).     

Government-owned inventions; availability for licensing. National Institutes of Health, Public Health Service, DHHS. Notice

The inventions listed below are owned by agencies of the U.S. Government and are available for licensing in the U.S. in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 207 to achieve expeditious commercialization of results of federally-funded research and development. Foreign patent applications are filed on selected inventions to extend market coverage for companies and may also be available for licensing.     

Government-owned inventions; availability for licensing. National Institutes of Health, Public Health Service, DHHS. Notice

The inventions listed below are owned by agencies of the U.S. Government and are available for licensing in the U.S. in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 207 to achieve expeditious commercialization of results of federally-funded research and development. Foreign patent applications are filed on selected inventions to extend market coverage for companies and may also be available for licensing.     

Government-owned inventions; availability for licensing. National Institutes of Health, Public Health Service, DHHS. Notice

The inventions listed below are owned by agencies of the U.S. Government and are available for licensing in the U.S. in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 207 to achieve expeditious commercialization of results of federally-funded research and development. Foreign patent applications are filed on selected inventions to extend market coverage for companies and may also be available for licensing.     

Tax-deductible alcohol: an issue of public health policy and prevention strategy

In 1982 U.S. businesses will spend over $10 billion (12 percent of the total retail alcohol market) on alcoholic beverages which will be consumed by top executives, professionals, and other white-collar employees in a variety of business and personal settings. The Internal Revenue Service, through a series of vaguely defined tax deduction categories, permits these expenditures to be deducted from corporate and individual taxes as "ordinary and necessary" to the conduct of business, costing U.S. taxpayers between $3 and $5 billion annually in lost tax receipts. This article examines the scope and legal underpinnings of the IRS tax expenditure policy; its impact on drinking habits and drinking problems among the nation's business and professional elite; the arguments for permitting the subsidization of corporate drinking habits; reform measures that are available to policymakers; and the barriers to effective implementation.     

专利侵权赔偿中的技术分摊难题——从美国废除专利侵权“非法获利”赔偿说起

在确定专利侵权的损害赔偿数额时，要把可归因于覆盖专利技术特征的那部分产品价值从产品整体价值中分摊出来，这可称为技术分摊规则。美国废除专利侵权中非法获利赔偿这一反常做法，引出专利法上的一个重要命题：技术分摊不可能性。在所失利润赔偿计算中，美国用市场分析法代替技术特征法，从而淡化技术分摊规则，扩张了全部市场价值规则。我国法院在审判实践中运用了技术分摊规则，但没有法律依据，这一现象亟待规范。     

The National Ballistics Imaging Comparison (NBIC) project

In response to the guidelines issued by the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board (ASCLD/LAB-International) to establish traceability and quality assurance in U.S. crime laboratories, a NIST/ATF joint project entitled National Ballistics Imaging Comparison (NBIC) was initialized in 2008. The NBIC project aims to establish a National Traceability and Quality System for ballistics identifications in crime laboratories within the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network (NIBIN) of the U.S. NIST Standard Reference Material (SRM) 2460 bullets and 2461 cartridge cases are used as reference standards. 19 ballistics examiners from 13 U.S. crime laboratories participated in this project. They each performed 24 periodic image acquisitions and correlations of the SRM bullets and cartridge cases over the course of a year, but one examiner only participated in Phase 1 tests of SRM cartridge case. The correlation scores were collected by NIST for statistical analyses, from which control charts and control limits were developed for the proposed Quality System and for promoting future assessments and accreditations for firearm evidence in U.S. forensic laboratories in accordance with the ISO 17025 Standard.     

Corporations in Court: Big Business Litigation in U. S. Federal Courts, 1971–1991

This article provides an overview of federal litigation involving the largest 2,000 U. S. corporations over the period 1971–91. Reporting from a unique data set of the authors'construction, it finds that althugh the aggregate volume of business litigation grew during the 1970s and early 1980s, it has actually been declining in recent years in all major categories of cases; business-related litigation is heavily concentrated, with an extremely limited number of business "mega-litigants" accounting for most of the activity; this concentration is particularly evident in tort, with the result that the tort trend line outside the concentration is actually flat or declining; a good deal of the growth in litigation outside the tort area can be attributed to business itself; and big business wins overwhelmingly, as plaintiff and defendant, in cases that involve it. The general applicability of these findings is limited by the data's restriction to federal court litigation and the structure of the Integrated Federal Court Data Base from which the authors'data set was constructed. This granted, the report is by far the most comprehensive treatment of U. S. big business litigation to date, and its findings are strikingly at odds with the premises of much current policy discussion.     

美国网络色情言论管制的“空间”标准——从ACLU案到ALA案

在网络色情言论管制中，美国司法机关通过案例建立起“空间”标准，以及对“空间”标准的审查基准。“空间”标准是指在网络色情信息和成年人之间形成封闭空间，避免未成年人轻易接触网络色情信息。“空间”标准的建立，是保障特定人群免遭色情言论污染的一个重要运用。网络的虚拟性和开放性决定了这一封闭空间很难做到完美，而有可能侵害非色情信息发布者的言论自由。ACLU案和ALA案是美国最高法院建立和完善“空间”标准的两个里程碑式的案例。经过案例的积累和发展，美国最高法院逐渐形成了立体化的“空间”标准。为保障未成年人免遭色情言论侵扰提供了法制上的保障，也缓解了网络色情言论管制与言论自由之间的张力。     

中美知识产权的争议与启示

众所周知,美国在新的《综合贸易与竞争法》上新增有一所谓“特殊301条款”,该条款的内容是规定相关国家如果不保护美国的知识产权,或者阻碍依靠知识产权的美国企业进入该国市场,美国就把它列为“重点国家”,要实施贸易报复。中美知识产权的争议就是这样产生的。本文阐述了中美知识产权争议的由来、内容、焦点和我国在知识产权保护上应该采取的主要对策措施。     

Russian Robber Barons: Moscow Business, American Style

Russia after communism is a hotbed of crime. Russian Robber Barons addresses villainy in market construction and draws on U.S. experience for comparisons. Crime will not be eradicated in Russia, nor has it been eliminated elsewhere, but a carefully crafted legal system can reduce damage wrought by unproductive criminal activity and guide entrepreneurs into legal operations beneficial to themselves and society. Robber baron activities match Joseph Schumpeter's creative destruction, but Mafia-style crime is merely destructive. Economic success demands that Russia join Western market societies in the search for laws to throttle destructive crime and encourage entrepreneurship.     

Expert testimony on decision processes in employment cases

The 1991 Civil Rights Act and recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions have modified standards applicable to psychometric or statistical proof of discrimination in employment cases. Changes in the legal standards have increased the role for psychological experts to prove or rebut allegations of disparate impact of hiring or promotional criteria, whether those criteria caused the observed disparities in the workforce, and whether the legitimate needs of the employer were substantially served by the employer's selection criteria. Three different methods or approaches to meet the legal standards are discussed: (a) reliance on traditional psychometric validity analyses; (b) regression analysis or the policy-capturing method; and (c) the survey data approach. These techniques are illustrated by reference to three cases in which experts successfully presented this evidence. While the application of the 1991 Civil Rights Act remains somewhat unclear, these approaches may prove useful in future employment discrimination cases.The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or any other government agency.     

Models for commercialization of technology from universities and research laboratories

One of the most admired aspects of U.S. technology has been the ability to assimilate and commercialize new science and technology. In light of the rising international competition, there has been new emphasis placed on the commercialization of U.S. science and technology developed in the federal laboratories. While research and development remains the focus of these laboratories, passage of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Act of 1980 and the Technology Transfer Act of 1986 has resulted in a means to further the exploitation of discoveries, patents, and copyrights developed within the laboratories. The transfer of technology to industrial partners and users is a complex task for a federal laboratory. Since the interaction with industry, as well as market knowledge and assessment of the needs of business users are beyond the charter of a federal laboratory, new organizational mechanisms are required in order to obtain full commercial value from the laboratories' efforts. A study was instituted to examine selected organizational and policy arrangements for achieving the optimum commercial value from the science and technology research at the research and development laboratories sponsored and funded by the U.S. government.     

The feasibility of external blind DNA proficiency testing. II. Experience with actual blind tests

The background and goals of a national study to determine the feasibility of blind proficiency testing in U.S. forensic DNA laboratories are discussed. Part of the project involved designing and executing a series of fifteen blind proficiency tests. Execution included biological specimen donor recruitment and case evidence manufacturing. Simulated cases were submitted to DNA laboratories by law enforcement agencies and in some cases by other forensic-science laboratories. Replicate-manufactured evidence was submitted to reference laboratories to simulate the workings of a larger-scale program. Ten tests were straightforward, and essentially tested analytical ability. Five tests involved selecting on the basis of case facts appropriate bloodstains for typing from a bloodstain pattern. We describe in detail our experience in designing and conducting these blind proficiency test trials, and relate those experiences to the overall issue of blind proficiency testing as a quality-assurance tool in forensic DNA laboratories. In this feasibility test series, one blind test was detected by a laboratory, a second one was shown to the lab by law enforcement, and a third was never completed because of lapses in communication. Turnaround times were relatively fast in the independent/commercial labs and relatively slow in the larger public laboratories. Two cross-state case-to-case CODIS "hits" were "planted" among the first series of ten blind tests. One pair was detected. One member of the second pair went to a lab that was not CODIS-ready.     

Reflections on Mansfield, Technological Complexity, and the “Golden Age” of U.S. Corporate R&D

We focus on two themes, among those in Mansfield's work, particularly relevant to understanding the role of large corporations in the U.S. innovation system: (1) the development of science-based inventions into market-ready innovations, and (2) the imitation by one firm of another's technology. Both of these phenomena, we propose, depend critically on the extent of technological and organizational complexity characteristic of current products and potential innovations. Reporting on recent survey research of our own, we argue that the origins and potentially the future of U.S. leadership in technology-based economic growth lie in the complementarity of large corporations and entrepreneurial start-ups, each exploring and exploiting the market potential of different types of science-based innovations.     

美国《1930年关税法》修改的法律观察

美国近日修改《1930年关税法》授权美国商务部对以中国为代表的所谓"非市场经济国家"征收反补贴税,是对来自中国的进口产品新一轮贸易保护主义的表现。WTO规则并未禁止对"非市场经济国家"反补贴,因此美国此次修法并不违反其在WTO项下的义务,但美国如果对来自中国的产品按照"非市场经济国家"使用替代国方法进行"双反"救济,依据WTO争端解决上诉机构"对来自中国的产品的反补贴和反倾销措施"报告,将很可能违反WTO协定的"适当金额"要求,构成双重救济。中国当前最重要的是积极应对现实的"双反"调查,而长远的目标则是争取美国对中国完全市场经济地位的承认。     

COMPETITION POLICY WITH OPTIMALLY DIFFERENTIATED RULES INSTEAD OF "PER SE RULES VS RULE OF REASON"

Both in U.S. antitrust and EU competition policy, a developmentto a broader application of rule of reason instead of per serules can be observed. In the European discussion the attemptto base competition policy on a "more economic approach" ismainly viewed as improving the economic analysis in the assessmentof specific cases. In this paper it is shown from a generallaw and economics perspective that the application of rulesinstead of focussing on case-by-case analyses can have manyadvantages (lower regulation costs, rent-seeking, and knowledgeproblems), although an additional differentiation of rules througha deeper assessment can also have advantages in regard to thereduction of decision errors of type I and II. After introducingthe notion of a continuum of more or less differentiated rules,we show—based upon law and economics literature upon theoptimal complexity of rules—in a simple model that a competitionrule is optimally differentiated if the marginal reduction ofthe sum of error costs (as the marginal benefit of differentiation)equals the marginal costs of differentiation. This model alsoallows for a more detailed analysis of the most important determinantsof the optimal degree of rule-differentiation. From this lawand economics perspective, competition policy should consistmainly of (more or less differentiated) rules and should onlyrarely rely on case-by-case analysis. Therefore the main taskof a "more economic approach" is to use economics for the formulationof appropriate competition rules.     

Discussion of "Using Stationarity Tests in Antitrust Market Definition"

Send correspondence to: Daniel Hosken, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20850; E-mail: dhosken@ftc.gov. The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.