Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.law From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: law Mon, Feb 24 1992 Date: Mon, 24 Feb 92 06:25:44 EST Message-ID: DECISIONLINE: Business Law USA TODAY Update Feb. 24, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network TRADERS SUBPOENAED IN YORK CASE: The U.S. attorney's office in New York Friday subpoenaed traders in York Research stock, reports USA TODAY columnist Dan Dorfman. He reports that the subpoenas, which he says are part of a federal grand jury probe into York, are seeking trading records in York stock. Steve Carlson, head of Aspen Capital Group, who got a subpoena, says he believes the probe is into wrongdoing by York. BENINGSON WELCOMES PROBE: USA TODAY columnist Dan Dorfman reports that York Research CEO Robert Beningson denies any wrongdoing in a grand jury probe into the company. "We welcome the investigation," says Beningson, who claims short sellers - bettors on lower stock prices - are manipulating the company's stock. He says he hopes the shorts "have to cover their stocks before they go to jail." SALE OF TYLENOL PM BARRED: Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. said it won a preliminary injunction barring the sale and advertising of Johnson & Johnson's Tylenol PM because the packaging is too similar to Bristol-Myers' Excedrin PM. U.S. District Court Judge Arthur D. Spatt prohibited J&J from, "selling, offering for sale, and distributing" Tylenol PM in its current packaging - tablet and caplet form. FDIC CRITICIZED IN THRIFT CASE: Critics say the FDIC should give up on trying to save New York's CrossLand Savings. The agency seized the ailing thrift last month, but instead of selling its deposits and assets or liquidating the bank, the FDIC is trying to save the bank and sell it for more money later on - saving the government money. Critics charge the agency's job is to dispose of failed thrifts, not run them. CRYSTAL THREATENED WITH SUIT: University of California at Berkley adjunct professor Graef Crystal, who has been critical of corporate executives' pay levels, has come under attack. Ira Millstein, lawyer for Andrew Sigler, CEO of Champion International, threatened to sue Crystal if he published correspondence with Sigler. Sigler complained to Crystal about charges in a book and articles that he was overpaid. BCCI DEAL ANNOUNCED: Under a deal announced Friday, depositors in the Bank of Credit and Commerce International would get between 30% and 40% of their money back from the failed bank. The banks' main liquidator, Brian Smouha of the accounting firm Touche Ross and Co., said the deal requires the approval of courts in Britain, Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands, plus 70% of the eligible depositors. AUTO BILL PROPOSED: Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., Friday proposed a bill that would limit the sale of Japanese vehicles in the USA to the 1991 level of about 3.6 million, limit salaries of U.S. auto executives, and increase quality by the Big Three. To impose the limit, the U.S. auto industry would have to do without "obscene salaries" and prove it was increasing quality. BARR DISCUSSES ANTITRUST LAWS: Attorney General William Barr said the Justice Department will soon begin applying U.S. antitrust laws to Japanese cartels that restrict imports of U.S. products. In an interview Sunday on John McLaughlin's "One on One" TV show, Barr said the department's policy has been to enforce antitrust laws against foreign companies only when U.S. consumers are harmed. BSA JOINS IN FILING: The Business Software Alliance Friday joined other U.S. copyright industries in filing a submission to the U.S. Trade Representative citing countries for inadequate copyright protection under the U.S. Trade Act. BSA Managing Director Robert Holleyman said Germany accounted for the most offenses, with piracy there costing the software industry $1.86 billion in 1990. SAS SUES PIONEER: U.S. car speaker maker SAS has sued Japanese-owned Pioneer Electronics for patent infringement. The suit, filed Friday in federal court in Baton Rouge, La., alleges Pioneer, and a Baton Rouge dealer of Pioneer car audio, infringed on the patent of SAS's Bazooka system with its tube-shaped sub woofer. The Japanese manufacturer calls its tube sub woofer "sub-cylinders." NPR REPORTER TO APPEAR: National Public Radio's Nina Totenberg appears Monday before a Senate investigator probing who leaked the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas story. Totenberg is expected to refuse to reveal her sources. Timothy Phelps of New York's Newsday has already refused to name his sources on First Amendment grounds. Senate special counsel Peter Pleming may try to hold them in contempt of Congress. INVESTIGATIONS DROP: Investigations by the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice declined 29% from 1986 to 1990 - from 251 to 178 - according to the General Accounting Office. Also, in 1990, 89% of 85 cases that went to litigation resulted in conviction of at least one defendant, the National Law Journal reports. Business Law Editor: Jason P. Smith. (919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. 08:0002240000D0224 ENER- R E Workers-exposed-to-radiation.......... A D0224 This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM