Customs Law

This is an off topic technology post. I'm looking for technical help and, frankly, just letting you know I am here. I have been busy with work and have a lot of travel coming up. I'll post as I can. Also, I haven't seem too much that really struck me as interesting. I lost my MP3 player. By "lost" I mean it was quite possibly stolen by housekeeping personnel in a hotel. Unfortunately, it is equally possible that I left it in the hotel's fitness center. Either way, my Samsung MP3 player is no more. The much greater tragedy is that my outstanding Shure headphones went with it. I have struggled for a couple weeks to figure out what to get as a replacement. My penultimate decision was to get a very cool new Samsung YP-P2 . The Samsung has a very slick iPhone-ish design and touch screen interface. I also figured that a Samsung to Samsung upgrade would make migrating my collection easy. Best Buy, changed my mind. Basically, the sales guy told me to look at Microsof...

Samsung International, Inc. v. U.S . proves that point. If you are interested in Samsung litigation that does not involve Apple, read on. At its base, this is a case about whether plasma televisions and video monitors made in Mexico are entitled to be treated as originating under the North American Free Trade Agreement. If so, they may enter the United States free of duty and merchandise processing fee. The problem for Samsung is that the imported units include an assembly from Korea that consists of a plasma flat panel and various support electronics. Under the relevant NAFTA rules of origin, if that non-originating Korean assembly is classifiable as a "flat panel screen assembly" of 8529.90.53 in the HTSUS, then it fails to satisfy the tariff shift requirement of the NAFTA rule of origin. So, the question is whether two specific configurations of subassemblies are FPSA's. It turns out that is a complicated question because FPSA is not defined in the tariff nor in t...

Smart watches are cool new technology. Generally, I want cool new technology. I'm not so interested in a smart watch, at least not at the moment. One reason for this is that I am firmly commitment to my Windows Phone. I have little interest in a watch that requires me to have an iOS or Android phone. Microsoft does not sell a smartwatch, although its former partner Nokia was shopping one . I have some interest in a Microsoft band, which is supposed to have impressive utility for cycling . But, I hear there is a new version on the horizon, so I am waiting. That said, I am struggling to get my current bike computer (a Polar CS300) working. So, I am also kind of jonesing for a Polar M450 . These are clearly my first world issues. A more relevant consideration for this blog is the proper tariff treatment of a smartwatch. Customs recently settled the issue, at least with respect to a Samsung "Gear" Live Android smartwatch. See HQ H257947 (July 14, 2015) . The watch uses Bl...

First things first, I admit that I am in the tank for Microsoft products. I have multiple Windows 10 computers and a Windows 10 tablet. I am also on my third Windows Phone. I stared with a Samsung Windows 7 device, moved to a Nokia Lumia 920, and now carry a Lumia 950, which I keep slightly ahead of the curve through the Insiders program. I recently got my hands briefly on a Surface Book, on which I have a serious crush. I also have most of my personal data in the Microsoft cloud via OneDrive and Office 365. I am, as you can see, all in on Windows. Nevertheless, I do not have a Microsoft Band fitness tracker. Before we discuss why I have so far skipped the Microsoft Band, we should talk about its tariff classification. I raise this because Customs recently ruled on the question. According to HQ H265035 (Jan. 19, 2016) , the Microsoft Band is classified in subheading 8517.62.00, HTSUS, as an apparatus for the transmission or reception of voice, images, or data . . . ." This...

For years, I have been fascinated by the classification of automatic data processing equipment. Some of the first issues on which I worked involved pretty high-tech gear that was not technically computers. But, the guts were plenty smart and a good tinkerer could probably have programmed it to play Pong or tic-tac-toe when not being used for its intended purpose. Think about an ATM machine. I am confident there is no technical reason that would prevent a smart ATM hacker from turning one of those into a video game or word processing station (of course the numbers-only keyboard would be murder to use). I suspect the smokin' hot 486 processors of 1987 are busy running the gas pumps and vending machines of today. This all comes up because of the Federal Circuit's decision in Optrex America, Inc. v. U.S. At issue in Optrex was the classification of a number of LCD display modules and incomplete LCD assemblies. The importer wanted them classified in 8473 as parts of ADP machines,...

This is going to be one of my old-school posts mostly about something other than customs law. It is about my history with mobile devices and my current heartache. Deal with it. At the end, I get to a more relevant review of the CustomsMobile app. Around 2001, I used something called a Handspring Visor with a VisorPhone attachment. It was basically a Palm Pilot with a slot for extension modules, and its was both functional and cool. When that stopped being cool, around 2004 I switched over to a Palm Treo 650. That was a great device. It was compact, had a web browser and, if I remember right, would sync with my work email and contacts. That was great until a guy I know doused it in coffee. I wrote about that in 2005. In 2006, I replaced that with a new Treo 700p, which I also wrote about . That post garnered one of my favorite comments ever, from then-New York Times tech columnist David Pogue . After that, I had brief dalliance with Android in the form of a Motorola Droi...

I have an MP3 player I like quite a bit. It is a 2 GB Samsung Z5 . I wish I had gone with the 4 GB version. I have tried a variety of headphones with it. The earbuds that came in the box sound OK but are slightly too big to be comfortable and secure in my apparently infantile ears. I tried a pair of inexpensive Sony earbuds that came with rubber ends of varying sizes for a better fit. The fit was good, but the sound was not great. Recently, I came into possession of a pair of Shure E3c headphones that cost almost as much as the player. It took me a bit of fiddling to get them to fit properly but once I did, it was a revelation (in the non-liturgical sense). They have excellent outside noise isolation and the sound from the player reveals details and spacing I had never heard away from the pretty decent sound system in my living room. Today, I was unlocking the door to the office while listening to music. OK, it happen to be Neil Diamond singing Cracklin ' Rosie . Leave me alone...

I am living without critical technology. Just like in The Day the Earth Stood Still , minus Gort the big robot. Obviously, it is not my computer or an internet connection. No, it is my garage door opener, which mysteriously stopped working yesterday. Now, when returning home, I need to stop, get out of my car, bend over to reach the handle, and lift the door (preferably with my legs so as not to hurt my back). It is amazing to me how much I have taken for granted this masterpiece of engineering. For most of my life, I never gave a second thought to how the garage door would open. According to this link , the electric garage door opener was invented in 1926 by one C.G. Johnson by what is now Overhead Door Corporation. I do not know why he was overlooked for a Nobel Prize of some kind. Same goes for the guy who invented air conditioning (which is another story of technology on the fritz in my house). This event has caused me to take stock of my tech-dependent life. Suddenly, with a manua...