Topics in Brief

• Author: International Law Group
• Pages: 120-

Page 120

Bolivia begins to nationalize its natural gas industry

On May 1, Evo Morales, the President of Bolivia, issued a decree purporting to nationalize Bolivia's huge natural gas industry. Mr. Morales said that the state would also recover majority control of those Bolivian hydrocarbon companies that were partially privatized during the 1990s. He has sent troops and engineers to take over the gas fi elds, giving the present foreign operators six months to agree to hand over most production controls to Bolivia's cash-poor state-owned oil company, Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos, or face eviction. The takeovers will affect the Bolivian operations of Exxon Mobil Corp. (based in Texas) along with companies from the UK, Brazil, Argentina, Spain and France.

Citation: Associate Press (via Findlaw), La Paz, Bolivia, Monday, May 1, 2006 (bylines of Alvaro Zuazo with contributions from Frank Bajak, Alan Clendenning and Jeanneth Valdivieso).

California company prevails in international patent infringement litigation

On April 24, 2006, Rambus, a technology and research company of Los Altos, California won a federal jury verdict of almost $307 million against Hynix Semiconductor of South Korea...