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October 30, 1998
Nokia says it will its San Diego-based employees into a new three-story, 188,000 square-foot facility in the Scripps Northridge Corporate Center in San Diego. The new facility will house Nokia's mobile phone Product Creation Center, which will house design engineers and a variety of laboratories and research facilities. Occupancy is set for October 1999.
The new corporate park, developed by Lankford and Associates and Kearny Real Estate Co., is located on Interstate 15 about 15 miles north of Downtown San Diego.
Risto Junnikkala, v.p. of the Nokia Mobile Phones Product Creation Center, says the move from the company’s current location in San Diego’s "Telecom Valley" allows for continued growth, while providing better commuting conditions and a quality work environment for Nokia employees. "This move reflects Nokia's commitment to our CDMA product line, and it’s very positive for our employees. To allow for future growth, we also have expansion opportunities here."
"Nokia is clearly a global leader in the development of wireless telephone technology," says Larry Paulson, v.p. — CDMA Product Line Management. "San Diego is the forefront of CDMA technology development. Nokia's expansion and reinforced commitment to this community is yet another indication of the vibrant future of the wireless telephone and communications industry."
Three San Diego firms have design responsibilities: McGraw/Baldwin Architects are architects of record, Davis Davis Architects is the design firm and Jackson & Bryan is responsible for interior design. Consulting is Good Fulton & Farrell Architects, which designed Nokia's new Americas corporate offices in Irving, Texas.
General Contractor is Hensel Phelps Construction Corp. of San Diego. Cushman & Wakefield provides real estate services for Nokia, including all development negotiations for this project.
Nokia is the world's leading mobile phone supplier and a leading supplier of mobile and fixed telecom networks including related customer services. In 1997, net sales totaled $9.8 billion. Headquartered in Finland, Nokia is listed on five European Stock Exchanges and on the New York Stock Exchange, has sales in 130 countries and employs more than 42,000 people worldwide.
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Manpower Temporary Services of San Diego says that all eight of its local offices have been registered to ISO 9002 by the Quality Management Institute.
ISO 9002 is one of five standards associated with the ISO 9000 series, the international standard for quality for all businesses. Manpower's registration demonstrates that the company’s practices meet a high level of universally recognized performance, and represent a model for quality assurance in areas of production, installation and/or servicing.
"Our ISO 9002 registration is evidence of the strength of our quality management system," says Phil Blair, Manpower San Diego’s president and co-owner. "It is third-party assurance that our employees and our customers will receive absolute professionalism and superior service from Manpower."
The requirements of the ISO-9000 Series of Quality Standards are varied and an organization's choice of levels one through five is dependent on the demands of its customers and future quality expectations. ISO-9000 registration is not simply a one-time program, but an ongoing process and basis for continuous improvement.
QMI is the leading third-party registrar in North America. QMI does not provide consulting services due to conflict of interest, but rather provides companies with the information required to develop effective quality systems.
Manpower Temporary Services of San Diego was started in 1977 and is owned by Phil Blair and Mel Katz. The franchise consistently ranks as one of the largest employers in San Diego County and supports businesses through its eight local offices. Each day, Manpower assigns about 3,300 skilled temporaries to jobs in office, retail, industrial and technical areas.
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October 29, 1998
Sales of existing homes in California in September posted a 9.3 percent increase and the median home price in the state was up 6.8 percent compared to the same period a year ago, the California Association of Realtors and Transamerica Intellitech, a real estate information service, report.
The $209,520 median price of a San Diego home in September was up 12.6 percent from September 1997 but down 5 percent from August of 1998. Sales activity was off 0.2 percent from September of 1997 and down 4.3 percent from August of 1998.
"September represented the continuation of a trend toward a more orderly housing market for California," says C.A.R. President Tim Corliss. "Home sales and price gains were in single digits for the second month in a row, following months of double-digit sales and median home price increases."
Closed escrow sales of existing, single-family detached homes in California totaled 632,000 in September at a seasonally-adjusted annualized rate, according to information collected by C.A.R. from more than 90 Multiple Listing Services (MLS) statewide. Statewide home resale activity was up 9.3 percent from the 578,130 sales pace recorded in September 1997. Resale activity posted a slight decrease of 0.9 percent in September 1998 compared to August 1998.
The statewide sales figure represents what the total number of homes sold during 1998 would be if sales maintained the September pace throughout the year. It is adjusted to account for seasonal factors that typically influence home sales.
The median price of an existing, single-family detached home in California during September 1998 rose to $204,630, a 6.8 percent increase over the $191,600 median for September 1997, C.A.R. reports. The September 1998 median price was down 2.5 percent compared to August 1998. C.A.R., in conjunction with Transamerica Intellitech's MetroScan software and information product, reported that more than three-quarters of California cities and communities showed an increase in their respective median home prices from a year ago.
Highlights of C.A.R.'s resale housing figures for September 1998:
- C.A.R.'s Unsold Inventory Index for existing, single-family detached homes in September 1998 was 5.4 months, down from 6.1 months for the same period a year ago. The index indicates the number of months needed to deplete the supply of homes on the market at the current sales rate.
- Thirty-year fixed mortgage interest rates averaged 6.72 percent during September 1998, down from 7.43 percent in September 1997, according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. Adjustable mortgage interest rates averaged 5.47 percent in September 1998, down from 5.55 percent in September 1997.
- The number of median days it took to sell a single-family home declined to 42 days in September 1998 from 47 days in September 1997.
Regional MLS sales and price information is contained in the charts that accompany this press release. Regional sales data is not adjusted to account for seasonal factors that can influence home sales. The MLS median price and sales data for detached homes is generated from a survey of more than 90 associations of Realtors throughout the state. MLS median price and sales data is based on a survey of 64 associations. The median price for both detached homes and condominiums represents closed escrow sales.
"Despite a slight cooling from the housing market of recent months, the fall homebuying season will keep us on track toward a record year, as we have expected," says Leslie Appleton-Young, C.A.R.'s vice president and chief economist. "While the impact of the Asian financial crisis remains on the horizon, current market conditions appear to remain largely unaffected at this point in time."
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The scientific achievements of chemist Mark Thiemens of the University of California, San Diego are lofty in more ways than one. Delving into the mystery of atmospheric phenomena, including greenhouse warming and ozone depletion from ground level into the stratosphere, Thiemens has contributed much to current thinking on environmental science, the solar system and the Earth's formation and evolution.
But these achievements would not have been possible had it not been for another milestone: Thiemens' discovery in 1991 that carbon dioxide in the stratosphere possesses a large and variable mass-independent isotopic composition, which later provided crucial insight into the study of atmospheric molecules and processes. For this discovery, Thiemens, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, has been named a 1998 recipient of the U.S. Department of Energy's Ernest O. Lawrence Award in the category of Environmental Science and Technology, Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson announced.
Thiemens is one five scientists nationwide chosen this year to receive the Lawrence Award, which recognizes scientists and engineers in various award categories, for their exceptional contributions to atomic energy and influences on such fields as materials science, nuclear medicine, physics and environmental research. Each winner will receive a gold medal, a citation and $15,000.
Thiemens' discovery, known as the mass independent isotope effect, has direct applications to the study of global climate, greenhouse gases, acid rain, stratospheric ozone chemistry and chemical physics. ("Mass independent" means that a chemical's atomic elements during chemical reaction cannot be distinguished or separated according to their mass.) This discovery gave rise to additional achievements by Thiemens and his research group, including:
- Being the first to identify a new isotopic form of airborne nitrous oxide that is created in the upper atmosphere. Nitrous oxide, commonly known in dental medicine as "laughing gas," is a chemical long considered a culprit in global warming and upper atmospheric ozone destruction. It enters the atmosphere through a variety of natural and man-made processes ranging from soil bacteria, the burning of organic matter including fossil fuels and the tropical forests, and the production of nylon.
Thiemens' discovery of a new version of nitrous oxide challenged established thinking on the sources of this gas, and therefore, what happens to it when it enters the atmosphere.
- Revealing from a series of small rocket launches in 1992 into the Earth's upper stratosphere and beyond that atmospheric ozone briefly merges with carbon dioxide and oxygen, transferring a significant amount of energy in the process. Until these findings, atmospheric chemists did not know that ozone reacted at these heights (roughly 27 miles above the Earth's surface) with anything other than man-made chemicals and light.
- Being the first to demonstrate, with UCSD inorganic chemist William Trogler, how the manufacture of nylon contributes to both the "greenhouse effect" and the depletion of the ozone layer of the atmosphere. In a study published in 1991, Thiemens reported how large quantities of nitrous oxide are being released into the atmosphere as a byproduct of nylon manufacturing. (During manufacturing, nitrous oxide is released as a byproduct in the synthesis of adipic acid, one of the ingredients used in making nylon.) Citing Thiemens' work, DuPont, a major producer of adipic acid in nylon manufacturing, recognized the problem and has implemented emission controls. Other producers of adipic acid later followed.
- Leading a team of UCSD chemists that concluded that grains of carbonate minerals found in a meteorite from Mars did not suggest past life on Mars, as previously thought by scientists at NASA and Stanford University, but were most likely the product of reactions with atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Thiemens received his doctorate at Florida State University and conducted post-doctoral research at the Enrico Fermi Institute for Nuclear Studies at the University of Chicago. The recipient of numerous professional awards and honors, Thiemens came to UCSD in 1980 where he chairs the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and is founder and director of the multidisciplinary Center for Environmental Research and Training. The Lawrence Award is named for the late Dr. Ernest Orlando Lawrence, inventor of the cyclotron (a particle accelerator). Two major Department of Energy laboratories in Berkeley and Livermore, Calif., are also named for him.
More than 2,000 scientists and research organizations were invited to make nominations for the award. The awards will be presented at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., this winter.
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October 28, 1998
Qualcomm has changed the name of its OmniTracs division to Qualcomm Wireless Business Solutions and has plans to enter new wireless data markets around the world. By leveraging its CDMA digital wireless technology and other complementary technologies, the group's vision is to bring wireless data solutions to businesses worldwide by developing new products and expanding into other markets.
While maintaining its focus on the long-haul truckload industry with the OmniTracs and TruckMail product lines, QWBS will develop new products targeted at other areas of freight transportation, as well as other businesses with a need for mobile data.
Qualcomm says it has in development terrestrial-based products designed to connect to cargo capacity, such as untethered TrailerTracs and a communications product targeted at the short-haul industry, and pick-up and delivery fleets. These products and others will have the potential to give cellular carriers the opportunity for additional network airtime.
Phil White, senior v.p. and g.m. of Wireless Business Solutions, says, "Our mission is to build integrated wireless data solutions that will forge competitive advantages for both our current and new customers. The reason for the name change is simple — we are no longer a one product line business group and we are broadening our direction. Our new name is better aligned with our strategic plan and corporate charter of building wireless systems around the world. We have enjoyed success in the domestic truckload segment with the OmniTrac system, and believe we can apply our core competencies and offer new, innovative wireless solutions to other businesses."
Introduced in 1989, the OmniTracs system revolutionized the manner in which trucking companies do business around the world. This cost-effective system provides data transmission and position reporting services to over 800 trucking companies and other mobile customers including railroad and maritime fleets. Part of the reason for this system's success is the superior operation of its Network Service Center in San Diego. Staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, the processes more than 4 million transactions each day and is unsurpassed in the industry. To ensure system reliability, the center maintains fully redundant computer systems. A duplicate backup center in Las Vegas provides additional system safeguards to assure continuing service in the case of natural disasters or other emergencies.
Qualcomm has sold more than 250,000 OmniTrac terminals worldwide, with systems operating in the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, Korea and Malaysia.
Qualcomm plans to capitalize on its trucking industry success by positioning itself to help other businesses move into the next millennium. "We will continue to use leading-edge technology to deploy innovative wireless data solutions around the globe," says George Mansho, v.p. and g.m. of international business for Wireless Business Solutions. "Internationally, we already have experience addressing customer needs in markets other than long-haul trucking which we have traditionally dominated. Requirements like security are driving sales in these markets along with the basic need for data communications and positioning. Our strategy is to continue to deliver solutions to our partners that give them a strong market advantage, to offer the same solutions to new and potential markets like China and the Middle East, and to increase our penetration in regions where we already have a presence, such as Europe, Russia and South America."
To signify the new name and direction, Qualcomm has incorporated the theme "This Way to the Future" into its marketing activities at the American Trucking Associations Management Conference & Exhibition in New Orleans finishing today.
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Southwest Community Bank has hired Barbara Williams, formerly with Bank of America, to open its recently approved office in San Diego’s Downtown financial district. The new office, Southwest's second, will be located at 600 B St., Suite 2202.
Southwest Community Bank opened for business in December 1997 in response to the frustration experienced by many clients over the growing number of mergers and acquisitions during the past several years. "Customer confusion and dissatisfaction with changes in service and personnel have reached new highs. This has created new opportunities for independent banks of all sizes, including new start-ups," says Frank Mercardante, president and CEO. "Southwest Community Bank has been well received by businesses and households of all sizes. The addition of the San Diego office will enable us to better serve clients in other markets."
"We are delighted to have a well known, experienced banker such as Barbara Williams join the Southwest team," says Mercardante. During the past 26 years, Williams served Bank of America in many capacities. Most recently, she was relationship manager of Bank of America's Global Private bank in San Diego.
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October 27, 1998
Lynelle Berkey has resigned as executive v.p. and COO of the Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce. Berkey had spent nearly two years at the chamber. She joined it from Saks Fifth Avenue where she ran the upscale retailers department stores in Fashion Valley and Palm Springs.
At the Chamber, Berkey had run the entire show for seven months in between the resignation of former president Gilbert Partida and the hiring of new president Benjamin Haddad. She will continue in an advisory role at the conclusion of her employment Nov. 6. In a statement, Berkey said she was leaving the Chamber to pursue real estate opportunities with her husband.
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Wireless communications carrier Leap Wireless International says that one of its operating companies, Chilesat Telefonia Personal, S.A., has launched commercial wireless service in Chile that will provide nationwide coverage. Chilesat PCS is the first carrier in Latin America that offers a nationwide CDMA digital network. In addition, Chilesat PCS is the only CDMA carrier in Chile, a market of 14.9 million potential customers. Leap Wireless believes Chile is a promising market with potential for growth in wireless communications because teledensity is only 16 percent and a mere 4.4 percent of Chileans use wireless services.
"Wireless is the fastest, most cost-effective way to build teledensity, and we are excited that our nationwide CDMA network will bring the economic benefits of reliable telecommunications infrastructure to all of Chile," says Harvey White, chairman and CEO of Leap Wireless. "We plan to meet the demand for improved telecommunications by delivering high-quality wireless communications and first-class customer service to the Chilean market."
Chilesat PCS is a joint venture owned 50 percent by Leap Wireless and 50 percent by Telex Chile and its affiliate, one of the country's long-distance operators.
Headquartered in San Diego, Leap Wireless is a wireless communications carrier that deploys CDMA networks in domestic and international markets with strong growth potential. Leap Wireless was spun off from Qualcomm Inc. on Sept. 23.
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The University of California San Diego was rated among the nation's top "high impact" research universities between 1993 and 1997, according to a report produced by the Institute for Scientific Information.
In the latest edition of ScienceWatch, ISI's newsletter devoted to tracking trends and performance in basic research, the top 100 federally funded U.S. universities are evaluated in 21 fields of science. The report ranks universities both by the number of papers produced and by "impact," those papers important enough to garner citations in succeeding research papers.
UCSD, one of only 11 universities to make the exclusive list of the "Highest Impact U.S. Universities," tied Cornell University, the University of Washington and UC Santa Barbara with six top ten appearances out of the 21 scientific fields. Harvard University led the way with 17 appearances, followed by Stanford University's 13 appearances and Caltech's 11 appearances. Yale University and the University of Michigan tied with nine, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at eight and UC Berkeley with seven.
"One of the most important measures of how we are doing is how often we’re publishing and how often these papers are being quoted by others," says Mark Thiemens, chair of UCSD's department of chemistry and biochemistry. "So these are very important rankings and we’re extremely pleased with the results." In individual science fields, UCSD ranked third in the nation in plant and animal science. UCSD placed sixth in immunology, eighth in molecular biology and genetics and ninth in clinical medicine.
UCSD's high ranking follows the preceding edition of ScienceWatch, which reported UCSD as a leader in chemistry research. In that report, UCSD was touted for producing the second highest number of chemistry papers citations in leading scientific journals between 1994 and 1996 amongst both academic and corporate research entities. UCSD was first among academic institutions, ahead of Caltech, Harvard, MIT and Stanford.
UCSD's 1,032 chemistry citations was second only to Scripps Research Institute. UC Berkeley was third with 1,024 citations, followed by Caltech (852), the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (845), DuPont Co. (829), the University of Cambridge (784), Harvard (736), MIT (727) and the University of Washington (682).
In a separate category, the study also ranked institutions according to citation impact, those institutions producing the most highly-cited chemistry papers in the same three-year period. In that category, UCSD ranked fifth with a 93.8 impact rating. DuPont rated highest with a 118.4 rating, followed by the University of Washington, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and the University of Utah. Following UCSD in the impact category were Northwestern University, Scripps Research Institute, the UC San Francisco, Caltech and Stanford.
K.C. Nicolaou, a researcher who splits time at UCSD and the Scripps Research Institute, was individually highlighted for producing the most high impact papers.
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October 26, 1998
Sandicor Inc., a San Diego-based source of real estate information and technology, has partnered with the Tegris Corp. to provide high-speed, broadband network connectivity to its subscribers.
Sandicor's 8,000 licensed real estate agents will be able to access its property listings database, e-mail and the internet via this high-speed connection.
"This will help our customers get timely access to the data they need to conduct business effectively," says William Stegall, president and CEO of Sandicor. "And by letting Tegris take care of the technology, we are able to focus on our core business as a knowledge and content provider."
"Sandicor has always been an innovator in terms of the breadth of services it makes available to its customers," says Rick Stewart, Tegris CEO. "We’re pleased to add Sandicor to our growing list of real estate industry partners."
Founded in 1993, Tegris markets real estate IT solutions in Washington, Oregon and California. The company provides connectivity solutions, informational services, Web services, hardware and software solutions, and training and e-commerce solutions to multiple listing services, real estate broker/owners, and real estate agents. Tegri solutions will be exhibited at the 1998 Realtor Annual Convention and Trade Exposition, Nov. 6-9, at the Anaheim Convention Center.
Sandicor ( www.sandicor.com) provides training, marketing, telecommunications services and information systems support to more than 8,000 licensed real estate agents in 2,400 offices throughout San Diego County. Incorporated in 1991 and privately owned, the company licenses its database to national and worldwide consumer Web sites such as Microsoft's HomeAdvisor, Realtor.com, Cyberhomes and Homeseekers. Sandicor also supplies data to companies that include DataQuick, Spatial Data, Primary Access, Moore Data Systems and the San Diego Union-Tribune.
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Peregrine Systems Inc., a leading provider of infrastructure management solutions that unite the unique disciplines of the Enterprise Service Desk and Asset Management, has launched a leasing program for its Year 2000 (Y2K) crisis management solution, ServiceCenter/2000. Y2K project managers can lease ServiceCenter/2000 for $3,000 per month under a 24-month lease program.
"The next 24 months are critical to proactively planning for and managing the Y2K crisis," says Steve Gardner, president and CEO of Peregrine Systems. "We know companies will need ServiceCenter/2000 for the next 24 months but they may not want the product forever. This is why we are offering a low-cost leasing package."
The offering consists of custom Y2K applications for problem management, change management, inventory configuration management and servicecenter insight as well as a full two years of software maintenance. Ten active users and an unlimited number of casual users can access ServiceCenter/2000. The lease also includes a provision to convert to a purchase of the software at the end of the term.
The lease program targets Y2K project managers who have a need to manage their Y2K projects separately from the demands of their on-going enterprise service desk operations. The pricing allows project managers to license the software for immediate use without having to go through lengthy evaluation or pricing committee decisions.
ServiceCenter/2000
ServiceCenter/2000 imposes a process and offers a "best practice" methodology to manage the Y2K crisis for organizations that have formed Y2K response teams. No matter how effective a company’s Y2K remediation strategy might be, there is industry consensus that there will be a crisis. The Securities and Exchange Commission requires publicly traded companies to report on their Y2K contingency plans to ensure investors are aware of the status and potential financial liability. ServiceCenter/2000 provides a comprehensive solution for managing the crisis that will occur should remediation efforts fail unlike point solutions that have been developed to solve specific Y2K compliance problems.
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October 23, 1998
Bank of Commerce, already the nation's leading SBA bank lender, has opened of a new loan production office in Atlanta to serve small businesses throughout the Southeast. The new office operates as Commerce Loan Co., a division of the bank.
"Atlanta is the seventh new office we’ve opened this year and our first operation east of the Mississippi," says Peter Q. Davis, chairman and CEO of the bank. "It represents a tremendous opportunity for us to provide our small business lending expertise to a whole new region of America."
Joy Manbeck has been hired as the first business development officer at the new Commerce Loan Co. office, located temporarily at 1100 Circle 75 Parkway. In about 90 days, the office will move to its permanent location: 2839 Paces Ferry Road. Prior to joining Commerce Loan, Manbeck was a top producing SBA senior v.p. and department head with Premier Bank in Atlanta.
"With more than 15 years of SBA lending experience in Georgia, Manbeck commands extensive experience and business contacts statewide," says David Bartram, senior executive v.p. with Bank of Commerce. "We are very pleased to open our Atlanta office with a business development professional who has consistently generated $12 million in SBA loans annually. In addition to Joy, we anticipate hiring one or two additional business development officers in the near future."
Commerce Loan opens in Georgia as an SBA Preferred Lender, the SBA's premier authorization. Preferred lenders directly approve loans on behalf of the SBA, resulting in better service, faster loan approvals and quicker disbursement of funds.
Bank of Commerce operates 19 loan offices in California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Texas, Utah and now Georgia. Additional loan offices are planned to open later this year in Boise and Chicago. Headquartered in Downtown San Diego, Bank of Commerce has been a SBA lender for 23 years and was among the first banks to participate with the SBA, which will facilitate the lending of approximately $9 billion to finance small business expansion this year. The bank also is the largest publicly held bank headquartered in San Diego based on total assets of $697.4 million as of Sept. 30.
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Houston Industries Inc. and Sempra Energy have completed the financing of El Dorado Energy, a 492-megawatt, natural gas-fired power plant located in Boulder City, Nev., near Las Vegas. This is the first true merchant power plant in the United States to be financed with non-recourse debt.
Warburg Dillon Read and UBS AG have arranged and underwritten up to $165 million senior secured credit facilities, which represents about 60 percent of the $263 million total project cost.
"This is a milestone for the project and the merchant power industry. We recognize that this financing, which is based solely on compelling market economics, is breaking new ground in the transition to a competitive electric market in the U.S.," says Joe Bob Perkins, president and COO of HI Wholesale Energy Group. "The experience we’ve gained in working with the bankers on this deal will be very beneficial as we build a portfolio of generating assets in key regions of the country."
"With the financing complete on the El Dorado Energy project, it gives us added impetus to further expand our portfolio of strategic generation assets and continue pursuing similar projects across North America," says David Kuzma, president of Sempra Energy Resources, the unit of Sempra Energy that is jointly developing the El Dorado Energy merchant plant with HI Wholesale Energy Group.
As a merchant power plant, El Dorado Energy will produce electricity for sale on the wholesale market to retail providers such as other utilities, marketers and large energy users throughout the western United States. The project, which will generate enough power to serve nearly 500,000 households, is scheduled to be completed by the end of the third quarter of 1999, just prior to the expected opening of the electricity market in Nevada. Construction began in April 1998.
Houston Industries Inc., headquartered in Houston, is a diversified international energy services company. Its operations are now organized into two business groups, HI Wholesale Energy Group and HI Retail Energy Group. With nearly 4 million electric and natural gas customers in the United States, HI is one of the top five combination gas and electric companies in the nation. The company also has ownership interests in international utilities serving more than 9 million customers.
Sempra Energy Resources acquires and develops power plants for the competitive market, as well as natural gas storage, production and transportation assets. Sempra Energy Resources is a subsidiary of Sempra Energy, a Fortune 500 energy services holding company based in Downtown San Diego. Sempra Energy has 12,000 employees, utility revenues of $5 billion and more than 6 million electric and gas meters serving 21 million consumers.
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In a fitting reply, Ericsson is accusing rival Qualcomm of attempting to mislead the public as a February 1999 court showdown nears in a long-running battle over which company owns some key patents related to CDMA digital telecommunications systems. (See the Daily Business Report for Oct. 21.)
In its latest press release, Ericsson says it has received word that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has validated a total of 36 new and amended claims in one of Ericsson's key patents on soft handoff. Ericsson says that invention of its is essential to the practice of U.S. wireless telecommunications standard IS-95, the standard which is key to Qualcomm's CDMA.
Over the past three months the U.S. Patent Office has allowed three such Ericsson patents. The successful reissue of these three patents, Erricson says, confirms that it is the true inventor of the soft handoff and macrodiversity concepts that are fundamental to IS-95.
In an Oct. 20 press release, Qualcomm Inc., Ericsson says, misleadingly alleged only that Ericsson had agreed to "surrender" its soft handoff patents. Qualcomm failed to disclose that this is part of the process of exchanging its current patents for amended and strengthened reissued patents, which cover the same inventions as the original patents.
"It is disappointing that Qualcomm continuously attempts to mislead the industry by implying that Ericsson's patents have somehow been diminished when, in fact, the opposite is true," says Larry Lyles, v.p. and general counsel of Ericsson. "Qualcomm is making a deliberate attempt to try its case outside of the courthouse, regardless of the current legal process. This way of trying to influence the legal process is neither an industry nor an Ericsson practice."
Qualcomm, Ericsson says, has yet to produce any legitimate challenge to the validity of the Ericsson soft handoff patents.
In an effort to streamline the number and scope of patents that will be tried, Ericsson says it chose to voluntarily dismiss three of the eleven patents asserted against Qualcomm in the Texas suit. In its Oct. 20 press release, Qualcomm trumpeted the dismissal of the three as a sign Ericsson's case was weakening.
Ericsson is seeking damages and other relief from Qualcomm, alleging Qualcomm has willfully infringed on Ericsson's essential IS-95 patents.
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October 22, 1998
Medical Resources Staffing has released its 1998-99 San Diego Salary Survey that reports salaries for 3,485 health care professionals. The company specializes in direct-hire and temporary staffing of health care personnel for physician offices, laboratories and managed care organizations.
A total of 72 health care-related organizations participated in the second annual salary survey, with the majority of the responses coming from physicians' offices (66.7 percent), ambulatory/outpatient clinics (8 percent), and miscellaneous health care-related companies (13.3 percent).
The survey reported wages for 11 positions in the administrative/office area, and 12 positions in the clinical and technical areas.
In the administrative/office category, the average annual salary for a medical receptionist was $21,427; a medical secretary, $26,437; a medical transcriptionist, $26,473; a medical records clerk, $16,632; a customer service representative, $21,369; a data entry clerk, $21,722; an insurance biller I, $21,918; an insurance biller II, $26,621; a medical collector, $21,904; a claims processor, $21,595; and a medical office manager, $39,105.
In the clinical category, a medical assistant averaged $22,842 per year; a licensed vocational nurse, $29,240; a registered nurse, $43,129; a nurse practitioner, $61,960; a physician assistant, $54,000; a Phlebotomist, $21,826; a lab assistant, $18,851; a lab technician, $26,212; a medical technologist, $36,469; a pharmacy tech, $21,931; a pharmacist, $75,949; and a radiology technologist, $31,989.
The company says 86.1 percent of the respondents report they will be granting salary increases in 1998. That average annual salary increase was reported at 4.94 percent.
Medical Resources Staffing, a division of The Eastridge Group, provides the San Diego County health care community with a wide variety of medical personnel, including administrative support and clinical and technical professionals
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October 21, 1998
Qualcomm Inc. is trumpeting its latest legal victory, this one taking place when arch rival Ericsson Inc. and its Swedish parent Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson dismissed with prejudice all claims under three of the patents asserted against Qualcomm in litigation brought by Ericsson in Marshall, Texas. In a further development, Ericsson, in papers filed with the United States Patent and Trademark office, also admitted the invalidity of the claims of two other patents asserted against Qualcomm in the lawsuit, and surrendered those patents.
All five patents are among the eight patents that, beginning in December 1995, Ericsson repeatedly told the telecommunications industry were "blocking" patents or were "essential" to make or use cellular products compliant with IS-95 and other cdmaOne standards. Qualcomm, of course, said they were not.
In December 1995, Ericsson represented to the Telecommunications Industry Association and others that it held eight allegedly essential patents for IS-95. Qualcomm challenged Ericsson's representation, and Ericsson filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Qualcomm in Texas more than two years ago, eventually bringing a total of 11 patents into the case. Qualcomm counterclaimed against Ericsson for unfair competition, stating in court filings that "Ericsson has knowingly made false and unfounded claims, including the assertion that it owns or controls patents that are 'essential' to the manufacture, use or sale of products that implement the IS-95 standard" with the "inten[t] that its false claims ... would have an anticompetitive effect and injure Qualcomm's business." Ericsson's dismissal or surrender of the majority of the supposedly essential patents substantiates Qualcomm's charge that Ericsson deliberately misled the industry.
"The IS-95 standard has not changed and Ericsson's patents have not changed since Ericsson first publicly contended that these five patents were essential to IS-95," says Louis Lupin, Qualcomm's senior v.p. and proprietary rights counsel. "In light of those facts, Ericsson's recent actions and admissions can only confirm Qualcomm's complaint that Ericsson wrongfully and falsely claimed essential patents. That Ericsson waited more than two years to dismiss these meritless claims sheds light on its motives. These events show that Ericsson's statements to the industry with respect to its CDMA patent position are not believable."
Unlike Qualcomm, whose CDMA patent position has been accepted by more than 55 major telecommunications companies that have entered into royalty-bearing licenses with Qualcomm, Ericsson has yet to announce a single royalty-bearing license under any of Ericsson's alleged CDMA patents for any CDMA standard. Moreover, Qualcomm says that Ericsson has not identified any essential patents it claims to hold with respect to any proposed third generation CDMA standard, including the W-CDMA proposal it has promoted in Europe, Japan and elsewhere, despite specific requests to do so from standards-setting bodies.
Ericsson had been contending in the Texas lawsuit that the three dismissed patents, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,148,485, 5,239,557, and 5,430,760, covered certain features of IS-95 compatible products sold by Qualcomm, and that the two surrendered patents, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,109,528 and 5,327,577, covered "soft handoff" in accordance with IS-95. Ericsson dropped the three patents from the lawsuit shortly before Ericsson was due to disclose in court proceedings its interpretation of the meaning and scope of the allegedly infringed claims and several months before the scheduled trial date in Feb. 1999. Ericsson's surrender of the other two patents and admissions of invalidity were made during reissue proceedings before the United States Patent Office in which Ericsson is applying for new claims which it argues avoid the invalidity problems of the surrendered claims. To date, Ericsson has not dismissed its claims against Qualcomm under the surrendered patents in the Texas litigation.
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Nanogen Inc. has been awarded a contract by the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center San Diego and a grant from the National Institute of Justice in amounts that could total more than $8 million during the next five years.
The contract award which was made by SSC San Diego for the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency, includes $2.8 million to be paid during the first two years, and options to extend the program for up to an additional three years that would pay Nanogen up to an additional $4.8 million.
The goal of the program is to create an advanced miniaturized lab for biological warfare defense applications. The technology developed pursuant to this contract could also accelerate Nanogen's lab on a chip program for medical diagnostics.
Nanogen also has been awarded a grant from the NIJ under the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs. This second NIJ grant of $500,000 is to continue a second year’s development of a portable microchip array-based genetic detector for rapid forensic DNA testing and identification at the crime scene.
"We are very pleased to have been selected as recipients of these awards," says Howard Birndorf, chairman and CEO of Nanogen. "We believe Nanogen's technology may lead to important advances in defending against biological warfare and in the area of forensics. In addition, these awards could also accelerate our efforts in the areas of medical diagnostics and genomics."
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Tiernan Communications Inc., a world leader in the design and manufacture of MPEG-2 digital television equipment for both high definition and standard definition television broadcasting, has been named the recipient of a prestigious American Electronics Association Award.
On Monday, at the annual awards luncheon of the American Electronics Association, Tiernan received the San Diego Electronics Industry Recognition Award. This award is presented annually to San Diego’s best high-tech companies, in recognition of their accomplishments and leadership role in their field during the past year.
Accepting the award on behalf of the company, President James Tiernan gave his staff the credit. "The company has become a world leader in DTV by the outstanding efforts of what I believe to be one of San Diego’s most talented and dedicated groups of engineers and management," be said. "They are true visionaries who have navigated through the uncharted territory of digital television, leaving signposts for others to follow."
Tiernan designs, develops and manufactures a full line of digital television compression and transmission equipment. Tiernan equipment is used worldwide by broadcasters, cable operators, and common carriers to achieve the highest levels of quality, performance and economy in the distribution of digital television programming. The company’s products are essential in digital television operations, satellite news gathering, and in the distribution of television programming via satellite and terrestrial networks. Tiernan products meet or exceed the most rigorous industry quality standards. More than 200 users in some 25 countries presently operate more than 600 Tiernan digital television systems.
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October 20, 1998
Home sales in Southern California dipped last month from a relatively hectic July and August, although the sales pace did stay at a 10-year seasonal high, a real estate information service reports.
A total of 25,032 new and resale homes were sold in Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange, San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino counties in September. That was down 3.8 percent from 26,026 for August and up 17.4 percent from 21,320 for September a year ago, report's Acxiom Corp.s DataQuick Products Division.
Sales normally decline from August to September. Last month's sales count was the highest for any September since 1988 when 31,023 homes were sold.
A total of 4,267 homes were sold in San Diego in September, an increase of 23.4 percent from the 3,457 sold in September 1997. The median price paid for one of those homes rose 13.1 percent, hitting $199,000 compared to $176,000 a year earlier. The percentage increase in price was the highest recorded in Southern California.
Some analysts are hesitant to read to much into a slowdown from the hectic pace of July and August.
"The turbulence in the mortgage market may slow things down a bit, but the effect may well be temporary. Purchase activity will probably get time-shifted forward by a few weeks or a month. With the state's solid economy and job growth, the fundamentals are still in place for a strong residential real estate market," says Mike Ela, leader of Acxiom's DataQuick Products Division.
The median price paid for a Southern California home was $185,000 last month. That was down 1.1 percent from $187,000 in August, and up 7.6 percent from $172,000 for September a year ago. On an annual basis, prices have been going up in the region for two-and-a-half years. Price appreciation remains strong when adjusted for these shifts in market mix.
Acxiom's DataQuick Products Division monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts.
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October 19, 1998
The first speculative office building in Mission Valley in nearly a decade is being planned by St. George's Holdings, a London-based development firm with U.S. headquarters in La Jolla.
The mid-rise tower will replace the existing Veterans Administration building which will be vacated in November. In its place St. George's will build an eight-story, 147,000 square foot office building. The building will serve a market where the office vacancy rate is a tight 4.5 percent.
To be called St. George's Centre, the office building will be the focal point of two adjoining retail complexes developed by St. George's over the last four years. The first phase, completed in 1994, includes a Staples Office Supply and Rubio's. The second phase, finished this year, features a food court with an In-N-Out Burger as well as a Pacific Bell Mobile Services store.
"St. George's has been involved with this prime 7-acre site for more than 15 years," says Anthony Hai, president of St. George's. "With the VA's plans to vacate, we have the opportunity to either refurbish the existing building or start anew. Given the property's outstanding Class A location, it was decided to proceed with plans for a true Class A facility, the first of its kind to be built in the area since 1989."
The project architect is Fehlman LaBare. Plans call for a four-story parking deck with about 800 spaces adjacent to the office. Special features will include a "zen" quiet garden.
The project is being marketed by Paul Lafrenz, Don Mitchell and Ken Kisbert of CB Commercial.
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San Diego Bread Co., along with national cookie maker Archway Cookies Inc., are being acquired by Specialty Foods Corp. in a deal valued at more than $100 million.
"We believe that these acquisitions, in combination with our improving financial results and the bond exchange, represent a defining moment for Specialty Foods," says Lawrence Benjamin, president and chief executive officer of Specialty Foods. "The acquisitions significantly strengthen our position as one of the nation's leading branded baked goods companies."
Archway, based in Battle Creek, Mich., produces more than a billion cookies annually at two company-owned bakeries in Ashland, Ohio, and Boone, Iowa, and four licensed bakeries in the U.S. and Canada. The company bakes more than 60 varieties of cookies, including homestyle, holiday and sugar free products under the Archway brand name. The addition of Archway's cookie business will establish Specialty Foods as the third largest cookie company in the U.S.
The company also continues to grow its bread business.
"We continue to pursue bread acquisitions that complement our existing bread brands," Benjamin says. "San Diego Bread Co., our most recent bread acquisition, solidifies the position of our Boudin brand as the premier traditional sourdough bread in California."
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Jeff Walker, a former offensive guard and tackle for the San Diego Chargers, has been named president of Oklahoma-based Superior Oil & Gas Co.
The company says Walker's extensive experience and contacts in the petroleum industry will help it take advantage of significant opportunities for growth. Walker most recently grew his own privately held company, Walker Oil & Gas Co., to more than $21 million in assets.
Walker is probably best known as a record-holding, 7-year veteran of the National Football League. He played offensive guard and tackle for the San Diego Chargers, L.A. Rams and the New Orleans Saints. During his 1986 rookie season with the San Diego Chargers, Walker set a new record with five blocked field goals in a single season — a record that still stands today.
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October 16, 1998
Ely Callaway is back at the helm of San Diego’s biggest golf firm, the $553 million Callaway Golf Co. The man who founded the Carlsbad company in 1992 had stepped down in 1996, handing the driver to Donald Dye, who took over as CEO and president. Dye is leaving the company, including giving up his seat on the board. He will remain a consultant.
"The first thing I want to say is that I have the utmost regard, respect and affection for Don Dye and the job that he has done for Callaway Golf," says Callaway.
The man responsible for the Big Bertha and other smashingly successful golf clubs says he will run the company for about two years. He is 79 years old. Callaway has been hit hard by the faltering Asian economy, which had emerged as a huge market for the firm's pricey clubs. It also recently become involved in a high-profile war of words with its Carlsbad neighbor, Taylor Made, which also is a world leader in golf club sales. Callway is strongly opposing efforts by the United States Golf Association to limit new technology in metal wood clubheads via a test for "spring-like' effect. Taylor Made supports testing for the springy effect and angrily denied remarks by Callaway that its technology was lagging.
Shares of Callaway closed yesterday up 1/116 at $10.25. In the last 52 weeks the shares have traded at a high of $36.50 and a low of $9.37.
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The San Diego African American Chamber of Commerce has temporarily restructured its management team in a way that eliminates traditional officers and creates an executive management team.
Kim Folsom, president of the Business Source and a member of the executive management team, reports the move came about in an effort to focus on building a solid organization and building partnerships between African American-owned businesses, government agencies and private corporations.
The team approach worked well for the organization, founded last November, when recently it leveraged the strengths and experience of its leadership. Former president Kimberly Johnson and vice president Gil Brown have stepped down to pursue other business commitments. They will remain active as founding members.
***
On the same day this week that Bank of America announced a 50 percent drop in earnings for the third quarter, City National Bank announced record quarterly earnings up 22 percent. Some of the new profit can be attributed to new business earned in San Diego, where the bank has opened a new Carlsbad banking center and is set to open another in Downtown San Diego. City National also recently acquired North American Trust Co., to expand its trust and investment services in San Diego.
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The San Diego Padres have plenty to celebrate as the team enters the 1998 World Series against the New York Yankees. To add to those offerings, Big League Bottling has released a collectible wine bottle series featuring the San Diego Padres and 1998 World Series logos. BLB wine bottles are collectible pieces featuring Major League Baseball team logos laser etched into the glass of a 750ml wine bottle. The logos are then artistically hand painted to capture the vibrant colors of each team's logo.
Bottled inside each piece is Sutter Home's Fre Premium Red non-alcohol wine. Sutter Home Fre is a smooth, concentrated, Zinfandel-based red non-alcohol wine that has a long, fruity finish.
BLB produces collectible wine bottles of all 30 Major League Baseball teams. Additionally, BLB has produced a commemorative collectible bottle featuring the 1998 World Series logos and All-Star Game logos. The bottles are licensed by Major League Baseball Properties.
The BLB Major League Baseball wine bottles, which have a retail price of $59.95 each, are only available by calling (800) 64-WINES. More information on BLB can be obtained by visiting the company’s Web site at www.bigleaguebottling.com
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October 15, 1998
The Hyatt Regency San Diego has turned blue and orange in honor of the San Diego Padres winning the National League Championship.
The team’s colors begin illuminating the 497-foot building at the Hyatt’s 33rd floor, running up seven floors on the tapering “sails.” From dark until past midnight each day through the World Series, the lights will shine.
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Handling security and other services for a World Series and a Super Bowl in less than 12 months is now something La Mesa natives Gus and John Kontopuls, owners of Elite Show Services, can put on their resumes. The brothers' company provided the ushers and ticket-takers for Super Bowl XXXII and will provide security for the World Series as part of their contract with the San Diego Padres. This is Elite's third year with the Padres.
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The Whitaker Foundation is presenting a $13.8 million Leadership Award to the Department of Bioengineering at the Irwin and Joan Jacobs School of Engineering at UCSD. The Jacobs School also announced that the Charles Lee Powell Foundation has committed $8 million to bioengineering.
The award is the single largest foundation donation ever made to UC San Diego. Together with the Powell Foundation gift, the Jacobs School will construct a new building uniquely designed to propel bioengineering into the 21st century. The five-story facility will be named the Powell-Focht Bioengineering Building, in honor of the late San Diego Superior Court Judge James L. Focht. Construction of the 47,000 net square-foot building (equivalent to 78,000 gross square-feet) will begin in 1999.
Through these awards, the Jacobs School will add eight new faculty, nearly doubling the size of its Department of Bioengineering. Two of the new faculty will hold joint appointments between the Jacobs School and the School of Medicine, further enhancing the strong collaborations between the two schools on the UC San Diego campus. The Department of Bioengineering will also launch a visionary new education, research, and technology transfer initiative.
"These remarkable gifts will allow us to sustain and enhance the excellence of our Bioengineering Department, which is ranked among the very best in the country, and will allow us to build a program on the scale which is necessary to realize the promise that bioengineering holds for improving medical care," says Robert Conn, dean of the Jacobs School. Bioengineering is a young scientific field, which uses engineering principles to understand important problems in biology, medicine and healthcare.
"There has been an unprecedented explosion of new biological information generated through programs like the Human Genome Project," says Shu Chien, chair of the Department of Bioengineering and principal investigator of the Whitaker Foundation Leadership Award. "It is our challenge to synthesize this information by using a combination of engineering and biomedical sciences, and organize it in a way that will lead to medical advances to improve the health and well-being of people as we enter the next millenium. We are extremely grateful to the Whitaker Foundation and the Powell Foundation for partnering with us to realize this vision."
The Bioengineering Initiative
The bioengineering initiative is a strategic plan for education, research and technology transfer. The initiative will build on UC San Diego’s existing strengths in biomechanics, cardiovascular research and tissue engineering to:
- Biotechnology industry by providing hands-on, interdisciplinary training. For example, the Powell-Focht Bioengineering Building will include core education labs where students will learn how to use emerging engineering technologies and how to apply them to biological studies.
- Improve diagnosis, treatment and prevention of diseases such as heart disease, atherosclerosis, diabetes, osteoarthritis and liver disease. Create these improvements by combining studies of engineering factors such as mechanical forces with research on biomedical functions such as molecular interactions.
- Organize biological information using systems engineering approaches in order to develop deep understanding of the genetic and molecular basis of biological function from single cells to the whole organism. For example, techniques used by electrical engineers to make tiny integrated circuits on computer chips will be used to understand how genes identified through the Human Genome Project interact to coordinate the function of the organs and systems in our bodies.
- Create advanced medical treatments by combining new understanding of biological function with emerging technologies such as tissue engineering and gene therapy.
- Engage the enormous talent and resources of the UC San Diego science and engineering faculty, the School of Medicine, San Diego Supercomputer Center; neighboring institutes such as the Salk Institute, the Scripps Research Institute, and the Burnham Institute; and regional biotechnology industry. Focus these resources on using bioengineering approaches to develop medical treatments.
To support the bioengineering initiative, the Jacobs School at UC San Diego will:
- Nearly double the department size from 10 faculty to 18 faculty over a five-year period of focused growth.
- Construct the Powell-Focht Bioengineering Building to accommodate growth in faculty and student population.
- Equip hands-on education laboratories and core research facilities available to all faculty, students and industry partners working through the bioengineering initiative.
- Establish a Technology Transfer and Development Center, which will include laboratory space and business planning support to help start-up companies get off the ground.
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One of the scientists who earlier this week won the Nobel Prize for chemistry — Walter Kohn of UC Santa Barbara — was a founding faculty member of UCSD's Physics Department. He was at UCSD from 1960 to 1979.
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On Oct. 29, the San Diego chapter of the American Marketing Association is hosting its annual Oktoberfest networking meeting at Karl Strauss Brewery in Sorrento Valley.
The purpose of the AMA Oktoberfest is to gather members and potential members in a casual environment where there is no pressure, no deadlines and no competition - only networking. Most importantly, there will be a buffet of food and complimentary beer and wine from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. courtesy of Karl Strauss and the AMA. Admission is $25 for members and $35 for non-members with reservations. An additional $10 will be charged to walk-ins. Call (619) 683-8300 for more.
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