Here, Russia has been slow to sign up to rules: It is now joining the World Trade Organization after 18 years of negotiations.
PAGE A20 V.A. LOOSENS VOTER SIGN-UP RULES The Department of Veterans Affairs said that it would no longer ban voter registration drives among veterans living at federally run nursing homes, shelters for the homeless and rehabilitation centers across the country, after saying this year that such drives would violate the prohibition on political activity by federal employees and be disruptive.
Germany's justice minister, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, called this a "Hollywood-style nightmare" and has crossly demanded an explanation from Britain.China, under strong pressure from America to sign up to new rules of internet conduct in the run-up to a summit in July, is huffing and puffing, too.
In the wake of the financial crisis western banks have had to sign up to new rules and regulations that require them to hold more capital, limit trading, reduce the proportion of loans to assets, and conform to more robust behavioural standards.
The UK abstains, as does the Czech Republic, but the other 25 members sign up to new rules that make it harder to break budget deficits.
No phone maker is even obliged to sign up to these rules — they can use or modify Android in any way they want, just as Amazon has done with its Fire tablets and TV sticks.
In their defence, Paris and Berlin argue the debt crisis is an emergency that requires swift executive action to avert disaster, and that member states already signed up to the budget rules in the 1992 Maastricht Treaty.
Another London-based patent lawyer, who asked not to be named since his company acts for several of the firms involved, added that it would be difficult to get every technology firm to sign up to a rule change on essential patents.
The U.S. Justice Department and half a dozen states have sued EDMC -- the second largest for-profit college company after the University of Phoenix / Apollo Group -- for fraud, alleging the company paid its recruiters based on the number of students signed up, in violation of federal rules.
