LAUSANNE, Switzerland. - Friday, May 22nd 2015 [ME NewsWire]

(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Philip Morris International (PMI) today filed suit in the English High Court to contest the UK government’s recently introduced standardized packaging regulations for tobacco products. PMI is seeking a decision that the regulations — which impose a wholesale ban on logos and visual trademark elements and require all cigarette packaging to look the same — violate English and European Union law.

“We respect the government’s authority to regulate in the public interest, but wiping out trademarks simply goes too far,” said Marc Firestone, PMI Senior Vice President and General Counsel. “Countries around the world have shown that effective tobacco control can co-exist with respect for consumer freedoms and private property.”

In April 2015, all tobacco products in the UK were banned from display at retail, and as early as 2016, EU law will r ... Read more »

Colorado Springs - Wednesday, May 20th 2015 [ME NewsWire]

Haystack Connect 2015

The convergence of smart connected devices and cloud computing is unleashing an age of anytime, anywhere connectivity that is fostering entirely new modes of customer interaction and service delivery. However, to realize the full potential of the Internet of Things opportunity, customers will need new tools and technologies. The existing tools that support the development of smart systems are not providing the full measure of value.  We are quickly approaching analogous circumstances with the proliferation of smart connected devices. Each new device requires too much customization and maintenance just to perform basic tasks. We must develop software and methods to automate development, facilitate re-use, and easily connect and integrate device data or risk constraining the growth of the IOT market.

Pacific Control's EDGE DEVICE COMMUNICATION PROTOCOL (EDCP)

Is bas ... Read more »

COLOMBES, France. - Thursday, May 21st 2015 [ME NewsWire]

(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Oberthur Technologies (OT), a world leader in digital security solutions for the mobility space today announced its partnership with Samsung Electronics for the deployment of Samsung Pay in Europe later this year.

The Samsung Pay service will allow Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge owners to use their smartphone for contactless payments. The S6 and S6 Edge are all equipped with OT’s state-of-the-art NFC embedded Secure Element (eSE), PEARL by OT®. Uniquely positioned to support Samsung, OT provides the end-to-end service from the eSE to the digital payment enablement platform for the roll-out of Samsung Pay in Europe.

Contracting with Samsung and OT, banks will be able to offer their NFC payment card in the Samsung Pay application in a very secure and seamless way. Samsung and OT will manage all the enrolment, provisioning and lifecycle processes for the banks, enabling issuers ... Read more »