If it rules for Omega, companies can protect virtually anything by slapping a tiny, copyrighted logo on it and producing it overseas.

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Burton's investigators in fact are encountering the same difficulty producing concrete evidence of overseas connections as Senate Governmental Affairs Chairman Fred Thompson, R-Tenn.

CNN: By Jackie Koszczuk and Dan Carney, CQ Staff Writers

Luo Bingsheng, the deputy secretary of the steel association, said China has overseas mining rights capable of producing 150 million tons of iron ore each year, but most of them have not yet started producing.

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Haier is now producing in South Carolina as well, but things haven't always gone well at the overseas facilities of Chinese producers.

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