1.   Converse said profits will be restrained by increased competition in the Pacific region and lower royalty payments from its Japanese licensee.

2.   For its part, Samsung will pay substantially lower royalty payments than it did under a previous five-year agreement.

3.   Hurt by falling prices for memory chips and lower royalty payments, Texas Instruments Inc. reported a sharp drop in first-quarter earnings on Friday.

4.   In a sign that the government may bow to the criticism, PDVSA President Guaicaipuro Lameda also suggested a lower royalty rate.

5.   The company attributed the results to lower prices for DRAM -- dynamic random access memory -- chips and lower royalties.