The intellectual property (IP) market “cannot work effectively unless innovators know what a patented invention covers and know some reasonable amount about who owns it,” U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director David Kappos said during a roundtable at the USPTO with industry experts. “We need as much transparency as possible to get IP rights into the hands of those who are best able to make the investments and create the jobs and drive growth and generate economic activity that, after all, is the purpose of having a patent system in the first place.” Kappos and other USPTO officials held the roundtable to collect public input on how the the office should change its rules on collecting and publishing real-party-in-interest (RPI) patent ownership information.
The intellectual property (IP) marketplace “cannot work effectively unless innovators know what a patented invention covers and know some reasonable amount about who owns it,” U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Director David Kappos said Friday during a roundtable with industry experts. “We need as much transparency as possible to get IP rights into the hands of those who are best able to make the investments and create the jobs and drive growth and generate economic activity that, after all, is the purpose of having a patent system in the first place.” Kappos and other USPTO officials held the roundtable to collect public input on how the USPTO should change its rules on collecting and publishing real-party-in-interest (RPI) patent ownership information.
The intellectual property marketplace “cannot work effectively unless innovators know what a patented invention covers and know some reasonable amount about who owns it,” U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Director David Kappos said Friday during a roundtable with industry experts.
Verizon Wireless and AT&T say they had a record-breaking Q4, with both releasing some information on their performance ahead of official quarterly earnings announcements set for later this month. Verizon Communications, which owns a majority of Verizon Wireless, will release its full Q4 earnings Jan. 22; AT&T plans to release its full results Jan. 24. Verizon Wireless had its best Q4 ever in 2012, with the company adding a net 2.1 million subscriptions, Verizon Communications CEO Lowell McAdam said Monday during a presentation at the Citigroup investor conference, which was also webcast. About 30 percent of its net adds were new to Verizon Wireless, which McAdam said was made possible in part by the carrier’s “Share Everything” shared data plans. Smartphone sales remained strong, accounting for 85 percent of the carrier’s total device sales, McAdam said. Since all of the carrier’s latest device offerings operate on LTE, those sales resulted in the percentage of its subscribers using LTE rising to 23 percent, up from 16 percent in Q3, he said. Contrary to some press reports, Verizon is not interested in buying the U.K.’s Vodafone, McAdam said. But Verizon remains “ready” to buy Vodafone’s 45 percent stake in Verizon Wireless, he said. AT&T sold more than 10 million smartphones during Q4, setting a new record for the carrier. The carrier set its previous smartphone sales record of 9.4 million in Q4 2011. That news is important for AT&T because “these are the industry’s most valuable postpaid subscribers with average revenues twice that of non-smartphone subscribers,” said AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega in a news release. The carrier sold an average of 110,000 smartphones per day during the quarter (http://xrl.us/bn9w96). AT&T sold 6.4 million smartphones during October and November, de la Vega had said in early December (WID Dec 6 p11). The increased smartphone sales are likely to decrease AT&T’s wireless profit margin because of the subsidies the carrier provides to subscribers, though “this strong selling effort (and the locking in of these customers to 2 year contracts) should lessen concerns that [AT&T] is seeing an ‘iPhone cliff'’ which could leave it more vulnerable to customer churn in mid-2013,” said Wells Fargo analyst Jennifer Fritzsche in an email to investors.
Verizon Wireless and AT&T say they had a record-breaking Q4, with both releasing some information on their performance ahead of official quarterly earnings announcements set for later this month. Verizon Communications, which owns a majority of Verizon Wireless, will release its full Q4 earnings Jan. 22; AT&T plans to release its full results Jan. 24.
Progress toward combining T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS remains very positive, executives from both carriers said Tuesday during a presentation at a Citigroup investor conference. T-Mobile CEO John Legere said he believes the entire process is progressing ahead of schedule and that he’s “anxious that we will become the new company relatively soon."
The U.S. decision to not sign the revised International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs) means controversial changes to the treaty-level document will have no effect on U.S. law or the telecom sector’s work within the U.S. -- but the treaty’s effect on U.S. businesses’ dealings internationally remain far less clear, industry experts and insiders say. The U.S. was among 55 ITU member nations to not immediately sign onto the revised ITRs last month after they were adopted at the conclusion of the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) in Dubai. Another 89 nations signed the treaty (WID Dec 17 p1). Non-signatory nations will continue to follow the original ITRs enacted in 1988, Terry Kramer, head of the U.S. delegation to WCIT, told us. The original ITRs are “antiquated, but they're very high level, they don’t get into any Internet issues,” he said. The revised ITRs will take effect Jan. 1, 2015.
The U.S. decision not to sign the revised International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs) means controversial changes to the treaty-level document will have no effect on U.S. law or the telecom sector’s work within the U.S. -- but the treaty’s effect on U.S. businesses’ dealings internationally remain far less clear, industry experts and insiders say. The U.S. was among 55 ITU member nations to not immediately sign onto the revised ITRs last month after they were adopted at the conclusion of the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) in Dubai. Another 89 nations signed the treaty (CD Dec 17 p1). Non-signatory nations will continue to follow the original ITRs enacted in 1988, Terry Kramer, head of the U.S. delegation to WCIT, told us. The original ITRs are “antiquated, but they're very high level, they don’t get into any Internet issues,” he said. The revised ITRs will take effect Jan. 1, 2015.
The results of the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) show the West must find ways to enable developing-world participation in the current multistakeholder Internet governance model, said Philip Verveer, U.S. coordinator for international communications and information policy and a member of the U.S. WCIT delegation, at an Internet Governance Forum event Friday.
The results of the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) show the West must find ways to enable developing-world participation in the current multistakeholder Internet governance model, said Philip Verveer, U.S. coordinator for international communications and information policy and a member of the U.S. WCIT delegation, at an Internet Governance Forum event Friday.