Patent and Trademark Office representatives will discuss two "evolving programs" of its enhanced patent quality initiative -- topic submission for case studies and post-grant outcomes -- during the first patent quality chat webinar of 2016, the PTO said in a news release Wednesday. The webinar is scheduled for Tuesday from noon to 1 p.m., and will feature presentations from Patent Quality Assurance Office Director Anthony Caputa, Patent Legal Administration Office Director Brian Hanlon, Technology Center Director Jack Harvey and Supervisory Patent Examiner Stephen Koziol, the PTO said.
The Copyright Office “needs to go further” in updating its records system than its current digitization project, by repurposing existing records information “into a more modern, easy-to-use database," said Adobe Associate General Counsel Scott Evans in a Tuesday blog post. “Getting new copyrights registered and finding information about existing copyrights is not easy, and can become a major obstacle for those looking to create and protect their intellectual property without infringing on someone else’s. Given the Copyright Office’s importance to the creative process, the current copyright system does not do justice to the community it serves.” Completely overhauling the CO’s current records system “would save a huge amount of time and money that is currently spent on avoidable legal issues” involving inadvertent misuse of copyrighted material likely caused by difficulties accessing copyright records via the existing CO system, Evans said. If the CO “doesn’t modernize, it could seriously jeopardize future creative leadership because there is no system at this point that works efficiently for the creative community,” he said. “It is also time for Congress to revisit the Copyright Act and make the revisions necessary to bring the U.S. copyright law in line with current technological innovation.”
The Copyright Royalty Board published notices in Tuesday’s Federal Register for three new proceedings to set royalty rates for 2018-2022, as expected (see 1601040069). One of the proceedings will set royalties for public digital performances of sound recordings via satellite radio and “preexisting subscription services.” The other proceedings deal with mechanical royalties and royalties for public performances of musical compositions by NPR, PBS affiliates and other noncommercial broadcasters. Petitions to participate in all three proceedings are due Feb. 4.
The Copyright Royalty Board said it’s beginning three new proceedings to set music royalty rights for 2018-2022. One proceeding will deal with public digital performances of sound recordings via satellite radio and “preexisting subscription services” like SiriusXM’s satellite service. The proceeding’s outcome will also apply to cable radio’s “pre-existing subscription services,” CRB said in a draft notice to be published in Tuesday’s Federal Register. The other CRB proceedings will deal with mechanical royalties and royalties for public performances of musical compositions by NPR, PBS affiliates and other noncommercial broadcasters, the CRB said. The mechanical royalties proceeding “is one proceeding where the record labels and the digital music services are actually more or less on the same side -- litigating against the publishing companies and songwriters over how much is paid for the use of the words and music of a particular song,” said Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford in a blog post Monday. Assuming the proceedings appear in Tuesday’s Federal Register, interested parties would need to file petitions to participate by Feb. 4, with hearings on the proceedings likely occurring in 2017, Oxenford said.
The Copyright Office said it plans a study assessing the impact and effectiveness of Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Section 512, including general operation of Section 512's safe harbor provisions. The CO said Wednesday it's doing the study in response to a recommendation from Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante and a request from House Judiciary Committee ranking member John Conyers, D-Mich. Both Conyers and Pallante said Section 512's operation “poses policy issues that warrant study and analysis,” the CO said in a notice to be published in Thursday's Federal Register. The Department of Commerce also “noted ambiguities in the application of the safe harbor and encouraged service providers and rightsholders to discuss and pursue voluntary improvements,” the CO said. The study also will examine the effectiveness of the current notice-and-takedown process, the counter-notification process and the legal standards that apply under Section 512. The CO said it's seeking public comment on the Section 512 study, with comments due March 21. The CO said it also plans at least one public meeting related to its 512 study. The CO also announced Monday that it's planning a study of DMCA Section 1201, including the CO's current triennial process for granting exemptions to Section 1201's ban on circumvention of technological protection measures (see 1512280030).
Securus claimed two victories in recent proceedings with the Patent and Trademark Office's Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) on patent invalidation filings by Global Tel*Link (GTL), Securus said in a news release Wednesday. The PTAB upheld the validity of Securus' patents -- one for a system of controlling inmate access to a telephone carrier network by using VoIP data packets, and another for methods for processing VoIP calls originating within a prison -- that were challenged by GTL, Securus said. Securus CEO Richard Smith said he's "pleased" the PTAB viewed the "key" patents as being valid. GTL didn't comment.
University of Georgia music business lecturer David Lowery filed a $150 million class-action lawsuit against Spotify Monday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, claiming the company knowingly and illegally distributes copyrighted music without obtaining necessary mechanical licenses. Lowery, who leads the bands Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker, claims the songs Spotify is illegally distributing include four Cracker songs -- “Almond Grove," "Get On Down the Road," "King of Bakersfield" and "Tonight I Cross the Border.” Spotify has distributed copyrighted music to more than 75 million users without properly obtaining needed mechanical licenses, Lowery said in the lawsuit. Spotify's publicly admitted failure to obtain the mechanical licenses “creates substantial harm and injury to the copyright holders, and diminishes the integrity of the works,” Lowery said in the lawsuit. “We are committed to paying songwriters and publishers every penny," a Spotify spokesman said in a statement. "Unfortunately, especially in the United States, the data necessary to confirm the appropriate rightsholders is often missing, wrong, or incomplete. When rightsholders are not immediately clear, we set aside the royalties we owe until we are able to confirm their identities.” Spotify is working “closely” with the National Music Publishers Association to “find the best way to correctly pay the royalties we have set aside and we are investing in the resources and technical expertise to build a comprehensive publishing administration system to solve this problem for good,” the spokesman said.
The Patent and Trademark Office's online systems have been restored after a "major power outage" last week shut down the agency's IT systems (see 1512230042), the PTO said in a blog post Monday. Customers are able to use the PTO's online systems to search for and file items and to make payments, the blog post said, but because of work needed to repair and stabilize the power supply and hardware, "it is possible that some or all systems may need to be taken offline again." Online systems "may come and go without notice," the PTO said, and the agency will "keep deadline flexibility in mind" based upon the "results and the stability of [its] operations."
The Copyright Office said it's planning a study of implementation of Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Section 1201, including the CO's triennial rulemaking process for granting exemptions to Section 1201's ban on circumvention of technological protection measures. The Library of Congress granted 10 CO-recommended exemptions to Section 1201 in October, prompting some stakeholders to renew their calls for Congress to place limits on what they believe is DMCA's expanding scope (see 1510270056). The CO is also doing a separate study on what provisions in existing U.S. copyright laws are implicated by the spread of software in everyday products and whether those laws affect innovation in the use of software in products (see 1512150050). The CO's planned study will also examine the existing permanent exemptions to Section 1201, the law's anti-trafficking provisions and other Section 1201-related consumer issues, the office said in a notice set to appear in Tuesday's Federal Register. The current triennial Section 1201 exemptions review process “is resource-intensive for both participants and the Office,” the CO said Monday. The office is considering adjusting the triennial process to allow for presumptive renewal of previously granted exemptions “when there is no meaningful opposition to renewal.” The requirement that previously granted exemptions be re-evaluated during each triennial process is “an area of particular concern" given that several of the exemptions granted in October were essentially the same as exemptions granted during the 2012 triennial review, the CO said. The office said it's seeking comment on its proposed study, including whether the office should consider other Section 1201 provisions in its review. Comments are due Feb. 25 and reply comments are due March 25. The CO said it also plans at least one public meeting to gather additional comments after the comment deadlines lapse.
A “major power outage” Tuesday night at Patent and Trademark Office headquarters in Washington “damaged equipment that required the subsequent shutdown of many of our online and IT systems,” the agency said in a message posted Wednesday at the top of its home page. The outage and secondary damage knocked out “our filing, searching, and payment systems, as well as the systems our examiners across the country use,” PTO said. “We are working diligently to assess the operational impact on all our systems and to determine how soon they can be safely brought back into service.” The agency will give “status updates” on its systems alert page “as they become available,” and on its Facebook and Twitter accounts, it said. At 1 p.m. EST Wednesday, a systems alert page update reported that "the impacts may be felt through the Christmas holiday."