Five states joined eight others in NTIA’s broadband mapping program, Associate Administrator Doug Kinkoph blogged Wednesday. Now participating are Nebraska, New Mexico, Michigan, Missouri and Virginia, he said. “Meetings with state broadband leaders helps us gather valuable, on-the-ground data about specific broadband challenges.”
President Donald Trump's recent executive order to strengthen e-commerce enforcement may pose hurdles to trade professionals, experts told us. The EO (see 2001310061) is ambiguous, and how Customs and Border Protection plans to heed the order's call to restrict access to importer of record numbers based on customs and intellectual property rights violations is unclear, said Sandler Travis lawyer Paula Connelly in an interview. The EO says customs brokers and express shippers would be responsible for determining if a foreign importer is trying to get around a past debarment, for instance, by changing the company's name. National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America President Amy Magnus said brokers aren't investigators, but “there’s going to be an expectation that we’re going to be more involved in the vetting and sort of screening of all parties.” The White House didn't comment Tuesday.
China, India and the EU are among the regions tech and intellectual property groups recommended the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative monitor for international IP infractions. Public comments were due Friday for USTR’s 2020 Special 301 Review (see 1902080063). USTR has a Feb. 26 hearing. The Internet Association cited the EU’s new “onerous systems of copyright liability for internet services,” specifically the copyright directive. It “directly conflicts with U.S. law and requires a broad range of U.S. consumer and enterprise firms to install filtering technologies, pay European organizations for activities that are entirely lawful under the U.S. copyright framework, and face direct liability for third-party content,” IA said. IA didn’t recommend any specific countries for USTR’s priority watch list or watch list, raising concerns about China, India, Vietnam, Chile, Japan, Hong Kong and many others. BSA|The Software Alliance recommended USTR include Chile, China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam on its priority watch list; Argentina, Brazil, Korea, Mexico and Thailand on its watch list; and the EU as a region of concern. BSA cited measures that create market access barriers in the EU. The Computer & Communications Industry Association didn’t offer specific recommendations for the priority watch list or watch list. CCIA cited the EU’s recently enacted Copyright Directive and policies India is pursuing, which “pose significant negative consequences for the digital economy and depart from global norms.” Any “discriminatory practices under the guise of intellectual property that target U.S. exports should be identified and discouraged by USTR,” CCIA said. The International Intellectual Property Alliance recommended Argentina, Chile, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, Taiwan, Ukraine and Vietnam for the priority watch list. It recommended Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Switzerland, Thailand and UAE for the watch list. IIPA suggested the U.S. engage trading partners to “remove discriminatory and restrictive trade barriers in those countries that harm exports of U.S. creative goods and services.”
The International Trade Commission voted to open a Tariff Act Section 337 investigation into Sonos allegations that Google smart speakers and other devices infringe its multiroom audio patents (see 2001230001), said an investigation notice Thursday (login required) in docket 337-TA-1191. Sonos seeks a limited exclusion order and cease and desist orders against the allegedly infringing products. Google has 20 days to respond. The vote Wednesday was 4-0 to open the investigation, with Commissioner Rhonda Schmidtlein, a Democrat, recusing herself. “Sonos has made misleading statements about our history of working together," emailed Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda Thursday. "Our technology and devices were designed independently. We deny their claims vigorously, and will be defending against them.” Sonos didn't comment.
The Commerce Department doesn’t have a timeline for releasing its next set of controls on emerging technologies and its advance NPRM for foundational technologies, despite expectations from top officials both would be published before 2020 (see 1912110040), a Bureau of Industry and Security official said Tuesday. “I would have thought that they would be out earlier,” said Hillary Hess, director of BIS’ regulatory policy division, at a Sensors and Instrumentation Technical Advisory Committee meeting. “I think everybody would like to see them come out, but I’m not sure how long it’s going to take. I’m having trouble getting a bead on it myself.” Interagency working groups are reviewing the proposed emerging technology controls, which include potential restrictions on exports of artificial intelligence and robotics items, Hess said. Although BIS published a January interim final rule that placed export controls on geospatial imagery software, that rule stemmed from existing export administration regulations process in place since 2012, Hess said. “None of [the working group] rules have been published yet.” Hess said the ANPRM for foundational technologies is in internal review.
Department of Homeland Security directives “strengthened federal cybersecurity, but improvements are needed,” GAO said Tuesday. One benefit was a 2015 critical vulnerability mitigation directive, which required agencies to address vulnerabilities discovered by DHS cyber scans within 30 days, GAO said. This resulted in 87 percent federal compliance by 2017. GAO recommended DHS coordinate with the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the General Services Administration on the directive development process. DHS agreed (see page 73) with GAO’s recommendations, saying its efforts have primarily been led by the agency’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. During GAO’s review, DHS was in the process of updating its cybersecurity directives. DHS plans to complete revision of its directive development process by Sept. 30.
All 55 states, territories and Washington, D.C., were incorporated into the Lifeline national verifier framework by December, Universal Service Administrative Co. said Friday in an annual report: The NV was launched in 46 states and territories plus Washington, and soft launched in nine states and territories "with an anticipated full launch date in early 2020." That's later than original targets (see 1912180046). Consumers submitted 1.4 million-plus applications through the NV, USAC said. USAC also updated its NV plan.
The Supreme Court on Friday set oral argument for a copyright case between Google and Oracle (see 2001130050), and for a trademark case between Booking.com and the Patent and Trademark Office. Google v. Oracle America is set for 10 a.m. March 24. PTO v. Booking.com is set for 11 a.m. March 23. At question in the latter case is whether the brand name Booking.com is a valid trademark.
It’s “anybody’s guess” how the coronavirus outbreak will affect the Chinese supply chain after production workers are due to return from the Lunar New Year holiday, said Silicon Labs CEO Tyson Tuttle on a Q4 call Wednesday. “We’re reading the news just like everybody else,” said Tuttle. “Our forecast and guidance takes a normal return from Chinese New Year into account. Things just shut down, and we’re going to see if things start back up on a normal pace. Our hope is that that’s the case.” The stock closed 13 percent lower Wednesday at $102.76 after Silicon Labs reported a 30 percent operating-profit decline for the year that it blamed on "a challenging macro environment." Silicon Labs had been looking at “opening up” the Z-Wave standard “for quite some time” before doing so last month (see 1912200003), said Tuttle. “We are big believers in open standards, and to be able to drive broad adoption.” Z-Wave “performed very well in 2019,” he said. “We saw an opening,” he said of the timing to widen Z-Wave. A “number of customers” were looking toward Z-Wave as “the right solution for a sub-gigahertz standard,” he said. “It’s a very robust standard and it’s widely deployed. You’ve got 100-plus million units of devices deployed out in the market. As companies are looking for a sub-gigahertz standard, it was our belief that we have an opportunity to make sub-gigahertz the wireless standard for IoT.” Q4 sales fell slightly from the year-ago quarter to $219.4 million. They're expected to fall sequentially in Q1, to $209 million to $219 million, with "Infrastructure up, Broadcast flat, and declines in IoT and Access." The company said it may have a loss. "Despite a challenging macro environment, we are pleased to have outperformed the market with secular growth drivers in IoT and Infrastructure providing some offset to macro weakness," said Tuttle.
A sex worker advocate and a massage therapist demonstrated standing to challenge (see 1909200052) a 2018 anti-sex-trafficking law, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled (in Pacer) Friday. Alex Andrews and Eric Koszyk demonstrated Article III standing to bring a pre-enforcement challenge to the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers-Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking acts. The court remanded the case to the district court. The conduct of Andrews, who operates a website that allows sex workers to share information, is “arguably affected with a constitutional interest,” the D.C. Circuit said, citing speech issues. Koszyk established standing FOSTA resulted in his advertisements being shut down on Craigslist. Judge Judith Rogers wrote the opinion. DOJ didn’t comment.