In a case involving electronic transfer of protected information, the International Trade Commission filed a petition Wednesday for rehearing en banc with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit of its case against corrective orthodontic device manufacturer ClearCorrect. The initial deadline for a rehearing petition was moved from December to late January upon request from ITC Attorney Sidney Rosenzweig (see 1512090014). In November, a three-judge panel of the Federal Circuit ruled 2-1 in favor of ClearCorrect, saying the ITC doesn't have the jurisdiction to block the international electronic transfer of patent-infringing data. The court's decision overturned an initial ITC decision prohibiting ClearCorrect's affiliate in Pakistan from transmitting digital molds of patients' teeth to the company's headquarters in Houston, due to the alleged infringement on patents held by competitor Align Technology. ClearCorrect attorney Michael Myers told us after the Federal Circuit's ruling that he "wouldn't be surprised" if the case were eventually heard en banc (see 1511100047). In its petition, the commission argued the appeal "presents a precedent-setting question of exceptional importance" -- meaning whether the ITC's abilities to block the importation of infringing products applies only to physical products, or to digital information as well. The agency also said the three-judge panel "erred" in its decision that the world "articles" in the commission's congressionally mandated responsibilities means only material items.
Western Digital bought more than 100 “patent assets” from IBM in the areas of distributed storage, object storage and emerging nonvolatile memory, the companies said Monday in a joint announcement. The companies also agreed to cross-license each other’s patents, they said. Terms of the acquisition and cross-licensing deals weren't disclosed.
SoundExchange sent notices of intent to the Copyright Royalty Board to audit a range of 2012, 2013 and 2014 royalty statements, the CRB said in Friday’s Federal Register. DMX and Muzak face planned audits of their 2012-2014 business establishment services royalty statements and commercial webcaster royalty statements, CRB said. Batanga also faces an audit of its 2012-14 commercial webcaster royalty statements. DMX faces an audit of its new subscription service royalty statements, and Muzak an audit of its pre-existing subscription service royalty statements, CRB said. Four broadcasters -- Beasley Broadcast Group, Greater Media, Townsquare Media and Univision Communications -- face audits of their 2012-14 broadcaster royalty statements, and Saga Communications audits of its 2013 and 2014 royalty statements in the same category, CRB said. SoundExchange has the right to do a single audit of each licensee for a calendar year to verify royalty payments, the CRB said.
Netflix plans to begin blocking virtual private network proxy servers in the next few weeks from accessing the company’s systems. It said Thursday that the VPN blocking signals its willingness to “continue to respect and enforce” geography-based content licensing. “We are making progress in licensing content across the world and, as of last week, now offer the Netflix service in 190 countries, but we have a ways to go before we can offer people the same films and TV series everywhere,” said Vice President-Content Delivery Architecture David Fullagar in a blog post. “Over time, we anticipate being able to do so.” Netflix’s announcement came days after CEO Reed Hastings effectively endorsed consumers’ sharing of their Netflix account information as a “positive thing” during CES.
The Copyright Office and George Mason University School of Law's Arts Entertainment Advocacy Clinic formed an academic partnership, the school said Friday in a news release. Arts and Entertainment Clinic law students are collaborating with the CO to examine how changes in distribution technology and other permission may affect authors' moral rights, GMU Law said. Students are working with the CO to field public inquiries on registration, recordation and other copyright issues, the school said. The CO and GMU Law also plan a joint symposium this spring, GMU Law said. “The partnership between the clinic students and the Copyright Office will both serve the needs of the Office and give students experience they will need to practice in this area of law,” Arts and Entertainment Advocacy Center Director Sandra Aistars said in the news release. “Students will have an unprecedented view into how the Office administers copyright law for the benefit of authors and users of works.”
Ericsson and Huawei agreed to extend their global patent cross-licensing pact, Ericsson said in a news release Thursday. The arrangement includes a cross license covering patents on both companies' wireless standard-essential patents, including LTE standards. Under the extended agreement, both companies may "access and implement" each other's standard essential patents and technologies globally, said Ericsson. Huawei will make "on-going" royalty payments contingent upon sales to Ericsson "from 2016 and onwards," said the release.
The Patent and Trademark Office is hosting a half-day meeting for those seeking patent protection in the cybersecurity field, the PTO said in a news release Wednesday. The "collaborative forum" is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. on Feb. 10 at the PTO's San Jose office at 26 S. 4th St., and will give attendees a chance to "share ideas, experiences, and insights" with PTO's staff, the release said. Speakers include John Cabeca, Silicon Valley PTO director, and Aaron Smith, Symantec senior corporate counsel. Potential discussion topics include computer security patent application statistics and trends, enhanced patent quality initiatives and interim guidance on patent subject matter eligibility, PTO said.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said it’s seeking comment on its annual special 301 review process on “notorious” IP markets, which identifies “priority” countries where policies allow copyright infringement and other IP rights violations to occur. USTR’s 2015 annual special 301 report didn’t name any country as a “priority foreign country” for IP rights violations but identified China and India among 13 priority watch list countries. USTR placed 24 other countries on its lower-tier watch list (see 1504300061). Comments on the 2016 special 301 review are due Feb. 5, USTR said in Monday’s Federal Register. Foreign governments will have until Feb. 19 to file comments or notices that they intend to testify at a planned March 1 public hearing on the special 301 review, USTR said. The March 1 hearing is at USTR’s Washington, D.C., offices. USTR said it plans to release its 2016 special 301 report around April 30.
Spotify is facing a second class-action lawsuit claiming the company isn’t obtaining needed mechanical licenses on copyrighted music. Independent musician Melissa Ferrick filed her $200 million suit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles Friday, claiming Spotify has streamed her songs about 1 million times without obtaining a license. Spotify chose to outsource its licensing to the Harry Fox Agency, which has been “ill-equipped to obtain licenses for all of the songs embodied in the phonorecords distributed by Spotify,” Ferrick alleged. “Neither Spotify nor HFA directly licensed or timely issued NOIs for many of the musical compositions embodied in phonorecords that Spotify was reproducing and distributing on a daily basis,” Ferrick said of notices of intent required to be sent to copyright owners before content is used. Spotify is “committed to paying songwriters and publishers every penny,” a spokesman said in a statement Monday. “We are 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.” Ferrick’s suit follows a similar $150 million lawsuit that David Lowery, a songwriter and University of Georgia music business lecturer, filed in December in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. Lowery, who leads the bands Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker, claimed Spotify is illegally distributing four Cracker songs (see 1512290048).
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.