The International Trade Commission ordered a Tariff Act Section 337 investigation into allegations in a Nov. 1 complaint that MediaTek chipsets and downstream streaming media and smart home products containing them from Amazon, Belkin and Linksys infringe five NXP Semiconductors patents, said Tuesday’s Federal Register. The complaint seeks a limited exclusion order and cease and desist orders against the allegedly infringing products. None of the named respondents commented.

TCL as a policy doesn’t comment on “current or pending litigation,” emailed a spokesperson Friday on our queries about a Tariff Act Section 337 complaint at the International Trade Commission alleging TCL smart TVs infringe a September 2014 DivX patent on adaptive bit rate streaming (see 2111300045). Comments are due Dec. 9 in docket 337-3578 at the ITC on the public interest ramifications of the import ban DivX seeks on the TCL smart sets.

Comments are due Dec. 9 in docket 337-3578 at the International Trade Commission on the public interest ramifications of the import ban DivX seeks on TCL smart TVs for allegedly infringing its September 2014 patent (8,832,297) on adaptive bitrate streaming, says Wednesday’s Federal Register. DivX owns by assignment the “entire rights” to the patent, which was originally assigned to Sonic IP, based on a December 2011 application, said the Nov. 24 DivX complaint. Banning the TCL smart sets from U.S. import would have “no significant negative impact on U.S. consumers,” said DivX, because TCL has 14% share of the smart TV market, vs. the combined 56% share of Samsung, Vizio and LG. “The scope of the requested remedial orders would not cover TCL’s products that are covered by the license agreement between DivX and Roku,” it said. TCL didn’t comment Tuesday.

The International Trade Commission’s Nov. 19 vote was 4-0 to grant partial review of the Aug. 13 initial determination by Chief Administrative Law Judge Charles Bullock that Google violated Section 337 of the 1930 Tariff Act by importing smart speakers and other goods that infringed parts of five Sonos multiroom audio patents (see 2111210001), according to a voting sheet posted Friday in docket 337-TA-1191 (login required). Democratic Commissioner Rhonda Schmidtlein recused herself, as she has done throughout the Sonos-Google investigation. With its vote, the ITC delayed final disposition of the case until Jan. 6, but it appeared to inch the agency a step closer toward ordering an import ban on Google products.

The UHD Alliance’s application to trademark Filmmaker Mode as a certification logo for compliant TVs appeared to be cruising toward a successful conclusion until an examining attorney at the Patent and Trademark Office abruptly halted its progress over an awkward technicality. UHDA filed a statement of use Oct. 13 attesting to the logo’s commercial deployment since 2020. PTO requires the SOU, customarily one of the last steps before issuing a registration certificate, to prevent applicants from hoarding trademarks. But PTO attorney Catherine Caycedo refused the registration Nov. 7 when she noticed that the logo depicted in the photo of a Filmmaker Mode-compliant Samsung TV accompanying the SOU was missing the white squares that were designed into the “color drawing” in UHDA’s original May 2019 application. UHDA lawyers responded Nov. 19 with a request for reconsideration, explaining that “the white parts of the design are treated as transparent and these areas typically take on the background within the product’s packaging.” They agreed to amend the wording of the logo’s color description, asking that the application now “be approved for registration.” PTO didn’t respond to questions.

U.S. District Judge Brooke Jackson in Denver shot down Charter Communications' bid for dismissal of a lawsuit by music labels claiming Charter abetted copyright infringement by some of its broadband subscribers. In an order Monday (docket 21-cv-02020, in Pacer), Jackson said he had "no reason to rule differently on the motion to dismiss in the present case" than his April 2020 order denying a Charter motion to dismiss a related copyright infringement suit (see 2004160002). Charter didn't comment.

Amazon is teaming with Weber to crack down on the “unlawful and expressly prohibited sale” of fake grill covers that “illegally bear” the Weber trademark, said a complaint Tuesday (in Pacer, 2:21-cv-01512) in U.S. District Court in Seattle. Amazon spent more than $700 million and hired more than 10,000 employees last year alone “to protect its store from fraud and abuse,” stopping more than 6 million “suspected bad-actor selling accounts before they published a single listing for sale,” and blocking more than 10 billion “suspected bad listings before they were published,” it said. At least 11 of the accused third-party sellers are based in China, said the complaint. Another “falsely represented its location as Pompano Beach, Florida, and has deliberately registered additional false information with Amazon as part of a scheme to mislead” the company, it said. Amazon supports “expanded government authority” for federal agencies to share “pre-seizure enforcement information with the private sector” to help reverse the explosive growth in e-commerce trafficking of counterfeit goods, the company’s public policy point person told a Center for Data Innovation webinar last month (see 2110140054). A National Defense Authorization Act amendment introduced Thursday in the Senate would require online marketplaces like Amazon to verify third-party sellers in an effort to combat the sale of fake and stolen goods (see 2111040070).

Most artists are self-employed, earning modest livings and lack a systematic means of identifying copyright infringements, so a strict three-year limit on recoverable damages regardless of when a claim accrues would be a hardship, artists' rights organizations told the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday. In an amicus brief backing plaintiff-appellee Starz (docket 21-55379), organizations including the Authors Guild, Romance Writers of America and Songwriters Guild of America said defendant-appellant MGM -- in asking the court for that limit -- is "sharply limiting the ability of blameless artists to recover damages" and discouraging private enforcement of infringements. MGM is appealing a lower court's denial of a motion to dismiss 378 of Starz's 1,020 copyright claims on MGM licensing content to Starz and subsequently to other content service providers while Starz allegedly had exclusive license. Santa Clara University law professor Tyler Ochoa in an amicus brief said MGM's read of Supreme Court precedent is wrong and there should be a presumption that acts happening more than three years before filing are barred, but that copyright owners can recover damages if shown they didn't and couldn't discover the infringement earlier. MGM's outside counsel didn't comment Thursday.

WiTricity joined MPEG LA’s Qi patent pool, giving it “one-stop access” to essential patent rights for the Qi wireless power standard, it said Monday. Other licensees in the pool include Philips, Bosch, Panasonic, General Electric and ConvenientPower. WiTricity owns patents for wireless charging used for the SAE, ISO/IEC and GB (China) standards for wireless electric vehicle charging and for consumer devices, said WiTricity CEO Alex Gruzen. Before joining MPEG LA’s Qi License, WiTricity’s patents were evaluated for essentiality by an independent third party. Essential patents are necessarily infringed in connection with the practice of the Qi standard, it said.

Movie production companies suing WideOpenWest for alleged piracy committed by WOW broadband subscribers are "part of a well-known web of copyright trolls" and haven't alleged facts showing WOW knew of, encouraged or profited from any copyright infringement, it told U.S. District in Denver on Friday in a motion to dismiss in docket 21-cv-01901. Counsel for plaintiffs didn't comment Monday.