Vizio landed U.S. patent 11,095,976 Tuesday for an audio system that enables the orientation of a “second subset” of speakers to be made “automatically adjustable relative to the orientation of a first subset.” When the system detects incoming audio signals with “up-firing content,” it adjusts “the relative orientations when such content is provided,” said the patent, based on a January 2020 application. The system also is configured “to calculate a desired degree of rotation for the speakers in the second subset based on the geometry of the room in which the sound system is located and the location of the listener in the room,” it said. Some Dolby Atmos channels may be up-firing, “depending on the desires of the specific content creator,” it said. “One scenario in which up-firing content would be used is one in which the listener would expect sounds to emanate from overhead,” such as airplane noise, it said. “This requires rotating the up-firing speakers by an angle of rotation that ensures that the emitted sound will reflect off of the ceiling and travel to the listener's ears.” But in larger rooms or those with high ceilings, “the position of the listener relative to the sound system may vary, causing the optimum angle of rotation to vary as well,” said the patent. “It is desirable to provide a speaker system in which the relative orientations of the speaker drivers comprising the system are automatically adjustable, in particular, to a user selected angle of rotation between the up-firing and forward-firing speakers or based on the position of the listener relative to the sound system and/or the room geometry.” Vizio didn’t comment on commercial deployment plans for the invention.

Comments are due Sept. 13 at the International Trade Commission on the public interest ramifications of an import ban on Google smart speakers and other devices if the agency affirms Friday’s initial determination of Chief Administrative Law Judge Charles Bullock that the devices violate Tariff Act Section 337 protections against unfair competition by infringing five Sonos multiroom audio patents, said a notice (login required) Monday in docket 337-TA-1191. Bullock’s recommended sanctions against Google and their rationale are contained in his 200-page findings that remained marked confidential Monday. The commission’s final determination is due Dec. 13. It seeks public feedback about whether Sonos or third-party suppliers “have the capacity to replace the volume of articles potentially subject to the recommended orders within a commercially reasonable time,” and how the recommended import ban would affect U.S. consumers.

Music label copyright litigation against Frontier Communications (see 2108110011) and related movie company claims brought in U.S. District Court are an attempted "end-run" around U.S. Bankruptcy Court, where the claims originally were filed, Frontier told the U.S. District Court in Manhattan Friday in a motion to stay (in Pacer, docket 21-cv-5050). Citing "basic fairness and efficiency," Frontier said the Manhattan court should stay the complaints pending adjudication of what it said were duplicative claims in Bankruptcy Court. Outside counsel for the music label plaintiffs didn't comment.

The UHD Alliance’s Filmmaker Mode trademark application cleared its 30-day opposition window Thursday with apparently no protests filed against its registration, Patent and Trademark Office records show. With the opposition period lapsed, the application proceeds to a notice of allowance by late September, but won't earn a registration certificate until after UHDA files a statement of use attesting to Filmmaker Mode's commercial deployment. UHDA filed for the trademark in May 2019 and introduced it publicly three months later as the uniformly named, ease-of-access TV picture setting free of the image processing that creators disdain for rendering content in the living room as if it were shot on high-speed video rather than film (see 1908270001). Filmmaker Mode has the announced support of Hisense, Kaleidescape, LG, Panasonic, Samsung, TP Vision and Vizio.

Propping up the online pirating of TV shows, movies, games and live events is an estimated $1.34 billion in annual revenue from ads on websites and illicit streaming apps, said a report Thursday by Digital Citizens Alliance and White Bullet. It said website advertising dominates, getting about $1.1 billion of that, though apps appear to be more profitable and are growing rapidly. When combined with subscription revenue, piracy platform operators generate an estimated $2.34 billion revenue annually, it said. The study said major Fortune 500 brands paid pirate operators an estimated $100 million last year, and 25% of ads on piracy apps are from well-known companies. It said big brands have made a concerted effort in the past eight years to stop their ads from showing up on illicit websites.

TiVo renewed product and patent license agreements with Panasonic for the Japan market, including G-Guide, G-Guide HTML and G-Guide xD, it said Wednesday. The multiyear agreement covers TVs, DVRs and set-top boxes. Panasonic will also deploy TiVo's new OTT-Link functionality that enables consumers to “deep link” directly into content from G-Guide, it said.

TiVo licensed its viewership data to Horizon Media, said the licensor Tuesday. The agreement extends to Canvas Worldwide, Horizon Big, Horizon Media Limited Partnership, Night Market Horizons, horizon next; and 305 Worldwide. Viewership data includes live and time-shifted usage. TiVo’s TV viewership data gives Horizon "a representative sample of linear TV data to drive improved client outcomes for the billions of advertising investment dollars within the Horizon client brands," it said. "This partnership also expands the scale and U.S. representation of Horizon’s current TV data stack."

Verizon settled two patent lawsuits filed by China’s Huawei. Last year, Huawei sued in Texas, alleging the carrier used its patents without authorization. Huawei noted it holds more than 100,000 active patents, including some 10,000 in the U.S. Verizon's Monday statement is here.

A Laguna Hills, California, man was sentenced Friday to 24 months in federal prison for conspiring to smuggle counterfeit Apple, Samsung and Motorola smartphone parts from China for sale to U.S. consumers, generating tens of millions of dollars in revenue for him and his co-conspirators, said DOJ. U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton in Santa Ana also ordered Chan Hung Le, 46, to pay $250,000 in fines. Le pleaded guilty in November to conspiracy to defraud the U.S., to intentionally trafficking in counterfeit goods and to illegally bringing merchandise into the U.S. Efforts to reach his lawyers for comment Monday were unsuccessful.

TiVo renewed its patent license with Google, said parent Xperi Wednesday. The long-term renewal gives Google, a licensee since 2012, continued broad coverage under TiVo’s patent portfolios for technology that helps YouTube and Google TV viewers find and watch video content, Xperi said.