Comments are due July 2 on public interest ramifications of the Trade Act Section 337 import ban MediaTek seeks at the International Trade Commission on NXP integrated circuits used by Arrow Electronics, Avnet, Bosch, Continental and Mouser Electronics, said Thursday's Federal Register. The ICs, used in temperature sensors, entertainment systems and wireless Wi-Fi 6 chipsets, infringe five MediaTek patents on chip design, the oldest dating to 2007, said MediaTek's June 17 complaint (login required). MediaTek seeks a limited exclusion and cease and desist orders against the proposed respondents and their affiliates. None responded to questions Friday. MediaTek’s requested import ban raises no public interest concerns because the accused products serve no "essential public health or welfare objective," said the complaint. MediaTek, Panasonic, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and others "already provide a sufficient supply of nonaccused competitive products" in the U.S., and can fill any market "void" within a "commercially reasonable time," it said.
New House legislation would levy a performance royalty on radio stations playing music on terrestrial radio. The American Music Fairness Act, from Reps. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., and Darrell Issa, R-Calif. responds to the Local Radio Freedom Act. Supported by NAB, the latter would oppose any such royalty bill. NAB opposes Thursday’s introduction, said CEO Gordon Smith.
Senate Intellectual Property Subcommittee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., expressed confidence in the Patent and Trademark Office and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board at a subcommittee hearing Tuesday, a day after a key Supreme Court decision (see 2106210036). Leahy said he respects the U.S. v. Arthrex ruling and has confidence the PTO and PTAB will carry out their duties for the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act. The law shifted the U.S. from a first-to-invent system to a first-to-file system. Leahy said Congress must continue to address patent quality issues on the front end. A strong patent system that protects American inventions is critical to economic success, job creation and global competitiveness, said ranking member Thom Tillis, R-N.C. Tillis suggested Congress should consider creating a “gold-plated” patent with a more rigorous, more costly examination process to ensure patents are truly innovative and the innovation is “virtually impossible” to challenge. To improve patent quality, University of Utah law professor Jorge Contreras suggested Congress increase PTO “vigilance to detect potentially inoperable inventions,” heighten examination requirements, allow more public input and increase penalties for fraud. “Strong patents encourage and protect innovation, and are critical to our overall economy,” said Acushnet Company Vice President-Patents Troy Lester. “Overly broad patents, in contrast, are detrimental to U.S. manufacturing companies, often stifling innovation.” Instead of wasting “resources of our nation’s industries on low quality patents, we need to implement ways to improve patent quality on the front end,” said Cree Chief IP Counsel Julio Garceran.
The Patent and Trademark Office approved for publication the UHD Alliance's application to register Filmmaker Mode as a certification mark for compliant TV sets, agency records show. PTO is scheduled to publish the application for opposition July 13. If no dissenters protest it in the 30-day opposition period, the application proceeds to the next level of approval but won't earn a registration certificate until UHDA files a statement of use attesting to Filmmaker Mode's commercial deployment. The May 2019 application traveled a bumpy road through PTO after an examining attorney refused the trademark last year on grounds that it was "not inherently distinctive" under U.S. case law (see 2010160030). Filmmaker Mode, introduced in August 2019, is 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 was shot on high-speed video rather than film (see 1908270001). Filmmaker Mode has the support of Hisense, Kaleidescape, LG, Panasonic, Samsung, TP Vision and Vizio.
National Cable Television Cooperative members can continue to receive the MobiTV IPTV service, now owned and operated by TiVo, under a master services agreement announced Tuesday. It includes a managed pay-TV service, a shared offering leveraging TiVo software that enables customers to navigate linear, on demand and network DVR services, said the Xperi subsidiary.
Advertising software company Viant is licensing TiVo’s linear TV viewership data feed, said the Xperi subsidiary Wednesday. The real-time TV tune-in and ad exposure data feed will give advertisers diversity, flexibility and real-time analysis to support omnichannel campaigns at the household level, it said. TiVo’s TV viewership data provides linear data of live and time-shifted usage and allows customers to measure their ad campaign activity and optimize data science solutions for media planning and buying, it said.
Samsung SDI applied last week for U.S. trademarks for what appear to be new brand names for batteries and battery packs, including lithium-ion cells, Patent and Trademark Office records show. It applied in March in South Korea for the same four trademarks -- PRIMUS, PRiMX, PRi-X and SPRiMX, said the agency. Samsung SDI didn’t respond to questions.
Daimler will license Nokia's mobile communications patents for an unspecified payment, said the companies Tuesday. They agreed to settle all pending patent litigation between them, including Daimler’s complaint against Nokia before the European Commission. Agreement terms weren't disclosed.
The International Trade Commission ordered a Section 337 investigation into allegations in an AliveCor April 20 complaint that the electrocardiogram functions in three series of the Apple Watch infringe three AliveCor patents on arrhythmia tracking, says Wednesday’s Federal Register. The complaint seeks a limited exclusion order and a cease and desist order on Apple Watch imports. Apple didn’t comment Tuesday.
Xperi's Rovi Guides filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Videotron in the Federal Court of Canada, said Xperi Monday. It claims Videotron infringed four Rovi patents on advanced DVR functionality, delivering video programming in multiple formats and switching between broadcast and streaming programs. This follows existing litigation against Videotron before the Canadian MVPD launched its Helix next-generation platform and alleges infringement of different patents by Videotron’s legacy platform. That case is pending a decision in the same court. “We have successfully licensed the other leading operators that use the very same technology that powers Videotron’s Helix platform and remain committed to finding a mutually acceptable resolution,” said Samir Armaly, Xperi president-IP licensing. “When commercial negotiations prove unsuccessful, as they have to date with Videotron, litigation becomes necessary.” Videotron didn't comment.