The Food and Drug Administration is extending until Jan. 31 the period of biennial registration renewal for foreign and foreign food facilities, it said in an update to its Q&A on food facility registration. FDA said it is taking this action because of the delay in beginning the period of registration renewal, which was required to start by Oct. 1, but did not begin until Oct. 22. The guidance said FDA is “exercising enforcement discretion” for food facilities that register during the Jan. 1-31 period, and encouraged facilities to register early.

The FCC fined James M. Lout $3,000 for failing to timely file a post-auction Form 301 long-form application after FM Auction 93, a Media Bureau order released Friday said (http://xrl.us/bn5b9d).

The Food and Drug Administration has yet to publish several major rules related to implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act, but has made a lot of progress, said Domenic Veneziano, director of FDA’s new Office of Enforcement and Import Operations, at the Food Chemical News’ Complying with FSMA’s Food Import Regulations conference Dec. 4 in Washington, D.C. Proposed rules on the Foreign Supplier Verification Program and Third-Party Accreditation have been submitted for Office of Management and Budget approval, and these programs, among others, will serve as important tools given FDA’s resource constraints, he said.

Total U.S. home entertainment spending inched ahead 0.24 percent in Q3 to $3.9 billion, but spending on physical disc subscriptions plummeted 50.4 percent to $301 million, the Digital Entertainment Group said Friday. Total rental spending, excluding video on demand, was down 24 percent to $1 billion for the quarter, which included the Olympic Games, while total spending on rentals, including VOD, was down only 16.5 percent to $1.5 billion, DEG said. Rentals at brick-and-mortar stores fell 19 percent to $286 million, but kiosk sales rose 9.86 percent to $454.8 million, DEG said. Total subscription spending, for streaming and discs, advanced 2.1 percent to $880.6 million for the quarter, according to data. In digital, the largest growth was seen in subscription streaming, up 127 percent to $579 million, followed by electronic sell-through at 38 percent to $187 million and VOD, up 8.5 percent to $455 million, it said. Sell-through of packaged goods, declined 4 percent to $1.7 billion for the quarter, DEG said. In 2012 to date, total U.S. home entertainment spending is up a percentage point to $12.3 billion, it said.

Sprint Nextel remains committed to its unlimited data plans, despite Verizon Wireless’s and AT&T’s claims that they benefitted from the rollout of their plans during Q3, Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse said Thursday during an investor conference call. “There are some temporary advantages that Verizon has due to its network, but we do not see making any changes to our rate plans,” Hesse said. “We're seeing absolutely nothing in any of our channels that indicates that the new rate plans that Verizon has is either helping or hurting -- to their credit, I don’t think it’s hurting them. Because of their LTE footprint advantage right now, they're … blasting right through, what we believe, are complex rate plans.” However, the carrier did announce new tiered-data plans for tablets Wednesday. The plans start at $14.99 for 300 MB and go up to $79.99 for 12GB, Sprint Nextel said. The carrier has long marketed its “Simply Unlimited” data plans, which began to see competition during the quarter from competing unlimited data plans from T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS (CD Aug 23 p5).

The Consumer Product Safety Commission is seeking comments on a proposed three-year extension of approval of collecting information from manufacturers and importers of children's sleepwear. The information collection is in the Standard for the Flammability of Children's Sleepwear: Sizes 0 through 6X and the Standard for the Flammability of Children's Sleepwear: Sizes 7 through 14 and regulations implementing those standards, CPSC said in a Federal Register notice scheduled for Oct. 17.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission is seeking comments on a proposed three-year extension of approval of a collection of information from manufacturers and importers of children's sleepwear, it said in a Federal Register notice scheduled for Oct. 4. The information collection is in the Standard for the Flammability of Children's Sleepwear: Sizes 0 through 6X and the Standard for the Flammability of Children's Sleepwear: Sizes 7 through 14.

The U.S. Trade Representative removed Israel from the Special 301 “priority” watch list for countries with troubling intellectual property practices, and placed it on the regular watch list, the agency said Monday. According to the USTR announcement, Israel’s move to the regular list is based on the country’s introduction of three proposals aimed at improving its pharmaceutical patent system. The proposals came about as a result of a memorandum of understanding between Israel and the U.S. signed in 2010. The memorandum said the U.S. would remove Israel from the watch list once the new laws are enacted. The introduction of these proposals demonstrate “the commitment of both the United States and Israel to providing transparent, efficient and effective patent systems for innovative and generic medicine producers,” USTR Ron Kirk said in a statement.

The U.S. Trade Representative removed Israel from the Special 301 “priority” watch list for countries with troubling intellectual property practices, and placed it on the regular watch list, the agency said Monday. According to the USTR announcement, Israel’s move to the regular list is based on the country’s introduction of three proposals aimed at improving its pharmaceutical patent system. The proposals came about as a result of a memorandum of understanding between Israel and the U.S. signed in 2010. The memorandum said the U.S. would remove Israel from the watch list once the new laws are enacted. The introduction of these proposals demonstrate “the commitment of both the United States and Israel to providing transparent, efficient and effective patent systems for innovative and generic medicine producers,” USTR Ron Kirk said in a statement.

"Much work needs to be done to level the playing field for American innovators,” said Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., chairman of House Judiciary’s Intellectual Property Subcommittee, at a hearing Thursday. Goodlatte stressed a need for strong IP and trade secret protections.