U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman vetoed a ban on imports of early-model Apple iPhones and iPads on Saturday, dealing a blow to Samsung in a patent dispute under Section 337 of the 1930 Tariff Act. The International Trade Commission had issued the limited exclusion order after finding that some Apple iPhones and iPads infringe Samsung’s patents. After a 60-day presidential review period, the USTR said an import ban is unwarranted because the technology at issue is a standard-essential patent, and Samsung didn’t prove it made enough of an effort to license the technology to Apple.

"Students are the change agent” when it comes to encouraging broadband adoption throughout the country, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel told the Consumer Advisory Committee Friday. Rosenworcel made an appearance to discuss the commission’s E-rate initiative and the need to update commission policies to encourage more Internet capacity in schools. Agency officials emphasized the importance of connectivity at home, and committee members stressed that affordability and adoptions are also big concerns.

The Cybersecurity Act of 2013 (S-1353) passed the Senate Commerce Committee with broad industry support just prior to the August recess; the bill would authorize the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to focus on cybersecurity, including its ongoing work with industry to develop a voluntary cybersecurity framework (CD July 31 p1).

Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mark Pryor, D-Ark., said the FCC’s spectrum incentive auction “may slide into 2015,” in an interview for C-SPAN’s The Communicators scheduled to be aired over the weekend. “I'm totally fine with it happening in 2014,” said Pryor, “but I'm hearing rumors that it may not be ready by 2014.” This year both acting FCC Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn and former FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said publicly that the commission is “on track” to run the spectrum incentive auction in 2014 (CD March 13 p1 and CD May 22 p1). The FCC had no comment Friday.

The White House announcement Thursday that Mike O'Rielly would be the nominee as the next Republican member of the FCC, replacing Robert McDowell (CD Aug 2 p1), was welcomed by most industry associations Friday. In a twist, some industry lobbyists told us they now believe the Senate could move more quickly than expected to confirm O'Rielly and Democrat Tom Wheeler, designated to be the next chairman of the agency. Industry officials also said they're hearing that acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn may move the scheduled Sept. 27 FCC meeting to the previous week, which would give her a final meeting as head of the commission and save Wheeler from having to chair a meeting in what could be his first few days at the agency.

CEA, cable operators, DBS providers and groups representing disabled consumers are clashing over how proposed accessibility rules for user interfaces and programming guides should be applied to set top boxes and other devices. The squabble played out in a series of ex parte filings in docket 12-108 related to the commission’s attempt to implement section 204 and 205 of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA).

Arizona State Superior Court in Maricopa County dismissed with prejudice a lawsuit filed by Smartcomm LLC against Warren Communications News, charging Warren and its Communications Daily with libel and disclosing trade secrets. The dismissal resulted from Smartcomm’s decision to drop the suit, in a settlement in which Warren neither admitted any inaccuracies nor paid any damages.

Rovi said it restarted patent licensing discussions with Netflix after an International Trade Commission administrative law judge ruled the video streaming service didn’t violate one of four patents at the heart of a 2012 case. But Rovi is prepared to take the case to a federal trial, said CEO Thomas Carson on an earnings call.

Following its failed bid for Hulu, DirecTV is readying new subscription VOD ideas and continuing to further develop advanced technologies, including live streaming, said CEO Michael White on Thursday in a conference call.

A circulating FCC order on prison phone rate reform focuses on interstate rates, while an attached further rulemaking notice tees up intrastate issues, agency officials told us. The order, which on Monday was added to the Aug. 9 meeting agenda, would set up a “safe harbor” on per-minute interstate rates, said an FCC official. Anything under a certain per-minute rate would be okay, and above that, inmate calling service (ICS) companies would be able to justify that figure based on their own costs, said the official. But prices can only be justified until a certain point, at which they're capped, the official said.