Qualcomm hailed the International Trade Commission's vote, announced Tuesday, to open a Tariffs Act Section 337 investigation (337-TA-1065) into Qualcomm allegations against Apple that iPhones that don’t contain Qualcomm baseband processor chips violate Qualcomm patents and should be barred from U.S. import (see 1707120023) . “Qualcomm is pleased with the ITC's decision to investigate Apple’s unfair trade practices and the unauthorized importation of products using Qualcomm’s patents," said Don Rosenberg, Qualcomm general counsel, in a statement. Apple didn’t comment.

Digimarc is working on methods of harnessing Amazon’s traffic in online retailing to redirect it to brick-and-mortar stores using concealed “steganographic” encoding on the screens of smartphones and desktop computers, said a U.S. patent application (20170221121) published Thursday at the Patent and Trademark Office. “The experience begins with the consumer going to an online retailer's website (e.g., Amazon) to search for a product,” said the application, which is unusual for its plain wording and for how it describes in explicit, 3,000-word detail a hypothetical shopping expedition involving a consumer named “Ryan.” The desktop application “automatically searches for the same product” using the application programming interfaces of brick-and-mortar retailers, said the patent, specifically naming “Walmart and/or Best Buy.” If matches and near-matches of the product are found, “the product name, model, price, and local availability at affiliate locations is shown,” it said. “With a mobile phone camera-scan of the product page, relevant information is transferred to the consumer's phone. From there, the consumer can interact with the options on the mobile phone to be directed to the nearby brick and mortar store of choice carrying that product at the price they want. Along the way, the retailer can present offers and additional product information directly to the consumer.” The application is designed to address the difficulty that "conventional" brick-and-mortar retailers have "competing against online retailers," it said: "The latter don't incur the costs of display space and customer service staff borne by the former. A further challenge has emerged with 'showrooming' -- a practice in which shoppers visit stores of conventional retailers to examine samples of physical products, but then make their purchases online." The application, filed Feb. 8, names four inventors from the Portland, Oregon, area, at least three of whom hold key positions at Digimarc, which is based in nearby Beaverton, Oregon: CEO Bruce Davis, Chief Technology Officer Tony Rodriguez and Senior Software Engineer Eoin Sinclair. Amazon and Digimarc representatives didn’t comment Thursday.

Vizio landed a U.S. patent Tuesday that describes a device and method for “correcting lip sync problems on display devices,” Patent and Trademark Office records show. “Maintaining synchronization” between audio and video on a modern TV “is dependent on a number of variables,” said the patent (9,723,180), which lists Vizio Chief Technology Officer Matthew McRae as the inventor, based on a January 2014 application. For example, “the sync can depend on the amount of computing performed for motion estimation and motion compensation (MEMC),” the patent said. Audio and video data in a content stream are tied together through timing codes that are in embedded in the stream’s audio frames and “associated” video frames, it said. But MEMC processing “typically causes the audio frame to be played before the video frame is displayed,” it said. McRae’s solution is a system that synchronizes audio and video by using a sensor that sees and hears the display of video and audio from an external device, it said. “The sensor creates timestamps for each of the video and audio, and then calculates a difference between those timestamps.” Those differences are then sent to the external device,“ which then compensates for the difference,” it said. Vizio representatives didn’t comment Tuesday on the company’s plans to commercialize McRae’s invention.

The International Trade Commission seeks comment by Aug. 7 on a potential limited exclusion order banning imports of semiconductors made by Broadcom, and set-top boxes and network devices from other companies that include the allegedly infringing semiconductors, it said in Friday's Federal Register. The exclusion order, recently recommended by an ITC administrative law judge, would ban imports of devices by Broadcom, Arista Networks, Arris, Asus, Comcast, HTC, Netgear and Technicolor. Those companies didn't comment. The ALJ also recommended cease and desist orders against the same companies. The ITC began the underlying Tariff Act Section 337 investigation in June 2016 (see 1606240037).

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., wants the Trump administration to name a new Patent and Trademark Office director to build on "good work" of his committee and several Supreme Court decisions on curbing patent litigation abuse, he said Thursday. At a Courts, IP and the Internet Subcommittee hearing on how "bad patents" affect U.S. businesses, Goodlatte said companies are forced to settle patent lawsuits rather than expand. TC Heartland v. Kraft Foods (see 1705220045) was supposed to sharply reduce such cases, but Goodlatte singled out the Eastern District of Texas as continuing to be friendly to patent infringement lawsuits (see 1608010016). He cited passage of his Innovation Act in previous Congresses as a way to curb such problems, but hasn't committed to the bill's reintroduction (see 1702010069). Chris Mohr, Software & Information Industry Association vice president-intellectual property, said congressional and court actions have helped limit abuse, but only Congress can do "true litigation reform." United for Patent Reform co-Chair Beth Provenzano, vice president-government relations and political affairs at the National Retail Federation, said Congress needs to keep provisions in Section 101 of the Patent Act, the Supreme Court's 2014 Alice v. CLS Bank (see 1406200066) and inter partes review process strong to defend against bad patents.

Qualcomm International filed a complaint against Apple asking the International Trade Commission to begin a Tariffs Act Section 337 investigation into allegations that certain Apple smartphones and tablets are being imported in violation of Qualcomm patents. Qualcomm's Thursday complaint alleges Apple uses its chips in some of its products, but in others, including some versions of the iPhone 7, Apple chooses not to use Qualcomm chips but still copies Qualcomm’s patented technologies. The chips enable “numerous important features” on the iPhone including better battery life, increased network speeds and improved graphics, Qualcomm said. The chip company seeks a limited exclusion and cease and desist orders banning import and sale of infringing devices by Apple. The ITC is seeking comment by July 20, it said in Wednesday's Federal Register. Apple didn't comment Tuesday or Wednesday.

Japan’s Uldage announced the start of collective licensing activities under a patent pool that will bundle and license patents essential to enable UHDTV satellite broadcasting standards to business operators involved in transmission and reception of 4K and 8K broadcasting. In the digital age, “it has become more and more necessary to resolve patent issues under fair and reasonable conditions by simplifying the complicated rights issues and the related complex procedures,” Uldage said Monday. The patent licensing makes it possible for broadcasters and receiver manufacturers to receive a license of bundled patents from a number of patent holders “under very reasonable conditions,” Uldage said. Rates for receivers are 100 yen (88 cents) per unit for narrowband CS UHDTV receivers and 200 yen ($1.76) per unit for wideband UHDTV receivers, it said.

Arris filed an International Trade Commission complaint May 9 under Section 337 of the Tariff Act alleging imported Sony TVs, videogame consoles, mobile phones, tablets and internet-connected DVD and Blu-ray players violate six Arris U.S. patents, said a notice published in Tuesday’s Federal Register. In the proceeding, Arris seeks an ITC investigation and a limited exclusion order and cease and desist orders against the Sony imports, the notice said. The complaint names Sony and six subsidiaries as respondents in the proceeding (337-TA-1060). Sony representatives didn’t comment Tuesday.

Patent and Trademark Office Director Michelle Lee resigned Tuesday, an administration source confirmed, and later, the Department of Commerce confirmed. Lee didn't indicate the reason for her abrupt departure in an email sent to all PTO employees that began circulating at our deadline. “I am tremendously proud of all that we have accomplished together” since Lee took the reins at PTO in 2014, she said. "I am confident that the leadership team in place will serve you well during this transition." The Senate confirmed Lee the next year (see 1503100031). Lee's resignation followed PTO's belated March confirmation that President Donald Trump planned to retain her as the office's director, after months of uncertainty over her status (see 1701190046 and 703290072). The White House didn't comment.

The Supreme Court ruled in​ Impression Products v. Lexmark International Tuesday against the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals on domestic and international patent exhaustion. “A patentee’s decision to sell a product exhausts all of its patent rights in that item, regardless of any restrictions the patentee purports to impose or the location of the sale,” said Chief Justice John Roberts. The Supreme Court voted 8-0 to overturn precedent for domestic patent exhaustion and 7-1 to nix international exhaustion precedent. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented on international exhaustion, contending a company retains overseas patent rights at sale. Justice Neil Gorsuch didn’t take part. The Federal Circuit had said a company could choose to exhaust only some of its patent rights at the time of a product’s sale, opening up the possibility of an infringement lawsuit if a user violated a company's reserved rights. The “misstep” in Federal Circuit “logic is that the exhaustion doctrine is not a presumption about the authority that comes along with a sale; it is instead a limit on ‘the scope of the patentee’s rights,’” the Supreme Court ruled. It's a disappointment but confirms that Lexmark’s “return program agreement remains clear and enforceable under contract law,” said General Counsel Bob Patton in a statement. Impression is happy the court "reaffirmed important limits on the scope of patent rights,” said counsel Andrew Pincus of Mayer Brown. The decision “is a strong recognition that consumer rights have primary importance,” said Public Knowledge Patent Reform Project Director Charles Duan.