Other Barks & Bites for Friday, October 22: Tillis Co-Sponsors Cyber Incident Reporting Act, Samsung Faces Major Smartphone Ban in Russia, and House Passes Four Telecommunications Infrastructure and Competition Bills

https://depositphotos.com/10882248/stock-photo-cross-breed-dog-4-years.htmlThis week in Other Barks & Bites: Facebook comes to a preliminary agreement on copyright royalties with French news publishers; Senator Thom Tillis announces his support of a bill increasing cyber-attack reporting requirements for critical infrastructure owners; the Federal Trade Commission issues a report on “troubling” ISP practices surrounding consumer personal data; a Moscow court enters a ruling banning dozens of Samsung smartphone models from Russia after finding infringement of mobile payment system patents; Snap’s earnings show that Apple’s app privacy changes are having a sizable impact on advertiser revenues; the EPO releases a study showing that the U.S. and the EU account for 60 percent of clean plastics patent filing activity; the House of Representatives passes a series of four bills that would secure supply chains for telecommunications infrastructure and improve competition in telecom networks; and the Copyright Royalty Board reopens a public comment period on Section 115 statutory licenses after major copyright owners and record companies reach a partial settlement.

Bites

FTC Staff Report Finds Troubling ISP Data Collection Practices – On Thursday, October 21, the Federal Trade Commission released a staff report detailing data collection practices employed by the six major Internet service providers (ISPs) operating in the U.S., finding several “troubling aspects” of those practices involving the monetizing of consumers’ personal data as well as obscuring consumers’ ability to exercise their ability to choose how ISPs are able to use their personal data.

Senator Tillis Co-Sponsors Bill Requiring Critical Infrastructure to Report Cyber Attacks – On Thursday, October 21, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) announced that he will co-sponsor the Cyber Incident Reporting Act, introduced in September by Senator Gary Peters (D-MI), which would require critical infrastructure owners to report cyber attacks to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) within 72 hours and to report ransom payments to CISA within 24 hours.

Facebook Signs Preliminary Copyright Agreement with French News Publishers – On Thursday, October 21, American social media giant Facebook announced that it had reached a preliminary copyright agreement with a lobby group representing news publishers based in France, averting further legal action from French publishers over Facebook’s republication of online news content while moving towards negotiations on royalty payments to individual publishers.

House of Representatives Passes Series of Four Telecommunications Infrastructure Bills – On Wednesday, October 20, four bills aimed at improving security and increasing competitiveness in telecommunications infrastructure and networks were passed on a floor vote in the U.S. House of Representatives: H.R. 4067, the Communications, Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council Act; H.R. 3919, the Secure Equipment Act; H.R. 4032, the Open RAN Outreach Act; and H.R. 4028, the Information and Communications Technology Strategy Act. Each of the bills were passed by overwhelming majorities and three will now move on to the Senate, where a version of the Secure Equipment Act was already introduced this May.

Dozens of Samsung Smartphone Models Banned from Russia in Mobile Pay Patent Case – On Tuesday, October 19, the Moscow Arbitration Court issued a ruling finding that 61 models of smartphones marketed by Samsung Electronics in Russia infringed upon mobile payment system patents owned by Swiss patent owner SQWIN SA. The Moscow court ordered that Samsung be enjoined from importing and selling the smartphone models with the infringing mobile pay service.

EU, U.S. Account for 60% of Clean Plastics Patent Filing Activity Worldwide – On Tuesday, October 19, the European Patent Office (EPO) released a patent filing activity study finding that the United States and the European Union each contributed 30 percent of global patenting activity from 2010 to 2019 related to plastic recycling and alternative plastics, with innovation in chemical and biological recycling methods as well as healthcare bioplastics supporting much of the increased filing activity.

House Antitrust Subcommittee Asks Amazon to Correct Misleading Testimony – On Monday, October 18, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and a series of members of the House Antitrust Subcommittee signed a letter addressed to Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy asking the e-commerce giant’s chief executive to correct sworn testimony and statements from previous Congressional hearings denying the company’s anticompetitive use of sales data and product rankings after several credible news reports showed that Amazon.com indeed utilized such strategies.

Senators Grassley, Klobuchar Introduce Senate Version of Online Platform Competition Bill – On Thursday, October 14, Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) announced that they were co-sponsoring the Senate version of the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, previously introduced in the House of Representatives this June. If enacted, the bill would make it unlawful for dominant online platforms from using their market power to preference their own products and services as well as increase antitrust enforcement against discriminatory self-preferencing conduct.

Barks 

CRB Reopens Comment Period for Phonorecords VI Ratemaking After MOU on Partial Settlement – On Friday, October 22, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) announced in the Federal Register a second reopening of the public comment period for determinations of rates and terms for statutory licenses under 17 U.S.C. § 115 for distributing phonorecords of nondramatic musical works. The extended comment period will allow interested parties to comment on a memorandum of understanding (MOU) jointly submitted by major copyright owners and record companies and whether the partial settlement in the MOU has any impact on the proposed statutory license regulations. 

USITC to Review Economic Prong Analysis in Percussion Massager Section 337 Investigation – On Wednesday, October 20, the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) issued a notice announcing that it would review part of an initial determination in a Section 337 investigation finding a Section 337 violation caused by the importation for sale of certain percussive massage devices that infringe patents owned by Hyperice. Specifically, the USITC will review whether Hyperice has satisfied the economic prong of the domestic industry requirement with respect to an asserted patent.

Online Retailer Appeals Jurisdictional Issues in Sports Merchandise Trademark Case – On Tuesday, October 19, Chinese-based e-commerce firm HANWJH filed a notice of appeal seeking to challenge the Northern District of Illinois’ refusal to dismiss a trademark infringement case brought by a series of professional sports leagues at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit after rejecting HANWJH’s arguments that it had insufficient contacts with the district.

PTAB Invalidates All Challenged Claims of Messaging Patents Asserted Against Snap – On Tuesday, October 19, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued final written decisions in two inter partes review (IPR) proceedings invalidating all challenged claims of patents owned by SRK Technology and covering adaptive message recording technologies for communication devices. SRK had previously asserted the patents in U.S. district court against social media firm Snap, which then filed the IPR petitions invalidating all challenged claims of SRK’s patents.

USPTO Requests Comments on Information Collections for Patent Reexams, Other Submissions – On Tuesday, October 19, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a notice in the Federal Register announcing that it was reopening the public comment period for information collections involved with requests for ex parte reexamination, requests for supplemental examination, third-party submissions in reexamination proceedings, and other submissions regarding patentability.

Judge Donato Urges Nikola to Move Patent Case Forward in Order to Show Cause – On Monday, October 18, U.S. District Judge James Donato of the Northern District of California issued a ruling following an order to show cause in which Judge Donato did not dismiss electric vehicle maker Nikola Corporation’s patent case against Tesla, although he indicated that such a dismissal could be forthcoming “if Nikola does not move this case forward to resolution in an efficient and timely manner.”

UK Photographer Files Copyright Suit Against SF Bay Area Bicycle Store Over Website Photo – On Monday, October 18, Robin Thorn, Director of the UK-based bike maker Thorn Cycles, filed a lawsuit in the Northern District of California alleging claims of copyright infringement against Summit Bicycles, which operates a series of bike stores across the San Francisco Bay Area, over its unauthorized use of a photo captured by Thorn and registered with the U.S. Copyright Office.

Copyright Office to Remove Outdated Applications From eCO System – On Friday, October 15, the U.S. Copyright Office announced that it would be deleting draft applications saved in the agency’s Electronic Copyright System (eCO) that were created on or before November 30, 2020. Those applications will be permanently discarded from eCO on November 30, 2021.

This Week on Wall Street

Intel CEO Expects Chip Shortage to Hurt Computer Sales Until 2023 – On Thursday, October 21, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger gave an interview to CNBC in which he indicated that the global chip shortage would keep sales of laptops and other PCs down until 2023. That same day, Intel shares dropped by about 8 percent after the company reported third quarter earnings showing a slight decrease in sales in the company’s client computing division, Intel’s largest business unit.

Snap Faults Apple’s Privacy Changes in Reporting Quarterly Revenue Miss – On Thursday, October 21, American social media firm Snap Inc. reported earnings for the third quarter of 2021 during which the company missed analyst revenue forecasts in large part because of changes made by consumer tech giant Apple for iPhone users which have disrupted traditional advertiser methods of tracking app usage.

Quarterly Earnings – The following firms identified among the IPO’s Top 300 Patent Recipients for 2020 are announcing quarterly earnings next week (2020 rank in parentheses):

  • Monday: Facebook, Inc. (23rd); Hyundai Motor Co. (21st); ZTE Corp. (t-208th)
  • Tuesday: 3M Co. (71st); Alphabet, Inc. (15th); Canon Inc. (4th); Fujitsu Ltd. (42nd); General Electric Co. (14th); Globus Medical Inc. (t-269th); Hubbell Inc. (t-278th); Juniper Networks, Inc. (t-166th); Mediatek Inc. (109th); Microsoft Corp. (8th); Nidec Corp. (t-153rd); Novartis AG (180th); Raytheon Technologies Corp. (6th); Shimano, Inc. (t-269th); Texas Instruments Inc. (38th); Visa Inc. (204th); Xerox Holdings Corp. (149th)
  • Wednesday: Apple Inc. (11th); BASF SE (95th); The Boeing Co. (26th); Boston Scientific Corp. (82nd); Bristol Myers Squibb Co. (t-216th); eBay Inc. (200th); Fanuc Corp. (78th); Ford Motor Co. (19th); General Motors Co. (54th); KLA Corp. (t-232nd); Motorola Solutions, Inc. (202nd); Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., Ltd. (101st); Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd. (162nd); TCL Technology Group Corp. (51st); TE Connectivity Ltd. (t-163rd); Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (131st); United Microelectronics Corp. (t-151st); Xilinx Inc. (t-170th)
  • Thursday: Airbus SE (89th); Amazon.com, Inc. (16th); Caterpillar Inc. (113th); Fuji Electric Co., Ltd. (175th); Komatsu Ltd. (t-220th); LG Corp. (3rd); Mastercard Inc. (143rd); Merck & Co., Inc. (297th); Mitsubishi Electric Corp. (33rd); Nielsen Holdings plc (185th); Nokia Corp. (58th); Northrop Grumman Corp. (t-287th); Panasonic Corp. (20th); Renesas Electronics Corp. (118th); Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (2nd); Sanofi S.A. (211th); STMicroelectronics NV (74th); Stryker Corp. (t-114th); Textron Inc. (150th); Western Digital Corp. (55th)
  • Friday: BOE Technology Group Co., Ltd. (18th); Chevron Corp. (275th); Colgate-Palmolive Co. (t-265th); Delta Electronics, Inc. (t-183rd); Jtekt Corp. (294th); Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (93rd); NEC Corp. (45th); Seiko Epson Corp. (32nd); Signify NV (137th); SK Group (43rd)

Image Source: Deposit Photos
Author: lifeonwhite
Image ID: 10882248

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  • [Avatar for Pro Say]
    Pro Say
    October 22, 2021 09:32 pm

    So . . . yet another week goes by . . . with no sign of Congress finally throwing off the shackles of Big Tech (apparently except big-blue IBM — see their excellent eligibility comments to the PTO: https://ipwatchdog.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/IBM-comment.pdf) . . . in order to unleash American innovation . . . by restoring critically-important patent protection . . . to all areas of innovation?

    Yet. One. More. Week.