Section 706 alone can go part of the way toward keeping the Internet open, but Title II reclassification is necessary for the strongest impact, public interest groups said in comments responding to an FCC public notice on potential new net neutrality rules. But CTIA, the Consumer Electronics Association and others argued the level of competition that exists for Internet access means there’s no need for restrictive Internet rules.
Court of International Trade activity
The U.S. foreign Internet surveillance program was mischaracterized as a “bulk” program, and efforts to add warrant requirements could create burdensome delays and intelligence gaps, intelligence officials told the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB). But civil rights advocates and international representatives said the Internet surveillance efforts -- authorized under Section 702 of the Patriot Act -- violated the First and Fourth amendments while displaying a lack of respect for international privacy standards.
Ericsson said Samsung will pay an initial $650 million, along with future royalty payments, as part of a cross-licensing agreement to end ongoing patent disputes between the companies (http://bit.ly/1btidco). The agreement covers the companies’ patents on the GSM, UMTS and LTE standards both companies use for their devices and networks, which had been the subject of a series of lawsuits beginning in 2012 in U.S. District Court in Tyler, Texas, and complaints at the U.S. International Trade Commission (CD Jan 29/13 p16). Ericsson said it is committed to licensing its standard-essential patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms “for the benefit of the industry.” The company “always viewed litigation as a last resort,” said Ericsson Chief Intellectual Property Officer Kasim Alfalahi in a news release. Samsung said it too has “always preferred negotiations over litigation, and will continue adhering to [FRAND] licensing principles to assist in our industry’s advancement” (http://bit.ly/L3KUWv).
Companies or a third party, not the government, should store phone metadata of U.S. citizens the government wants to surveil, recommended a key executive branch-appointed panel in a report released Wednesday, one among 46 recommendations that proposed sweeping changes to U.S. surveillance law. Proposals ranged from creating a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) public advocate to limiting phone searches. The White House unveiled the advice of its five-member surveillance review group in an unplanned move to quash speculation on the report’s contents, said Press Secretary Jay Carney. The release comes as more than 50 organizations pressed Congress not to pass legislation that would preserve the government’s bulk metadata surveillance program.
The U.S. must give “clear political signals” that it distinguishes between allies and adversaries, and agree on a code of conduct that guarantees that no U.S. espionage targets EU institutions and facilities, said European Parliament member (MEP) Claude Moraes, of the Socialists and Democrats and the U.K. He presented his draft report Wednesday on the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee’s extensive probe into U.S. National Security Agency spying and its impact on European fundamental rights.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld an International Trade Commission determination that some Motorola Mobility smartphones are infringing patents held by Microsoft, in violation of Section 337 of the Tariff Act (http://1.usa.gov/1gGAUAq). The ITC findings had resulted in imposition of a limited exclusion order in June 2012 banning imports of certain Motorola smartphones. Customs and Border Protection ruled in April that a design-around by Motorola allowed entry of products formerly subject to the exclusion order, which provoked an ongoing lawsuit from Microsoft at the U.S. District Court in Washington. Motorola Mobility is “disappointed with this decision but pleased with the overall outcome,” said a spokesman for the company that’s now a unit of Google. “Microsoft lost on 8 of its ‘best’ patents, and this lone opinion does not impact our ability to build great products that people love.” The ITC had no comment on the Federal Circuit’s ruling, decided Monday. “Even after a closer look by the Federal Circuit, it’s clear Google is using patented technology Microsoft worked hard to invent,” said Microsoft Deputy General Counsel David Howard.
The U.S. National Security Agency has “weakened, misconstrued and ignored” civil liberties protections that Congress built into the Patriot Act, but the USA Freedom Act would fix that, Jim Sensenbrenner, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and Investigations, told the European Parliament Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) Committee Monday. The legislation would deliver “real reform” by ending the NSA dragnet of information from Europeans and Americans, he said. Google, Microsoft and Facebook, meanwhile, denied they give intelligence agencies back-door access to users’ data, sparking skepticism from Parliament members (MEPs).
European negotiators meeting in Wednesday with U.S. counterparts to discuss mass surveillance and data protection issues focused on a wide range of issues, some of which may take a long time to resolve or may remain unanswered, the European Commission told the European Parliament Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) Committee at a hearing Thursday. The question of whether European citizens should have redress for breaches by the U.S. National Security Agency of their privacy rights is one that may have to be solved in steps, said Reinhard Priebe, director-internal security in the Home Affairs Directorate. The trans-Atlantic experts working group hopes to have a joint report ready by year’s end, said Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Director Paul Nemitz. The LIBE hearing focused on how best to ensure that unfettered spying never happens again
Patent industry stakeholders should “stay tuned” for a pending U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rulemaking on the filing and disclosure of real-party-in-interest (RPI) patent ownership information, acting PTO Director Teresa Stanek Rea said Thursday. PTO is conducting the rulemaking process as part of its implementation of President Barack Obama’s set of executive actions to combat abusive patent litigation. The set of actions tasks PTO with creating rules that will require patent applicants and owners to regularly update ownership on file at PTO when they are involved in proceedings with the agency (CD June 5 p6).
An import ban on certain older-model Samsung mobile devices was set to take effect Tuesday night after U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman declined to veto a limited exclusion order issued by the U.S. International Trade Commission. The Samsung phones and tablets had been the subject of a Section 337 case Apple brought to the ITC. USTR gave Apple a reprieve from a similar import ban in August (CD Aug 15 p10). Samsung said in a statement it’s “disappointed” by the USTR’s decision, saying “it will serve only to reduce competition and limit choice for the American consumer."