Patent and Trademark Office Director Michelle Lee is to testify before the House IP Subcommittee Sept. 13 on PTO operations, the House Judiciary Committee said Tuesday. The hearing will focus primarily on the Department of Commerce inspector general’s report last week that said PTO employees fraudulently billed the office for almost 290,000 hours of work in late 2014 and 2015 they didn’t perform and collected $18.3 million in salary for those hours. The Commerce IG concluded in the report that the full amount of time that PTO employees falsely billed may be double what the office was able to conclusively estimate was fraudulent. Had PTO employees worked all of the hours they claimed, they would have been able to reduce the office’s backlog of patent applications by almost 16,000 cases, the IG said. PTO's application backlog currently stands at more than 549,000 cases. “I am extremely concerned about the recent Inspector General’s report that indicates time and attendance fraud is still a serious problem” at PTO, said House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., in a news release. “The amount of wasted man-hours that could have been spent reducing the patent backlog is astounding, not to mention the millions of taxpayer dollars that were wasted paying USPTO employees for work they were not doing.” The Commerce IG report “raises serious questions about the integrity of our patent system,” said House IP Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif. “If the PTO can’t even guarantee sufficient oversight of its employees’ timecards, how can we be assured patent examiners aren’t just rubberstamping ideas without oversight as well?” House Judiciary said House IP also will examine PTO’s progress in implementing the 2011 America Invents Act, and other issues on patent law revamp efforts. Goodlatte noted a July GAO study that recommended PTO act to more consistently define patent quality and better communicate its patent quality standards in agency-produced documents (see 1607200080). House IP’s hearing is to begin at 1 p.m. in Rayburn 2237.

Patent and Trademark Office Director Michelle Lee is to testify before the House IP Subcommittee Sept. 13 on PTO operations, the House Judiciary Committee said Tuesday. The hearing will focus primarily on the Department of Commerce inspector general’s report last week that said PTO employees fraudulently billed the office for almost 290,000 hours of work in late 2014 and 2015 they didn’t perform and collected $18.3 million in salary for those hours. The Commerce IG concluded in the report that the full amount of time that PTO employees falsely billed may be double what the office was able to conclusively estimate was fraudulent. Had PTO employees worked all of the hours they claimed, they would have been able to reduce the office’s backlog of patent applications by almost 16,000 cases, the IG said. PTO's application backlog currently stands at more than 549,000 cases. “I am extremely concerned about the recent Inspector General’s report that indicates time and attendance fraud is still a serious problem” at PTO, said House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., in a news release. “The amount of wasted man-hours that could have been spent reducing the patent backlog is astounding, not to mention the millions of taxpayer dollars that were wasted paying USPTO employees for work they were not doing.” The Commerce IG report “raises serious questions about the integrity of our patent system,” said House IP Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif. “If the PTO can’t even guarantee sufficient oversight of its employees’ timecards, how can we be assured patent examiners aren’t just rubberstamping ideas without oversight as well?” House Judiciary said House IP also will examine PTO’s progress in implementing the 2011 America Invents Act, and other issues on patent law revamp efforts. Goodlatte noted a July GAO study that recommended PTO act to more consistently define patent quality and better communicate its patent quality standards in agency-produced documents (see 1607200080). House IP’s hearing is to begin at 1 p.m. in Rayburn 2237.

Opportunistic public access to Wi-Fi channel 14 as an FCC condition for approving Globalstar's proposed broadband terrestrial low-power service is getting more pushback from TLPS critics. TLPS would disrupt Bluetooth, and its "new, more expansive proposal would be even worse," said the Hearing Industries Association and Entertainment Software Association in a joint filing Thursday in docket 13-213. Opportunistic use of channel 14 ignores the fundamental concern raised by 2.4 GHz users, they said. "Permitting other parties to transmit throughout Channel 14 is likely only to compound the problems." The associations said an order that includes third-party use would violate the Administrative Procedure Act since opportunistic use appears nowhere in the NPRM and isn't a logical outgrowth of the proposed FCC actions. In an ex parte filing, Wireless Communications Association International recapped a phone call with an adviser to FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly in which it repeated previous objections to channel 14 sharing, including the agency's not providing the required notice and chance to comment on opportunistic use (see 1606130053). Globalstar, meanwhile, continues to talk with O'Rielly about such opportunistic use, it said of a pair of talks involving company representatives including Tim Taylor, vice president-finance, business operations and strategy; ex-Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth; and others with O'Rielly staff. Opportunistic sharing was championed by public interest groups like Public Knowledge and Open Technology Institute (see 1606140020).

Opportunistic public access to Wi-Fi channel 14 as an FCC condition for approving Globalstar's proposed broadband terrestrial low-power service is getting more pushback from TLPS critics. TLPS would disrupt Bluetooth, and its "new, more expansive proposal would be even worse," said the Hearing Industries Association and Entertainment Software Association in a joint filing Thursday in docket 13-213. Opportunistic use of channel 14 ignores the fundamental concern raised by 2.4 GHz users, they said. "Permitting other parties to transmit throughout Channel 14 is likely only to compound the problems." The associations said an order that includes third-party use would violate the Administrative Procedure Act since opportunistic use appears nowhere in the NPRM and isn't a logical outgrowth of the proposed FCC actions. In an ex parte filing, Wireless Communications Association International recapped a phone call with an adviser to FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly in which it repeated previous objections to channel 14 sharing, including the agency's not providing the required notice and chance to comment on opportunistic use (see 1606130053). Globalstar, meanwhile, continues to talk with O'Rielly about such opportunistic use, it said of a pair of talks involving company representatives including Tim Taylor, vice president-finance, business operations and strategy; ex-Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth; and others with O'Rielly staff. Opportunistic sharing was championed by public interest groups like Public Knowledge and Open Technology Institute (see 1606140020).

IoT is in a nascent phase, poised for exponential growth in five years that will provide a wide range of consumer and industrial applications, benefits and opportunities. A multitude of challenges and barriers such as connectivity, interoperability and privacy and cybersecurity need to be addressed for development, technology experts said at a daylong NTIA event Thursday. Such barriers will need public and private sector coordination, but some said the government needs a light regulatory touch.

IoT is in a nascent phase, poised for exponential growth in five years that will provide a wide range of consumer and industrial applications, benefits and opportunities. A multitude of challenges and barriers such as connectivity, interoperability and privacy and cybersecurity need to be addressed for development, technology experts said at a daylong NTIA event Thursday. Such barriers will need public and private sector coordination, but some said the government needs a light regulatory touch.

IoT is in a nascent phase, poised for exponential growth in five years that will provide a wide range of consumer and industrial applications, benefits and opportunities. A multitude of challenges and barriers such as connectivity, interoperability and privacy and cybersecurity need to be addressed for development, technology experts said at a daylong NTIA event Thursday. Such barriers will need public and private sector coordination, but some said the government needs a light regulatory touch.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals tossed an FTC lawsuit against AT&T Mobility, saying the agency had no jurisdiction over the telco in a data throttling case -- a decision that observers said could have more ramifications for the FTC's authority. The three-judge panel Monday unanimously granted AT&T's motion to dismiss, reversing a decision by Judge Edward Chen with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The unanimous decision said Section 5 of the FTC Act doesn't let the agency take enforcement actions against common carriers. Last year's FCC net neutrality order deemed broadband to be an information service, activating the FTC common-carrier exemption.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals tossed an FTC lawsuit against AT&T Mobility, saying the agency had no jurisdiction over the telco in a data throttling case -- a decision that observers said could have more ramifications for the FTC's authority. The three-judge panel Monday unanimously granted AT&T's motion to dismiss, reversing a decision by Judge Edward Chen with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The unanimous decision said Section 5 of the FTC Act doesn't let the agency take enforcement actions against common carriers. Last year's FCC net neutrality order deemed broadband to be an information service, activating the FTC common-carrier exemption.

The FCC should act now to ensure automotive companies can’t commercialize the 5.9 GHz spectrum, set aside for dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) systems designed to curb traffic accidents, for uses that have nothing to do with public safety, public interest and consumer groups told the agency. It also should address cyber concerns, the groups said. Comments were due Wednesday on a June Public Knowledge and New America Open Technology Institute emergency petition (see 1606280066) for a stay of operations of DSRC.