FCC anti-collusion rules will put strong controls on bidding-related communication between TV licensees during the incentive auction, without preventing broadcast attorneys from representing more than one licensee in the proceeding, experts on the issue said in interviews Friday and Monday. As long as an attorney doesn’t act as a ”conduit” for one licensee to learn about another’s bidding strategy, that attorney can represent more than one client in the reverse auction, they said. That interpretation of the rules was brought to the FCC by representatives of FCBA in a letter posted Wednesday to docket 12-268 asking for commission guidance on whether FCC officials disagree with FCBA’s view of the rules (see 1505140068).
The House passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016 (here) on May 15, and the legislation includes an amendment to keep in place current thresholds for government procurement of apparel, cotton products and other manufactured products. Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., introduced the provision, and it passed by voice vote as part of a bloc of amendments.
Lawmakers questioned antitrust officials Friday on how the FCC net neutrality order affected their agencies, the FTC 2013 decision not to sue Google and the commission's Section 5 authority over unfair and deceptive practices. Comcast's recently abandoned takeover of Time Warner Cable also came up at the House Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law Subcommittee hearing, as did mergers and acquisitions generally and cybersecurity. FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez said staffers are in the final stages of assessing information collected in the study of patent assertion entities. The commission voted in 2013 to begin collecting comments on PAEs (see report in the Sept. 30, 2013, issue).
Longtime designated entity Council Tree defended the DE program in comments filed in response to an April FCC public notice further exploring revised rules in the aftermath of the AWS-3 auction. On May 11, AT&T and small carriers proposed revisions to the DE program, which would recast it to provide limited bidding credits to small carriers rather than traditional DEs (see 1505110048). The AWS-3 auction raised a new set of questions about the role of DEs in auctions after Dish Network used two DEs to attempt to buy $13.3 billion worth of licenses for $10 billion (see 1501300051)
Lawmakers questioned antitrust officials Friday on how the FCC net neutrality order affected their agencies, the FTC 2013 decision not to sue Google and the commission's Section 5 authority over unfair and deceptive practices. Comcast's recently abandoned takeover of Time Warner Cable also came up at the House Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law Subcommittee hearing, as did mergers and acquisitions generally and cybersecurity. FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez said staffers are in the final stages of assessing information collected in the study of patent assertion entities. The commission voted in 2013 to begin collecting comments on PAEs (see report in the Sept. 30, 2013, issue).
Longtime designated entity Council Tree defended the DE program in comments filed in response to an April FCC public notice further exploring revised rules in the aftermath of the AWS-3 auction. On May 11, AT&T and small carriers proposed revisions to the DE program, which would recast it to provide limited bidding credits to small carriers rather than traditional DEs (see 1505110048). The AWS-3 auction raised a new set of questions about the role of DEs in auctions after Dish Network used two DEs to attempt to buy $13.3 billion worth of licenses for $10 billion (see 1501300051)
Upcoming U.S. Copyright Office hearings in Los Angeles and Washington are likely to at least partially clarify how the CO will proceed in its consideration of 27 proposed exemptions to Digital Millennium Copyright Act Section 1201, stakeholders in the DMCA exemption proceedings said in interviews this week. The CO has been reviewing the 27 proposed exemptions as part of its sixth triennial review rulemaking process for Section 1201. The section prohibits the circumvention of technological protection measures. A final round of replies on the proposed exemptions was due earlier this month (see 1505050051 and 1505080051).
The Senate Customs Reauthorization legislation is only a “piecemeal” approach to strengthening U.S. trade remedy law, and the bill could hamper U.S. industry and CBP’s ability to monitor U.S. imports, said a group of importers in a recent letter to the House Ways and Means Committee. The American Apparel and Footwear Association, the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America and the International Wood Products Association, among others, signed onto the letter.
Upcoming U.S. Copyright Office hearings in Los Angeles and Washington are likely to at least partially clarify how the CO will proceed in its consideration of 27 proposed exemptions to Digital Millennium Copyright Act Section 1201, stakeholders in the DMCA exemption proceedings said in interviews this week. The CO has been reviewing the 27 proposed exemptions as part of its sixth triennial review rulemaking process for Section 1201. The section prohibits the circumvention of technological protection measures. A final round of replies on the proposed exemptions was due earlier this month (see 1505050051 and 1505080051).
Stakeholders’ perception of ICANN's development of plans for the anticipated spinoff of its Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions is expected to be the dominant topic during two ICANN-related House hearings Wednesday, though other recent ICANN-related controversies are set for debate, lawmakers and others told us. ICANN’s IANA transition and the Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Matters (DOTCOM) Act (HR-805), which would prohibit NTIA from approving ICANN’s IANA transition plan until the GAO completes a study of the plan, are the sole focus at a 2 p.m. House Communications Subcommittee hearing. Vox Populi Registry’s pricing of domains within the new generic top-level domain .sucks and questions about ICANN’s oversight ability in light of the IANA transition are expected to dominate a 10 a.m. House IP Subcommittee hearing (see 1505070037).