The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division and the FTC support the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (PTO) efforts to “provide more complete information regarding patent ownership to the public,” the agencies said in a joint filing that PTO released last week (http://xrl.us/bofojr). The filing was one of several submitted in response to PTO’s request for input on its proposal to change its rules on collecting and publishing real-party-in-interest (RPI) patent ownership information. PTO held a roundtable discussion on the proposal last month, at which Google, Hewlett-Packard and IBM expressed support for improved RPI collection (CD Jan 14 p8). PTO had proposed two versions of the rules -- “Broad” and “Limited” -- that would define RPI in different ways. Justice and the FTC said they support “an RPI definition that, at a minimum, includes the [ultimate parent entities] either by including all UPE in the ‘Broad’ definition, or by adopting the ‘Limited’ definition."

Mass digitization projects should not be exempted from the need to search diligently for the owners of so-called orphan works, groups representing copyright holders said in response to a notice of inquiry from the U.S. Copyright Office (http://xrl.us/bofo9o). Microsoft, on the other hand, said mass digitization projects should not be required to search for copyright holders of all the works they seek to digitize, while Google suggested that the Copyright Office specifically define the requirements of a diligent search and limit liability for those users that have met those requirements. Comments responded to the office’s questions about orphan works and mass digitization.

The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division and the FTC support the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (PTO) efforts to “provide more complete information regarding patent ownership to the public,” the agencies said in a joint filing that PTO released last week (http://xrl.us/bofojr). The filing was one of several submitted in response to PTO’s request for input on its proposal to change its rules on collecting and publishing real-party-in-interest (RPI) patent ownership information. PTO held a roundtable discussion on the proposal last month, at which Google, Hewlett-Packard and IBM expressed support for improved RPI collection (WID Jan 14 p4). PTO had proposed two versions of the rules -- “Broad” and “Limited” -- that would define RPI in different ways. Justice and the FTC said they support “an RPI definition that, at a minimum, includes the [ultimate parent entities] either by including all UPE in the ‘Broad’ definition, or by adopting the ‘Limited’ definition."

Hill Country Telephone Cooperative has a few less opponents in its struggle for USF support in Texas. Last fall, the telco asked the Texas Public Utility Commission for more than half a million dollars in state support (CD Nov 29 p10) because, due to Texas state law restricting the level at which it can raise its rates, it’s losing that large a sum from the FCC’s USF. The loss is associated with the FCC’s quantile regression analysis rate benchmark, implemented last July as part of the FCC’s November 2011 USF order. At the time and in months since, a coalition of Sprint Nextel, tw telecom of Texas and the Texas Cable Association had intervened, providing scrutiny of Hill Country’s petition. But on Jan. 31, the coalition asked to drop its intervention before the PUC (http://xrl.us/boffr8), a request the commission granted Wednesday in an order (http://xrl.us/boffsi). The coalition doesn’t want to stand between PUC staff and Hill Country as they're likely to reach an agreement, it said, despite the coalition’s disagreements with certain Texas regulations. “Section 56.025 [of the Texas Public Utility Regulatory Act] undermines the FCC’s policy determinations and constrains the Commission’s ability to make an independent determination of the extent to which the deliberative conclusions reached by the FCC should be, in effect, countermanded,” the coalition told the PUC. The Texas law allows for companies to seek replacement from the Texas USF of high-cost support money it’s lost federally. The coalition’s still not completely satisfied and said that nothing in recent months “provides the assurance that Texans should be entitled to with respect to the [Texas USF], namely, that they are not being called upon to provide a subsidy where it is not necessary” for Hill Country. But the Texas act “simply precludes the type of investigation that would make that assurance possible,” it said.

The FCC should carefully test whether wireless operations in the AWS H-block will cause interference in the 1930-1995 MHz band, but should auction the spectrum for carrier use if at all possible, CTIA said in comments to the FCC. The FCC approved proposed rules “setting the stage for an auction of the H Block in 2013” in an electronic vote before its December meeting (http://xrl.us/boffzj). Comments on the notice of proposed rulemaking were due Wednesday. Last February’s spectrum law instructed the FCC to auction the 1915-1920 and 1995-2000 MHz bands, the upper and lower H-blocks, respectively, unless the agency determined that doing so would cause interference to other 1.9 GHz licensees.

Policy and proposed legislation to boost European network and information security were unveiled Thursday by EU officials. At the heart of the policy is the protection of fundamental rights on the Internet, said EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton at a press briefing. The EU is determined to promote and defend its values online but also believes there should be norms of behavior among countries to protect against cyberattacks, she said. Hewlett-Packard and European telecom network operators cheered the initiative, but some of the proposals drew criticism from privacy advocates, an IT security firm and high-tech industries.

Policy and proposed legislation to boost European network and information security were unveiled Thursday by EU officials. At the heart of the policy is the protection of fundamental rights on the Internet, said EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton at a press briefing. The EU is determined to promote and defend its values online but also believes there should be norms of behavior among countries to protect against cyberattacks, she said. Hewlett-Packard and European telecom network operators cheered the initiative, but some of the proposals drew criticism from privacy advocates, an IT security firm and high-tech industries.

Opinions within the noncommercial broadcasting industry vary on whether the FCC will prioritize an order allowing noncommercial educational (NCE) stations to raise funds on-air for other nonprofit organizations. NCE officials noted there’s been no action by the commission on the issue, and replies in docket 12-106 were due Aug. 22. The proposal faced opposition from NPR (CD Aug 23 p13), and the Association of Public Television Stations and PBS urged the commission to uphold the current rules for stations that receive funds from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (http://xrl.us/bnh3fd). If the agency continues to hold off acting, waivers must be sought to run such fundraising on-air on a case-by-case basis.

The International Trade Administration and the Mexican tomato industry initialed a draft agreement Feb. 2 that would continue to suspend the antidumping duty investigation of fresh tomatoes from Mexico. Without such an agreement, prices for popular types of tomatoes could increase to almost $5 per pound, industry groups have said. Agreements suspending the AD investigation have been in place since 1996, and renewed in 2002 and 2007. The investigation reached the preliminary stage in 1996 before agreement was reached, finding AD rates of 4.16 to 188.45 percent for Mexican tomato exporters.

Sens. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., and Dean Heller, R-Nev., introduced the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act (S-31), aimed at indefinitely extending the moratorium on Internet access taxes and multiple and what they call discriminatory taxes on electronic commerce. The bill would extend the provisions of the 1998 Internet Tax Freedom Act, which are scheduled to expire Nov. 1, 2014. “The Internet Tax Freedom Act will ensure a long-standing federal policy that prevents the government from raising taxes, and preserves the Internet as a tool for education and innovation,” said Heller in a news release Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bodwr2). Ayotte said the bill “will provide certainty to the marketplace, helping the Internet continue to be a driving force for jobs and growth.”