U.S. Customs and Border Protection has “withdrawn” its July 8 finding that Vizio’s TVs don’t infringe Funai’s channel-mapping patent (CED July 10 p3), Vizio attorney Gregory Castanias said in a letter filed Monday at the U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit. The appeals court is weighing Vizio’s motion for a stay in the International Trade Commission’s ruling that sided with Funai.
The window for applying for federal broadband stimulus funds opened Tuesday, though only for applications that are for less than $1 million and are delivered on paper, the NTIA said. The NTIA and the RUS won’t process electronic filings , which are required of all applications for more than $1 million, until month’s end, said NTIA spokesman Mark Tolbert. He said he didn’t know whether the agencies received any applications on Tuesday. Applications for the first round of awards are due by Aug. 14.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit late Tuesday upheld the satellite royalty rates set by the Copyright Royalty Board, rejecting most of an appeal by SoundExchange that said the rates were arbitrarily low. The board wasn’t required to set rates near market value and experts who testified gave valid reasons for why some revenue may be excluded from rate calculation, the court said. But it told the board it must set a rate for so-called ephemeral recordings, for which the board said it didn’t have enough evidence to act. In a concurring opinion, Judge Brett Kavanaugh hinted he wanted to review the constitutional status of the board, which is appointed by the Librarian of Congress, though its judges aren’t “removable at will” and can’t be reversed. But no party raised the issue, he said.
Former FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein will make sure rural areas understand how to access broadband stimulus funding, he told the Senate Agriculture Committee Tuesday at his nomination hearing to be RUS director. Adelstein received bipartisan statements of support from the committee, with Chairman Tom Harkin of Iowa saying he hoped to vote this week on the nomination. “One of our key national priorities should be to aggressively promote the expansion of broadband deployment and adoption,” Adelstein said. Rural telecom services should be affordable to all, he said.
FCC broadband coordinator Blair Levin laid out an ambitious schedule Thursday for development of an FCC broadband plan, due to be completed Feb. 17, 2010. The schedule includes more than 20 staff workshops at the agency starting Aug. 12, designed to take the place of traditional ex parte meetings that groups and companies hold with agency officials. The update was presented at an FCC agenda meeting that was Julius Genachowski’s first as chairman.
Web advertisements may have a whole new look once self- regulatory principles from advertising groups are implemented. The Interactive Advertising Bureau, American Association of Advertising Agencies, Association of National Advertisers and Direct Marketing Association released rules for behavioral targeting Thursday. The Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) and DMA have agreed to implement “accountability programs” so the targeting universe of advertisers, ad networks, ISPs and others adopt the seven principles.
The administration’s broadband grant rules are likely to attract a sizable number of qualified applicants, said lawyers, analysts and advocacy groups Thursday. But many held off on commenting on the rules until they could study the detailed notice of funding availability released Wednesday (WID July 2 p5) in more depth. Several praised the rules for setting criteria that will ensure projects are financially viable, and will funnel services to areas most in need of broadband.
The administration’s broadband grant rules are likely to attract a sizable number of qualified applicants, said lawyers, analysts and advocacy groups Thursday. But many held off on commenting on the rules until they could study the detailed notice of funding availability released Wednesday (CD July 2 p13) in more depth. Several praised the rules for setting criteria that will ensure projects are financially viable, and will funnel services to areas most in need of broadband.
Web advertisements may have a whole new look once self- regulatory principles from advertising groups are implemented. The Interactive Advertising Bureau, American Association of Advertising Agencies, Association of National Advertisers and Direct Marketing Association released rules for behavioral targeting Thursday. The Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) and DMA have agreed to implement “accountability programs” so the targeting universe of advertisers, ad networks, ISPs and others adopt the seven principles.
FCC broadband coordinator Blair Levin laid out an ambitious schedule Thursday for development of an FCC broadband plan, due to be completed Feb. 17, 2010. The schedule includes more than 20 staff workshops at the agency starting Aug. 12, designed to take the place of traditional ex parte meetings that groups and companies hold with agency officials. The update was presented at an FCC agenda meeting that was Julius Genachowski’s first as chairman.