The White House announced a set of new executive actions Thursday that aim to curb abusive patent litigation to be accomplished through U.S. Patent and Trademark Office programs, along with an update to the executive actions President Barack Obama took in June (CD June 5 p12). The White House actions are collectively important because “our patent system simply must keep up with the ever-evolving needs of industry,” said Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker during a White House event Thursday that announced the new actions. Advocates of efforts to rein in what they see as abuses by patent assertion entities praised the White House announcement, though they noted the most effective actions still require further legislative action from Congress. The Thursday announcement followed up on the White House’s promise in conjunction with Obama’s State of the Union speech in late January to announce progress on the June initiatives. Obama had urged Congress during the State of the Union to “pass a patent reform bill that allows our businesses to stay focused on innovation, not costly, needless litigation” (CD Bulletin Jan 29 p1).

A top House Republican will likely introduce a bill Friday to stop the FCC from reinstating net neutrality rules. House Commerce Committee Vice Chairwoman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., is going to reintroduce a new version of her Internet Freedom Act, which she introduced as HR-96 in 2011. Blackburn’s proposed bill directly counters legislation that Democrats in the House and Senate introduced in early February, the Open Internet Preservation Act, which would reinstate the FCC net neutrality rules. A wide swath of lobbyists have said no net neutrality legislation of any kind is likely to move (CD Feb 3 p5), a point observers reiterated Thursday.

Changes the EPA proposed for efficiency specifications that multichannel video programming distributors and others can follow -- to be certified as having energy efficient set-top boxes and related devices -- generally are favorable to MVPDs and makers of consumer electronics, said industry officials in interviews and written comments to EPA. NCTA, the two U.S. DBS companies and EchoStar sought some additional changes so newer types of equipment can be accommodated under Energy Star version 4.1. Energy efficiency advocates sought to make the spec more stringent than the agency proposed or industry seeks. That’s according to stakeholder comments they shared with us that were due Feb. 12 to EPA, which industry officials say will be released online on the agency’s website (http://1.usa.gov/1gNEg3a) in coming days.

The FCC approved rules at Thursday’s commission meeting requiring video closed captions adhere to standards for quality. As expected (CD Feb 7 p8; Feb 20 p9), the requirements don’t set technical, quantitative standards for caption quality, but require video programming distributors (VPDs) to ensure that their captions are accurate, synchronized to the content, complete and properly placed on the screen, according to Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau staff. The new rules also contain higher standards for captions for TV news programs and establish best practices for video programmers and captioning vendors.

The Department of Defense Thursday released its revised spectrum strategy at a Pentagon press conference, which calls for the U.S. military to be more agile and spectrally efficient, starting with the purchase of new systems. Teri Takai, DOD chief information officer, stressed that while the department will work with industry on sharing, spectrum is more critical than ever to the U.S. military. Takai said it remains unclear how much of the spectrum used by the military can be shared with carriers.

The FCC approved Thursday 5-0, despite concerns of its two Republican members, an NPRM that seeks comments on how the agency can ensure that wireless calls to 911 forward accurate location information to dispatchers. The vote came at the commission’s monthly meeting. The notice proposes revised location accuracy standards for all wireless calls, as well as rules for calls made indoors. The FCC last updated its wireless location accuracy rules in 2011. States led by California have raised concerns that current requirements aren’t strong enough. In November, the FCC held a workshop on the topic (CD Nov 19 p1).

Industry and consumer groups lobbied the FCC on closed captioning quality, as the agency prepares at Thursday’s commissioner meeting to take up an FNPRM, order and declaratory ruling focusing on the quality and technical compliance of captioning (CD Feb 7 p8). Some had said they didn’t expect major changes to the draft rules, while others said they're uncertain about the exact approach the agency will end up taking. The order will broadly require TV stations and multichannel video programming distributors to have high-quality captions on all captioned programming, and will defer the question of quantitative standards for measuring compliance to the FNPRM, industry and agency officials have said.

The FCC shouldn’t impose additional requirements for making user interfaces (UIs) and programming guides accessible, said CEA, NCTA, the Telecommunications Industry Association, Verizon and others, in responses to an FCC further NPRM (CD Dec 23 p16) and in oppositions to a petition for reconsideration filed by consumer groups (CD Jan 24 p23). “Unnecessary and overly prescriptive regulations will stifle innovation and limit manufacturers’ flexibility in bringing cost-effective consumer devices” to consumers, said CEA. The commission’s UI and programming guide rules should be written “to help ensure that individuals with disabilities are able to fully utilize communication services and better access video programming,” said the National Association of the Deaf and other groups representing the hearing impaired.

Chairman Tom Wheeler made clear Wednesday the FCC would take what is essentially a middle ground following the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s Jan. 14 decision (CD Jan 15 p1) largely rejecting the agency’s 2010 net neutrality rules. The FCC won’t appeal the decision to the Supreme Court. Instead, Wheeler said he would propose net neutrality rules aimed at enforcing and enhancing the order’s transparency rule, upheld by the court, and also preventing blocking and assuring nondiscrimination. Wheeler indicated if all else fails, the FCC could still reclassify broadband as a Title II common carrier service as a last resort. Wheeler’s approach accomplishes some key objectives of net neutrality while giving him wiggle room on how to proceed, former FCC officials said in interviews Wednesday.

The legacy of President Barack Obama’s cybersecurity executive order (EO) remains a work in progress even after the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s release last week of the finalized “Version 1.0” Cybersecurity Framework, said cybersecurity experts in interviews. The framework has been the most high-profile element of the executive order, but the experts said the order’s legacy will ultimately depend on whether federal agencies are able to encourage voluntary industry adoption of the framework’s standards and best practices.