The House and Senate Judiciary committees should include provisions in the Innovation Act (HR-3309) and similar upcoming Senate legislation to curb “unfair and deceptive patent infringement demand letters,” said the Application Developers Alliance (ADA), Competitive Carriers Association and 19 other industry groups Tuesday in a joint letter to the committees’ leaders. The Innovation Act and other House and Senate legislation meant to address what some call abusive patent litigation “are appropriately focusing on litigation reform and changes to procedures at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to curb abusive practices, [but] we believe that pre-litigation demand letters must also be addressed,” the groups said. “Demand letters are central to the patent troll problem.” The letter comes in advance of a Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee hearing set for Thursday that will focus on the effects of demand letters and whether legislation is needed to address the issue. ADA President Jon Potter is among those set to testify. Other communications and tech industry groups that signed onto the letter included Engine Advocacy, the Mobile Marketing Association and Public Knowledge.
The Senate Homeland Security Committee plans to begin considering on Nov. 13 Jeh Johnson’s nomination to be secretary of homeland security, the committee said Wednesday. President Barack Obama nominated Johnson, the Department of Defense’s former general counsel, to the post last month (CD Oct 21 p8). Johnson will testify at the hearing at 10 a.m. in 342 Dirksen.
The U.S. International Trade Commission is ending its Section 337 investigation concerning technology for interactive program guide and parental control, affirming an administrative law judge’s finding of no violation of the section by Netflix and Roku. The ITC said in a notice set for Thursday’s Federal Register that it affirmed the ALJ’s finding that violative products were being imported, and that patents weren’t being infringed (http://1.usa.gov/1b6ksF9). The investigation, which began in June 2012, covered TVs, media players and software applications that include interactive programs guides or parental control technology in a specified format. It was requested by Rovi, and originally included LG, Mitsubishi and Vizio as respondents. Netflix is “pleased” with the ITC’s determination, said a company spokesman. Roku had no comment.
The incoming team of FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is “a senior staff team with deep substantive knowledge of telecom policy and a thorough understanding of the FCC’s inner workings,” Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said in a statement Tuesday night (http://1.usa.gov/178r3dM). “With this team, he will be able to hit the ground running on the significant issues facing the agency, including strengthening E-Rate, the first-ever voluntary spectrum auctions to fund the first responder communications network, and shaping the ongoing evolution of our communications networks.” Wheeler was sworn in as chairman Monday and announced his staff choices then as well as initial plans to potentially overhaul FCC process (CD Nov 5 p1). House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., applauded Wheeler for taking on such considerations, while calling for congressional action. “I welcome Chairman Wheeler’s openness to looking at ways to improve transparency and accountability for the American people and those that have business before the commission,” Walden said (http://1.usa.gov/1grNuTJ). “In the meantime, we will continue working to reach bipartisan agreement on the FCC Process Reform Act, and similarly hope that the Senate will soon take up the FCC Consolidated Reporting Act, which was unanimously approved by the House this summer."
The FCC Media Bureau is seeking comment on a proposed rulemaking on the Alabama Educational Television Commission’s request for a waiver of the FCC’s freeze on filing petitions by TV stations seeking a channel substitution. AETC operated its station WBIQ-TV, Birmingham, on Channel 10 until the FCC substituted Channel 39 for Channel 10 at AETC’s request, the NPRM said (http://bit.ly/1iN9l4H). AETC also seeks to return to its previously allotted Channel 10, the NPRM said. The bureau said it believes a waiver of the freeze would serve the public interest. Channel 39 can be substituted for Channel 10 at Birmingham as proposed, it said. The bureau proposed allowing the substitution with certain specifications regarding the DTV power and the antenna, it said. Comments are due 30 days after publication in the Federal Register, with replies due 45 days after that publication.
The Senate Intelligence Committee added some new intelligence agency oversight and transparency provisions to a bill it approved Tuesday, committee leaders announced (http://1.usa.gov/187EZoE). Committee members voted 13-2 to approve the Intelligence Reauthorization Act for the 2014 fiscal year. The bill proposes making the director and inspector general of the National Security Agency subject to presidential appointment and Senate confirmation, as a surveillance law overhaul Senate Intelligence cleared recently also proposes (CD Nov 1 p4). That other overhaul would preserve the government’s bulk collection of phone metadata, a hotly contested issue amid various proposals before Congress. The Intelligence Reauthorization bill also proposes to require, on a permanent basis, that the executive branch alert Congress before letting the public know intelligence information as part of authorized disclosures. The Justice Department would also have to tell the intelligence committees of all the Office of Legal Counsel opinions about intelligence activity conduct, the bill proposes. Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said Congress should adequately fund intelligence agencies. Vice Chairman Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., agreed: “With our debt at $17 trillion and growing, we face stark budget realities that demand wise and efficient use of taxpayer dollars. This year’s intelligence authorization bill achieves both objectives by providing clear guidance and appropriate resources to the intelligence community, while enhancing the committee’s oversight of vital intelligence activities.”
Apple received between 1,000 and 2,000 U.S. government requests for account information during the first six months of 2013, the company said in a Tuesday release on aggregate information about government information requests it received (http://bit.ly/19zKgJs). The report did not include what percentage of the requests the company had complied with, but a concluding note mentioned Apple has never received a request under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which authorizes the government’s bulk telephone metadata collection program and other types of records collection requests. “We would expect to challenge such an order if served on us,” the report said. Apple also received 3,542 requests for U.S. device information from law enforcement officials and has complied with 88 percent of those. But device requests mostly arise from lost or stolen iPhones, the release said, whereas account requests “generally involve account holders’ personal data and their use of an online service in which they have an expectation of privacy.” The company said in a statement it had disclosed all the information it was “legally allowed to share.” In meetings with government agencies, congressional leaders and “the courts,” the company has “made the case for relief from” the “gag order,” which forbids Apple from releasing, “except in broad ranges, the number of national security orders, the number of accounts affected by the orders, or whether content, such as emails, was disclosed,” the report said. “We believe that dialogue and advocacy are the most productive way to bring about a change in these policies, rather than filing a lawsuit against the U.S. government.” But the company did file an amicus brief at the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in support of an ongoing petition from five large tech companies to disclose more information about the government requests they receive (http://bit.ly/178YSRb). Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Yahoo and Facebook have all joined the lawsuit (CD Oct 3 p5), which is in a holding pattern after a response deadline was pushed back indefinitely during the government shutdown (CD Oct 9 p18).
The FCC Media Bureau should refer Sinclair’s proposed buy of New Age Media’s TV stations to the full commission, said the American Cable Association in a petition to deny filed Tuesday. ACA objects in particular to Sinclair’s acquisition of two Florida stations in Tallahassee and Gainesville, where the acquirer already owns stations. In both markets, Sinclair has proposed transferring the stations to Cunningham Broadcasting, where they would be operated through sharing arrangements similar to previous Sinclair deals (CD Sept 26 p21). “ACA is concerned about the effect of the transaction on two markets where the transaction would result in Sinclair entering into agreements that allow it to coordinate the negotiation of retransmission consent agreements for two top-four rated Big Four television stations,” said the petition. The matter should be put before the full commission because it’s “flaunting” the FCC’s ownership rules, said the ACA. Alternatively, the commission should put conditions on any approval of the deal that would bar Sinclair from coordinating retrans negotiation deals with Cunningham, ACA said. Sinclair didn’t comment.
The FCC Wireline Bureau asked for comment on a request by American Teleconferencing Services seeking review and reversal of an August decision by the Universal Service Administrative Co. rejecting a revised Form 499-A (http://bit.ly/186ro0W). Comments in docket 06-122 are due Dec. 5, replies Dec. 20.
The FCC needs to do more to stop the “lingering uncertainty” of quantile regression analysis, a crucial part of the November 2011 USF order, 26 senators wrote FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler (http://bit.ly/1gpCSon). Signatories include Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mark Pryor, D-Ark., and Judiciary Committee ranking member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. They called quantile regression analysis “one of the main causes of uncertainty” and said they appreciate the FCC’s efforts to “temporarily relieve” the effects of the analysis. “We remain concerned the reform order is limiting the ability of small rate-of-return carriers to provide rural consumers with the broadband service they need to compete in today’s global economy,” said the letter sent this week. The order is causing declining private sector investment, the letter said. “Both potential borrowers and lenders have indicated hesitation in moving forward with loans for broadband infrastructure improvements due to the uncertainties created by the reform order.” USTelecom posted the letter Tuesday and said it was sent Monday. “As of today, more than 70 senators and representatives have written to the FCC about the QRA, and USTelecom continues to encourage members of Congress to reach out to the commission on this important issue,” said USTelecom in a blog post Tuesday (http://bit.ly/HEQqhp). It noted the letter urged the FCC not to slow Connect America Fund Phase II implementation.