The Senate Commerce Committee plans a hearing Thursday on the impact that demand letters sent by patent assertion entities have on small businesses, consumers and innovators, the committee said. The hearing will also examine “whether legislation is needed to provide increased protection for these individuals and groups,” the committee said. PAEs “can send upward of hundreds -- or even thousands -- of letters to small businesses with threats of litigation” in the hope that some businesses will pay a licensing fee to avoid litigation, the committee said. The hearing is at 10 a.m. in 253 Russell (http://1.usa.gov/HsYDF4).
Nokia Solutions and Networks said it has received a contract from Sprint to deploy TDD LTE for Sprint’s 2.5 GHz spectrum. NSN will use its TDD LTE Radio solution, which includes the “latest LTE-Advanced-ready software capabilities,” and NSN’s NetAct network management system on Sprint’s network. NSN will also provide professional services to Sprint under the contract. The use of TDD LTE on the spectrum will increase Sprint’s high-speed data capacity as part of its LTE rollout, NSN said. NSN’s tests at a Sprint facility in Burlingame, Texas, showed it can achieve a 1.3 Gbps downlink throughput using its Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Station, which includes a TDD LTE 8-pipe radio module (http://bit.ly/1dOnvoy).
Patent assertion entity Rockstar Consortium is suing tech companies Asustek, Google, HTC, Huawei, LG Electronics, Pantech, Samsung and ZTE for patent infringement. Rockstar filed suit against the companies in U.S. District Court in Marshall, Texas, Thursday. The PAE, which Apple, BlackBerry, Ericsson, Microsoft and Sony jointly own, formed in 2011 specifically to manage a portfolio of patents it bought for $4.5 billion from Nortel. Rockstar said Google infringed seven of its Nortel patents through its purchase of Motorola Mobility, which followed its own losing bid for the Nortel patents. Google was aware that some of Motorola Mobility’s technology violated the Nortel patents, and continued to infringe anyway, Rockstar said in court filings. Google declined to comment. Rockstar’s joint complaint with subsidiary MobileStar Technologies claims Samsung violated seven of its patents, including U.S. Patents 6,037,937 (a navigation tool for graphical user interfaces) and 6,128,298 (an Internet Protocol filter). An LG spokesman declined to comment. HTC, Samsung and the other defendants in the Rockstar lawsuits did not comment. Charles Duan, Public Knowledge’s director-Patent Reform Project, said in a statement that the lawsuits showed Rockstar is a “privateer” -- a PAE that companies use to go after their competitors. Though Rockstar acknowledges its owners are all major tech companies, it “operates at arms’ length,” Duan said. “This allows Rockstar’s owners to disclaim its actions while benefiting from them, shields them from counter-suit, and allows Rockstar to disregard any promises by its owners not to engage in this exploitative behavior.” Many of the patents at issue in the suit “appear to be overly broad and of low quality,” he said. “It is likely that its attempt to hobble its owners’ competitors in the courtroom will ultimately fail. But it will be expensive to reach that point, and whatever the outcome of the litigation, consumers will bear the cost.”
Sony is seeing “very high demand” initially for the content on its Video Unlimited 4K service since its launch last month, said Nick Colsey, Sony Electronics vice president-business development. The amount of content being bought and rented as well as the length of time users are spending to watch the available content “outstrip” those of other HD services with similar content, he said. Customers are “hungry for 4K content and we are giving them the biggest and best selection available anywhere,” said Colsey. The TV show Breaking Bad has been the most popular title, he said. More than 70 full-length feature films and TV shows were initially made available through the service, and more than 100 such titles will be available in 4K before the end of the year, said Sony, including the current 70. Movies available now include This is the End, After Earth, Moneyball, Think Like A Man, Premium Rush, Ghostbusters and The Amazing Spider-Man. Coming titles will include the movie Elysium, said Sony. The download service also offers short-form videos and all the content is in native 4K Ultra HD resolution for download by consumers with a Sony Ultra HD Media Player and Sony 4K Ultra HD TV, it said. The cost for TV episodes is $3.99, while feature films start at $7.99 for a 24-hour rental or $29.99 for a purchase. Select purchased titles include an UltraViolet digital version of the movie or TV show, allowing consumers to view their content on the go in HD or standard definition, said Sony. The vast majority of the 53 feature films available in 4K on the service Friday were from Sony Pictures. But Sony said two independent movies were also available: Saints and Soldiers and Life Cycles. Asked Friday if there were any plans to expand the service to more non-Sony titles, especially movies from other major Hollywood studios, Colsey said Sony was “always exploring the possibilities,” but there was “nothing to announce at this point.” There were also 20 episodes of Breaking Bad on the service Friday, along with 38 shorts, music videos and other short-form content, said Sony. Owners of the Sony 4K Ultra HD Media Player (FMP-X1) will receive updated content over the Internet, enabling them to rent or buy the latest titles, the company said.
The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau is seeking comment on a petition for forbearance of new Telephone Consumer Protection Act rules (http://bit.ly/19XCA2P). The Direct Marketing Association seeks forbearance from rules requiring prior express written consent before sending autodialed or prerecorded telemarketing calls. The association argued that although the FCC stated it was revising its rules to be more in line with FTC rules on the subject, the FCC’s rules actually depart from the FTC’s formulation. Comments in docket 02-278 are due Dec. 2, replies Dec. 17.
A longtime opponent of Clear Channel’s KFI(AM) Los Angeles wants the FCC to deny the station’s license renewal or hold a hearing on the broadcaster’s application. The National Hispanic Media Coalition said the station is a “hate radio hot spot” that continues to air what NHMC called hate speech against immigrants and other racial minorities, women and those who aren’t heterosexuals. The center, which unsuccessfully sought an FCC proceeding in previous years on media hate speech, cited in Friday’s petition to deny KFI’s renewal agency records the group got through a Freedom of Information Act request showing more than 240 consumers complained about the outlet in 2008-2011. NHMC also cited content analysis by the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center of recordings and transcripts of the John and Ken Show, which the group has long contended fostered violence against immigrants who have entered the country illegally. The group cited NTIA’s 1993 definition of hate speech as words that threaten to incite imminent unlawful acts that may be criminalized without violating the First Amendment or that may lead to hate or prejudice that fosters hate crimes. “Unfortunately, ‘more speech’ is not a viable solution to KFI’s hate and demagoguery because extensive media consolidation in Los Angeles makes it almost impossible for market forces to mitigate the harm caused by KFI,” said the petition. “Against this rich, multicultural backdrop” of the No. 1 Latino and Asian-American market in the U.S., “KFI regularly airs offensive and dehumanizing speech against nearly every segment of the diverse community,” said the filing. A Clear Channel spokeswoman had no comment. The FCC over the years hasn’t renewed some radio licenses, though none recently, said public-interest lawyer Andrew Schwartzman, who has been involved in other petitions to deny broadcaster license renewals. He said he could recall several such failures by the agency to renew licenses that were content related.
Corrections: The agency that approved the use of some electronic devices on in-air planes at all altitudes was the Federal Aviation Administration (CD Nov 1 p1). … What Comptel Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Karen Reidy referred to as necessary for a sustainable business market is preserving wholesale regulations (CD Oct 31 p11).
The California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday approved about $4.8 million in funding for five California Advanced Services Fund projects. Race Telecommunications received about $3.4 million for a project to extend high-speed Internet service to 42.26 square miles in the city of Boron in Kern County (http://bit.ly/16TjyHF). Ponderosa Telephone Co. received $899,574 to extend its high-speed Internet service to 39.04 square miles to the Big Creek, Huntington Lake and Lakeshore communities in Fresno County (http://bit.ly/1aPiMzI). Pinnacles Telephone Co. received a $195,299 grant for its Pinnacles Monument Project to upgrade broadband service to 47 households in addition to businesses and anchor institutions in a 126.67 square-mile area in San Benito County (http://bit.ly/18Kx3sF). Willits Online and its subsidiary company, Rural Broadband Now, received a grant to extend Internet service to 19.87 square miles to Westport (http://bit.ly/1cuEwo0). These companies also received a $163,908 grant and a $122,931 loan from the Connect America Fund to extend Internet access to 38.48 square miles in Boonville in Mendocino County (http://bit.ly/1dyL1Dd).
The FCC, reauthorizing the Intergovernmental Committee for two years, is seeking nominations by Feb. 26 for members, said a commission public notice. It said 15 representatives from local, state and tribal governments advise the agency on telecom issues for which their governments share responsibility with the commission. The new two-year term starts after the current term ends Dec. 2, said Tuesday’s notice on what previously was called the Local and State Government Advisory Committee (http://fcc.us/1aO1gtS).
Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) anti-collision systems could potentially provide warnings in as many as 76 percent of multi-vehicle collisions involving at least one light vehicle, but spectrum concerns are among the major issues that remain, GAO said in a report released Friday. In January, former FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski floated a proposal to use 5 GHz spectrum, including the 5850-5925 MHz band already dedicated to V2V systems, to help alleviate Wi-Fi congestion. “Although existing FCC regulations are designed to ensure that unlicensed devices do not cause interference, four automobile manufacturers and 16 experts we interviewed expressed concern or uncertainty about the potential effects of allowing unlicensed devices to share the 5.9 GHz band,” GAO said (http://1.usa.gov/16sMAkf). “One automobile industry group said that its members are not opposed to opening the 5.9 GHz band for sharing but emphasized the importance of understanding the implications of doing so to ensure that it will not hinder critical V2V safety applications.” One expert suggested sharing the spectrum “would create an added burden for both automobile manufacturers and suppliers, which would have to consider technical steps to make coexistence with unlicensed devices feasible and conduct additional testing to maintain confidence that V2V technologies will work as envisioned,” GAO said.