Paul Gluckman

International Trade Commissioners voted to open a Tariff Act Section 337 investigation into Philips allegations that Dell, HP and Lenovo PCs, Hisense, LG and TCL smart TVs and Intel, MediaTek and Realtek processors infringe Philips high-bandwidth digital content protection patents (see 2010080048 or 2010060026), said a notice (login required) posted Monday in docket 337-TA-1224. Respondents have 20 days to respond. The investigation was assigned (login required) to Administrative Law Judge Cameron Elliot. Philips seeks an exclusion order against the allegedly infringing products and components.

CTA chose Microsoft as its “cloud platform provider” to run CES 2021 as a virtual event, said the association Monday. CES will use Microsoft Azure cloud computing, Microsoft Teams videoconferencing and the Microsoft Power apps platform to deliver “an exhibitor showcase, media events, conference programming, networking events and more,” said CTA. It picked Microsoft after a “rigorous” search for the company’s “technical expertise, global scale and experience in creating [a] compelling digital event,” it said. CTA “can’t share contract details,” emailed Jamie Kaplan, senior director-global event communications. The association issued a request for information and evaluated more than 40 “companies and technologies” before picking Microsoft, she said. As for whether the contract includes a Microsoft keynote component, “we will be sharing more information about our keynotes in the coming weeks and months,” she said. Registration opens Dec. 1 for the Jan. 11-14 event.

Extensive case law supports withdrawing Patent and Trademark Office refusal to approve Filmmaker Mode as a registered certification mark, argued the UHD Alliance's request for reconsideration. PTO examining attorney Catherine Caycedo rejected UHDA’s application. Filmmaker Mode, introduced in August 2019, is the uniformly named ease-of-access TV picture setting free of the motion-smoothing and other image processing that creators disdain for rendering their content in the living room as if it were shot on high-speed video rather than film (see 2004090032). Hisense, LG, Samsung and Vizio are the TV brands backing Filmmaker Mode in the U.S. The words in the Filmmaker Mode logo are “unregistrable” because they are “merely descriptive of an ingredient, quality, characteristic, function, feature, purpose, or use of the goods applicant will certify,” said Caycedo in April. Wednesday, UHDA asked her to reconsider “under the standard that to be considered merely descriptive, a mark must immediately describe a quality, characteristic, function, feature, purpose, or use of the goods.” Caycedo didn’t respond to questions Friday. UHDA's next recourse would be to take the case to PTO's Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. UHDA President Mike Fidler declined comment.

Cloud technology is “changing every industry,” including content creation and distribution, MovieLabs Senior Vice President-Technology Craig Seidel told a Digital Entertainment Group webinar Thursday on reducing “friction” in the content supply chain. “If cloud isn’t part of your strategy, it’s time to take a look.” Besides being “absurdly scalable,” the cloud contains “an incredible collection of tools, and it keeps getting better,” said Seidel. In researching cloud-based messaging services for a past project, “we found one that cost $100 per year for up to a million messages a month,” he said. “This was far cheaper and more scalable than anything we could consider doing ourselves. It was a no-brainer.” Seidel’s message for the content supply chain: “If you’re not already using cloud technology, you likely will be soon, and so will your partners.”

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Q3 revenue increased 17% in U.S. dollars sequentially on "strong demand for advanced technologies and special technology solutions” in 5G smartphones, high-performance computing (HPC) and IoT applications, said Chief Financial Officer Wendell Huang on a Thursday investor call. Smartphone revenue increased 12% and was 46% of third-quarter sales, he said. TSMC continues to expect “faster penetration” of 5G smartphones compared with 4G, he said. “For this year, we still forecast a high-teens penetration rate and next year even higher.” Though the pandemic brings “some level” of negative impact to global economies, “COVID-19 is accelerating digital transformation, while 5G and HPC-related applications continue to drive semiconductor content enrichment,” said CEO C.C. Wei. He expects TSMC customers to maintain inventories well above their seasonal levels as a buffer against further COVID-19 supply-chain disruptions. Due to the “uncertainties” of the supply chain now, expect the high-level inventory trend to “continue for a longer period,” he said. TSMC won’t use any “short-term supply shortage” as an opportunity to raise “our wafer price,” he said. TSMC forecasts that semiconductor industry revenue, excluding memory, will rise by mid-single digits in 2020, he said. TSMC is “evaluating the impact to the semiconductor industry” from DOD’s export restrictions on Semiconductor Manufacturing International, China’s largest chipmaker, said Wei.

The International Trade Commission launched a Tariff Act Section 337 investigation into allegations that LG, Samsung and TCL smart TVs and MediaTek, MStar and Realtek video processors infringe four DivX patents on adaptive bit rate streaming (see 2009160052), said a posting (login required) Wednesday in docket 337-TA-1222. The ITC also denied Realtek’s request for a 100-day adjudication into the chipmaker’s challenge that DivX was unlikely to meet the “domestic industry” requirement under commission rules (see 2009260001). “The suggested issues for resolution appear likely to require significant third party discovery and thus may be too complex to be decided within 100 days of institution,” said a Wednesday order (login required). The investigation was assigned to Administrative Law Judge MaryJoan McNamara, said a separate notice (login required) Wednesday. The respondents will have 20 days to file replies to the investigation notice after they're served with the papers. None commented Wednesday. DivX's Sept. 10 complaint seeks an exclusion order against the allegedly infringing products.

Consumers now deem high-end audio products “essential in today's home,” Voxx CEO Pat Lavelle told a quarterly call. Its Klipsch is poised for “the best year in its history,” he said. The premium audio industry has seen COVID-19 boost sales, said Lavelle. Consumers “rediscovered quality audio, and not just for listening to a stereo system but for movies,” evidenced by growth in home theater and high-end sound bars, he said. Home gyms have become an “integral part” of the home workplace, further feeding audio sales, he said. “We've seen the market grow, and we have seen the audience grow.” Pandemic lifestyles breathed new air into premium audio, which grew by double digits as an industry last quarter, the corporate chief said. “We believe this is sustainable.” The stock soared 31% higher Wednesday to close at $11.32, just 38 cents short of its 52-week high.

Nearly nine in 10 "business leaders" who work for CTA member companies view “flexible work arrangements” as the most important benefit for the next five years, the association reported Tuesday. CTA canvassed 240 respondents online Aug.11-Sept. 11, finding 40% say their companies allow “designated telework/work from home day(s) during the pandemic.” Roughly seven in 10 expect to hire more employees to work remotely, and 80% plan to do more job interviews by video chat or teleconference. Fewer than a quarter expect to hire employees to work onsite in the next five years. Sixty-two percent say their companies hadn't “displaced” any workers through furloughs or layoffs “as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic” and don't expect they will. A quarter of the companies have let employees go. Three-quarters of respondents report difficulty finding job candidates “with the right skills and abilities.” Fifty-seven percent crave candidates with data analytics skills, while equal 56% proportions seek recruits who excel at software development or project management.

Samsung Electronics in South Korea filed Oct. 5 in the U.S. and Sept. 25 in the EU to trademark a wordless logo that depicts an old console TV on legs, its Patent and Trademark Office application shows. Samsung describes the logo as a “rectangle shape in the style of a television with a leg on both sides.” It wants to possibly use it for a broad swath of consumer tech goods, said the application. Console TVs went out of favor by the early 2000s after the transition began from CRT to flat-panel sets in large screen sizes. Samsung didn’t respond to questions Friday.

Apple “foreclosed competition” in iOS subscription-based mobile gaming, and owns “monopoly power” in the relevant market with no “pro-competitive justifications” for that harmful “misconduct,” alleged a complaint (in Pacer) Thursday in U.S. District Court in San Jose that seeks class-action status. Coming nearly two months after Epic Games sued to break Apple’s alleged stranglehold on the iOS app distribution and payment market (see 2008130048), the new complaint argues Apple monopolization is forcing consumers to pay “supracompetitive prices” for the Apple Arcade mobile gaming subscription service.