Regardless of who wins the 2020 presidential election, tech companies likely will have to change their supply chains and reverse the international approach to research and development, said Derek Scissors, an American Enterprise Institute China scholar. Apparel and other low-value goods manufacturers were already moving to cheaper countries in Asia, but consumer technology firms were happy in China before the trade war began, said Scissors in an interview. "You could easily get a Democratic administration that wants to get tech out of China." Joe "Biden's people say they want that," Scissors said. He said the next Democratic administration won't use broad-based tariffs, as President Donald Trump has. Scissors said the U.S. dominates in advanced microchip design, and policymakers should intervene to stop industrial espionage in that field. But he said for chipmakers, restrictions on cooperating with Chinese researchers also will likely mean fewer sales in China. "If you say to Intel: you cannot do any research and development with China, the Chinese are going to find Intel a lot less interesting." Scissors said if decoupling happens, which he hopes will, the most advanced chips would likely be assembled in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and maybe the Philippines. "The thing about China -- it's the end of a supply chain with tons of inputs where you make hundreds of billions of low-end consumer electronics every year," he said. "There's no other country that can replace that." Scissors said that scale might be found in Indonesia, Mexico, Vietnam or perhaps India.

Examining ways that a "natural person can contribute” to an artificial intelligence invention and qualify to be a "named inventor” on the patent is one of about a dozen issues on which the Patent and Trademark Office seeks comment said a Federal Register notice Tuesday. PTO “has been examining AI inventions for decades and has issued guidance in many areas,” it said. It now wants to “engage with the innovation community and experts in AI to determine whether further guidance is needed,” it said. The goal is to “promote the predictability and reliability of patenting such inventions and to ensure that appropriate patent protection incentives are in place to encourage further innovation in and around this critical area,” it said. PTO has taken no position on AI patenting, nor is it “predisposed to any particular views,” the agency said. Comments are due Oct. 11, and PTO prefers them to AIPartnership@uspto.gov.

Comments are due Aug. 29 on a ban Velodyne Lidar seeks on imports of 3-D lidar devices that allegedly infringe its patents and are subsequently incorporated into autonomous vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles, industrial machines and robotics, said Wednesday’s Federal Register. “Velodyne seeks to protect itself and its United States operations from two foreign companies” -- Hesai Photonics Technology and Suteng Innovation Technology (aka RoboSense) -- “that took its revolutionary patented invention, incorporated it into their competing products, and are injecting those infringing products into the United States market,” Velodyne said in a complaint filed Aug. 15 with the International Trade Commission. Velodyne seeks a limited exclusion order and cease and desist orders banning import and sale of infringing devices from Hesai and RoboSense. "RoboSense will actively respond and follow the standard legal process, and will respect the final judgment," emailed a spokesperson, saying the lawsuit targets "a small number of our products in the U.S. market only." Hesai didn't comment Wednesday.

Qualcomm granted LG Electronics a global patent license to develop, manufacture and sell 3G, 4G and 5G “single-mode and multimode complete devices," it said Tuesday. The agreement builds on Qualcomm’s “long-standing technology relationship” with LG, it said. Financial details weren’t disclosed, but the agreement “is consistent with Qualcomm’s established global licensing terms,” it said.

The Apple Music service, plus the equipment, software and applications "implementing" it, infringe four U.S. patents dating to 2006 describing methods of creating and posting media for playback or for sharing in a communications network, alleged a complaint (in Pacer) Friday in U.S. District Court in Chicago. Plaintiff Post Media owns the patents, all naming technology entrepreneur Alan Bartholomew as the sole inventor, said the complaint. Patent and Trademark Office records show they were originally assigned to Trio Systems in Pasadena, California. The patents are “rooted in computerized electronic data communications networks,” and describe “an improved method to deliver content and provide interface among different accounts and computing systems,” said the complaint. Bartholomew is nearing retirement and “spent much money and effort to develop his inventions and procure patents,” it said. He “hopes to recoup his costs without incurring financial risk to his family,” and so “turned to Post Media, whose purpose in part is to conduct the work necessary to reward and provide compensation to Mr. Bartholomew for the patents in suit,” it said. Apple didn’t comment.

Florida startup Corellium bases its business “entirely on commercializing the illegal replication of the copyrighted operating system and applications that run on Apple’s iPhone, iPad, and other Apple devices,” alleged an Apple complaint (in Pacer) Thursday in U.S. District Court in West Palm Beach: “This is a straightforward case of infringement of highly valuable copyrighted works,” said the complaint, which was inexplicably terminated early Friday. “The product Corellium offers is a ‘virtual’ version of Apple mobile hardware products, accessible to anyone with a web browser,” it alleged. “Corellium serves up what it touts as a perfect digital facsimile of a broad range of Apple’s market-leading devices.” It recreates them “with fastidious attention to detail not just the way the operating system and applications appear visually to bona fide purchasers, but also the underlying computer code,” it said. It has “no license or permission from Apple,” it said. “Enough is enough.” Apple sought permanent injunction effectively shutting down Corellium, plus an order requiring notifications sent to all Corellium customers that continued use of the products “infringes Apple’s copyrights.” Corellium didn’t comment Friday, nor did Apple.

The U.S. should warn China that it will ban all Chinese companies from American markets in specific sectors that Chinese hackers target for intellectual property theft, blogged American Enterprise Institute resident scholar Claude Barfield Wednesday. If warnings go ignored, act on the threats, “even if no direct technology theft and transfer is identified,” he said.

Comments are due Aug. 23 on a Tariff Act Section 337 complaint filed with the International Trade Commission seeking a ban on imports of Honeywell and HTC wireless communication devices used in smart home systems, says a notice for Thursday's Federal Register. Innovation Science’s alleges products in Resideo Technologies’ Honeywell Lynx, Lyric and Smart lines of devices, plus in HTC cellphones, infringe its patents on wireless communications. The infringing devices allegedly include smart thermostats, home control and monitoring systems and associated wireless security sensors, controllers and smart video cameras. Innovation seeks a limited exclusion order and cease and desist orders banning import and sale of infringing devices from Resideo and HTC. "We do not discuss ongoing litigation," emailed a Resideo spokesperson Wednesday. HTC didn't comment.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer shouldn’t include certain copyright infringement liability protections for online platforms in trade deals, the Free State Foundation blogged Thursday. FSF cited the “ineffective” Section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act covering a notice and takedown process for when online service providers receive limited liability protection for hosting infringing content and activity. “Congress needs to reexamine Section 512 as a matter of modernizing U.S. domestic law to reduce illegal copyright infringement,” before including it in trade deals, wrote FSF. It cited a similar request for Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act from the House Commerce Committee (see 1908060064).

DOJ should maintain the ASCAP and BMI music licensing consent decrees, a coalition of free market groups wrote Attorney General William Barr on Wednesday (see 1906060017). Frontiers of Freedom, Americans for Limited Government, Center for Freedom and Prosperity, and The Latino Coalition were among groups signing the letter. They urged DOJ not to potentially disrupt millions of businesses by replacing one form of government regulation with another, as termination of the consent decrees would require some form of regulation over the market. DOJ didn't comment.