Samsung hatched a scheme at January 2012 CES to steal the trade secrets of mobile wallet solutions provider Dynamics and embed the stolen technology in at least 10 models of Galaxy smartphones dating to the S8, alleged a complaint Friday (in Pacer) in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Samsung beckoned Dynamics CEO Jeffrey Mullin to leave his company’s CES booth on Day One of the show to meet with Samsung executives in a private Bellagio Hotel suite, said the complaint. Under a “duly executed” nondisclosure agreement signed at the Bellagio, Mullen “demonstrated Dynamics’s magnetic emulation technologies to Samsung personnel and discussed, pursuant to the NDA, how the technologies could be incorporated into a device,” it said. “At some point in time” after the Bellagio meetings with Mullen, Samsung began feeding the technological secrets, in violation of the NDA, to LoopPay, a Dynamics competitor that Samsung bought three years later (see 1502180051), it said. Without the Dynamics information Mullen disclosed to Samsung under the NDA, “neither LoopPay nor Samsung would have incorporated the magnetic emulation features into Samsung products that provide consumers with the ability to complete safe and secure financial and other transactions,” it said. “Dynamics is the rightful recipient and owner of at least the purchase price Samsung paid for LoopPay,” plus the “substantial revenue” directly related to the technologies Mullen disclosed at CES to Samsung under the NDA, it said. Samsung never publicly disclosed what it paid for LoopPay, but Dynamics believes it to be roughly $250 million, it said. Samsung didn’t comment Friday.

Samsung asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals not to disclose “highly confidential” royalty rate-related information in Qualcomm’s FTC antitrust case (see 1907090066). Qualcomm July 8 filed a motion that would make public Samsung’s royalty rate information previously sealed by a lower court. Samsung requested (in Pacer) emergency intervention Friday and a ruling on the request by July 29. If Qualcomm’s motion is granted, Samsung royalty rates “under two different licenses would be disclosed to third parties, including other current and future licensors and competitors who could misuse this information to Samsung’s competitive disadvantage,” Samsung said. The company “would face irreparable harm if its highly confidential effective royalty rates under two separate licenses were released publicly,” it said.

After many associations urged the Commerce Department to grant more time for comments on its next advance NPRM for foundational technologies, officials said it will consider the request but suggested industry has ample time. “There’s no surprise that it’s coming,” said Rich Ashooh, assistant secretary-export administration, at the Bureau of Industry and Security’s annual export controls conference this week. Nazak Nikakhtar, undersecretary-industry and security, said companies should have given “quite a bit of thought” to foundational technologies already. “That it’s been out there for a while, and everybody knows the foundational technology piece is coming, hopefully businesses have given thoughts to their comments.” Nikakhtar said BIS plans the notice “very, very soon.” BIS plans its first proposed set of rules for export controls on emerging technologies in “weeks, but not months,” Ashooh said. But Nikakhtar said Commerce is moving slowly to make sure it's fully “understanding the technologies, understanding the applications” and “going about this in the right way.” Ashooh said the upcoming controls won’t be a “categorical rule” on broad groups of technologies but instead will be applied slowly to individual components. He said BIS is working on controls on one “basket” of technologies and will continue to issue more controls as they're created. “This process will have no end,” he said. “It will continue as technologies continue.”

TiVo signed a global intellectual property license agreement with LG, it said Tuesday. It expands on LG's previous Rovi patent portfolio license to add the TiVo patent portfolio.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should stay a lower court’s antitrust judgment (see 1905220035) against Qualcomm as the company seeks to reverse the patent-licensing decision, the defendant asked (in Pacer), posted Tuesday. The chipmaker is looking to avoid renegotiating licensing agreements with phone manufacturers, warning the judgement would "fundamentally change the way it has done business for decades." The FTC sued the chipmaker, claiming Qualcomm has a mobile chip monopoly.

Copyright royalty judges adopted regulations for determining the budget for the Music Modernization Act’s mechanical licensing collective (see 1907050027). The Digital Music Association, National Music Publishers Association and SoundExchange generally supported the proposed rule, offering various amendments. The Copyright Royalty Board announced, also in Monday's Federal Register, an initial administrative assessment proceeding to fund the MLC, requesting petitions to participate, due July 23.

The Copyright Office designated the Music Modernization Act’s (see 1812210051) mechanical licensing collective (MLC) Friday, a move backed by key publisher and songwriter groups. In addition to designating the MLC, the CO also designated a digital licensee to administer music rights. The National Music Publishers’ Association, Nashville Songwriters Association International and Songwriters of North America supported the designation. The MLC is expected to fully launch in January 2021. Its work will include budget negotiation with digital streaming services, which will fund the collective. The MLC will also need to partner with a vendor to “provide administration and matching services and development of a user portal through which publishers and songwriters will be able to manage rights and royalties,” the groups said.

Music labels have given Charter Communications clear notice of hundreds of thousands of its subscribers illegally pirating those labels' songs since 2012 but Charter chose to keep those subscribers and their subscription fees rather than terminate the accounts. That's according to the labels in an opposition to Charter's motion to dismiss the claim for vicarious liability (see 1905290002) filed (docket 19-cv-00874, in Pacer) Monday in U.S. District Court in Denver. They said the ISP has both the right and ability to control users' infringing conduct but receives direct financial benefit from that conduct. Charter outside counsel didn't comment Wednesday.

If DOJ terminates the ASCAP and BMI consent decrees without an alternative licensing framework, it would severely disrupt the entire music licensing market (see 1906050060), groups wrote Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on Friday. The South Carolina Broadcasters Association, South Carolina Brewers Guild, South Carolina Restaurant & Lodging Association and South Carolina Retail Association signed the letter defending consent decrees that govern performing rights organizations. It encouraged Graham to continue his “effective and even-handed” oversight of the DOJ’s consent decree review.

Safety and security concerns are what drive the vast majority of Information Technology Industry Council member companies to limit device repairs to “authorized/qualified” service technicians, and not third-party repair outfits or do-it-yourselfers, said a September survey the trade group submitted to the FTC’s “Nixing the Fix” inquiry. The filing, posted Tuesday in docket FTC-2019-0013, was submitted at the agency’s April 30 deadline for "empirical research" to help staff prepare for a July 16 workshop on whether manufacturer repair restrictions can thwart the consumer protections in the 1975 Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act (see 1903130060). All the survey respondents “indicated intellectual property and/or proprietary information would be at risk in using an unauthorized/untrained repair provider,” said ITI. All also cited the “risk to user safety in using an unauthorized/untrained repair provider,” while 83 percent identified the “risk to data security” as their rationale for barring third-party or self-repair, it said. Three-quarters of the members responding “require authorized/qualified providers to protect privacy and data through contractual requirements and OEM practices/procedures,” it said. ITI didn’t comment Wednesday on how many members participated in the survey or why it predated the initiation of the Nixing the Fix inquiry by about six months. The 22 filings posted this week in docket FTC-2019-0013 were virtually all the agency received by its April 30 deadline for submissions of empirical research into manufacturer repair restrictions, emailed spokesperson Juliana Gruenwald Wednesday. Though the deadline for research submissions has lapsed, the FTC said it will accept written comments in the proceeding through Sept. 16.