Patent and Trademark Office Director Andrei Iancu will testify at 2:30 p.m. March 13 during an oversight hearing before the Senate Intellectual Property Subcommittee in 226 Dirksen.

Software company Rimini Street doesn’t have to pay Oracle $12.8 million in litigation costs, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday, reversing a lower court’s award in Oracle’s successful 2010 copyright infringement lawsuit. Oracle accused Rimini of using Oracle support and software materials without license, upheld by the 9th U.S. Court Circuit Court of Appeals in 2018. The costs included Oracle’s expert witness fees, e-discovery and jury consulting. Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s opinion cites limits on the term “full costs,” which doesn’t include “other” expenses: “A ‘full moon’ means the moon, not Mars. A ‘full breakfast’ means breakfast, not lunch.” Full costs means costs specified in the general costs statute, Kavanaugh wrote. Rimini said the decision has “national significance in copyright law.” Rimini looks forward to “continuing our fierce competition with Oracle in the marketplace by providing the best enterprise software support service and value for Oracle licensees worldwide,” CEO Seth Ravin said. The refund is in addition to $21.5 million Oracle returned to Rimini in a previous appeal. The high court’s “narrow” decision doesn’t change the “fundamental” fact that Rimini “engaged in a massive theft of Oracle's IP and tried to cover it up by destroying evidence and engaging in other litigation misconduct,” Oracle said.

Industry is very interested in participating in the next blockchain proof of concept involving intellectual property rights, said Vincent Annunziato, director of Customs and Border Protection’s Business Transformation and Innovation Division, at CBP's Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee’s Thursday meeting. “We are almost 100 percent definite with moving forward” soon with the IP rights piece, he said. “We’re hearing now that we're having about 70 people that want to come and participate.” CBP is working with parent agency Department of Homeland Security on a test of “verifiable credentials” that uses “third-party verification through consensus to prove somebody is who they say they are.”

There’s no evidence to suggest ASCAP and BMI consent decrees outlived “their intended purpose,” the MIC Coalition said Friday, responding to a proposal from ASCAP and BMI executives to replace them with an alternative framework that sunsets (see 1902280071). “If anything, they are more critical than ever in an increasingly complex and diverse licensing environment,” said the coalition. Members include the Computer & Communications Industries Association, CTA, Digital Media Association and NAB.

Revenue from streaming music platforms in the U.S. jumped 30 percent to $7.4 billion in 2018, contributing three-quarters of industry sales, while downloaded tracks and albums fell for the sixth straight year to $1.04 billion, RIAA reported Thursday. Streaming services comprised virtually all industry revenue growth for the year from paid subscription services, advertising-supported on-demand services such as Spotify, and from streaming radio companies, including those that distribute revenue through SoundExchange, such as SiriusXM and Pandora. Adoption of paid subscription services grew 42 percent, passing 50 million subscribers for the first time, RIAA said. Services averaged 1 million new subscriptions per month. Total 2018 subscription revenue rose 32 percent to $5.4 billion, including $747 million revenue from “limited tier” paid subscriptions, such as Amazon Prime and Pandora Plus. Permanent album downloads fell 25 percent to $500 million, and individual track sales slid 28 percent to $490 million. At just over $1 billion, downloaded tracks and albums were 11 percent of total 2018 revenue vs. 42 percent in 2013. Revenue from physical products shipments dropped 23 percent to $1.15 billion, with CD revenue falling 34 percent to $698 million, their first sub-$1 billion year since 1986. Vinyl records tallied $419 million, 8 percent higher than the prior year and the highest since 1988. Vinyl generated more than a third of physical-format revenue. There's "rejuvenation in the industry," blogged RIAA CEO Mitch Glazier. Yet "many challenges" remain as nearing $10 billion in revenue "only returns U.S. music to its 2007 levels," he wrote. "Stream-ripping, and a lack of accountability for many Big Tech companies that drive down the value of music, remain serious threats as the industry strives for additional growth." For the Internet Association, "it's great to see the music industry acknowledge that internet-enabled music distribution is a bright spot," an IA spokesperson emailed. "Internet innovation has fostered a record bounceback for the music industry, and our members are proud of the work they do to enable more consumers to legally enjoy music to the benefit of everyone in the ecosystem."

Chipmaker Marvell Technology Group is the 21st licensor to join Via Licensing’s LTE patent pool, said the pool administrator Tuesday. The pool “offers the industry a fair, transparent, and cost-effective means to obtain a license” to all LTE-essential patents, said Via. The program is royalty-free for the first 100,000 unit shipments of smartphones and tablets. Fees rise progressively to $2.10 per unit for shipments exceeding 2.5 million devices.

Modifications to EU copyright law moved forward Tuesday as the European Parliament Legal Affairs Committee approved a compromise hammered out in "trilogue" talks among the EU, Council and Parliament. The deal, reached Feb. 13 (see 1902130059), now needs approval from the full parliament, expected to vote in March or April. The fierce lobbying provoked by several provisions -- Article 11, which creates a new right for news publishers, and Article 13, adding copyright-policing responsibilities on content-sharing platforms -- continued after the committee vote. “The text, as agreed in Trilogue, would modernise copyright with a proportionate approach that does not stifle digital innovation,” said the European Newspaper Publishers’ Association, European Magazine Media Association, European Publishers’ Council and News Media Europe. They pressed EU lawmakers to "vote in support of Europe's vital cultural and media landscape." The copyright system was established "in the infancy of the internet" when platforms could exploit content created and produced by others without permission or payment, said the Federation of European Publishers: To perpetuate that system would be unfair. European Digital Rights relaunched SaveYourInternet.eu, which it said has become "the main platform for concerned citizens who want to contact EU policy makers about the proposed implementation of upload filters." It urged Europeans to "consider parliamentarians' stance on Article 13 when voting for the European Parliament election in May." It's unclear "whether further lobbying of [European Parliament members] results in any of the controversial provisions being excised" at the final plenary stage, emailed Hogan Lovells (London) IP attorney Alastair Shaw.

Two federal circuit rulings allowing a company to use copyright to block access to application programming interfaces harms innovation, the Computer & Communications Industry Association argued Monday. CCIA asked the Supreme Court to hear Oracle v. Google, a case (see 1803280059) deciding whether copyright can be used to block communication between software programs. The case stems from a copyright lawsuit filed nearly a decade ago by Oracle seeking to block Google’s API access.

The Locast service streaming broadcast signals in a small number of cities (see 1801110026) isn't now a big disruptive business threat to broadcasters but could spur a legislative battle over rewriting broadcast video rules, New Street Research analyst Blair Levin wrote investors Thursday. He said the Satellite TV Extension and Localism Act reauthorization this year could be a vehicle for some broadcasters to try to bar the type of signal retransmission that Locast is doing. He said opening that door could lead to attempts to get other amendments into a reauthorization bills that could end must carry or revise retransmission consent.

Sony will apply to trademark a new 8K HDR logo and “allow it to run its official process” at the Patent and Trademark Office, spokesperson Cheryl Goodman emailed us Tuesday. The new logo, unveiled at CES, differs slightly from the octagonal 8K HDR mark that PTO rejected on grounds that it was “merely descriptive” of Sony’s goods. The agency also cited trademark case law in ruling that the logo's black and gold graphics didn’t “create an inherently distinctive commercial impression.” PTO declared the application abandoned Feb. 2 after Sony let lapse the six-month deadline for challenging the refusal (see 1902040020). Sony ran into similar problems at PTO trying to trademark the 4K HDR logo it introduced three years ago at CES (see 1601060049). The agency killed that application Feb. 4. The 4K HDR logo is “freely available for use,” said Goodman.