Hyper-local and indoor positioning services firm sensewhere secured patents in China and the U.S., a company news release said Wednesday. The patent issued by the Patent and Trademark Office is for a method by which a singular device can "assist another device to obtain a position fix," sensewhere said. The patent issued by the Chinese government differs from the U.S. patent in that it covers a method to map wireless access points by using location references from a user device, the company said.

Several public interest groups said they were pleased with the bipartisan support for patent reform legislation moving in committees in both the U.S. House and Senate. During a panel Wednesday held by Public Knowledge, representatives from groups pushing for increased consumer protection from patent litigation said the support for litigation protection is across the board. "[There] couldn't be more support for this," said Chris Armstrong, director of Small Business Majority-partnership and government affairs. Armstrong also said his company's research showed most individuals polled support increased restrictions on patent trolls and patent litigation. Charles Duan, director of the Public Knowledge Patent Reform Project, said patent litigation and patent demand letters have had a significant impact on the small-business sector, especially in the area of investor confidence. Duan referred to research that he said showed 75 percent of venture capital firms would be less inclined to invest in a business that has been sent a patent demand letter or threatened by a patent assertion entity (PAE). Duan also said consumers of certain products, particularly from the tech and communications sector, also are being affected by patents trolls and PAEs. As the Senate Protecting American Talent and Entrepreneurship Act and the House Innovation Act -- which are both targeted primarily at reducing lawsuits and threats issued by PAEs and increasing consumer security -- work their way through their respective chambers, Duan, Armstrong and other public interest group representatives said open dialogue with those affected by the patent suits and advocacy should continue to help members of Congress find the best ways to resolve many of the issues allegedly caused by increased patent litigation.

Three multichannel video programming distributors settled DVR-related patent infringement cases brought by the same firm, Custom Media Technologies. Custom Media sued eight companies in August 2013 in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Delaware, alleging that the defendants were violating Custom Media's patent for a “Method and System For Customizing and Distributing Presentations For User Sites.” The 17-year-old patent involves distributing video, audio and text over various networks -- such as the Internet, satellite or cable systems -- for on-demand use. Cisco -- which manufactures many of the DVRs -- in 2014 sought a Patent and Trademark Office review of the Custom Media-owned patent, but the PTO declined earlier this year. Monday, the suits against DirecTV, Time Warner Cable and Verizon were dismissed as court paperwork indicated the companies had resolved Custom Media's claims. A suit against AT&T was settled last week. Terms of those settlements weren't made public. Still outstanding are patent complaints against Charter Communications, Comcast, Cox Communications and Dish Network. None of the involved companies had any comment Tuesday.

Apple bowed amid pressure from singer Taylor Swift and other artists to reverse its royalty payment policy for its Apple Music streaming service. Senior Vice President-Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue said Sunday that the company now plans to pay artists royalties for music streamed during the three-month trial period Apple is offering for the service. Apple Music is to launch June 30, with individual subscriptions costing $9.99 per month and six-user family subscriptions costing $14.99 per month. Apple’s original plan not to pay royalties on music streamed during the trial period was “shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike this historically progressive and generous company,” Swift said in a letter posted to her Tumblr Web page before Apple reversed its decision. “Three months is a long time to go unpaid, and it is unfair to ask anyone to work for nothing.” Cue acknowledged Swift’s letter, saying via Twitter that “We hear you @taylorswift13 and indie artists. Love, Apple.” Apple said recently that it would pay 71.5 percent of revenue generated from the service to copyright owners for songs streamed in the U.S. (see 1506150073).

LG Electronics agreed to license Nokia Technologies smartphone patents, Nokia said in a Tuesday announcement. LG is the latest of more than 60 licensees for Nokia's 2G, 3G and 4G mobile communication technology patents and the first major smartphone manufacturer to join the licensing program since Nokia divested its Devices & Services business to Microsoft in 2014, Nokia said. LG’s “detailed royalty payment obligations” under the license agreement “will be subject to commercial arbitration, expected to conclude within a 1-2 year timeframe,” Nokia said. Other terms weren’t disclosed. LG didn’t comment.

Apple will pay about 71.5 percent of revenue generated from its forthcoming Apple Music service to copyright owners for songs streamed in the U.S. and an average of 73 percent of revenue for songs streamed elsewhere, a spokesman confirmed Monday. Earlier media reports had said Apple would pay copyright owners only 58 percent of revenue for songs streamed in the U.S. The Apple Music service, to launch June 30, will cost $9.99 per month for individual subscriptions and $14.99 per month for a six-user family subscription (see 1506080055).

Sunday's season finale of Game of Thrones set a new piracy record, with 1.5 million downloads in eight hours, said piracy news site Torrentfreak, citing data from Demonii Tracker Project. That number was expected to surge to over 10 million over the coming days, it said. The episode also broke the all-time record for the number of people sharing a single file at the same time, which was 224,367 at first post, updated to 258,131 later in the evening. The lower quality 480p copies of the show were “by far” the most popular among downloaders, followed by 720p and 1080p copies, it said. Game of Thrones pirates come from all over the world, but the show is particularly popular in the U.S., UK, Canada and India, it said.

Rovi prevailed in a patent infringement proceeding in Italy, it said Monday. CE companies Card Mania and Italvideo alleged that the Italian portions of two European Rovi patents -- EP 0969662 and EP 1377049 -- are invalid and not infringed. Rovi counterclaimed that the patents are valid and infringed, and the Court of Turin ruled in May that Rovi is entitled to a combined judgment of roughly $1 million. The court had previously asserted the patents valid and infringed by Card Mania and Italvideo.

Personalized Media Communications completed a patent licensing agreement with Arris. The details of the agreement have been deemed confidential by both parties, said PMC in a Monday news release. PMC said it holds 87 patents and expects to see the issuance of 12 more within a year.

The U.S. Copyright Office recommended draft legislation in a report released Thursday that included an updated version of the failed Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008, which would have imposed new burdens of proof on an infringing party in copyright infringement lawsuits involving orphan works to avoid legal penalties. Those burdens would include showing that the infringing party conducted a “good faith” search to locate the copyright owner and failed to locate that entity, as well as prove that the infringing use of the copyrighted material cited the copyright owner’s identity, if it was available. Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante backed creating a framework for the use of orphan works during a late March House Judiciary Committee hearing on the committee’s Copyright Act review (see 1504290058). Several House Judiciary leaders in the past expressed interest in reviewing the orphan works issue as part of the Copyright Act review (see report in the April 3, 2014, issue). The CO report also recommended the U.S. take a more incremental approach to mass digitization that would allow the U.S. to get additional experience with an extended collective licensing framework that mirrors those used abroad. The CO recommended implementing a pilot program that would allow users to digitize their works and provide access for educational purposes under a joint agreement with user representatives. The CO said it's also issuing a notice of inquiry seeking public comment on the scope and administration of the proposed program.