Congress’ ongoing examination of whether to make the U.S. Copyright Office an agency independent of the Library of Congress continues to raise questions over how the Copyright Office would function, given the potential for the agency to then become a rulemaking body, Wilkinson Barker lawyer David Oxenford said in a blog post Monday. The Copyright Office’s recommendations are currently only recommendations to Congress on changes to copyright law rather than true rulemakings because the Library of Congress “technically reports to Congress, not the President, and thus the arguments are that the Library is not a true executive agency (though the President does appoint the Librarian of Congress),” Oxenford said in the blog post. If the Copyright Office became an independent agency, “Congress would not need to get involved in details of Copyright law changes, but instead could enact a broader statute and let the Copyright Office fill in the details, just as the FCC decides how to enforce the Communications Act,” Oxenford said. Congress is seeking ways to increase its oversight of the FCC, which Oxenford said raises the question, “Is Congress ... ready to give up that same kind of oversight over Copyright policy?”

A recently leaked portion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership purports to show provisions that would “enable multinational corporations to undermine public interest rules through an international tribunal process called investor state dispute settlement (ISDS),” the Electronic Frontier Foundation said in a blog post Wednesday. The authenticity of the leaked documents couldn't be independently confirmed. “Under this process, foreign companies can challenge any new law or government action at the federal, state, or local level, in a country that is a signatory to the agreement,” it said. That has implications for intellectual property, EFF said. The leaked text said the provisions don't "apply to copyright and patent rules as long as those rules are 'consistent with' the TPP's Intellectual Property Chapter" and the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights agreement, said EFF. "This means that the agreement gives the ISDS court the ability to interpret national compliance with the provisions of the TPP, a dangerous proposition given the partisan nature of the ISDS courts."

The Copyright Office posted the second round of comments filed in connection with the CO's sixth triennial rulemaking process for Digital Millennium Copyright Act Section 1201, which prohibits the circumvention of technological protection measures. The comments, which were due Friday, were limited to parties opposed to some of the office's proposed exemptions (see 1503300053). The Software and Information Industry Association opposed the proposed exemption for the circumvention of electronic literary works to allow for the noncommercial use via “space-shifting or format-shifting.” The Software Alliance opposed the exemption for the jailbreaking of cellphones. Comments in favor of the exemptions were due Feb. 6 (see 1502110062). Comments by those who support or oppose specific proposals and neutral parties wishing to reply to other comments are due May 1.

The Library of Congress lacks “clear direction” for its IT program and needs to “expeditiously” hire a chief information officer (CIO), the Government Accountability Office said in a report released Tuesday. “Although the Library obligated at least $119 million on IT for fiscal year 2014, it is not effectively managing its investments,” it said. After the GAO finished its review in January, LOC officials said the library would draft a “strategic plan” for IT within 90 days and hire a CIO, the report said. “If it follows through on these plans, the Library will be in a stronger position to address its IT management weaknesses and more effectively support its mission,” it said. Copyright stakeholders have pointed to the Copyright Office’s outdated IT procedures as a chief reason for removing the office from the purview of the library (see 1502260057 and 1502200040). The library hired an interim CIO as it searches for a permanent hire, which is expected to be completed by September, Librarian of Congress James Billington said in a letter attached to the report. He said the LOC will complete its strategic plan in April. "The Library appreciates the work of the GAO and believes the report ultimately will be helpful," a spokeswoman said. "Several recommendations are already underway, such as developing a new IT strategic plan, finalizing an enterprise architecture plan and updating regulations and governance regarding IT."

The Copyright Office is "struggling to keep up" with the pace of technological change in the copyright industry, said Michi Iljazi, Taxpayers Protection Alliance communications and policy manager, in a Hill op-ed Thursday. “The question isn’t whether the Copyright Office should be fixed, it is how the US Copyright Office can make needed changes to be fully capable of dealing with the creative forces that are driving today’s knowledge based economy.” That’s not a “herculean task,” but a matter of “updating their IT systems and optimizing the technology,” Iljazi said. He added that the CO should have “greater independence” from the Library of Congress: “This arrangement may have outlived its usefulness.”

Comments on copyright royalty judges' proposed regulations for rates and terms of digital performances of sound recordings and ephemeral recordings to facilitate such transmissions are due April 16, said a Copyright Royalty Board notice in Thursday's Federal Register. The rates and terms are for Jan. 1, 2016, through Dec. 31, 2020, it said.

An independent license administration company, HEVC Advance, wants to start a one-stop-shop patent pool for the HEVC platform, the company said in a Thursday announcement. The HEVC Advance patent pool "will address marketplace demand for an additional licensing option of HEVC essential patents," the company said. It expects to attract a "critical mass" of HEVC patent holders, with more than 500 "essential patents" to be available for license at launch, and the number of patents expected to grow significantly soon thereafter, it said. It named Dolby Labs, General Electric, Mitsubishi, Philips and Technicolor as likely to be on "the initial list of licensors." Royalty rates and licensing terms will be made available in Q2 in preparation for a formal launch in Q3, it said. The announcement would appear to put HEVC Advance in competition with MPEG LA, which runs an HEVC license program as a one-stop shop for about two dozen companies and universities that hold HEVC-related patents, including Apple, Fujitsu, Hitachi Maxell, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Samsung and Siemens. Last week, MPEG LA said it updated coverage of its HEVC patent portfolio to reflect recent ITU revisions in the HEVC standard (see 1503190037).

Panasonic will provide access to its software, patents and experience royalty-free to speed development of the Internet of Things, it said Monday at the Embedded Linux Conference in San Jose. The company, a board member of the AllSeen Alliance, said it would also boost its intellectual property contributions to the alliance. Panasonic will make available mature and tested device-to-cloud software technology currently being used in home monitoring systems, solar energy and in retail applications, the company said. Chief Technology Officer Todd Rytting said Panasonic hopes its IoT initiative will “inspire other global companies to contribute intellectual property and ideas to making networks work together through this alliance.” Other premier members of the AllSeen Alliance are Electrolux, Haier, LG, Microsoft, Qeo, Qualcomm, Sharp, Sony, Silicon Image and TP-Link.

Immersion said it agreed to a settlement and license agreement with HTC to resolve a patent infringement lawsuit it brought against the Chinese smartphone maker. The settlement preserves Immersion’s right to appeal the invalidity ruling affecting three of Immersion’s patents. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Delaware, was based on HTC’s uses of a simple form of haptic effects in its mobile devices, referred to as Basic Haptics. Under the settlement and license agreement, HTC will pay an undisclosed amount to compensate for prior shipments of its devices containing Basic Haptics and an additional undisclosed licensing fee to continue manufacturing and selling devices with Basic Haptics, said Immersion Monday. Immersion CEO Victor Viegas said the settlement won't have a material impact on 2015 financial results. Immersion announced similar settlements and licensing agreements (see 1211280083) with Google and Motorola in 2012. Immersion announced a multiyear licensing deal in 2013 with Samsung for Basic Haptics. HTC didn’t comment.

The Senate deserves praise for again "tackling" patent reform, CEA President Gary Shapiro said, citing hearings Wednesday and Thursday to study what he said is “the impact of abusive patent litigation practices ... on American businesses.” Since Congress last acted on patent reform legislation in December 2013, “patent trolls have bled over $100 billion from the U.S. economy,” Shapiro said Thursday in a statement. “And with each week that passes, trolls send more demand letters to small businesses and startups, and drain another $1.5 billion from our economy. The immense amount of money spent fighting bogus patent lawsuits amounts to a massive tax for over 80 percent of victims who are startups or small and medium businesses. Blatant patent extortion needs to be stopped.” Wednesday’s hearing was before the Senate Judiciary Committee (see 1503180042), and Thursday’s was before the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee. Shapiro has identified patent reform as one of CEA’s highest legislative priorities and has been an outspoken critic of former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., for “single-handedly” killing patent reform legislation in the last Congress (see 1411050022).