Samsung withdrew its European application to register “HDR10" as a trademark Aug. 16, weeks after the EU Intellectual Property Office, acting on opposition from LG Electronics, ruled the application “not eligible,” according to documents on EUIPO’s website (login required). Months earlier, Samsung abandoned an attempt (see 1703150031) to register HDR10 at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Samsung declined to comment Thursday. After late-March publication of the application, EUIPO received “third party observations” from LG that “give rise to serious doubts concerning the eligibility of the trade mark for registration and therefore the Office decided to re-examine the application,” the agency told Samsung in an Aug. 1 letter.

Digital Media Licensing Association joined the Copyright Alliance, the alliance announced Wednesday. Established in 1951, DMLA supports copyright protections 100-plus members who own, manage and license visual content.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer should ensure IP rights of Americans are "afforded, protected and enforced at the highest levels" when renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, said House IP Subcommittee Vice Chairman Doug Collins, R-Ga., and Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., in a Tuesday letter to him. They urged Lighthizer to promote strong copyright protection standards similar to those in the U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement, keep the U.S.'s long-standing stance on copyright exceptions language without open-ended balance provisions, and advance "responsible" internet partnership between platforms without outdated safe harbor provisions. They said Canada adopted "sweeping" copyright exceptions with a weak safe harbor system, and Mexico has high piracy rates and enforcement problems. Foreign countries have enacted laws "that harm the market for American works. NAFTA should not exacerbate this problem, but, rather, be the first step in correcting it," they wrote. The letter said copyright-intensive industries contributed $1.2 trillion and supplied 5.6 million jobs in 2015 to the U.S. economy.

Broadcom’s Tariff Act Section 337 allegations at the International Trade Commission (see 1708160055) seek to name DTS as a “component functionality respondent" because its Play-Fi technology violates a Broadcom patent that “involves extraordinarily valuable technology in the field of audio processing for wireless systems,” Broadcom said in an amended complaint (login required). That Definitive Technology, MartinLogan, McIntosh Lab, Paradigm, Phorus, Polk Audio and Wren Sound Systems build Play-Fi functionality into their products under license from DTS qualifies them as “downstream” respondents, said the complaint. Representatives of those companies didn’t comment Friday. LG, Samsung and Sony are lawful licensees of the Broadcom patent, Broadcom said.

The government is wrong in its interpretation that a longstanding antitrust consent decree bars BMI from granting fractional licenses to perform songs, the organization told the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a brief filed last week. The filling was in response to BMI's yearlong legal fight with DOJ, which is appealing a lower court ruling that sided with BMI and said the decree's language doesn't prohibit such licensing (see 1705120040). DOJ, which filed an opening brief in May, favors 100 percent licensing, and supported by technology companies, broadcasters and others (see 1705260049). BMI said prohibiting fractional licensing could harm the market, which could become less competitive. It cited the Supreme Court's 1971 decision in U.S. v. Armour, which said a party to a consent decree can't engage in any activity "expressly and unambiguously prohibited" in the decree unless it falls outside that scope and then it isn't regulated. BMI said its consent decree "says nothing about fractional licensing." It said the government's stance is based on a "logical fallacy" and wants the court to "find an implied prohibition against fractional licensing." BMI posited a decree that required a pizzeria to sell pizzas to all customers without specifying whether the establishment "may only sell pizzas." The decree doesn't expressly address selling slices, so BMI said the pizzeria can sell both slices and whole pies. BMI said fractional licenses either are included in its repertory and therefore it can sell them or, they're excluded from the repertory and not regulated by the decree. "Either way, BMI is free to license such fractional interests and is certainly not prohibited from doing so," it added.

The Copyright Royalty Board is seeking comment by Sept. 14 on whether stakeholders object to a requested partial distribution of the 2015 Digital Audio Recording Technology Sound Recordings Fund royalties to the Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies (AARC) and to claimants that reached settlement with the alliance, said a CRB notice in Tuesday's Federal Register. The board said AARC requested a partial distribution of 98 percent from both the Copyright Owners and Feature Recording Artists subfunds. AARC said it reached settlement with all but a few.

The American Association of Law Libraries joined the two-year-old trade group Re:Create, which advocates for "balanced" copyright rules, said an AALL Thursday news release. Other members include the American Library Association, Center for Democracy & Technology, Computer and Communications Industry Association, CTA, New America’s Open Technology Institute, Public Knowledge and the R Street Institute.

The Copyright Office is proposing to simplify deposit requirements for certain types of "literary monographs" defined, in part, as a one-volume work or a finite number of volumes and musical compositions published in the U.S. as "copies" rather than solely as phonorecords, said a notice in Wednesday's Federal Register. The office said the proposed rule would require copyright owners to submit one copy of the best edition rather than two copies. The CO said it would boost registration efficiency. Comments are due by Oct. 2.

Broadcom filed a Tariff Act Section 337 International Trade Commission complaint Aug. 10 alleging DTS and others are importing and selling wireless audio systems that infringe its patents. Broadcom complained about DTS’ “Play-Fi” technology, which allows a user to stream music from a device into a household's speakers. The system is incorporated into downstream products from DTS’s affiliate Phorus, plus consumer electronics companies. Broadcom seeks a limited exclusion order and cease and desist orders banning importation and sale of infringing wireless audio systems by DTS and the downstream users of DTS’ “Play-Fi” technology. The ITC is seeking comments by Aug. 24, it said in Wednesday's Federal Register. DTS didn't comment right away.

President Donald Trump said he's directing U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to examine China's actions, policies and practices on theft of U.S. IP and the "forced transfers of American technology." At a Monday event where the president signed a memorandum to that effect, Trump said Washington hasn't done anything about this and it won't "turn a blind eye" any longer. "We will stand up to any country that unlawfully forces American companies to transfer their valuable technology as a condition of market access," he said. The U.S. will fight counterfeit and pirated goods and services and protect copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets and American jobs, he added. Among those in attendance were Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and House IP Subcommittee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif. China should take the Trump administration's assessment seriously and improve the trade relationship, said Information Technology Industry Council CEO Dean Garfield in a statement. He said both the U.S. and China should address the issues in the months before the November Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Vietnam.