The International Trade Commission opened two Tariff Act Section 337 investigations into allegations that imports of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. semiconductors and the chips and downstream products that contain them, infringe Globalfoundries patents, said the commission Monday. In one investigation (docket 337-TA-1176), the ITC will consider whether to issue a limited exclusion order and cease and desist orders banning imports of allegedly infringing TSMC semiconductors; chips that contain those semiconductors from Xilinx, Qualcomm and MediaTek; and TVs and smartphones that contain TSMC semiconductors from Hisense, TCL, BLU, Motorola, Google and OnePlus. In a second investigation (docket 337-TA-1177), the ITC will consider the same sanctions for a different set of allegedly infringing TSMC semiconductors, plus the chips that incorporate them from Apple, Nvidia, Broadcom and Cisco. The ITC also will probe smartphones, tablets, wearable devices and set-top boxes with TSMC semiconductors from Apple, Nvidia, Asus and Lenovo, and switches that incorporate them from Arista and Cisco. Representatives of the various respondents we canvassed didn’t comment Tuesday.

Pivotal Commware responded to questions by FCC Wireless Bureau staff on its request for a waiver of Section 20.21(f) of rules on industrial signal booster labeling disclosure requirements (see 1909190012). Initial comments were due Monday in docket 19-272. “Pivotal will sell the Device only to wireless service providers, who will, in turn, provide the Device to their 5G broadband customers as an integral part of the service provider’s broadband service offering,” the company said: “The Device will not be available at retail. Instead, wireless service providers will deliver the Device to their customers, with instructions on how to self-install the Device on a window.” It poses no interference risk “because the Device cannot operate without authentication from the service provider. In the event the customer terminates service, the service provider will be able to shut down and lock the Device remotely,” Pivotal said. Booster company SureCall said the FCC should deny the waiver. “The labeling requirement for Industrial Signal Boosters serves a critically important purpose in protecting the integrity of wireless networks and it should not be waived for any party,“ said SureCall in comments not yet posted: “Waiver in this case would significantly harm consumers by giving a single manufacturer an unfair advantage in the sale of its non-conforming products.”

The Copyright Office is accepting comments until Nov. 8, replies Dec. 9, on the proposed blanket compulsory license under the Music Modernization Act (see 1909130067), said the agency Tuesday. The blanket license takes effect in January 2021.

The Copyright Office’s eCO Registration System will be offline at 6 p.m. Oct. 5 until 6 a.m. the following day to “accommodate Pay.gov maintenance,” said the CO Monday.

MPAA now goes by the Motion Picture Association, including online, the group said Wednesday. That's "the name we will now be known as globally. Our U.S.-specific work will still fall under Motion Picture Association -- America," a spokesperson emailed us. Logo here.

Though the U.S.-China trade war continues with no end in sight, the good news for Broadcom’s semiconductor segment is that “we have not seen further deterioration in our business" since last quarter, said CEO Hock Tan on a fiscal Q3 call Thursday. That prompted Broadcom to leave unchanged its forecast, downgraded on its June call from the $2 billion hit from the trade war (see 1906140011), of $17.5 billion in semiconductor revenue for the fiscal year ending in November, said Tan. “Visibility” into the next fiscal year “continues to be very limited on the semiconductor side,” he said. “So we are managing the business with an expectation that we will continue to operate in a very low-growth, uncertain macro environment for the foreseeable future.” The trade war “is turning into an extended affair with lots of twists and turns in uncertainty,” said Tan. “We are assuming” trade conditions next fiscal year are “not going to change from what we're seeing now,” which means “you probably see a very uncertain 2020,” he said. Broadcom is at least three months away from being able to give clearer 2020 guidance, “but as we sit here right now,” it appears “we have hit bottom” in the semiconductor business, he said. “We're kind of staying at the bottom.” There’s not “much clarity or visibility yet or certainty that any sharp recovery is around the corner,” he said. The stock closed 3.1 percent lower Friday at $290.32. The “fundamentals” of Broadcom’s semiconductor business “remain strong,” said Tan. “We continue to benefit from the underlying trend in the IT world and insatiable need for increasing bandwidth to connect things.”

Telecom and tech issues weren’t discussed in Thursday night’s Democratic presidential debate, but a few candidates targeted China for stealing U.S. intellectual property. China steals “our products, including our intellectual property,” said Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. “They dump substandard products into our economy. They need to be held accountable.” The problem with China isn’t the trade deficit, but that it’s stealing IP and violating World Trade Organization rules, said ex-Vice President Joe Biden. Entrepreneur Andrew Yang said an executive friend visited China recently and “saw pirated U.S. intellectual property on worker workstations to the tune of thousands of dollars per head.” The friend asked how American workers can compete with that, Yang said, citing lost American revenue.

DirecTV advertising warning of TV channels being lost unless Congress reauthorizes the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act is "disingenuous at best, deceptive at worst," NAB President Gordon Smith said in a letter Thursday to AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson. STELAR "was never intended to be permanent" and the number of U.S. households not getting local broadcast signals via DirecTV is small, Smith said. He said most DirecTV subscribers face no impact if STELA expires, and AT&T is "sadly misleading" them. He said AT&T's DirecTV doesn't need STELAR to provide local broadcast signals in the 210 U.S. TV markets. The telco didn't comment.

The House Judiciary Committee cleared legislation that would establish a voluntary small claims board within the Copyright Office (see 1909100069), despite warnings from Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif. The measure passed by voice vote Tuesday. The Senate Judiciary Committee in July unanimously advanced the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement (Case) Act (HR-2426/S-1273) to the floor, despite opposition from Public Knowledge and the Center for Democracy & Technology. Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., successfully offered an amendment with technical revisions, including provisions that freeze caps on fees and monetary damages for three years. Lofgren supports the goal -- to allow creators filing copyright claims an alternative to federal court -- but cited free-speech concerns from the American Civil Liberties Union, Computer and Communications Industry Association, Internet Association and Mozilla. She ultimately supported this legislation, but said if speech issues on notice and takedown aren’t addressed, the plan won’t pass the Senate. It’s sad if one senator holds up bill, which has been out for a long time, said ranking member Doug Collins, R-Ga., who sponsored the bill with Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. Groups like the ACLU should have participated in the public process, he added. Copyright infringement isn’t a victimless crime, and the bill will aid content creators like musicians and photographers who can’t justify costs of taking claims to federal court, said Jeffries. The Copyright Alliance applauded Tuesday's passage, saying it will help hundreds of thousands of content creators. PK said the legislation “falls short.” A small claims court “needs to be accountable, appealable, and limited to reasonable damage levels,” said Policy Counsel Meredith Rose Wednesday. “The system envisioned by CASE is none of those. It lacks meaningful appealability, and offers damage caps that are higher than the median income for over a quarter of all Americans.”

The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on free trade “is critical to our economic future and congressional approval will promote America’s global digital leadership,” wrote CTA, the Information Technology Industry Council, Semiconductor Industry Association and eight other tech groups Monday, urging its ratification. “Internet-connected small businesses are three times as likely to export and create jobs, grow four times more quickly, and earn twice as much revenue per employee,” they said. “Their success is thanks to America’s digital policy framework, and USMCA will modernize North American trade rules to better reflect that framework.” Passing the USMCA “would be a significant step” toward guaranteeing North American leadership in the global digital economy and establishing a “worldwide framework to address the challenges confronting global access and usage of digital trade,” they said. Also signing were ACT|The App Association, BSA|The Software Alliance, the Computer & Communications Industry Association, CompTIA, Internet Association, Internet Infrastructure Coalition, Software & Information Industry Association and TechNet.