Register of Copyrights Karyn Temple’s testimony before the Senate Intellectual Property Subcommittee was rescheduled for 2:30 p.m. July 30 in 226 Dirksen, the committee said.
The Choose Your Own Adventure book series publisher doesn't point to anything explicitly misleading in Netflix's use of a reference to that series in its Black Mirror: Bandersnatch original production, as the 2nd Circuit's Rogers decision requires it to, Netflix said Friday in a court reply (in Pacer). The reply was in support of its motion to dismiss Netflix's amended claim. Chooseco is alleging trademark infringement and unfair competition (see 1901140004). Netflix said the "choose your own adventure" phrase is artistically relevant to Bandersnatch's story and structure. It said the phrase was dialogue in a lengthy work, and was never used to market the film, and there's no likelihood of confusion under the 2nd Circuit's Polaroid. Chooseco outside counsel didn't comment Monday.
Samsung hatched a scheme at January 2012 CES to steal the trade secrets of mobile wallet solutions provider Dynamics and embed the stolen technology in at least 10 models of Galaxy smartphones dating to the S8, alleged a complaint Friday (in Pacer) in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Samsung beckoned Dynamics CEO Jeffrey Mullin to leave his company’s CES booth on Day One of the show to meet with Samsung executives in a private Bellagio Hotel suite, said the complaint. Under a “duly executed” nondisclosure agreement signed at the Bellagio, Mullen “demonstrated Dynamics’s magnetic emulation technologies to Samsung personnel and discussed, pursuant to the NDA, how the technologies could be incorporated into a device,” it said. “At some point in time” after the Bellagio meetings with Mullen, Samsung began feeding the technological secrets, in violation of the NDA, to LoopPay, a Dynamics competitor that Samsung bought three years later (see 1502180051), it said. Without the Dynamics information Mullen disclosed to Samsung under the NDA, “neither LoopPay nor Samsung would have incorporated the magnetic emulation features into Samsung products that provide consumers with the ability to complete safe and secure financial and other transactions,” it said. “Dynamics is the rightful recipient and owner of at least the purchase price Samsung paid for LoopPay,” plus the “substantial revenue” directly related to the technologies Mullen disclosed at CES to Samsung under the NDA, it said. Samsung never publicly disclosed what it paid for LoopPay, but Dynamics believes it to be roughly $250 million, it said. Samsung didn’t comment Friday.
Samsung asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals not to disclose “highly confidential” royalty rate-related information in Qualcomm’s FTC antitrust case (see 1907090066). Qualcomm July 8 filed a motion that would make public Samsung’s royalty rate information previously sealed by a lower court. Samsung requested (in Pacer) emergency intervention Friday and a ruling on the request by July 29. If Qualcomm’s motion is granted, Samsung royalty rates “under two different licenses would be disclosed to third parties, including other current and future licensors and competitors who could misuse this information to Samsung’s competitive disadvantage,” Samsung said. The company “would face irreparable harm if its highly confidential effective royalty rates under two separate licenses were released publicly,” it said.
After many associations urged the Commerce Department to grant more time for comments on its next advance NPRM for foundational technologies, officials said it will consider the request but suggested industry has ample time. “There’s no surprise that it’s coming,” said Rich Ashooh, assistant secretary-export administration, at the Bureau of Industry and Security’s annual export controls conference this week. Nazak Nikakhtar, undersecretary-industry and security, said companies should have given “quite a bit of thought” to foundational technologies already. “That it’s been out there for a while, and everybody knows the foundational technology piece is coming, hopefully businesses have given thoughts to their comments.” Nikakhtar said BIS plans the notice “very, very soon.” BIS plans its first proposed set of rules for export controls on emerging technologies in “weeks, but not months,” Ashooh said. But Nikakhtar said Commerce is moving slowly to make sure it's fully “understanding the technologies, understanding the applications” and “going about this in the right way.” Ashooh said the upcoming controls won’t be a “categorical rule” on broad groups of technologies but instead will be applied slowly to individual components. He said BIS is working on controls on one “basket” of technologies and will continue to issue more controls as they're created. “This process will have no end,” he said. “It will continue as technologies continue.”
TiVo signed a global intellectual property license agreement with LG, it said Tuesday. It expands on LG's previous Rovi patent portfolio license to add the TiVo patent portfolio.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should stay a lower court’s antitrust judgment (see 1905220035) against Qualcomm as the company seeks to reverse the patent-licensing decision, the defendant asked (in Pacer), posted Tuesday. The chipmaker is looking to avoid renegotiating licensing agreements with phone manufacturers, warning the judgement would "fundamentally change the way it has done business for decades." The FTC sued the chipmaker, claiming Qualcomm has a mobile chip monopoly.
Copyright royalty judges adopted regulations for determining the budget for the Music Modernization Act’s mechanical licensing collective (see 1907050027). The Digital Music Association, National Music Publishers Association and SoundExchange generally supported the proposed rule, offering various amendments. The Copyright Royalty Board announced, also in Monday's Federal Register, an initial administrative assessment proceeding to fund the MLC, requesting petitions to participate, due July 23.
The Copyright Office designated the Music Modernization Act’s (see 1812210051) mechanical licensing collective (MLC) Friday, a move backed by key publisher and songwriter groups. In addition to designating the MLC, the CO also designated a digital licensee to administer music rights. The National Music Publishers’ Association, Nashville Songwriters Association International and Songwriters of North America supported the designation. The MLC is expected to fully launch in January 2021. Its work will include budget negotiation with digital streaming services, which will fund the collective. The MLC will also need to partner with a vendor to “provide administration and matching services and development of a user portal through which publishers and songwriters will be able to manage rights and royalties,” the groups said.
Music labels have given Charter Communications clear notice of hundreds of thousands of its subscribers illegally pirating those labels' songs since 2012 but Charter chose to keep those subscribers and their subscription fees rather than terminate the accounts. That's according to the labels in an opposition to Charter's motion to dismiss the claim for vicarious liability (see 1905290002) filed (docket 19-cv-00874, in Pacer) Monday in U.S. District Court in Denver. They said the ISP has both the right and ability to control users' infringing conduct but receives direct financial benefit from that conduct. Charter outside counsel didn't comment Wednesday.