Lack of transparency on patent ownership is a threat to U.S. competitiveness and national security, said Senate Intellectual Property Subcommittee Chair Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., during a hearing Tuesday. Foreign companies can buy U.S. patents without the public knowing, said Leahy, who introduced legislation with ranking member Thom Tillis, R-N.C. The bill requires patent owners to record updated ownership information with the Patent and Trademark Office when a patent changes hands. Failure to record ownership information would mean entities aren’t allowed to recoup damages for IP ownership. China is an increasing threat on royalties involving 5G technology, laptops, connected cars and semiconductors, said Intel Senior Vice President Allon Stabinsky. He noted only one American company is on the list of top 10 patent holders. China has four, Europe has two and Japan one, he said: This has “profound implications” for American competitiveness, he said. The legislation proposes a reasonable and balanced remedy, said Engine IP Counsel Abby Rives: The patent owner can still seek reasonable royalties and lost profits but would give up the ability to push damages higher during the period the owner failed to disclose the required information.

Nielsen is using this week’s Advertising Week New York hybrid in-person and digital conference to unveil a new “brand identity” campaign to trumpet its “digital-first” strategies in audience measurement and content services, said the company Monday. Nielsen’s business has “transformed dramatically” over the past few years, especially after selling its Advanced Video Advertising business to Roku earlier in 2021 (see 2103020047), said Jamie Moldafsky, chief marketing and communications officer. “It became clear that perceptions of the company have not evolved at the same pace."

A Microsoft shareholder proposal up for a vote at the Nov. 30 virtual annual meeting asks the board to “generally prohibit sales” of facial recognition technology to “government entities,” said a proxy statement Thursday. The board recommended voting no. Shareholders worry Microsoft’s facial recognition technology “poses risk to civil and human rights and shareholder value,” said the proposal. It cited a June report from investors representing more than $4.5 trillion in assets urging companies “to proactively assess, disclose, mitigate and remediate human rights risks related to the technology.” Microsoft committed in 2020 that it won’t sell facial ID technology to U.S. police departments before strong regulation, said the proposal: This “does not address potential sales to local, state or federal agencies, or to governments outside the U.S.” The company should align with its corporate peers on facial recognition sales, said the proposal: IBM announced in 2020 it won't offer general purpose facial ID. At least 23 U.S. municipalities since 2018 have adopted legal bans on facial ID, including King County, Washington, where Microsoft is headquartered, said the proposal. The board cited “extensive public commitments” to “restrict our sale of facial recognition technology based on human rights considerations.” The proposal “does not recognize those commitments and would impose a blunt prohibition that would deny public agencies the ability to deploy facial recognition technology in societally beneficial use cases,” said the proxy.

The FCC's decision to exempt prerecorded commercial non-telemarketing calls under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act was "reasonable" and "in the public interest," the agency said, asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to deny Vincent Lucas' petition in a brief posted Tuesday in case No. 21-1099. The FCC argued the Traced Act "adopted new limits on the number of exempted calls allowed" and Lucas was the only commenter in favor of a specific and narrowly tailored exemption. The FCC argued Lucas' request to exclude debt collection and broadcaster calls from the exemption was "time-barred." Lucas, a consumer who argued against the exemption in 2020, disagreed, in a reply brief posted Monday, and said the issues raised are "in terms of compliance with the TRACED Act" and therefore not time-barred. The FCC "acted arbitrarily and capriciously in failing to consider specific types of calls within the exemption and issues particular to specific types of calls," Lucas said.

Businesses take 20.9 hours on average to respond with mitigating actions to cyberattacks, a Deep Instinct survey found. The predictive-analytics vendor commissioned Hayhurst Consultancy to canvass 1,500 senior cybersecurity executives in 11 countries in July, finding lack of threat prevention “specific to never-before-seen malware” was a “top concern” among 44%. “Given the lag time that security teams often face when responding to an attack, survey respondents were uncertain whether it is possible to prevent the constant waves of attacks from cybercriminals,” said Deep Instinct. “Threats from within” remain a “persistent issue,” it said, finding 86% lacked confidence “that their fellow employees will not click on malicious links, easily allowing threats into an environment and initiating an attack or breach.”

The recent spate of ransomware attacks and other cyberthreats prompted Google to form a cybersecurity action team to offer customers “strategic advisory services” and threat intelligence and incident response expertise, said the company Tuesday. “Cybersecurity is at the top of every C-level and board agenda.

Intel is optimistic about the results of last week’s inaugural meeting in Pittsburgh of the EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council (see 2110010037) because it has “significant operations on both sides of the Atlantic, including semiconductor plants and R&D centers,” blogged Chief Trade Officer Jeff Rittener Tuesday. “The conversations that took place take us one step closer to alignment on regulatory policies to help reduce trade barriers.” The TTC established a multilateral approach to export controls as a top priority for “supporting a global level-playing field,” he said. “A harmonized export control regime among like-minded transatlantic partners would ensure products are available in an increasingly digital world.” The regime has “significant potential for increased cooperation and harmonization between the U.S. and the EU, especially as narratives such as technological sovereignty and open strategic autonomy shape dialogues,” said Rittener. “Both entities should make sure that any new controls are smart controls that meet the national security objectives of the EU and U.S.”

GeoBroadcast Solutions will demonstrate its geotargeted radio tech on Roberts Radio’s WRBJ(FM) Brandon, Mississippi, in “the coming weeks,” said Roberts Radio CEO Steve Roberts in calls with FCC Media Bureau Audio Division Chief Al Shuldiner and aides to Commissioner Brendan Carr and Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, per a filing posted in docket 20-401 Monday. GBS filed a report with the FCC on a previous demo of the tech (see 2109200066), which requires a change in the booster rules to be used on a broad basis.

Companies claiming they’re protecting student safety might be surveilling them inappropriately instead, three Democratic senators wrote Monday. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, both of Massachusetts, and Richard Blumenthal, Conn., wrote to the owners of Gaggle, Bark Technologies, GoGuardian and Securly about their use of AI "and algorithmic systems to monitor students’ online activity.” They raised concerns the companies’ monitoring practices violate federal law, compound “racial disparities in school discipline” and drain “resources from more effective student supports.” GoGuardian said in a statement it received the letter and is looking forward to responding. It said it’s a “proud signatory of the Student Privacy Pledge, certified as [Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act]-compliant by the Internet Keep Safe Coalition, and trusted by schools and districts across the U.S. to help protect their students.” Gaggle said it "takes privacy and student safety seriously; the company has a robust privacy policy that strictly limits students’ personally identifiable information (PII) to students’ names and school districts (in other words, Gaggle does not collect any data related to students’ race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation) and layers its artificial intelligence with a team of trained content reviewers to analyze context and help prevent false flags." The other companies didn’t comment.

DOJ’s Antitrust Division will bring enforcement actions when anticompetitive conduct by standard-essential patent holders or other players in the standards development process harms competition, Economics Director-Enforcement Jeffrey Wilder told a Global Competition Review summit Wednesday. But not every patent licensing dispute “invites an antitrust challenge,” said Wilder. Though antitrust claims are no “panacea for failed bilateral negotiation,” antitrust should play a role “when the standards-setting process is used to thwart competition and harm consumers,” he said. He vowed the division will promote policies “that encourage good-faith licensing negotiation” and give “clearer guidance” on how “bad-faith conduct can hinder competition.” It will support standards-development organizations adopting intellectual property rights policies “that address licensing inefficiencies and enable the dissemination of standardized products,” he said: The division will try to be “transparent” about its enforcement priorities and policy changes.