Liability policy insurers Navigators and Arch are in breach of contract for refusing to cover Vizio’s costs defending itself against dozens of smart TV class-action privacy lawsuits, alleged Vizio in a complaint (in Pacer) Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. The 29 class actions began in November 2015, alleging the “smart interactivity” feature on Vizio smart TVs violates the Video Privacy Protection Act because it tracks the content viewers are consuming, links the data with their IP addresses and sells the data to marketing companies (see 1512060005). The lawsuits stemmed from Vizio’s July 2015 initial public offering, never consummated, in which it boasted that its Inscape data platform captures smart TV viewing behavior better than any previous service (see 1507260001). The class actions were consolidated into a single case in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, California, where a judge approved a final settlement agreement in July 2019. The agreement required Vizio to establish a $17 million settlement fund, plus make available prominent on-screen disclosures and opt-out forms about Inscape data collection. Vizio paid $2.2 million in February 2017 to settle similar allegations at the FTC (see 1702060042). Navigators and Arch, using technicalities in their policies, walked away from their “obligations” to cover Vizio for the settlement fund or its “defense costs,” said the Los Angeles complaint. Navigators “disclaimed such an obligation,” while Arch never responded to Vizio’s "notice of claim of defense,” it said. Vizio seeks compensatory and punitive damages, plus a court declaration that the insurers are responsible for their obligations. Navigators and Arch didn’t comment Friday.

Lenbrook agreed to a multiyear licensing deal with Sonos, they said Thursday. Lenbrook will pay royalties for a license to patents for BluOS enabled devices. Sonos alleged in a 2019 patent infringement complaint in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles that Lenbrook’s status as a Sonos distributor in Canada in 2007-2008 gave it “intimate knowledge” of Sonos’ wireless audio products and technology more than six years before introduction of Lenbrook’s Bluesound wireless audio products. Chief Legal Officer Eddie Lazarus said Sonos welcomes and encourages competition, and wants "to make sure that all companies entering this space recognize the strength of our IP and provide appropriate compensation. Today’s settlement reflects those principles.” Lazarus for a time worked at the FCC and also at Tribune. Sonos is in a patent fight with Google (see 2007070024).

International Trade Commission Administrative Law Judge Dee Lord signed a confidential order Tuesday terminating the Tariff Act Section 337 investigation into Sharp allegations that Vizio and its suppliers infringed five LCD device patents. Their joint termination motion (login required) Monday was based on a settlement agreement for Xianyang CaiHong Optoelectronics Technology, Vizio’s Chinese panel maker, to license the five patents from Sharp. The heavily redacted license agreement was signed July 21 by Sharp Display Device Co. President Taimi Oketani. The ITC voted May 20 to open the Section 337 probe and set a September 2021 target for completing it (see 2007020020).

Sony Interactive Entertainment is getting pushback from the Patent and Trademark Office on its June 22 application for a U.S. trademark on “Play has no limits” as a promotional tagline for the PlayStation 5 videogame console scheduled to debut for the holidays. Mattel’s May 2019 application for “Where play has no boundaries” predates Sony’s by more than a year, so PTO could refuse the PS5 tagline if it clears Mattel's for final registration, said the agency. Sony may “present arguments in support of registration by addressing the issue of the potential conflict" between the two applications, it said. Sony has until Jan. 21 to respond. PTO also judged the application flawed because Sony based it on foreign prior art filed in Jamaica, not Japan, Sony's "country of origin." To be granted a U.S. trademark “based on a foreign registration that will issue from the foreign application relied on for priority, the country in which the foreign application was filed must be the applicant’s country of origin,” said the agency. Sony didn’t comment Monday. Sony said June 29 the PS5 is on schedule to launch Q4 despite COVID-19 testing and production-line delays (see report, June 30).

The ASCAP and BMI consent decrees will feature prominently at DOJ’s workshop Tuesday on music licensing, as expected (see 2007100019), with officials from the National Music Publishers’ Association and NAB to appear. DOJ Antitrust Chief Makan Delrahim will give opening remarks. Musicians LeAnn Rimes, Pharrell Williams and Jon Bon Jovi will deliver keynotes. NMPA CEO David Israelite will speak on a panel about the consent decrees, with NAB CEO Gordon Smith, BMI CEO Michael O’Neill and ASCAP CEO Elizabeth Matthews. Agenda items include public performance licensing alternatives, performance rights organizations and licensing music to users. The Songwriters of North America, Universal Music Publishing Group, Music Artists Coalition, iHeartMedia and others are sending representatives to speak.

Critics of Nokia’s complaint seeking an exclusion order on allegedly infringing Lenovo devices “fail to raise any cognizable” concerns that “merit burdening” the International Trade Commission with a “fact finding” on public interest implications of an import ban, replied Nokia Wednesday (login required) in docket 337-3466. The issues unique to the standard-essential patents (SEPs) on H.264 video compression asserted in Nokia’s complaint justify building a public interest record, argued the App Association, the Computer & Communications Industry Association and Google (see report, July 21 issue). Banning the Lenovo goods couldn’t come at a worse time, with the COVID-19 pandemic taxing supplies of laptops and tablets, said critics. Nokia countered the “accused Lenovo products are a small fraction of the U.S. supply.” Any void “could easily be replaced by over a dozen competing makers, including Microsoft, Samsung, and Dell,” it said. It’s untrue, as CCIA “boldly argues,” that "the ITC is never a proper forum for investigating” infringement of any SEP, said Nokia. “Such a prohibition would be a drastic shift” from policy, it said. “Exclusion orders must be available as a remedy for SEP holders to maintain a balanced patent system and avoid harming innovation and competition,” the company said. A Dec. 19 joint policy statement from DOJ, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and Patent and Trademark Office supports that, it said.

Comments are due July 30 at the International Trade Commission on Maxell’s July 16 complaint (login required) alleging iPhones, iPads, MacBooks and Apple Watches infringe five Maxell mobile communications and information processing patents. Maxell seeks a Tariff Act Section 337 investigation into the accusations and a limited exclusion order barring import of the allegedly infringing products. Apple didn’t comment Wednesday.

China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry blasted Tuesday’s indictment of two Chinese nationals on charges of running a decade-long hacking campaign targeting intellectual property and confidential business information, including on COVID-19 research. The Chinese government is a “staunch defender of cybersecurity,” said a ministry spokesperson Wednesday. “We urge the U.S. to immediately stop slandering China under the pretext of cybersecurity.” Citing unspecified reports U.S. hackers are expanding their scope of cybertheft under Trump administration authorization, the spokesperson said: “The U.S. accusing other countries of cyberattacks is like a thief crying, ‘Stop the thief.’”

More women are “entering and staying active” in the U.S. patent system “than ever,” reported the Patent and Trademark Office Tuesday. Patents listing at least one woman inventor were 21.9% of those granted in 2019, up from 20.7% in 2016, said PTO. The “women inventor rate” share of females among all U.S. “inventor-patentees” grew to 12.8% from 12.1%, it said. New women inventor-patentees increased to 17.3% from 16.6%. There’s a decreasing “gender gap” in inventor-patentees that stay active by patenting again, it said. Of women who landed patents in 2014, 46% patented again within five years, compared with 52% for men, said PTO. The gap in 1980 was 28% women, 38% men. The share of women among all new inventor-patentees increased 17.3% by the end of 2019 from 5% in 1980, said PTO. In the five years ended 2014, the number of new women inventor-patentees grew by an average of 10.8% yearly, said the agency. Though yearly growth in the five years ended 2019 “slackened” to 4%, it's higher than males' 2.5%, the office said.

The Patent and Trademark Office granted CTA its third deadline extension Saturday to file the required statement of use (SOU) that would close out its June 2018 application to trademark a certification logo for over-the-counter hearing aids (see 1806250018), agency records show. CTA created the logo to identify reputable OTC hearing aids for consumers with mild or moderate hearing loss. The devices can earn the logo by meeting minimum voluntary performance criteria in the ANSI/CTA-2051 standard approved in January 2017. PTO requires SOUs to prevent applicants from intentionally hoarding trademarks they have no plans to deploy commercially. CTA is hamstrung from filing the SOU because it awaits federal regulations establishing the OTC hearing-aid category under the 2017 FDA Reauthorization Act (see 2001170050). The law requires the FDA to publish proposed rules for comment by Aug. 18, three years from when President Donald Trump signed the measure. It directs the agency to publish final rules no more than 180 days after the comment period closes. The FDA didn’t respond to questions Monday about the release date of the proposed rules. A PTO trademark applicant is entitled to up to five SOU deadline extensions of six months each but must file it within three years after receiving the agency's notice of allowance, clearing the application for final approval. The CTA SOU for OTC hearing aids is due Jan. 29, 2022.