Jimm Phillips

The National Institute of Standards and Technology-facilitated Cybersecurity Framework, as currently constructed, “will not stop attacks by advanced threat actors using sophisticated tactics such as exploiting previously unknown vulnerabilities (zero-day attacks) or using never seen before malware,” said Rep. Mike Honda, D-Calif., in comments filed with NIST last week. NIST had solicited public input on the preliminary version of the framework, which the agency released in late October (CD Oct 23 p1). That feedback will aid the agency and industry partners as they ready a final version of the framework for release in February. Comments were due Friday.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s staff was negotiating with the wireless industry Wednesday over a possible deal to allow cellphone unlocking, but they hadn’t agreed on acceptable terms as of the afternoon, said agency and industry officials in interviews. Wheeler was hoping to reach agreement in time to disclose it at the FCC’s monthly meeting Thursday, a commission official said. The meeting was already set to include a presentation from staff about efforts to promote cellphone unlocking. An FCC spokesman declined to comment, referring us to Wheeler’s earlier statements on the issue. Wheeler has been pushing wireless carriers to voluntarily allow unlocking through the CTIA Consumer Code -- something that industry observers have seen as being likely to take place in the face of possible government regulation (CD Nov 18 p1).

AT&T “would be supportive of rules around the [broadcast incentive] auction that would limit the amount of spectrum any one company could garner,” as long as “everyone is bound” to those rules, CEO Randall Stephenson said Tuesday at a UBS investor conference. “That seems like a reasonable place for us. ... The more restrictions you begin to put on the auction participants, the more it drives the value down and the more risk you have of a failed auction.”

The FCC should move ahead with its plan for a three-tiered framework for managing users on the 3.5 GHz band, Verizon Communications said in a filing Friday. The FCC has proposed managing spectrum sharing on the band through the Spectrum Access System. The Priority Access Licenses-based framework would give incumbent government users the highest tier of access, followed by a tier for priority access licensees and a lower tier for general access users.

The House approved the Innovation Act (HR-3309) Thursday on a 325-91 vote, confirming expectations that the bill would pass (CD Dec 5 p7). Majorities from both parties voted for both the final bill and a manager’s amendment from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., that made technical changes to the bill’s language. The 130 Democrats who voted for the final bill did so despite continued opposition led by two leading House Judiciary Democrats. HR-3309’s supporters were able to vote down most -- but not all -- amendments Thursday that would have fundamentally changed the bill, which if enacted would curb what it terms abusive patent litigation. The bill would aid the U.S. patent system, which was “never intended to be a playground for litigation extortion and frivolous claims,” Goodlatte said.

The House Rules Committee voted Tuesday to move forward eight of 26 submitted amendments to the Innovation Act (HR-3309) for full House consideration, in a bid to streamline consideration of the bill. Proponents say the measure would address abusive patent litigation. The cleared amendments included a bill manager’s amendment from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., which would make technical changes to the wording of the bill passed out of House Judiciary last month (CD Nov 22 p13). House Rules also cleared a “Democratic substitute” version of HR-3309, contained in an amendment by House Judiciary ranking member John Conyers, D-Mich., and Intellectual Property Subcommittee ranking member Mel Watt, D-N.C. Industry stakeholders told us they believe HR-3309 has a very good chance of passing the House, though the level of support it might receive from each party remained unclear Wednesday.

The White House endorsed HR-3309 Tuesday, telling the House Rules Committee in a statement it believes the bill “builds on the important patent reforms contained in the America Invents Act ... and successfully implemented by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The bill would improve incentives for future innovation while protecting the overall integrity of the patent system” (http://1.usa.gov/1avFvNn). The House Rules Committee at our deadline was considering rules for floor activity on HR-3309, which is to come to the floor Thursday. The White House said HR-3309 includes many of the legislative recommendations it made in early June to remedy what it called abusive patent litigation (CD June 5 p12), but expressed concerns about the bill’s provisions on post-issuance review proceedings, including provisions on patent claim construction. House Intellectual Property Subcommittee ranking member Mel Watt, D-N.C., told House Rules that the White House letter was not a total endorsement of the bill.

The federal government should farm out management of its spectrum to the private sector “if the goal of spectrum use and management is economic efficiency,” said the Phoenix Center in a policy paper released Monday. It said the FCC National Broadband Plan’s proposal to increase the amount of spectrum available for commercial use by 300 MHz by 2015 “identified some arguably low-hanging fruit.” To achieve that goal will require reallocation of some of the 1,687 MHz of “beachfront” spectrum the government owns between 225 MHz and 3.7 GHz, said the Phoenix Center report.

The Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)’s formation of a panel on the future of global Internet cooperation in mid-November came in the midst of an increasingly important debate over the future of multistakeholder Internet governance, said stakeholders in interviews last week. “The future of Internet freedom really is at a crossroads,” said former FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, a member of the new panel. Although ICANN was a catalyst for the group’s formation, the group is independent of ICANN (CD Nov 19 p17).

Capitol Hill and the wireless industry have been hailing NTIA’s announcement Monday that the Department of Defense and NAB reached a deal that will allow DOD to move forward with its plan to largely vacate the 1755-1780 MHz band and move operations to the 2025-2110 MHz band. The deal, in which DOD agreed to work around broadcasters’ needs on the 2025 MHz band, would allow the FCC to eventually auction commercial access to the 1755 MHz band (CD Nov 26 p1). Industry stakeholders told us they see the DOD-NAB deal as a sign that federal agencies and industry are becoming more invested in spectrum sharing -- and the agreement could have implications for spectrum beyond the 1755 MHz band.