The Copyright Office is accepting comments on registration modernization through June 1, under an extension it announced Friday. Also Friday, the new CO fee schedule took effect (see 1910170056).

The Copyright Royalty Board will distribute 2007-11 digital audio recording royalty fees to the Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies, the CRB announced Thursday. Royalties in the 2009-11 Featured Recording Artists Subfunds of the Sound Recording Funds and 2007-11 Copyright Owners Subfunds of the Sound Recording Funds will be distributed to AARC, CRB said.

The South Korean parent company of LG Electronics filed Feb. 28 to register “8K Recording” as a U.S. trademark, Patent and Trademark Office records show. LG wants to use the mark commercially for a wide range of consumer devices, including smartphones, smartwatches and wireless headsets, said the application. LG touted the ability for its dual-screen V60 ThinQ 5G smartphone to capture video in “stunning 8K quality” when it announced the product Feb. 27, a day before the PTO application but made no mention of a feature formally called 8K Recording. LG’s headquarters in Seoul didn’t comment Monday.

Industry groups contend OMB is prioritizing innovation and the groups suggested voluntary standards for artificial intelligence regulation. The Center for Democracy & Technology criticized the AI draft guidance for lack of concrete suggestions. OMB guidance "aims to support a U.S. approach to free-market capitalism, federalism, and good regulatory practices,” said the request for comment. The draft memorandum provides guidance to agencies for developing regulatory and nonregulatory approaches for sectors and “consider ways to reduce barriers to the development and adoption of AI technologies.” Comments were due Friday and are posted here. The guidance provides a “strong foundation for federal agencies to craft regulations while maintaining the regulatory flexibility that companies need to innovate,” the Computer & Communications Industry Association said. CCIA recommended any new regulations be “technology-neutral, and apply to outcomes rather than prescribing specific technical practices.” The Information Technology Industry Council applauded the agency’s “emphasis on using a risk-based approach to AI regulation” and guidance that federal agencies consider AI applications individually rather than applying horizontal regulation. ITI supports the draft memo’s “emphasis on using voluntary standards as an alternative to new regulation.” BSA|The Software Alliance agreed with the guidance that “the goal of AI governance should be to promote innovation and enhance public trust.” Nonregulatory policy approaches, like sector-specific frameworks and voluntary consensus standards, “can play a critically important role” in promoting AI applications, BSA said. CDT approves of the agency’s common sense approach but said it “offers little guidance beyond our understanding of the basic tenets of sound policymaking and good administrative processes.” CDT sought concrete steps agencies should take in regulating and said “agencies should consider and clarify existing legal and policy approaches first.” ACT|The App Association supports voluntary consensus standards for AI application. It recommended the U.S. ensure such standards promote a balanced approach to standard-essential patent licensing, saying a number of owners of fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms SEPs are abusing their unique positions (see 2002140026).

The International Trade Commission set a May 11, 2021, target date for completing its Tariff Act Section 337 investigation into Sonos allegations that Google smart speakers and other devices willfully infringe five Sonos multiroom audio patents (see 2002060070), said an “initial determination” order (login required) signed Wednesday in docket 337-TA-1191 by Chief Administrative Law Judge Charles Bullock. Sonos, Google and ITC staff agreed to propose a more customary 16-month target date to Feb. 11, 2021, but that’s “not feasible” because Bullock is working on another investigation that’s due to close a week earlier, he said. He “determined it necessary” to set a 19-month target to give himself more time to write a Sonos-Google opinion, plus tend to his other duties and account for “potential scheduling disruptions due to COVID-19,” he said.

The Commerce Department extended its temporary general license for Huawei until May 15, says Thursday's Federal Register. It replaces the previous license renewal issued in February, which was to expire April 1. The department seeks comment by March 25 on future extensions of temporary general licenses, the FR also says. It will use the feedback to evaluate whether it should continue extending temporary general licenses and “whether any other changes may be warranted to the temporary general license.” Commerce wants to identify “any alternative authorization or other regulatory provisions."

Customs and Border Protection found “success and value” from its recent “proof of concept” using blockchain to track intellectual property license information, said Vincent Annunziato, director of CBP’s business transformation office, in the agency's report. This second test increased complexity over the previous POC, Wednesday's study said. “The Business Transformation and Innovation Division (BTID) recommends moving forward with maturing these tests as we take on the mission of re-engineering the supply chain,” Annunziato wrote. The simulation "demonstrated the value of emerging standards in Blockchain, Verifiable Credentials, Authorization Capabilities, Encrypted Data Vaults, Decentralized Identifiers and other emerging global open standards,” the agency said. Trade participants used the standards “to register a product’s physical features, e.g., trademark locations, stitching, logo placement, along with information related to organizations licensed to manufacture and import a product.” There are hurdles. “Although license holders may have restrictive contracts about the distribution of licensed goods, a violation of those contracts [is] not enforceable by CBP,” it said. “What CBP needs to verify at import is not whether or not there is a license to 'import' but rather whether or not the IP was legitimately licensed.” An issue emerged in evaluation of "a public-facing web page where a consumer, at the point of making a purchase, can scan in a product code and get information about whether or not that specific product is a legitimate, licensed good,” CBP said. "There was no mechanism to prevent bad actors from re-using valid serialized [global trade identification numbers] on invalid goods, leaving customers to believe they had a valid product when in fact it was a counterfeit.” The POCs "have been vital in not only shaping the global standards being pursued at the W3C" consortium and by the Internet Engineering Task Force "but have also led to a new area of standards related to increasing trust and verifiability on the Internet," CBP said. "This is demonstrated by W3C Membership's broad support for the creation of the Verifiable Credentials Working Group and the Decentralized Identifier Working Group citing" Department of Homeland Security, CBP and "industry involvement as a key motivator for the creation and investment in these global standards setting groups," said CBP: Plans are being "pursued for launching more global standards groups to take the remaining technologies identified in this PoC."

The Copyright Office is accepting comments on plans for updating the copyright registration system through April 2. Updates include “new and improved application assistance tools, simplified registration application fields, and unified case numbers,” the CO said. They're needed by Library of Congress’ Office of the Chief Information Officer.

Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden on Monday solicited input for filling the register of copyrights position. Comments are due March 20.

Allegations that Google smart speakers and other products infringe Sonos multiroom audio patents are based on “revisionist history,” said Google in docket 337-TA-1191 at the International Trade Commission in its first official reply (login required) to the Jan. 7 Sonos complaint. Commissioners voted Feb. 5 to open an investigation into the complaint (see 2002060070), which seeks an import ban on a wide variety of allegedly infringing Google products. Google “did not obtain ‘deep’ access to Sonos technology" and then develop the Google Chromecast products at issue, as Sonos alleges, it said Thursday. “Google launched Chromecast before Google and Sonos ever agreed to collaborate.” When they began working together, Sonos repeatedly asked for Google’s “assistance,” it said. “Google was willing to help. Google gave Sonos significant assistance designing, implementing, and testing a solution that would bring Google’s voice recognition software to Sonos’s devices.” Sonos seems to think that “no good deed should go unpunished,” said Google. “Sonos now asks the Commission to impose sweeping remedial orders barring the importation of multiple Google products,” it said. “There is no basis for Sonos’s claims. The technologies Google uses were all independently developed by Google.” Sonos didn’t comment Friday.