The U.S. retained the top ranking in the 2018 edition of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Global Innovation Policy Center's annual global IP index (see 1702080038). It beat the U.K. by .01 points amid improving what the Chamber views as conditions on copyright and trademarks issues and a worsening situation on patents. The climate in the U.S. for patents is creating “considerable uncertainty for innovators,” the Chamber said. The U.S. dropped to a tie with Italy for No. 12 on patents, down from No. 10. “The majority of countries took steps to strengthen their IP systems and foster an environment that encourages and incentivizes creators to bring their ideas to market,” said GIPC President David Hirschmann. “While a clear pack of leaders in IP protection top the rankings, the leadership gap has narrowed in a new global race to the top.” The U.S. ranking “is the latest evidence that harmful congressional actions and court decisions have dangerously weakened the U.S. patent system, the central foundation of our innovation economy,” said Innovation Alliance Executive Director Brian Pomper. “The U.S. has dropped in its ranking primarily due the excessive cost and uncertainty for U.S. innovators created by the America Invents Act’s inter partes review process, as well as recent Supreme Court decisions that have created confusion over what can and cannot be patented.”

Comments are due March 8 on proposed Copyright Office rules amendments to clarify the eligibility requirements for its single application online registration option, said a notice in Tuesday's Federal Register. It said the proposed change also would eliminate the short form version of its paper applications and allow for paper applications to be certified with a typed or printed signature, removing the requirement of a handwritten signature.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and industry groups lauded 94-0 Senate confirmation of Andrei Iancu as Patent and Trademark Office director (see 1802050062), in Monday statements. Iancu “is incredibly accomplished in the field of intellectual property law and has been a strong advocate for an effective U.S. patent system throughout his career,” Goodlatte said. “With Iancu at the helm, we hope that America's innovators will benefit from an IP system that incentivizes invention, protects property, and curbs damaging abuse of patent litigation,” said CTA CEO Gary Shapiro. Iancu “has a well-deserved reputation as a thought leader on intellectual property issues,” said Internet Association Senior Vice President-Global Government Affairs Melika Carroll. BSA|The Software Alliance and the American Intellectual Property Law Association also praised Iancu's confirmation.

The Copyright Office electronic registration system will be offline for maintenance 5 p.m. EST Feb. 15 until 9 p.m. EST Feb. 19 at the latest, the CO said Monday. Feb. 19 is Washington’s Birthday, a federal holiday.

The Copyright Office set seven April hearings in Washington and Los Angeles on possible exemptions to Digital Millennium Copyright Act Section 1201’s ban on circumvention of technological protection measures as part of the office’s triennial review process for the statute, which began in July (see 1706300066). Civil liberties groups, computer scientists and library and tech associations seeking to renew exemptions for device jailbreaking, security research, e-books and other device software (see 1708090071). The Library of Congress granted 10 CO-recommended exemptions to 1201 in 2015 at the conclusion of the last triennial, including expansions of existing device unlocking and jailbreaking exemptions (see 1510270056). The CO recommended last year Congress shouldn’t use legislation to significantly revamp the statute but said legislators could expand the granting of permanent exemptions and improve the triennial process (see 1706220014). The Washington hearings will be 9 a.m.-5 p.m., April 10-13, in the Mumford Room of the LOC’s James Madison Building, the office said in Friday’s Federal Register. The Los Angeles hearings will be 9 a.m.-5 p.m., April 23-25, in UCLA School of Law, Room 1314. Requests are due before Feb. 22.

Amendments to Copyright Office rules for the group registration option for newspapers take effect March 1, said a notice in Tuesday's Federal Register. Among changes is a requirement applicants file online rather than on paper and that they upload a complete digital copy of each issue instead of submitting hard copies. The CO said the Library of Congress will put the digital copies of the registration filings into its collections, and give public onsite access, subject to restrictions in the final rule.

Google's YouTube requires nondisparagement of the company in less than 0.01 percent of its promotional agreements with content creators and the like, a spokeswoman said, in response to the Content Creators Coalition seeking congressional hearings on the practice (see 1801290039). Typical contracts for music creators to monetize their works on the platform lack such mandates, she said Tuesday. "In rare instances when we align our brand more closely to a specific creator tied to new original content or one-off promotional work, we may ask them to sign an agreement that includes general language around conduct. This type of clause is often used in the entertainment industry and is intended to protect companies, not so much from the words an individual may express, but more so their actions, especially in today's times."

The Copyright Royalty Board said the mechanical royalty rate for interactive streaming should increase gradually through 2022 to 15.1 percent of revenue or 26.2 percent of total content cost, whichever is more. The existing rate is 10.8 percent of revenue. The ruling withdrew a cap on the amount of content costs. The Copyright Office on Monday announced the initial ruling in the 2018-2022 interactive streaming royalty ratesetting proceeding. It's “the biggest rate increase granted in CRB history,” said National Music Publishers' Association President David Israelite. “Crucially, the decision also allows songwriters to benefit from deals done by record labels in the free market. The ratio of what labels are paid by the services versus what publishers are paid has significantly improved, resulting in the most favorable balance.” It's the result of 2017 litigation by the NMPA and Nashville Songwriters Association International against Amazon, Apple, Google, Pandora and Spotify. Songwriters and music publishers faced a “long and difficult process” to get here, said NSAI Executive Director Bart Herbison in a statement with NPMA. Those increases could hurt streaming services facing financial losses, blogged Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford Monday: It "leaves little money for the service to pay all of its other operating costs.” Timing could disrupt the nascent Music Modernization Act (HR-4706/S-2334) (see 1801260049), which had been gaining momentum, Oxenford said. A final determination will be published after the register of copyrights completes a statutory review and the librarian of Congress approves, the CRB said. This is “another pressure point” for Pandora, said Dougherty & Co. in a Monday investor note. The new rate schedule will affect about 25 percent of Pandora’s revenue and 5.19 million out of its 73 million total active monthly listeners, said analyst Steven Frankel. Although the ad-supported business won’t be affected, Pandora faces a “stagnating listening base and a music market that has rapidly shifted to Spotify and Apple Music,” Frankel said.

NAB said Friday it reached agreement with the ASCAP and BMI performance rights organizations to resolve the broadcasting group's concerns with the Music Modernization Act. HR-4706/S-2334 was called a compromise supported by songwriters, music publishers and digital streaming services to revamp elements of Copyright Act sections 114 and 115. The legislation would affect some rules on U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York handling of cases involving DOJ consent decrees governing the ASCAP and BMI performance rights organizations. House IP Subcommittee Vice Chairman Doug Collins, R-Ga., and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., filed HR-4706 in December (see 1712210046). Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, filed S-2334 last week (see 1801240049). NAB opposed language affecting the ASCAP/BMI ratesetting process, including repeal of Section 114 language that bars the district court judges who oversee DOJ's consent decrees governing the two PROs from considering sound recording royalty rates as a relevant benchmark when setting performance royalty rates. NAB also opposed language that would allow ASCAP and BMI rate-setting disputes to be heard on a rotating basis by any Southern District of New York judge rather than requiring all cases to go before the PROs' assigned rate court judges -- Denise Cote for ASCAP and Louis Stanton for BMI. The new agreement on language for the bills “resolves NAB’s concerns with the potential introduction of new evidence into the ratesetting process while preserving ASCAP’s and BMI’s ability to seek meaningful compensation from the growing digital music marketplace,” the three groups announced. Collins' office told us HR-2706/2334 would still repeal some Section 114 language and will now “include language that alleviates” NAB's concerns. ASCAP and BMI “are on board with the update,” Collins' office said. The Songwriters Guild of America has opposed the bill (see 1712290025). The House Judiciary Committee held a field hearing in New York Friday that focused partly on HR-4706 (see 1801250051).

Microsoft’s push to use TV white spaces is a threat to low-power TV, the Advanced Television Broadcasting Alliance blogged Wednesday. Microsoft filed for a trademark -- AIRBAND -- for use in providing apps and business consulting in white space telecom. “The proposed set aside of three channels in the television broadcast bands will severely limit the rebuild of many Low Power TV and Translator stations displaced in the recent FCC incentive spectrum auction,” ATBA said. “Microsoft is looking for a free ride on channels they could have purchased, channels that T-Mobile spent over $8 billion to buy and channels that broadcasters have spent untold billions to develop and maintain.” Microsoft didn’t comment.