Movie production companies suing WideOpenWest haven't given "any legal, factual, or equitable reason why WOW’s provision of Internet access, which has a multitude of perfectly legal, non-infringing uses, should subject it" to secondary copyright infringement liability, the company said Wednesday. The docket 21-cv-1901 reply in U.S. District Court in Denver was in support of its motion to dismiss the suit (see 2109210033). In the objection to the motion, the production companies said WOW's "so-called 'robust' policy [of subscriber warnings and suspensions] is a bust" and cited one subscriber whose service was only suspended after a letter from plaintiff's counsel.

Sonos supports recommendations of Chief Administrative Law Judge Charles Bullock at the International Trade Commission to slap Google with a cease and desist order, preventing it from circumventing the judge’s recommended import ban on smart speakers and other devices that he found to infringe five Sonos multiroom audio patents, said Sonos in redacted Dec. 2 comments (login required) posted Monday in docket 337-TA-1191. Google responded (login required) that the ITC should reject Bullock’s call for “sweeping remedial orders” that would deprive U.S. consumers of its “cutting-edge and life-enhancing household products.” The ITC scheduled a final decision for Jan. 6. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative would have until early March to endorse or reject the ITC’s final determination, or take no action. The filings were the companies' last chance to state their case (see 2002060070).

Copyright infringement claims by music labels (see 2111220061) fail to state facts enough to constitute a claim on which there can be relief, and the statute of limitations bars the claims because they happened outside the three-year period, Charter Communications told the U.S. District Court in Denver in an answer Tuesday (docket 21-cv-02020). Any infringement "was innocent and was not willful," and Charter didn't cause, encourage or induce the alleged primary infringement, the company said. Outside counsel for the plaintiff music labels didn't comment. The lawsuit is one of two related infringement suits against Charter by labels (see 1903250004).

The comment period for a draft policy statement on licensing negotiations and remedies for standard-essential patents subject to reasonable and non-discriminatory or fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms is extended until Feb. 4, DOJ announced Monday. DOJ extended the comment period 30 days with the Patent and Trademark Office and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The statement “seeks to promote good-faith licensing negotiations and addresses the scope of remedies available to patent owners,” DOJ said.

A U.S. District Court in Austin judge denied a Texas motion to stay, pending appeal, the court’s preliminary injunction on the state’s social media law (see 2112070044). “The State largely rehashes the same arguments this Court rejected in its Order,” Judge Robert Pitman wrote Thursday in case 1:21-cv-00840. Pitman disagreed with Texas that his injunction was too broad. The judge granted a motion by plaintiffs NetChoice and the Computer and Communications Industry Association to stay proceedings during the state’s appeal at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The “harmful” Section 301 tariffs on Chinese semiconductor imports “are exacerbating the ongoing chip shortage and slowing our economy,” and they should be eliminated, blogged the Semiconductor Industry Association, following up on Dec. 1 comments urging the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to reinstate previously extended tariff exclusions. The tariffs, “in their most direct effect,” add 25% to the cost of covered semiconductors, and subsequently contribute to inflationary price increases driven by global shortages and rising demand, said SIA Wednesday. The tariffs “are disproportionately harming the U.S. semiconductor industry and broader U.S. interests, all while failing to put real pressure on the Chinese government to change its unfair trade practices,” it said. USTR didn't comment Thursday.

Roku shares jumped 18.2% Wednesday at $256.08 after the streaming media platform provider and Google avoided a lockout, set for Thursday, of YouTube and YouTube TV on new Roku devices. The companies agreed to a multiyear extension. That's “a positive development for our shared customers, making both YouTube and YouTube TV available for all streamers on the Roku platform,” a Roku spokesperson emailed. Google’s TeamYouTube tweeted: “This means that all Roku users (existing & new) can install the @YouTube and @YouTubeTV apps from the channel store and continue to watch their favorite content.”

The International Trade Commission ordered a Tariff Act Section 337 investigation into allegations in a Nov. 1 complaint that MediaTek chipsets and downstream streaming media and smart home products containing them from Amazon, Belkin and Linksys infringe five NXP Semiconductors patents, said Tuesday’s Federal Register. The complaint seeks a limited exclusion order and cease and desist orders against the allegedly infringing products. None of the named respondents commented.

YouTube's community guidelines and strikes process for violations will be codified as part of its terms of service effective Jan. 5, increasing transparency, it told users. It said while TOS is still a legal document, "we've done our best to make them easier to understand" through reorganization and rewording.

Amazon doesn’t actually own the digital content it sells the public, but sublicenses from the content owner, and when a licensing agreement terminates, Amazon pulls the content from a consumer’s purchased folder and music library “without prior warning, and without providing any type of refund or remuneration,” alleged a class-action complaint filed Friday in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York. Amazon’s sale of digital content it doesn't own “is made more egregious” because Amazon “charges just as much for that content,” sometimes even more, than stores like Best Buy and Target that “actually transfer title” to its customers, access to which “can never be revoked,” said the complaint. Amazon continues to “mislead consumers into believing it's selling them digital content, “even though it is merely providing them with a license to view it, which can be terminated at any time, for any reason and without any type of warning so that a consumer can take steps to attempt to preserve it,” said the suit. Amazon has sold more digital content, “and at substantially higher prices per unit, than it would have in the absence of this misconduct, resulting in additional profits at the expense of deceived consumers,” it said. The complaint seeks “punitive or exemplary” money damages, alleging unjust enrichment and violation of consumer protection laws. Amazon didn’t comment.