Book publishers Elsevier and Hachette, the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA), a group of writers and the Copyright Alliance were among parties filing amicus briefs supporting the Authors Guild’s petition to the Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari seeking review of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling in the Google Books case, the guild said Tuesday. It petitioned the Supreme Court in December to review the 2nd Circuit’s ruling that the Google Books project to digitize portions of the world’s books is a “transformative” example of fair use, saying the 2nd Circuit’s ruling “fundamentally remakes” the fair use doctrine and conflicts with other courts’ fair use rulings. Copyright legal experts have told us they believe the Supreme Court is unlikely to grant the petition (see 1601040063). Elsevier and Hachette jointly argued in their brief that the 2nd Circuit took an “overly expansive view of the meaning and consequences of transformativeness, which displaces the statutory full factorial analysis Congress intended.” The 2nd Circuit’s ruling also “infringes and jeopardizes” authors’ exclusive rights to control their right to reproduce their copyrighted works, Elsevier and Hachette said. ASJA’s brief argued, as expected, that the 2nd Circuit failed to do a required “qualitative analysis of the portions of a work used by the defendant ... and instead it opted in favor of a quantitative analysis that makes no sense in the context of Google’s ‘snippet view’ product.” The 2nd Circuit also “erred by considering ‘transformativeness’ in a manner completely detached from ‘justification’ or fairness,” ASJA said. The Copyright Alliance said the 2nd Circuit’s ruling “employed a fair use analysis that is far removed from” the existing fair use precedent in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, which found commercial parody to be fair use. The ruling also “necessarily ignored numerous important interests and considerations, many of which were reflected” in the Copyright Office’s 2011 mass digitization study, the Copyright Alliance said. Stephen Sondheim and a coalition of other major authors and dramatists jointly argued that the fair use doctrine wasn’t intended “to permit a wealthy for-profit entity to digitize millions of works and to cut off authors’ licensing of their reproduction, distribution, and public display rights.” Google’s deadline for filing its opposition brief to the Supreme Court is March 1.

The Professional Photographers of America is backing proposals to create a “small claims option” for adjudicating copyright infringement cases as the association’s top copyright-related legislative priority for 2016, said Copyright and Government Affairs Coordinator Lindsey Forson in a Tuesday blog post. The Copyright Office and the Department of Commerce’s Internet Policy Task Force have backed the creation of a separate small claims copyright court (see 1601280065). PPA CEO David Trust met with House IP Subcommittee Vice Chairman Doug Collins, R-Ga., and other House Judiciary members last week on copyright issues, Forson said. Several House Judiciary Committee members have indicated that addressing copyright small claims cases is among their “desired accomplishments” in the committee’s ongoing Copyright Act review, Forson said. PPA’s other copyright priorities for 2016 include modifying the current copyright registration process “to improve participation and functionality” and modernizing the CO.

Corrective orthodontic device manufacturer ClearCorrect asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit for an 18-day extension to respond to an International Trade Commission petition for rehearing en banc (see 1601270053) in the company's legal battle with the ITC. ClearCorrect attorney Michael Myers filed the petition for a deadline extension Monday, saying the company and its affiliate in Pakistan need additional time to file "a unified response" to arguments of the ITC, intervenor and industry competitor Align Technology and the amici curiae supporting the ITC. If granted, ClearCorrect's deadline to file a response to the petition for rehearing en banc would extend until Feb. 29. In November, a three-judge panel of the Federal Circuit ruled 2-1 in favor of ClearCorrect in a case involving questions of the ITC's ability to block the flow of patent-infringing data.

The Copyright Office said it’s using the federal government’s regulations.gov website as its portal for collecting and posting comments on its proceedings, including its ongoing studies on Digital Millennium Copyright Act sections 512 and 1201 (see 1601050055) and its study on how copyright law affects software-enabled consumer products. Comments on the software-enabled consumer products and Section 1201 studies are due later this month, while comments on the Section 512 study are due March 21, the CO said in a news release.

Congressional Creative Rights Caucus co-chairs Judy Chu, D-Calif., and Doug Collins, R-Ga., are preparing a letter to be sent to fellow House members noting ways that “industry efforts to fight digital content theft can complement government efforts.” A draft version of the letter notes a December opinion piece in The Hill by Information Technology and Innovation Foundation Vice President Daniel Castro and ITIF Trade Policy Analyst Nigel Cory that highlighted the Copyright Alert System, the Trust Accountability Group's Brand Integrity Program Against Piracy and other voluntary industry-led partnerships that “combat online piracy and complement government efforts.” A recurring theme of the House Judiciary Committee's ongoing Copyright Act review has been the "the important role that online intermediaries can play in taking steps to address the ongoing problem of online content theft," Chu and Collins said. Congress "has an important role here in promoting the benefits of such voluntary agreements for creators and consumers, ensuring that existing agreements are effective, and encouraging additional key players in the online ecosystem to take similar steps," Chu and Collins said.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit asked corrective orthodontic device manufacturer ClearCorrect to submit a response to the International Trade Commission's petition (see 1601270053) for rehearing en banc in the company's ongoing legal battle with the ITC. In a letter posted Friday in the docket for the court case, the Federal Circuit invited ClearCorrect and any amici curiae parties to file responses to the request for rehearing en banc by Feb. 11. A three-judge panel of the Federal Circuit ruled 2-1 in favor of ClearCorrect in a case involving questions of the ITC's ability to block the flow of patent-infringing data (see 1511100047).

The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) urged Congress to “carefully consider -- and implement” the Internet Policy Task Force’s recommendations for amending U.S. copyright law on statutory damages to address issues that may result in excessive awards. The IPTF included the legislative recommendations in a white paper that also recommended nonlegislative solutions on the first-sale doctrine and the eligibility of remixes to claim fair use protections (see 1601280065). The IPTF recommended amending Copyright Act Section 504 to require courts and juries to consider nine factors when determining statutory damages awards, including whether the infringement was willful. Requiring consideration of those factors “would bring statutory damages in copyright cases closer in line with the goals of compensating the rightsholder and deterring future infringement without deterring legitimate activity or resulting in damage awards so beyond the pale that they undermine respect for our copyright system,” said CDT Open Internet Project Director Erik Stallman in a Friday blog post. The IPTF also recommended allowing courts more discretion to depart from the “per work” calculus in awarding damages in cases of nonwillful secondary liability by online services for large numbers of infringed works, and urging expanding eligibility for lowered “innocent infringement” damages awards. The recommendations make “abundant sense,” Stallman said. “These proposals will go a long ways toward a statutory damages regime that still achieves goals of compensation and deterrence, without overly encouraging 'copyright trolling' or unduly interfering with legitimate innovation and free expression.”

Q1 revenue in Qualcomm’s QTL technology licensing business was higher than expected “and would have been even higher if not for a contract dispute with LG” that prompted QTL to defer revenue of more than $100 million for the quarter, Qualcomm President Derek Aberle said Wednesday on an earnings call. “Although LG continues to report and pay, we're not recognizing revenue while the arbitration regarding the dispute proceeds,” Aberle said. “We believe LG's claims are without merit. The deferral of this revenue has the effect of depressing the implied royalty rate as you would calculate it, as their shipments are included in total reported device sales without the corresponding revenue. Assuming we conclude this matter successfully, as we have done with others in the past, we would expect to recognize the deferred revenues at that time.” LG representatives didn’t comment Thursday.

In a case involving electronic transfer of protected information, the International Trade Commission filed a petition Wednesday for rehearing en banc with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit of its case against corrective orthodontic device manufacturer ClearCorrect. The initial deadline for a rehearing petition was moved from December to late January upon request from ITC Attorney Sidney Rosenzweig (see 1512090014). In November, a three-judge panel of the Federal Circuit ruled 2-1 in favor of ClearCorrect, saying the ITC doesn't have the jurisdiction to block the international electronic transfer of patent-infringing data. The court's decision overturned an initial ITC decision prohibiting ClearCorrect's affiliate in Pakistan from transmitting digital molds of patients' teeth to the company's headquarters in Houston, due to the alleged infringement on patents held by competitor Align Technology. ClearCorrect attorney Michael Myers told us after the Federal Circuit's ruling that he "wouldn't be surprised" if the case were eventually heard en banc (see 1511100047). In its petition, the commission argued the appeal "presents a precedent-setting question of exceptional importance" -- meaning whether the ITC's abilities to block the importation of infringing products applies only to physical products, or to digital information as well. The agency also said the three-judge panel "erred" in its decision that the world "articles" in the commission's congressionally mandated responsibilities means only material items.

Western Digital bought more than 100 “patent assets” from IBM in the areas of distributed storage, object storage and emerging nonvolatile memory, the companies said Monday in a joint announcement. The companies also agreed to cross-license each other’s patents, they said. Terms of the acquisition and cross-licensing deals weren't disclosed.