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.

U.S. administration officials will meet with EU and Japanese counterparts next month to lobby for increased scrutiny of mergers and acquisitions involving sensitive technologies, said Thomas Feddo, Treasury Department assistant secretary-investment security. The U.S. is implementing revisions in the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (see 2002120034). FIRRMA will adapt to any rulemaking changes in technology, and Treasury prioritized improving investment screening among allies and quadrupled Office of Investment Security staffing as the Trump administration focuses on maintaining a technological edge over China, Feddo said Wednesday. Industry worries about lack of clarity on what's considered critical tech (see 2001150018). Treasury “does not have a lot of latitude” to define this, Feddo said, and the agency is awaiting direction. “Obviously we’re looking to the Commerce Department to develop and designate emerging technologies,” he told the Asia Society: But the ability to review M&A won't be hurt.

Sonos plans to produce “relevant” evidence to “establish” that Google is guilty of Tariff Act Section 337 violations through the “unlawful importation” of smart speakers and other goods that infringe its multiroom audio patents, said Sonos in a joint discovery statement (login required) it and Google filed Wednesday in docket 337-TA-1191 at the International Trade Commission. Google denies the allegations, saying the Sonos patents are “invalid,” but will produce evidence “concerning the proper scope of any remedy” if the ITC decides in favor of Sonos, it said. Commissioners voted Feb. 5 to open an investigation into the Sonos complaint, which seeks an import ban on a wide range of Google products (see 2002060070). Google served Sonos Feb. 13 with discovery requests for 16 classifications of evidence, including information on “the alleged significant investment in plant and equipment” Sonos spent to bring its multiroom audio products to market and how many employees it hired, said the statement. Sonos also served Google with discovery papers, but the statement didn’t say when it did so or what it asked for. Sonos and Google agree to “participate in settlement conferences and mediation,” and will “explore reasonable possibilities for settlement,” they said.

CTA’s application to register the NEXTGEN TV logo as a certification mark for ATSC 3.0-compliant consumer TVs was published for opposition Tuesday, confirmed the Patent and Trademark Office. The application, published in the agency's Trademark Official Gazette, advances to a notice of allowance if no one opposes it at the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board by March 26. CTA would then have six months to file a statement of use as one of the final steps in the registration process. CTA unveiled the logo in the fall as the keystone of its consumer-facing branding campaign for when broadcasters in the top 40 U.S. markets begin rolling out 3.0 services later this year (see 1909190066).

The Supreme Court Monday declined to hear Apple’s appeal in a patent dispute with security software company poll (docket 19-832). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit last year ordered Apple to pay VirtnetX $439.7 million for using VirtnetX security technology without permission on FaceTime.

China and India should be removed from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s priority watch list for intellectual property infringement, officials in those countries recently told USTR. Comments were due Thursday for USTR’s 2020 Special 301 Review (see 2002070032). China and India cited strong IP protections and reforms, but the U.S. Chamber of Commerce noted both continue to score poorly on the International IP Index. China’s overall score increased from 47.7% in the seventh edition to 51% in the eighth edition, the Chamber said. India’s score increased from 36% to 38.5%. The U.S. score increased from 94.8% to 95.3%. “Despite some positive -- albeit incremental -- changes in China, we continue to advocate for bold reforms that will result in meaningful changes for foreign companies,” the U.S. said. China cited a “firm attitude toward IP protection, with well-established and constantly developing IP legal system,” China said, citing what it called a fair and impartial judicial protection for IP rights. India cited “extensive initiatives taken to reinforce its IPR laws as well as to protect patents and all IP forms in the country.” SoundExchange targeted six countries denying American music performers and producers about $170 million annually in royalties: U.K., Australia, Canada, France, Japan and the Netherlands.

Balanced intellectual property protections are needed to ensure artificial intelligence technology fulfills its potential, the Computer & Communications Industry Association commented Friday. “Widespread availability of patents on AI generated inventions would lead to less innovation by placing ordinary creativity into the realm of monopoly and chilling the rationale to pursue such creativity,” CCIA told the World Intellectual Property Organization as it works through a draft issues paper on AI and IP. The white paper will be “a milestone for Europe’s regulatory vision on how to advance innovation and help European companies thrive,” Information Technology Industry Council CEO Jason Oxman said. It’s important the EU not look only at potential AI harms but also consider the potential “social harms of limiting the use of AI, which may decrease its positive impact,” ITI wrote.