Pirate websites and apps always will find advertisers, so an effort by ad agency partnership Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) to track piracy apps and convince marketers not to advertise with them is unlikely to move the needle on piracy, blogged anti-piracy tech firm Red Points CEO Laura Urquizu Friday. Media companies would be better served trying to find ways to more quickly take down content-infringing websites, links and apps, she said. Most such pirate apps don't garner much major advertiser support, but given their high volumes of traffic they still get advertisers, though more along the lines of "annoying pop-ups [and] scams for making money online," Red Points said. TAG said the blog post "misses the point entirely, as TAG's new app anti-piracy tool is not a silver bullet, but a single piece of TAG's comprehensive approach to fighting content piracy across the industry. ... Only by working together as an industry to exchange information, use cutting-edge anti-piracy services, and raise the standards for all companies can we address this insidious threat. Nearly a dozen established, effective anti-piracy vendors have already been validated by TAG to offer anti-piracy services."

The Electronic Frontier Foundation temporarily withdrew its appeal of World Wide Web Consortium Director Tim Berners-Lee's decision to advance the encrypted media extensions (EME) specification as a W3C recommendation for playing copyrighted video on a browser but plans to refile its objection at the end of next week, blogged EFF Special Adviser Cory Doctorow in an updated Thursday post. He said the appeal was withdrawn for "purely logistical reasons" after consulting with W3C CEO Jeff Jaffe on timing. The previous day, Doctorow wrote that EFF formally appealed the July 6 decision, saying it was "improper" for Berners-Lee "to overrule the widespread members' objections and declare EME fit to be published as a W3C Recommendation." Work on the specification began four years ago and was aimed at enabling video playback with digital rights management (DRM) protection in a browser without the need for a plug-in (see 1703070054). "EME offers a better user experience, bringing greater interoperability, privacy, security and accessibility to viewing encrypted video on the Web," W3C said last week. Doctorow, EFF's W3C Advisory Committee representative, said last week a covenant is needed to require W3C members to promise to use laws like Digital Millennium Copyright Act Section 1201 to go after people who infringe copyrighted media and not against those who bypassed DRM for legal reasons such as security researchers or those who make videos more accessible to disabled people. On Wednesday, he said: "Through this appeal, we ask that the membership be formally polled on this question: 'Should a covenant protecting EME's users and investigators against anti-circumvention regulation be negotiated before EME is made a Recommendation?'"

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., wants the Trump administration to name a new Patent and Trademark Office director to build on "good work" of his committee and several Supreme Court decisions on curbing patent litigation abuse, he said Thursday. At a Courts, IP and the Internet Subcommittee hearing on how "bad patents" affect U.S. businesses, Goodlatte said companies are forced to settle patent lawsuits rather than expand. TC Heartland v. Kraft Foods (see 1705220045) was supposed to sharply reduce such cases, but Goodlatte singled out the Eastern District of Texas as continuing to be friendly to patent infringement lawsuits (see 1608010016). He cited passage of his Innovation Act in previous Congresses as a way to curb such problems, but hasn't committed to the bill's reintroduction (see 1702010069). Chris Mohr, Software & Information Industry Association vice president-intellectual property, said congressional and court actions have helped limit abuse, but only Congress can do "true litigation reform." United for Patent Reform co-Chair Beth Provenzano, vice president-government relations and political affairs at the National Retail Federation, said Congress needs to keep provisions in Section 101 of the Patent Act, the Supreme Court's 2014 Alice v. CLS Bank (see 1406200066) and inter partes review process strong to defend against bad patents.

“Lots of parties,” not just LG Electronics, contributed intellectual property to the A/322 document on ATSC 3.0 physical-layer protocol, John Taylor, LG senior vice president-public affairs, emailed us Wednesday, denying that IP royalties are what’s motivating his company to lobby the FCC to include A/322 in 3.0 rules. He responded to Pearl TV comments recently at the FCC that arguments by the few parties that support mandating A/322 in the final rules “are not persuasive, in particular because some parties may stand to benefit from their intellectual property interests in A/322” (see 1706300003). “Multiple parties have IP in A/321, too,” said Taylor. “We expect to collect royalties for essential patents whether the FCC includes A/322 or not.” LG “of course” has pledged to adhere to the ATSC’s RAND policy,” he said of licensing LG patents on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms. LG and its Zenith “have a great relationship with Pearl and other broadcasters,” Taylor said. “This isn’t a big dispute, just a difference of opinion.” LG regards as “unfounded” Pearl’s argument that manufacturers would bypass A/321 if both that and the A/322 documents were mandated in the final rules, leaving devices orphaned, he said. The company disagrees with critics like Sinclair that argue that mandating A/322 in the final rules would thwart innovation (see 1707040001).

Judge Ketanji Jackson scheduled an Oct. 18 hearing in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on motions for summary judgment filed by both sides in a legal battle between the recording industry and Ford and General Motors over scope and applicability of 1992's Audio Home Recording Act (AHRA) (see 1411090002). Contrary to arguments from plaintiff the Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies, car infotainment systems from the automakers and their suppliers Clarion, Denso and Mitsubishi aren't “digital audio recording devices” under the AHRA, the automakers argued in their April 11 summary-judgment motion (in Pacer). Jackson let the case proceed to the discovery phase.

Nokia and Xiaomi are collaborating on a multiyear patent agreement to cross-license each company’s cellular standard essential patents, said the companies in a Wednesday announcement. Xiaomi also acquired patent assets from Nokia as part of the transaction, they said. Under the agreement, Nokia will provide network infrastructure equipment for web providers and data center operators, and the companies will work together on optical transport solutions for data centers, they said. The companies will explore opportunities for further cooperation in IoT, augmented and virtual reality and artificial intelligence.

LG, without permission, is using the “sublime and beautiful artwork” of the late Brazilian artist Lygia Pape to “flog” a new line of “cheap smartphones,” Pape’s daughter, Paula, alleged Thursday in a complaint (in Pacer) in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. LG’s actions are “an egregious violation of federal law and an affront" to the artist and "her legacy, and to artists everywhere,” it said. Pape repeatedly rejected LG’s requests to use her mother’s original artwork to promote the launch of the K20 V smartphone, said the complaint. But LG went ahead anyway and ran “a derivative image” created from the artwork in its consumer packaging, advertising and promotions for the K20 V, plus on the wallpaper of the actual device, it said. LG did so without the daughter's knowledge, and in “direct defiance” of her “explicit and repeated denials of consent,” it said. LG’s “exploitation” is “particularly troubling” because her mother, who died in 2004, “viewed her work as having a social purpose” in her native Brazil, it said: “She did not even offer her artworks for sale for much of her career, although that ultimately changed when she found galleries willing to advance the goals of her art.” Among other remedies, the complaint seeks a court order requiring LG to turn over the names and addresses “of any and all persons” to whom it distributed, licensed or sold the K20 V and for how much. “As a matter of policy, LG doesn't generally comment on pending litigation,” spokesman John Taylor emailed us Friday.

The Copyright Office opened up a new round of its triennial rulemaking process for granting exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's Section 1201 rules barring circumvention of technological protection mechanisms. The Library of Congress granted 10 Section 1201 exemptions in 2015 (see 1510270056 and 1510280071). The CO subsequently studied whether to recommend Congress amend Section 1201 but ultimately recommended only some changes aimed at improving the rulemaking process and allowing for the creation of additional permanent exemptions (see 1601050055, 1611010059 and 1706220014). The CO said Friday it will use a “new, streamlined procedure” for considering renewals of exemptions granted during the last rulemaking proceeding, with renewed exemptions allowed to remain in force through October 2021. Petitions for exemption renewals are due July 31, while petitions for new exemptions are due Sept. 13, the CO said in a Federal Register notice. Comments on renewal petitions are due Sept. 13, the office said.

Samsung’s application to register “HDR10" as a trademark with the EU Intellectual Property Office cleared a hurdle Monday when the application’s three-month opposition period expired with no dissents, EUIPO records show. Samsung’s application at EUIPO to register “HDR10 Plus” also cleared its opposition period Monday with no dissents, records show. Samsung abandoned its application March 31 at the Patent and Trademark Office for U.S. trademark protection for HDR10, but left its HDR10 Plus application intact (see 1705250028). “Sanity had prevailed,” John Adam, Samsung U.K. head-business development and industrial affairs, told the SES Ultra HD conference last week in London of withdrawing the HDR10 application at PTO.

The International Trade Commission is considering issuing a limited exclusion order and cease and desist orders banning import and sale of digital video receivers from Comcast, Arris and Technicolor, the ITC said in a notice. An administrative law judge recommended the Tariff Act Section 337 import ban, which Rovi requested in April 2016 based on a complaint that Comcast uses set-top boxes and DVRs that infringe Rovi’s patents, but refuses to license them (see 1605240026). The ITC is accepting until July 11 comments on public interest issues raised by the recommended orders.