The U.S. Trade Representative’s 2015 Special 301 Report “is another one-sided and harmful missive to the rest of the world that names and shames countries for not mirroring, or even exceeding, the United States’ restrictive copyright rules,” said Electronic Frontier Senior Global Policy Analyst Jeremy Malcolm and Global Policy Analyst Maira Sutton in a blog post Thursday. The report, released Thursday, said USTR kept China and India among the 13 countries on its priority watch list for copyright and other IP rights violations. USTR had elevated Ecuador and Kuwait to the priority watch list since it published its 2014 report (see 1504300061). The 2015 report places a high importance on trade secret protections as criteria for criticizing other countries’ IP rights practices, with the USTR never specifically defining what it considers a trade secret protection. That means the term “can encompass a wide range of information that it encourages nations to protect with heavy-handed enforcement,” EFF said. The Trans-Pacific Partnership’s most recent draft IP language is “dangerously broad,” and if “this is the kind of language that the USTR holds as a minimum standard for enforcement, we should expect to see the agency to increasingly push for draconian rules that would threaten critical reporting published online,” EFF said. The 2015 report also includes a renewed emphasis on domain name disputes, calling on countries to protect U.S. trademarks.

Music-sharing service Grooveshark shut down Thursday after parent company Empire Media reached a settlement with Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group (UMG) and Warner Music Group (WMG) to end the labels’ years-long legal battle in U.S. District Court in New York over claims that Grooveshark knowingly facilitated copyright infringement (see reports in the Nov. 23, 2011, and Dec. 22, 2011, issues). “We started out nearly ten years ago with the goal of helping fans share and discover music,” Grooveshark said in a statement. “Despite best of intentions, we made very serious mistakes. We failed to secure licenses from rights holders for the vast amount of music on the service. That was wrong. We apologize. Without reservation.” Grooveshark agreed as part of its shutdown to “wipe clean all the data on our servers and hand over ownership of this website, our mobile apps and intellectual property, including our patents and copyrights.” Empire Media didn’t disclose other details about its settlement with Sony, UMG and WMG. U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa had issued a court order allowing the jury to award up to a maximum of $150,000 in damages for each of the almost 5,000 songs the labels claimed Grooveshark had infringed.

Congress plays a critical role in driving innovation and economic growth, said U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Michelle Lee at a Congressional Caucus on Intellectual Property and Piracy Protection event Wednesday. Protecting patents, trademarks and copyrights provides incentives to invent and create, protects innovators and creates a platform for financial investment in innovation, Lee said, according to the text of her remarks. A Department of Commerce report said IP-intensive industries support more than 40 million jobs and contribute more than $5 trillion to the U.S. gross domestic product, she said. “The work that we do at the USPTO is more important than ever,” Lee said. “Our focus on the highest level of quality is why we recently launched a new Enhanced Patent Quality Initiative,” she said according to written remarks. “We are pleased that Congress is actively pursuing legislative efforts to curtail abusive patent infringement litigation practices,” and “undertaking a review of copyright law,” she said. “Abusive tactics have no place in our patent system,” as they “divert resources away from the research, development and innovation that fuel our nation’s economic growth,” Lee said. Abusive tactics are “particularly harmful to startups and small businesses who lack the resources and expertise to properly defend themselves,” Lee said, which is why “legislation to curtail abusive patent litigation and bad faith threats of litigation is both necessary and appropriate.” Also Wednesday, bipartisan patent legislation was introduced by Senate Judiciary Committee members (see 1504290028).

In an attempt to reduce “friction” in the patent market, Google is inviting patent holders to sell their patents to Google, Google Deputy General Counsel-Patents Allen Lo wrote in a blog post Monday. “The usual patent marketplace can sometimes be challenging, especially for smaller participants who sometimes end up working with patent trolls.” Lawsuits, wasted efforts and bad karma can happen without “any meaningful benefit to the original patent owner,” he said. Google’s Patent Purchase Promotion will be open May 8-22. Patent holders will be able to tell Google about the patents they’re willing to sell at a set price, Lo said. After the portal closes, Google will review the submissions and let patent holders know by June 26 if Google is interested in buying the patent, Lo said. “There’s some fine print that you absolutely want to make sure you fully understand before participating,” Lo said, which is why Google recommended participants speak with an attorney. More information on the experimental Patent Purchase Promotion is on Google’s Patent Website.

The Copyright Office’s new Fair Use Index will give the public searchable summaries of major fair use decisions, Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante said Tuesday. The office created the index in response to the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator’s 2013 Joint Strategic Plan on Intellectual Property Enforcement. The index is searchable by category and type of use, the Copyright Office said. The index “not only helps to make the doctrine more accessible, but also serves to re-emphasize the significance of this right as part of our culture,” Pallante said in a news release.

Synaptics filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission requesting a Tariff Act Section 337 investigation on touch screen controllers imported by Blu Products and Goodix. Synaptics said April 21 that Goodix is manufacturing and importing infringing touch-screen controllers, including Goodix’s GT915 controller. The allegedly infringing touch-screen controllers are also being incorporated into Blu Products smartphones, such as the BLU Studio 5.0C HD, alleged Synaptics. It asked the ITC to issue limited exclusion orders and cease and desist orders prohibiting import and sale of infringing merchandise by Blu Products and Goodix. Comments are due to the ITC May 5. Blu had no comment. Goodix said it believes Synaptic's allegations "are without merit, and it will vigorously defend itself against Synaptics’ allegations, while continuing to fully service and support its customers." Goodix "respects intellectual property rights and the rights of inventors to protect their innovations, in the same manner that Goodix expects others to respect its own intellectual property rights," said the company in a Thursday news release.

The U.S. Copyright Office is seeking comment on copyright protections for visual works, particularly how the Copyright Act treats the registration, monetization and enforcement of copyrights on photos and illustrations. The Copyright Office said in Friday’s Federal Register that it wants to get input on the current state of the market for photos and illustrations and roadblocks to enforcing copyrights on those works. Comments on these copyright issues are likely to lead to more specific comment inquiries, the Copyright Office said. Comments are due July 23 and reply comments are due Aug. 24.

Defendant iHeartMedia uses Impulse Radio’s data services technology without a license and so has infringed an Impulse patent describing a “system and method for generating multimedia accompaniments to broadcast data,” Impulse alleged in an April 8 complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. The complaint also named iBiquity Digital as a co-defendant, alleging the HD Radio licensor “brazenly represents to broadcasters that it has a license to Impulse’s patented and proprietary technology and the right to sublicense that technology to broadcasters, including iHeartMedia,” as part of its HD Radio “software and services,” when in fact "no such license or right to sublicense exists.” The U.S. patent at issue in the complaint (7,908,172) was granted in March 2011, assigned to Impulse and listed David Corts, Lee Hunter, Paul Signorelli, Terrance Snyder and Bryce Wells as inventors. The data services technology pioneered by Impulse “can take a variety of forms,” including providing album art as well as artist and title information on a radio’s front panel, the complaint said. The technology also enables an “interactive listening experience,” such as the ability to buy music at the “touch of a button” by embedding the radio broadcast with data from a music-selling service, it said. “These innovations enable HD Radio broadcasters to offer a more dynamic and marketable multi-media radio experience.” Impulse and iBiquity share a long cooperative history, even embarking together in September 2002 on an “Extreme Digital Road Show” tour across the U.S. to drum up support for HD Radio, the complaint said. Over the years, the two companies even signed a series of standards agreements, it said. The agreements “explicitly prohibited” iBiquity from using the Impulse technology without Impulse’s “express written consent,” it said. Ibiquity spokesman Joe D'Angelo emailed us Wednesday to decline to comment, citing company policy not to discuss "pending litigation." Representatives of iHeartMedia didn’t respond to queries.

Most so-called patent trolls “don’t produce anything, they just shake down anyone who does,” comedian John Oliver said in an 11-minute segment Sunday on his HBO show Last Week Tonight that poked satirical fun at the patent abuse problem. “So calling them trolls is a little misleading. At least trolls actually do something. They control bridge access for goats and ask people fun riddles. Patent trolls just threaten to sue the living shit out of people, and believe me, those lawsuits add up.” Patent trolls have manipulated the system down "to such a science," Oliver said. For example, in seeking lucrative patent infringement settlements, patent trolls “work out the maximum amount of money you’d be willing to pay, rather than go to court and negotiate for that,” he said. “They pick a number the same way airlines pick a cabin temperature -- perfectly calibrated to make you miserable, but not so much that you’d actually do anything about it.” Oliver also took aim at the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Texas, which patent reform advocates have criticized as notoriously friendly to frivolous patent lawsuits. “A quarter of all patent cases are filed in Marshall, Texas,” he said. “And believe me, it is not because the people there are inventing like a meth head in a Home Depot aisle.” Saying trial lawyer lobbyists killed the last congressional attempt at patent reform, Oliver said: “You cannot let trial lawyers decide whether there should be more baseless lawsuits. That’s the equivalent of trusting raccoons to make laws about garbage-can placements.”

Correction: NAB said that as of Wednesday the Local Radio Freedom Act (House Concurrent Resolution-17/Senate Concurrent Resolution-4) had 154 co-sponsors in the House (see 1504160050).