Pirate subscription IPTV services generate $1 billion in annual revenue in the U.S. in subscriptions, and feature a "sophisticated supply chain and cutting-edge marketing and distribution techniques," Digital Citizens Alliance and digital media monetization security firm Nagra said Thursday. There's an estimated 9 million U.S. users of pirate IPTV, and they're targeted by 3,500 storefront websites, social media pages and stores within online marketplaces that sell pirate subscription IPTV services to the U.S. market target, it said. How much legitimate players such hosting services, payment processors and social media are aware of their role in this black market isn't clear, it said: The services also get revenue from ads shown before or during viewing or by partnering with hackers to install malware within free apps.

The International Trade Commission voted Tuesday to open a Tariff Act Section 337 investigation into Nokia allegations that Lenovo laptops, tablets, desktop PCs and components infringe four of its patents on H.264 video compression and a fifth on user interfaces (see 2007180001), said a notice (login required) posted Wednesday in docket 337-TA-1208. Nokia’s July 2 complaint seeks limited exclusion and cease-and-desist orders against the allegedly infringing devices and parts. Lenovo and its defenders argued in the runup to the investigation that an import ban would undermine the public interest because demand for laptops and other connectivity tools is spiking under work-from-home and remote-learning mandates. Nokia countered that Lenovo overstated its market importance and that other vendors easily could replace Lenovo’s excluded supply. Lenovo has 20 days to respond. It doesn't comment "on ongoing legal matters," emailed a spokesperson Wednesday.

A Customs and Border Protection "administrative ruling" clarifies "duty-free exemption status of low-value shipments sent to U.S. fulfillment centers and domestic warehouses,” said the agency Monday. “The ruling is intended to enhance accountability in the e-commerce environment while strengthening CBP’s ability to identify counterfeit goods, consumer safety violations, and other threats.” The “exponential growth” of e-commerce gave “illicit sellers” the “extraordinary opportunity to evade duties and sell unsafe and unregulated products,” said CBP. It won't “sit idly by and allow these bad actors to evade duties, report false values, and harm American businesses and consumers.”

The “remote play” and “share play” cloud-gaming features that Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) builds into the PlayStation 4 infringe a June 9 patent (10,681,109) for a display system with a visual server to generate and transmit images to a client, alleged an Intellectual Pixels Limited (IPL) complaint (in Pacer) Friday in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, California: The three 3DLabs engineers who invented the technology are co-owners of IPL, which holds the patent. “SIE has been seeking to capitalize on the revolutionary technology that IPL and the inventors developed,” it said. “It has already announced its intention to release a new PS5 console that will also utilize IPL’s technology.” IPL's new action came nearly a year to the day after it sued SIE in the same court alleging infringement of four older cloud-gaming patents (see 1907260051). SIE countersued IPL Jan. 21 for a declaratory judgment of noninfringement. The case remains active, but COVID-19 delayed its discovery phase when California went into lockdown in mid-March. SIE didn’t comment Monday.

Liability policy insurers Navigators and Arch are in breach of contract for refusing to cover Vizio’s costs defending itself against dozens of smart TV class-action privacy lawsuits, alleged Vizio in a complaint (in Pacer) Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. The 29 class actions began in November 2015, alleging the “smart interactivity” feature on Vizio smart TVs violates the Video Privacy Protection Act because it tracks the content viewers are consuming, links the data with their IP addresses and sells the data to marketing companies (see 1512060005). The lawsuits stemmed from Vizio’s July 2015 initial public offering, never consummated, in which it boasted that its Inscape data platform captures smart TV viewing behavior better than any previous service (see 1507260001). The class actions were consolidated into a single case in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, California, where a judge approved a final settlement agreement in July 2019. The agreement required Vizio to establish a $17 million settlement fund, plus make available prominent on-screen disclosures and opt-out forms about Inscape data collection. Vizio paid $2.2 million in February 2017 to settle similar allegations at the FTC (see 1702060042). Navigators and Arch, using technicalities in their policies, walked away from their “obligations” to cover Vizio for the settlement fund or its “defense costs,” said the Los Angeles complaint. Navigators “disclaimed such an obligation,” while Arch never responded to Vizio’s "notice of claim of defense,” it said. Vizio seeks compensatory and punitive damages, plus a court declaration that the insurers are responsible for their obligations. Navigators and Arch didn’t comment Friday.

Lenbrook agreed to a multiyear licensing deal with Sonos, they said Thursday. Lenbrook will pay royalties for a license to patents for BluOS enabled devices. Sonos alleged in a 2019 patent infringement complaint in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles that Lenbrook’s status as a Sonos distributor in Canada in 2007-2008 gave it “intimate knowledge” of Sonos’ wireless audio products and technology more than six years before introduction of Lenbrook’s Bluesound wireless audio products. Chief Legal Officer Eddie Lazarus said Sonos welcomes and encourages competition, and wants "to make sure that all companies entering this space recognize the strength of our IP and provide appropriate compensation. Today’s settlement reflects those principles.” Lazarus for a time worked at the FCC and also at Tribune. Sonos is in a patent fight with Google (see 2007070024).

International Trade Commission Administrative Law Judge Dee Lord signed a confidential order Tuesday terminating the Tariff Act Section 337 investigation into Sharp allegations that Vizio and its suppliers infringed five LCD device patents. Their joint termination motion (login required) Monday was based on a settlement agreement for Xianyang CaiHong Optoelectronics Technology, Vizio’s Chinese panel maker, to license the five patents from Sharp. The heavily redacted license agreement was signed July 21 by Sharp Display Device Co. President Taimi Oketani. The ITC voted May 20 to open the Section 337 probe and set a September 2021 target for completing it (see 2007020020).

Sony Interactive Entertainment is getting pushback from the Patent and Trademark Office on its June 22 application for a U.S. trademark on “Play has no limits” as a promotional tagline for the PlayStation 5 videogame console scheduled to debut for the holidays. Mattel’s May 2019 application for “Where play has no boundaries” predates Sony’s by more than a year, so PTO could refuse the PS5 tagline if it clears Mattel's for final registration, said the agency. Sony may “present arguments in support of registration by addressing the issue of the potential conflict" between the two applications, it said. Sony has until Jan. 21 to respond. PTO also judged the application flawed because Sony based it on foreign prior art filed in Jamaica, not Japan, Sony's "country of origin." To be granted a U.S. trademark “based on a foreign registration that will issue from the foreign application relied on for priority, the country in which the foreign application was filed must be the applicant’s country of origin,” said the agency. Sony didn’t comment Monday. Sony said June 29 the PS5 is on schedule to launch Q4 despite COVID-19 testing and production-line delays (see report, June 30).

The ASCAP and BMI consent decrees will feature prominently at DOJ’s workshop Tuesday on music licensing, as expected (see 2007100019), with officials from the National Music Publishers’ Association and NAB to appear. DOJ Antitrust Chief Makan Delrahim will give opening remarks. Musicians LeAnn Rimes, Pharrell Williams and Jon Bon Jovi will deliver keynotes. NMPA CEO David Israelite will speak on a panel about the consent decrees, with NAB CEO Gordon Smith, BMI CEO Michael O’Neill and ASCAP CEO Elizabeth Matthews. Agenda items include public performance licensing alternatives, performance rights organizations and licensing music to users. The Songwriters of North America, Universal Music Publishing Group, Music Artists Coalition, iHeartMedia and others are sending representatives to speak.

Critics of Nokia’s complaint seeking an exclusion order on allegedly infringing Lenovo devices “fail to raise any cognizable” concerns that “merit burdening” the International Trade Commission with a “fact finding” on public interest implications of an import ban, replied Nokia Wednesday (login required) in docket 337-3466. The issues unique to the standard-essential patents (SEPs) on H.264 video compression asserted in Nokia’s complaint justify building a public interest record, argued the App Association, the Computer & Communications Industry Association and Google (see report, July 21 issue). Banning the Lenovo goods couldn’t come at a worse time, with the COVID-19 pandemic taxing supplies of laptops and tablets, said critics. Nokia countered the “accused Lenovo products are a small fraction of the U.S. supply.” Any void “could easily be replaced by over a dozen competing makers, including Microsoft, Samsung, and Dell,” it said. It’s untrue, as CCIA “boldly argues,” that "the ITC is never a proper forum for investigating” infringement of any SEP, said Nokia. “Such a prohibition would be a drastic shift” from policy, it said. “Exclusion orders must be available as a remedy for SEP holders to maintain a balanced patent system and avoid harming innovation and competition,” the company said. A Dec. 19 joint policy statement from DOJ, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and Patent and Trademark Office supports that, it said.