NAB said Friday it reached agreement with the ASCAP and BMI performance rights organizations to resolve the broadcasting group's concerns with the Music Modernization Act. HR-4706/S-2334 was called a compromise supported by songwriters, music publishers and digital streaming services to revamp elements of Copyright Act sections 114 and 115. The legislation would affect some rules on U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York handling of cases involving DOJ consent decrees governing the ASCAP and BMI performance rights organizations. House IP Subcommittee Vice Chairman Doug Collins, R-Ga., and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., filed HR-4706 in December (see 1712210046). Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, filed S-2334 last week (see 1801240049). NAB opposed language affecting the ASCAP/BMI ratesetting process, including repeal of Section 114 language that bars the district court judges who oversee DOJ's consent decrees governing the two PROs from considering sound recording royalty rates as a relevant benchmark when setting performance royalty rates. NAB also opposed language that would allow ASCAP and BMI rate-setting disputes to be heard on a rotating basis by any Southern District of New York judge rather than requiring all cases to go before the PROs' assigned rate court judges -- Denise Cote for ASCAP and Louis Stanton for BMI. The new agreement on language for the bills “resolves NAB’s concerns with the potential introduction of new evidence into the ratesetting process while preserving ASCAP’s and BMI’s ability to seek meaningful compensation from the growing digital music marketplace,” the three groups announced. Collins' office told us HR-2706/2334 would still repeal some Section 114 language and will now “include language that alleviates” NAB's concerns. ASCAP and BMI “are on board with the update,” Collins' office said. The Songwriters Guild of America has opposed the bill (see 1712290025). The House Judiciary Committee held a field hearing in New York Friday that focused partly on HR-4706 (see 1801250051).

Microsoft’s push to use TV white spaces is a threat to low-power TV, the Advanced Television Broadcasting Alliance blogged Wednesday. Microsoft filed for a trademark -- AIRBAND -- for use in providing apps and business consulting in white space telecom. “The proposed set aside of three channels in the television broadcast bands will severely limit the rebuild of many Low Power TV and Translator stations displaced in the recent FCC incentive spectrum auction,” ATBA said. “Microsoft is looking for a free ride on channels they could have purchased, channels that T-Mobile spent over $8 billion to buy and channels that broadcasters have spent untold billions to develop and maintain.” Microsoft didn’t comment.

A "new threat" to IP-intensive music and film industries is emerging in copyright trade talks, said a letter that 37 groups, including MPAA and creative groups, sent Monday to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer asking America's negotiators to ignore voices backing "vast new immunities" for online services. "If these anti-IP voices succeed, they will turn long-standing trade policy, with creativity and innovation at its core, on its head by transforming our trade agreements into blueprints for how to evade liability for IP theft," they said. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, BMI, Digital Media Licensing Association, News Media Alliance, SoundExchange and others asked the U.S. to "chart a pro-IP course." NAFTA delegates and policymakers "shouldn't be fooled by Hollywood rhetoric," responded Joshua Lamel, Re:Create Coalition executive director. "The gatekeepers of the entertainment industry claim to represent ‘creators' yet they routinely ignore the interests of millions of bloggers, podcasters, internet video stars and Etsy artisans who rely on balanced copyright provisions to utilize online platforms," he said in a statement. “Fair use and safe harbors are essential parts of the American intellectual property framework and actually make IP stronger. If NAFTA covers intellectual property, fair use and safe harbors must be explicitly included."

Garmin (Europe) Ltd. said it prevailed in an intellectual property dispute over its Elevate wrist-based heart-rate monitoring technology. The High Court of Justice ruled Garmin’s technology didn't infringe two designs owned by PulseOn anywhere in the EU, it said. “We’re pleased that the Court rejected PulseOn’s allegations,” said Andrew Etkind, Garmin general counsel, saying the company is “proud and resolute to fight those who abuse the legal system falsely to take credit for Garmin’s own technology or to make unfounded claims of infringement of IP rights.”

Energous patents and applications reveal theoretical detail on WattUp power-at-a-distance RF wireless-charging technology that landed FCC certification last month (see 1712270024). On questions about how WattUp distance-charging can in practice be used without interfering with wireless devices, Energous said it changed its system to successfully address any such “coexistence” issues. One wave may be transmitted at 5.7 GHz and another at 5.8 GHz. This is in the band originally reserved internationally for use with industrial, scientific and medical equipment, now also widely used for low-power, short-range communication devices such as cordless phones, Bluetooth links, near-field communication devices and Wi-Fi. In a patent application (2017/0373725) coincidentally published two days after Energous landed FCC OK, inventors from Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea fleshed out risks of wireless power technology causing interference. “In general,” interference will result when a “wireless power transfer apparatus uses the same frequency band as a wireless communication system such as Wi-Fi,” said the application. One could make the wireless-charging system behave more like a Wi-Fi communications network and continually exchange handshake signals that check whether the communications airspace is “clear to send” so it can avoid “collisions” with wireless devices, it said. An Energous spokeswoman responded that WattUp uses the 913 MHz band for transmission of power, not 5.8 GHz. “WattUp will launch and operate in the 900MHz band,” because it has two main advantages over 5.8 GHz “for non-contact, charging at a distance,” she said: 900 MHz offers better safety about how energy is absorbed by the human body, and “coexistence” with other devices is improved in 900 MHz.

A content creators group slammed the American Law Institute for pro tech copyright proposals that will "siphon yet more of the value of creative work into the online monopolies' already overstuffed pockets," blogged the Content Creators Coalition Friday. C3 criticized ALI's copyright restatement project for "taking extreme positions against creators and their rights." ALI's mission is "to put a thumb on the scale for the internet behemoths and win concessions Congress has refused to make," c3 said, urging Congress to "reject this attempted run around of its power and help the ALI leaders see what a serious risk they are taking." ALI didn't comment.

TiVo said Thursday Google expanded its multiyear patent license “to expressly include YouTube TV.” The agreement covers Google’s use of TiVo’s patented technologies worldwide and offers a license for Google’s products and services across internet-based platforms and devices, it said.

A patent assigned to A10 Networks enabling data traffic geotagging could end "free flow of data on the internet” if the technology is implemented, blogged Marketa Trimble, professor at University of Nevada School of Law. Patent 9,762,683 covering use of packet header extension for geolocation/geotargeting, approved in September, should “enable the insertion of geolocation information into an IPv6 packet and the transmission of that geotagged IPv6 packet into a communication network,” wrote Trimble. The technology could allow individual companies to prioritize traffic originating, and on a larger scale prevent distributed denial of service attacks “by blocking traffic from certain problematic geographic regions,” said the patent. An AT&T Labs Research paper “noted one even more striking possible application for packet geotagging technology: the capability of limiting the transmission of packets through routers and switches located in only one country,” Trimble wrote Monday. The AT&T researchers don’t reference US 9,762,683, but they proposed the possibility of “using packet encapsulation to add the geolocation information,” she said, which means countries could mandate that the movement of internet data under their control could be instructed not to cross borders. A10 and AT&T didn't comment Tuesday.

Legislation updating copyright law have endorsement of major music publishing, songwriter and artists’ groups, the groups announced Monday. Resolving lack of a terrestrial performance right for sound recordings is a key goal for the groups, which pledge to work together as Congress starts work on updating copyright law. The groups said they back the recently introduced Music Modernization Act (HR-4706) (see 1712290025); the Compensating Legacy Artists for Their Songs, Service and Important Contributions to Society Act (HR-3301); the Allocation for Music Producers Act (HR-1457); and a market-based rate standard for artists from satellite radio. Participating groups include the National Music Publishers’ Association; RIAA; the American Association of Independent Music; the Recording Academy; the Nashville Songwriters Association International; Songwriters of North America; ASCAP; BMI.; the Production Music Association; the Church Music Publishers Association; the Music Publishers Association; the Council of Music Creators; the Society of Composers and Lyricists; MusicAnswers; the American Federation of Musicians; the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists; the Association of Independent Music Publishers; SoundExchange; SXWorks; Administrators of Gospel Music; the Content Creators Coalition; and Music Managers Forum U.S.

The International Trade Commission began a Tariff Act Section 337 probe of imported iPhones that don’t incorporate Qualcomm baseband processor modems, the ITC announced last week. Qualcomm's Nov. 30 complaint said Apple imports some iPhones that include its chips and others that instead incorporate infringing baseband processor modems. The ITC launched a similar investigation in August (see 1708080062), with the new investigation addressing different patents. Qualcomm alleged infringing devices include the iPhone 7, 7 Plus, 8, 8 Plus and iPhone X Limited. The ITC will consider whether to issue a limited exclusion order and cease and desist orders banning import and sale of infringing merchandise by Apple. That company didn't comment Friday.