News reports that Michelle Lee will keep her job as Patent and Trademark Office director in the Trump administration are welcome, said Computer & Communications Industry Association Thursday in a statement. "This is a wise decision, bringing continuity to critical issues at a critical time. It supports the patent office’s ongoing efforts to improve patent quality under Lee’s leadership," said CCIA President Ed Black. The group's patent counsel, Matt Levy, said Lee's initiatives to enhance patent quality should be continued under her leadership. "There is still much work remaining to streamline and enhance the process of reviewing patent applications, and I think that Director Lee has shown that she is someone who can move that work forward," he said. Politico had reported that Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., told a tech industry gathering about the reappointment of Lee, who met with commerce secretary-nominee Wilbur Ross earlier in the week (see 1701180069). The Trump transition team didn't comment.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a 2015 Patent Trial and Appeal Board ruling rejecting a patent violation claim by Monkeymedia against Apple, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Lions Gate Entertainment, Paramount Home Entertainment, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, Universal Studios Home Entertainment and Warner Brothers Home Entertainment. Wednesday's ruling without comment came less than a week after Jan. 13 oral argument before Judges Alan Lourie, Evan Wallach and Todd Hughes. According to court filings, the patent described systems and methods for transmitting interactive media content that would let the user choose to play optional content such as an additional video, still images or text. Monkeymedia is pursuing similar patent violation claims involving a related patent against Apple and Buena Vista.

President-elect Donald Trump will likely take “a businessman’s approach" to intellectual-property issues, said American Enterprise Institute Visiting Fellow Thomas Sydnor. That means “one that focuses on practical issues, like cost-effective enforceability,” Sydnor wrote in a Wednesday blog post. What Trump will do on intellectual property may be easier to predict than other policy areas, Sydnor said. “President-elect Trump will soon become -- by far -- the most experienced user of domestic and international IP rights ever to serve as the President of the United States,” he said. “During his long business career, Mr. Trump pursued sophisticated, usually unified, branding strategies based upon his last name, had great success in the copyright industries, and has used the IP-like rights granted by state laws that protect reputational, privacy, and publicity rights.” Trump should focus on making it easier for businesses to enforce their IP rights, said Sydnor. He should support legislative efforts to overhaul the Copyright Office, like the one by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., the AEI fellow said. Trump should oppose sub-market compulsory licenses including American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers/Broadcast Music Inc. consent decrees from the 1940s, Sydnor said. Trump opposed free trade agreements, but he should consider renegotiating the Trans Pacific Partnership, Sydnor said. Or the U.S. Trade Representative could better enforce existing trade agreements, he said.

Customs and Border Protection revoked its ruling that a redesign of network switches by Arista Networks kept the merchandise beyond the scope of an International Trade Commission limited exclusion order (see 1611300020), Cisco said in a Saturday blog post. Cisco, litigating over patent issues with Arista in multiple venues, sought the ruling revocation in December. The CBP notice to Cisco's lawyers on the revocation doesn't provide details. Cisco said it means "Arista has lost the authorization to import or continue selling its products in the U.S., or to import components to build those products." Arista disagreed. "CBP has not ruled that Arista’s products infringe," the company said. "Instead, CBP has expressed concern that its original ruling was incorrect, based on input provided by Cisco." Arista said it's "working to engage with CBP to respond to those arguments as soon as possible."

The DOJ and FTC issued a final version of their update of joint guidelines for enforcing antitrust policy on IP licensing Friday. The agencies’ original proposal got a mixed reaction in September, with several tech sector groups criticizing them for not addressing controversial IP issues like patent assertion entities and standard-essential patents (see 1609280063). The update's final version retains much of the original proposal, including the agencies’ high-level approach to enforcing antitrust policy on IP licensing matters and avoidance of the controversial IP issues. The updated guidelines reflect “intervening changes in statutory and case law, as well as relevant enforcement and policy work, including the agencies’ 2010 Horizontal Merger Guidelines,” said DOJ Antitrust Division head Renata Hesse in a blog post. The update was aimed at reflecting recent IP-related court cases, the 2016 Defend Trade Secrets Act and changes in the lengths of copyright and patent terms (see 1608120045 and 1608180056). The revised guidelines reaffirm the FTC’s “commitment to an economically grounded approach to antitrust analysis of IP licensing,” said outgoing Chairwoman Edith Ramirez in a news release. Commissioners voted 3-0 in favor of the final guidelines. The revised guidelines “are a welcome guidepost,” said Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen in a statement. The update embraces “principles of commendable flexibility,” including that IP licensing is generally pro-competitive, she said. Ramirez is leaving the FTC next month, she announced separately Friday (see 1701130030).

Lenz v. Universal -- popularly known as the “dancing baby” case -- is “too idiosyncratic” to “produce a broadly useful” Supreme Court decision on the fair use doctrine, said Tom Sydnor of the American Enterprise Institute's Center for Internet, Communications and Technology in a Friday blog post. The court is considering whether to grant twin petitions for review of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling in Lenz. The 9th Circuit ruled in 2015 that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) “requires copyright holders to consider fair use before sending a takedown notification” (see 1509140070). The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Universal Music Group separately petitioned the high court for a writ of certiorari to review the 9th Circuit’s ruling. The top court is awaiting an opinion from the U.S. Solicitor General's office (see 1611010024). Sydnor said a broad Supreme Court decision on fair use needs to decide whether the 2nd Circuit correctly decided the DMCA’s Section 512 safe harbors protect online service providers from civil copyright infringement lawsuits “that could still be punished as criminal racketeering enterprises under existing law.” The Supreme Court would also need to consider whether it’s “time to retract the judge-made ‘transformative-use’ component of statutory fair-use analysis that has become so confusing that the federal judge who created it has claimed that ‘transformative’ uses of works are those in which works are not ‘transformed,’” Sydnor wrote: Lenz “doesn’t raise either of those issues clearly enough to seem worthy of Supreme Court review.” The case involves a mother who uploaded to YouTube a video of her toddler dancing to a snippet of Prince's song "Let's Go Crazy."

The Association of American Publishers said it selected former Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante as its next president and CEO. Pallante will succeed retiring AAP President Tom Allen Tuesday, the group said Thursday. Two months ago, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden ousted Pallante as head of the Copyright Office. Pallante resigned from the LOC entirely shortly after being reassigned to be an adviser on the library's digital strategy (see 1610210061, 1610240052 and 1610250062). Pallante previously worked at the Guggenheim Museums, the Authors Guild and National Writers Union. Pallante “is a creative, forward-thinking leader who has earned the deep respect of members of Congress as well as intellectual property experts,” said AAP Chairman YS Chi in a news release.

Though China has made progress on intellectual property, issues remain, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative reported to Congress on the country's World Trade Organization Compliance. During 2016, the two nations made “significant progress” on ensuring that information and communications technology (ICT) policies don't impose unnecessary nationality-based restrictions on the purchase, sale or use of those products by commercial enterprises, said USTR. It said the U.S. will continue to engage China on ICT policies and technology localization. China is reforming its IP rights regime, but U.S. companies must contend with unpunished thefts of trade secrets for the benefit of Chinese companies, widespread counterfeiting and “bad faith” trademark registration, whereby Chinese authorities “hold … them for ransom,” USTR said. It noted Chinese officials at a November Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade meeting in Washington cited potential harm caused by “bad-faith” trademarks and confirmed they're taking more steps to combat them. Overly burdensome licensing requirements, discriminatory regulatory processes and informal bans on entry and expansion continue to affect telecom and internet-related services doing business in China, the report said.

Alibaba Group Chairman Jack Ma met Monday with President-elect Donald Trump to discuss “how Alibaba can create 1 million U.S. jobs by enabling 1 million U.S. small businesses to sell goods into the China and the Asian marketplace,” a Trump spokesman said. Trump’s meeting with Ma came less than a month after the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative redesignated Alibaba’s Taobao online shopping arm as a “notorious” market for IP infringement. Taobao faced ongoing criticism for not doing enough to combat the sales of counterfeit products (see 1612210068). Trump’s presidential campaign pledged to force China to stop IP theft (see 1606290080).

Patent and Trademark Office Director Michelle Lee said she’s “optimistic” the incoming administration “will share our appreciation of the importance of IP.” President-elect Donald Trump “has promised economic growth and job creation, and IP will necessarily be key to achieving that goal,” Lee said during Friday's speech at CES, according to prepared remarks. PTO is “well situated to address the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead” given its accomplishments over the past three years, she said. Lee noted PTO has reduced the backlog of unexamined patent applications by approximately 30 percent. The office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board proceedings aided in “providing a faster, more cost efficient quality check on the patents in the system,” Lee said. PTO’s Enhanced Patent Quality Initiative is continuing work that will “meaningfully move the needle on enhancing patent quality,” including increasing the clarity of the patent record, Lee said.