New Media Rights, a nonprofit at the California Western...

New Media Rights, a nonprofit at the California Western School of Law, told the White House that broadband should be reclassified as a Communications Act Title II telecom service, in comments on the Obama administration’s Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Economic Council’s request for information on U.S. innovation strategy. It attached the comments it made to the FCC on the issue. Reclassification “is necessary because internet access is a distinctly different service from other ‘information services,'” the group said. “Broadband internet access has been wrongly grouped together with services that like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and others and have thus been able to maintain enormous market power while being subject to very little oversight.” Several university groups focused on the importance of a strong patent system. “Unfortunately, in recent years, legitimate patent holders across the spectrum, including universities and their licensees, have been victimized by abusive practices that impair the ability of the U.S. patent system to foster innovation and economic competitiveness,” they told the White House (http://bit.ly/1t2Uk3I). “Any proposals targeting abusive practices must be structured so that they curb abuses without undermining the ability of legitimate patent holders to enforce their patents and, by extension, diminishing the value of patents.” The Electronic Frontier Foundation took aim at “low-quality patents” and focused on open access. “EFF urges the Administration to support needed legislative reform to improve patent quality and reduce abusive litigation,” it said (http://bit.ly/1vmfoov).