Comments are due April 26, replies May 10, on regulations to establish the new Copyright Claims Board under the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act (see 2012290048), the Copyright Office announced Friday. The board will let parties voluntarily resolve copyright claims of “low financial value.” The CO expects to issue “multiple notices of proposed rulemaking, each focusing on one or more regulatory categories.”

Samsung is getting Patent and Trademark Office pushback on its Oct. 28 application for “Wireless Rear Speaker Compatible” as a plain-text trademark for TVs and speakers, agency records show. The trademark “appears to be generic in connection with the identified goods,” plus it’s “merely descriptive” of a product’s features and functions, a PTO examining attorney wrote the company Tuesday. “Only where the combination of descriptive terms creates a unitary mark with a unique, incongruous, or otherwise nondescriptive meaning in relation to the goods is the combined mark registrable,” said the attorney. Samsung has six months to respond. It didn’t comment Wednesday.

The Department of Commerce should delay implementing an interim final rule on securing the information and communications technology and services (ICTS) supply chain, the Information Technology Industry Council commented Monday in docket 210113-0009. The rule is meant to address foreign adversaries’ exploitation of software and hardware sales and intellectual property theft. Its “breadth coupled with the broad discretion the rule grants to the Secretary continue to cast a cloud of uncertainty over almost all ICTS transactions and could undermine the national security objectives it purports to address, while also hindering U.S. competitiveness,” ITI said. Microsoft recommended an approach that “incentivizes adoption of technology-based best practices to better protect supply chain security and maintain tech leadership.” These incentives, rather than imposing “undue and unpredictable regulatory burdens,” will “better protect supply chain security and help the United States and other democracies maintain tech leadership,” wrote Associate General Counsel-Global Trade Sarah O’Hare.

Dolby Labs got its first deadline extension from the Patent and Trademark Office for filing the required statement of use (SOU) to enable its December 2019 application for the Dolby Display Mapping trademark to progress to a registration certificate, agency records show. Dolby is entitled to four more extensions of six months each, but it must file the SOU by September 2023 or risk PTO declaring the application abandoned. PTO requires the SOU to prevent applicants from hoarding trademarks with no intent to use them commercially.

Both sides “will likely appeal on many fronts” Tuesday's initial determination (login required) at the International Trade Commission that Samsung committed no Tariff Act Section 337 violations by importing smartphones alleged to have infringed four patents asserted by flexible electronics manufacturer Dynamics (see 2103160051), said Dynamics attorney Robert Morris of Eckert Seamans. “We agree that Administrative Law Judge Cameron Elliot "got so much right; but there are some technicalities that may have gotten lost in the shuffle and we are confident the Commission will address those in our favor,” said Morris Tuesday. Elliot’s decision becomes the determination of full ITC in 60 days unless at least one party files a petition for review. Though Elliot said Samsung “directly infringes” a dozen Dynamics claims among the four patents asserted, he also ruled many other patent claims were invalid, and said Dynamics failed to satisfy Section 337's U.S. domestic industry requirement in all but one of the patents. Samsung didn’t comment Wednesday.

Administrative Law Judge Cameron Elliot of the International Trade Commission found Samsung committed no Tariff Act Section 337 violations by importing smartphones alleged to have infringed four patents asserted by flexible electronics manufacturer Dynamics, said an initial determination notice (login required) he signed Tuesday in docket 337-TA-1170. Dynamics alleged in June 2019 that Samsung smartphones infringed its patents for cards with emulators that transmit information to magnetic strip readers. Neither Dynamics nor Samsung commented.

The former MacBook engineer whom Apple accused of stealing and disseminating trade secrets (see 2103110043) is “no longer employed” at Arris Composites, emailed Director-Marketing Elizabeth Griffin-Isabelle Monday, without discussing the circumstances of his departure. Simon Lancaster-Larocque joined Arris in November 2019 as head-consumer products after an 11-year Apple career. Portions of the information he misappropriated, including details of unreleased Apple hardware products, unannounced feature changes to existing hardware products and future product announcements, “relate directly to his role at his new employer,” alleged Apple in a March 11 complaint without mentioning Arris by name. “We were surprised and disappointed to hear of the news” of Apple’s complaint against Lancaster-Larocque, said Griffin-Isabelle, insisting Arris would have no part of stolen trade secrets. “Arris is a trusted business partner to leading and emerging companies around the world,” she said. “Every day, our people work to imagine, design, and manufacture the future with pride and integrity.” Lancaster-Larocque’s LinkedIn profile doesn't show him as having worked at Arris; it did Friday. He didn’t respond to our questions Tuesday.

Samsung agreed to license Nokia’s video standards patents, said Nokia Thursday. Samsung will make royalty payments to Nokia, but the terms of the agreement are confidential. Nokia didn’t say which video standards are involved, but it’s on record as asserting ownership of H.264 standard-essential patents on HD video (see 2007180001).

Former Apple engineer Simon Lancaster-Larocque stole and disseminated trade secrets that included “details of unreleased Apple hardware products, unannounced feature changes to existing hardware products, and future product announcements, all of which Apple guards closely,” alleged the company Thursday in a complaint (in Pacer) in U.S. District Court in San Jose. The complaint, which refers to him only as Lancaster, seeks an injunction to stop his alleged misbehavior, plus damages and the recovery of any profits he gained from the allegedly stolen material. It also alleges Lancaster-Larocque breached an intellectual property confidentiality agreement (in Pacer) he signed in May 2008, a month before joining Apple. “Despite over a decade of employment at Apple,” Lancaster-Larocque “abused his position and trust within the company to systematically disseminate Apple’s sensitive trade secret information in an effort to obtain personal benefits,” said the complaint. “He used his seniority to gain access to internal meetings and documents outside the scope of his job’s responsibilities containing Apple’s trade secrets, and he provided these trade secrets to his outside media correspondent.” The correspondent is not identified in court papers. After Lancaster-Larocque resigned from Apple, “he began working at a company that served as a vendor for Apple under a vendor service agreement,” said the complaint. Portions of the information he misappropriated “relate directly to his role at his new employer,” and it’s likely his “misuse of Apple’s trade secrets continues to this day,” it said. On his last day at Apple, he downloaded “a substantial number of confidential Apple documents from Apple’s corporate network onto his personal computer that would benefit his new company,” it said. Lancaster-Larocque’s LinkedIn profile shows him as joining Arris Composites as head-consumer products in November 2019. His profile says he was Apple’s “advanced materials and prototyping lead” for years and was a key product design architect on the MacBook. Arris didn’t respond to questions, and attempts to reach Lancaster-Larocque were unsuccessful.

Panasonic’s Osaka-based parent company applied Feb. 28 for a plain-text U.S. trademark on “JustMyVoice” for an international class of headphones, Patent and Trademark Office records show. Panasonic applied for the same trademark Feb. 19 in Japan, said PTO. The company didn’t respond to questions Friday.