Comments are due Sept. 7 in docket 337-3637 at the International Trade Commission on the public interest ramifications of the cease and desist and limited exclusion orders Daedalus Prime seeks in an Aug. 23 complaint alleging Mazda and Mercedes-Benz vehicles and nine of their semiconductor and component suppliers are guilty of Tariff Act Section 337 violations for infringing six Daedalus automotive processor patents, said a notice for Tuesday’s Federal Register. Besides the two automakers and their North American subsidiaries, proposed respondents are Arrow Electronics, Avnet, Digi-Key Electronics, Future Electronics, MediaTek, Mouser Electronics, NXP Semiconductors, Rochester Electronics and Visteon. The categories of accused products are semiconductors and devices, and products containing those semiconductors, including printed circuit boards, automotive parts and the vehicles themselves, said the complaint. The accused semiconductors are used mainly in “automotive electronic systems such as automotive infotainment systems and instrument clusters,” it said. Certain of the accused semiconductors also have other uses, including in the communications, industrial and IoT markets, it said. It’s “unlikely” consumers would experience “any impact” from an import ban or other “requested remedies,” said the complaint. None of the proposed respondents commented Monday on the complaint.

Xperi’s board formally approved the previously announced separation of its product and intellectual property licensing businesses into two independent publicly traded companies, said the company Monday. Xperi filed a Form 10 registration statement Friday with the SEC on the planned separation of the product business, it said. When the separation is complete, Xperi will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol XPER, and the IP business, which was named Adeia, will trade on the Nasdaq under the symbol ADEA, it said. The separation is subject to customary conditions, including the final approval and effectiveness of the Form 10 registration statement, said the company. Xperi plans to livestream an investor day event Sept. 20 at 8:30 a.m. EDT "in anticipation" of the separation, said the company Monday. "Presentations for each business will be given separately, followed by live Q&A sessions," it said.

Comments are due Oct. 7, rebuttals Oct. 21, in docket USTR-2022-0010 at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative for the agency's preparation of the its Notorious Markets List report on physical and online counterfeiting and piracy, said a notice for Friday’s Federal Register. The “issue focus” for the 2022 list will be on examining “the impact of online piracy on U.S. workers,” said the notice.

The International Trade Commission should consolidate into a single probe the Tariff Act Section 337 investigations that result from Google’s two complaints alleging that Sonos audio players infringe seven Google patents, requested Sonos in a filing received Tuesday and posted Wednesday in docket 337-3634. The ITC alternatively should authorize the chief administrative law judge to “consolidate the resulting investigations” if and when they're instituted, said Sonos. “There is significant overlap” between the two complaints, “such that consolidation at this early stage would streamline the litigation and conserve party and Commission resources,” it said. The two complaints “share commonalities across every criteria” the ITC considers “when assessing potential consolidation,” including the parties involved, the accused technology, the patented subject matter and the legal issues at play, said Sonos. Google, in the two complaints, seeks cease and desist and limited exclusion orders on Sonos audio players with Sonos Voice Control, plus those that support wired or wireless charging or the "commissioning of devices into a system via short-range transmissions" (see 2208100003).

Vector Licensing and Nokia America reached agreement “in principle” to settle their brief patent court fight, said Vector in a settlement notice Monday in docket 1:22-cv-00711 at the U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Delaware. Vector sued May 31, alleging Nokia’s Beacon 2 Wi-Fi 6 home gateway infringes its June 2017 wireless communications patent. “The parties require additional time” to finalize the settlement agreement and dismiss the case, said Vector, asking the court for a 30-day stay through Sept. 23 of all hearings and deadlines in the case. U.S. District Judge Richard Andrews granted the stay in an order signed Monday.

Netflix is seeking an order declaring it doesn’t infringe “any valid claim” of Broadcom patents essential to the H.264 and H.265 video codec standards, said the streaming company’s counterclaim Monday in docket 3:20-cv-04677 at the U.S. District Court in San Francisco. The case turned 2 years old July 14 on allegations that Netflix infringed a dozen Broadcom patents. Netflix also said it countersued to enforce Broadcom’s “contractual commitments” to license its standard-essential patents (SEPs) for H.264 and H.265 on reasonable and nondiscriminatory (RAND) terms. Broadcom was obligated under the ITU’s “common patent policy” to publicly declare it would license the SEPs on RAND terms, said Netflix. Broadcom “broke those promises” when it failed to identify its SEPs to Netflix and failed to offer Netflix the required RAND licenses, it said. Broadcom instead demanded that Netflix license, on “unreasonable and exorbitant terms,” Broadcom’s entire U.S. patent portfolio, “most or all of which, is irrelevant and therefore worthless to Netflix,” it said. Broadcom didn’t comment Tuesday.

Abby North is a board member of both the Los Angeles Chapter of the Association of Independent Music Publishers and the International Association for Artists & Rightsholders (see 2208150042).

The International Trade Commission voted Wednesday to open a Tariff Act Section 337 investigation into Maxell's allegations that Lenovo and Motorola smartphones infringe six of its mobile communications and imaging patents (see 2206230038), said a notice for Monday’s Federal Register. The vote was 5-0, according to a voting sheet in docket 337-TA-1324. An order signed Wednesday assigned Administrative Law Judge Monica Bhattacharyya to the investigation. Maxell's June 16 complaint, supplemented June 30, seeks cease and desist and limited exclusion orders against the allegedly infringing Lenovo and Motorola devices.

Elliptic Labs signed a license agreement with a “top-10 global smartphone manufacturer” for use of Elliptic’s software-based “proximity sensor” technology, said the Norwegian AI company Friday. Proximity sensing detects when users hold their phones up to their ears during a call, allowing the smartphone to turn off its display and disable its screen’s touch functionality, said Elliptic. “This keeps the user’s ear or cheek from triggering unwanted actions during the call, such as hanging up or dialing numbers. Turning off the screen also helps conserve battery life.” Replacing hardware sensors with software embodiments, as Elliptic’s technology does, reduces device cost, said the company.

Comments are due Aug. 23 at the International Trade Commission on the public interest ramifications of the cease and desist and limited exclusion orders Google seeks, alleging in two Tariff Act Section 337 complaints that Sonos audio players infringe a total of seven patents, said two notices (in dockets 337-3634 and 337-3635) for Monday’s Federal Register. The complaints seek separate Tariff Act Section 337 investigations into Sonos audio players with Sonos Voice Control, plus those that support wired or wireless charging or the “commissioning of devices into a system via short-range transmissions” (see 2208100003).