The Copyright Office scheduled a Dec. 6 symposium to help determine best practices for the Music Modernization Act’s Mechanical Licensing Collective (see 1812210051). The event will explore how to “identify copyright owners and unclaimed royalties of musical works while encouraging copyright owners to claim royalties and ultimately reduce the occurrence of unclaimed royalties,” CO said.

Comments are due Nov. 6 on an EcoFactor Tariff Act Section 337 complaint with the International Trade Commission, alleging imports of smart thermostats and smart heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems infringe its patents, said Tuesday's Federal Register. EcoFactor says Ecobee, Google, Alarm.com, Daikin Industries, Schneider Electric and Vivint are importing the infringing products. EcoFactor seeks a limited exclusion order and cease and desist orders banning import and sale of infringing smart thermostats and HVAC systems by the companies identified. "We are confident that our products do not violate any third party patents and that this claim will not adversely affect our commercial objectives," emailed Schneider Electric. The other companies didn't comment.

Efforts to update broadcaster signal protections made limited progress at last week's meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), but are moving toward a diplomatic conference (DipCon), participants told us. In his draft meeting summary, Chairman Daren Tang said talks on definitions, object of protection and rights to be granted were held in informal sessions with a view to clarifying technical issues and delegations' positions. A revised version of the text will be on the agenda for the next SCCR meeting, in spring. Progress was made on several points, we're told, including: (1) Rights to be granted, which seeks to accommodate different legal systems. (2) How to protect certain types of transmissions in particular live events. (3) New language on rights management information, which involves the concept of watermark used in program-carrying signals to monitor the uses made of them. (4) Whether to retain or delete "transmission over computer networks." Talks "started off well," with many delegations pressing to finalize the text to meet WIPO General Assembly instructions aimed at getting to a DipCon in 2020-21, emailed European Broadcasting Union Head-Intellectual Property Heijo Ruijsenaars. Informal discussions involved definitions and the scope of the treaty but then stalled on "lengthy discussions on how to deal with the (rather exceptional) situation where the foreign broadcaster would have no other option than to rely on protection of its programming content, rather than on the protection of its signal," he said. This is a minor issue relevant only to the U.S., and, meanwhile, one of the "big issues" -- protection of online rights -- remains largely unresolved, he said. To not lose momentum, continued drafting work is needed between now and the next meeting, Ruijsenaars said. Nevertheless, the committee moved a step closer to its DipCon goal, he said. The text is "still a mess," but there was very little opposition to moving to DipCon, emailed Knowledge Ecology international Director James Love.

Technicolor is the newest licensee to join HEVC Advance, said the H.265 patent-pool company Tuesday. It's an "important milestone," said HEVC Advance, which launched in 2015 with Technicolor as one of five founding members (see 1503260045). Technicolor withdrew less than a year later to license its H.265 patent portfolio directly to device manufacturers, unhappy with the HEVC Advance decision to charge content-streaming royalties (see 1602040042). HEVC Advance later dropped its content fees on “anecdotal evidence” the royalties were hurting H.265 adoption (see 1803140037). "Technicolor did participate in the development phase of the pool but ultimately decided not to become a founding licensor (admittedly at the last moment)," emailed HEVC Advance CEO Pete Moller Tuesday. "Once someone joins as a licensor they cannot withdraw until 12/31/2025 at the earliest. In Technicolor’s case they 'left' before they signed any of the documents." When Technicolor departed, "they did indicate at that time that they planned to license their patents on their own," said Moller. "Ultimately, they sold a number to Dolby (which are in our pool) and then last year 'sold' their entire IP business to InterDigital."

The Copyright Office is proposing significant increases in filing fees to take effect in the spring. Thursday’s announcement said the proposed fee schedule shows large increases for “registration of a claim in an original work of authorship,” including a nearly 500 percent increase for a paperwork filing involving “registration of updates and revisions to a database that predominantly consists of nonphotographic works.” The fee for that paperwork filing would increase from $85 to $500. CO proposes an electronic filing for registering a claim in an original work of authorship would increase from $55 to $250, for paper filing, $65 to $250. Some fee schedules are reduced by about 20 percent, and other increases range from 15-180 percent.

Customs and Border Protection wants comment by Dec. 16 on CBP plans to update U.S. border handling of imports with suspected copyright violations, said Wednesday's Federal Register. The proposal is a result of the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act, which added pre-seizure disclosure requirements for possible Digital Millennium Copyright Act violations. TFTEA lets CBP make new disclosures to intellectual property rights holders.

Copyright legislation Congress is considering could “have devastating effects on regular Internet users and little-to-no effect on true infringers,” Electronic Frontier Foundation Policy and Activism Manager Katharine Trendacosta wrote Monday. EFF urged supporters to tell Congress not to pass the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act (see 1909110030). The “obscure” board envisioned by the bill would have “enormous power” to levy huge penalties against “ordinary Americans,” she wrote.

LG Chem and Toray Industries filed a Section 337 complaint with the International Trade Commission, seeking a ban on imports of lithium ion battery cells, modules and packs from SK Battery that allegedly infringe its patents. SK Battery cells used in hybrid and electric vehicles, plus portable consumer electronics devices, copy the patented technologies, said the Sept. 26 complaint (login required) in docket 337-TA-3413. LG Chem and Toray seek a limited exclusion order and cease and desist orders banning import and sale of the allegedly infringing batteries. SK Battery representatives comment Wednesday. Comments on the complaint are due Oct. 10.

The International Trade Commission opened two Tariff Act Section 337 investigations into allegations that imports of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. semiconductors and the chips and downstream products that contain them, infringe Globalfoundries patents, said the commission Monday. In one investigation (docket 337-TA-1176), the ITC will consider whether to issue a limited exclusion order and cease and desist orders banning imports of allegedly infringing TSMC semiconductors; chips that contain those semiconductors from Xilinx, Qualcomm and MediaTek; and TVs and smartphones that contain TSMC semiconductors from Hisense, TCL, BLU, Motorola, Google and OnePlus. In a second investigation (docket 337-TA-1177), the ITC will consider the same sanctions for a different set of allegedly infringing TSMC semiconductors, plus the chips that incorporate them from Apple, Nvidia, Broadcom and Cisco. The ITC also will probe smartphones, tablets, wearable devices and set-top boxes with TSMC semiconductors from Apple, Nvidia, Asus and Lenovo, and switches that incorporate them from Arista and Cisco. Representatives of the various respondents we canvassed didn’t comment Tuesday.

The Copyright Office is accepting comments until Nov. 8, replies Dec. 9, on the proposed blanket compulsory license under the Music Modernization Act (see 1909130067), said the agency Tuesday. The blanket license takes effect in January 2021.