The Patent and Trademark Office’s (PTO) new Office of International Patent Cooperation (OIPC) will enable the agency “to focus dedicated resources to better implement its international patent cooperation efforts,” PTO said Thursday. OIPC will coordinate with PTO’s Office of Policy and International Affairs (OPIA) and the Office of the Chief Information Officer to provide “optimized business process solutions” to stakeholders and examiners using the international patent examination system, PTO said. OIPC “will allow us to increase certainty of IP rights while reducing costs for our stakeholders and moving towards a harmonized patent system,” said PTO Deputy Director Michelle Lee in a news release. PTO previously carried out international efforts through collaboration between programs like the Patent Prosecution Highway, Global Patent Search Network, Cooperative Patent Classification system and Global Dossier Initiative. Mark Powell, who now works in OPIA, will lead OIPC as deputy commissioner-international patent cooperation (http://1.usa.gov/1j6dh3b).

Verizon urged the FCC to take steps to further speed up decisionmaking, in process reform comments. Verizon said the unofficial 180-day shot clock on transaction reviews starts the day a deal is put on public notice by the FCC, rather than the day an application is filed. “Often it can take weeks for the Commission to release a Public Notice after the applications are filed with the Commission, and starting the shot-clock on release of the Public Notice adds unnecessary delay,” Verizon said (http://bit.ly/OdhFC9). It supported a proposal that the FCC post initial Freedom of Information Act decisions on its website. “This will increase transparency and afford parties equal opportunity to review Commission precedent as they take steps to protect confidential information and respond to FOIA requests,” the carrier said. Samsung urged the FCC to allow Technical Certification Bodies (TCBs) to recertify all radiofrequency devices. “The Commission established the TCB program to provide manufacturers an alternative to obtaining certification from the Commission, and to facilitate the more rapid introduction of RF equipment into the market,” Samsung said (http://bit.ly/QFtBi7). “In many ways, TCBs have improved the device approval process. But, for some classes of devices, the TCB approval process is followed by a frequently-redundant FCC review process that can take considerable time and introduce uncertainty into when a device will reach consumers.” Mobile Future also urged the FCC to tweak the shot clock. “The Commission’s ability to review proposed spectrum transactions in a timely, predictable, and transparent manner is critical to wireless consumers,” Mobile Future said (http://bit.ly/1iZGhcU). “Secondary markets facilitate new business combinations and new transactions that allow spectrum to flow to its highest and best use and for the industry to keep pace with fast-changing consumer demand.” Other commenters sought process reform at all FCC bureaus (CD April 2 p9).

Georgetown University’s Center for Business and Public Policy said Friday its new Evolution of Regulation and Innovation Project (ERIP) would focus on how regulation and innovation intersect, in order to identify policy changes that will improve economic conditions for consumers and the economy. The project will generate specific policy proposals in areas like communications regulation, digital infrastructure and emerging industries, Georgetown said. ERIP will be led by Project Manager Larry Downes and CBPP Executive Director John Mayo, Georgetown said. The ERIP advisory board will include former White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Administrator Cass Sunstein, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General-Economics Carl Shapiro and Robert Cooter, a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley. “The technology landscape that consumers, businesses, and policymakers face today is very different than the world we imagined when our regulatory framework was developed,” Downes said in a news release. “There is an urgent need for specific, fact-based proposals that can help stakeholders navigate a new approach to regulation that is responsive to rapidly evolving markets while protecting consumers and enhancing economic growth” (http://bit.ly/1laWmNA).

The Telecommunications Industry Association’s (TIA) TR-42.10 Engineering Committee on Sustainable Information Communications Technology said it’s seeking participants to shape the American National Standards Institute/TIA-5011 “Standard Process for Sustainable Information Communications Technology (ICT) Manufacturers” standards document. Criteria outlining sustainable guidelines for deployment of communications technologies are lacking in the ICT sector, but “forward-looking” ICT companies have been updating their resource management and operations to become more eco-friendly and efficient, TIA said. The TR-42.10 committee said it will examine the need for a “unified and clearly defined ICT industry approach” on sustainable policies that apply to multiple technologies. “Today’s customers are increasingly environmentally conscious and committed to sustainability, so they will seek out products that are manufactured in such responsible manners,” said Julie Roy, chairwoman of the TR-42.10 committee, in a news release. “This document will help manufacturers demonstrate their performance and programs are meeting those expectations and will guide the customers on what is expected from the manufacturers they select.” Participants include Anixter, Belden, CommScope Network Solutions, Corning, Erico, Fluke Networks, Hitachi, Hubbell Premise Wiring, JPMorgan Chase, Molex, Ortronics, Superior Essex, The Siemon Company and UL (http://bit.ly/1gKAlGd).

Two proposals to revamp National Security Agency phone surveillance law brought mixed reactions Tuesday, with details of the proposals still unfolding. Initial media reports emerged of a White House proposal, expected to be formally released by the end of the week (CD Jan 21 p1), and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., and ranking member Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., announced details of their legislation at a media briefing Tuesday. Their bill is called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Transparency and Modernization Act. That bill has 11 co-sponsors from both parties, Rogers and Ruppersberger said in a news release. They emphasized that it would require individualized judicial review, and that the government could query the communications companies for a number’s associations if it has “reasonable and articulable suspicion” of terrorism associations. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court would have to keep Congress informed of any significant opinions, one provision of the bill said. Another would create a “privacy advocate” before the FISC. Both proposals are expected to move bulk phone metadata storage away from the government and into the hands of the phone companies, but without retention mandates. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., author of the USA Freedom Act, said he welcomed the news of President Barack Obama’s proposal. “In the meantime, the President could end bulk collection once and for all on Friday by not seeking reauthorization of this program,” Leahy said. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court order authorizing phone surveillance expires Friday and would have to be renewed, if surveillance were to continue. The USA Freedom Act’s House author, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., issued a statement calling the House Intelligence proposal “convoluted” and said it “accepts the administration’s deliberate misinterpretation of the law,” ultimately falling short of his own surveillance overhaul. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., called Obama’s plan “a worthy effort” and said she plans a hearing on both the White House proposal and the House Intelligence bill. The Center for Democracy & Technology in a statement called both proposals “flawed.” “The Ruppersberger bill would end bulk collection for most types of data, but the bill would allow intelligence agencies to obtain individuals’ data without prior court approval,” CDT Senior Counsel Harley Geiger said (http://bit.ly/1jDl9bB). “The President’s proposal, as described, would require intelligence agencies to get court approval before obtaining phone records, but the Obama proposal is only limited to phone records.” The Electronic Frontier Foundation called both proposals “good news” but said details are still lacking. EFF’s blog post (http://bit.ly/1gWePYY) suggested the USA Freedom Act would be better than either. The ACLU called the White House proposal “a crucial first step” but the House Intelligence Committee is “on the wrong track,” Legislative Counsel Michelle Richardson said in a statement (http://bit.ly/1fYlZvU). “Its new bill uses reform momentum as a pretext for expanding government power. The bill’s modest improvements to the phone records program are not worth demolishing the important judicial role in overseeing these programs.”

Stricter government control of surveillance technology exports could reduce government abuse of surveillance technology, said a New America Open Technology Institute (OTI) report released Monday (http://bit.ly/1iVouUV). The report looks at export control regimes in Germany, the United Kingdom and the U.S., finding all to be lacking with regard to surveillance technology. “It is clear that export controls need to be updated,” said Tim Maurer, an OTI research fellow and report co-author. Authoritarian governments have used the technology for various suppression techniques, the report said. Maurer cited the recent Wassenaar Arrangement (http://www.wassenaar.org/) on surveillance technology controls “as an opportunity” to make necessary updates to export controls. “The U.S. government has a unique chance when it implements the changes to set a positive example for other countries,” he said.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court scolded the government for not being more forthcoming about certain cases and “material” information about preservation orders it was involved in. This came amid recent fillings on whether the government could hold onto phone metadata for longer than five years. FISC Presiding Judge Reggie Walton issued the order (http://1.usa.gov/1dxXiGo) Friday, asking the government to explain by April 2 why it failed to provide information regarding other relevant cases to that question. “As the government is well aware, it has a heightened duty of candor to the Court in ex parte proceedings,” the FISC said. The FISC “expects the government to be far more attentive to its obligations” to the FISC, it added.

CenturyLink said it won a contract to provide voice, data network and telecom infrastructure services at the U.S. Marine Corps Combat Command in Quantico, Va., and the Marine Corps Barracks in Washington, D.C. The two-year contract, worth up to $8.5 million, will make CenturyLink responsible for “daily operations and technical support, equipment and infrastructure upgrades, troubleshooting and repair calls, and the design, installation and planning” for telecom systems at the two Marine Corps facilities. CenturyLink said it has worked with the Marines’ Quantico facility for more than 12 years (http://bit.ly/1gbRBUy).

The U.S. Trade Representative determined Ukraine is a significant violator of intellectual property rights (IPR) protections in a Section 301 review under the 1974 Trade Act, but will disregard the infringement now in light of the ongoing political transition in the country, said USTR in a notice slated to appear in Thursday’s Federal Register (http://1.usa.gov/1lX3G24). Under Section 301, USTR can retaliate against countries it classifies as IPR violators. In May, USTR determined the Ukrainian government used infringing software and the country hosted infringement of copyright and related rights. Ukraine has said it’s implementing an IPR action plan (CD Feb 21/13 p14).

WaveDivision Holdings acquired Capacity Provisioning Inc. (CPI), said a press release (http://bit.ly/1gl9RcA) Wednesday. Based in Port Angeles, Wash., CPI is the largest privately owned fiber-based metro ethernet provider on the Olympic Peninsula, focused on serving businesses and government entities in Port Angeles, Sequim and surrounding areas. WaveDivision Holdings is a business-class fiber and broadband services company with business and residential customers in Washington, Oregon and California. Terms were not announced.