The House Science Committee has been ready to go to conference on science and tech legislation since passing its bills in June, but members are waiting for Democratic leadership to act on the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (S-1260), House Science Committee ranking member Frank Lucas, R-Okla., told us last week.

At least eight models of Sony Blu-ray players, plus all PlayStation 3, PS4 and PS5 game consoles with Blu-ray drives, infringe an October 2007 patent (7,289,961) on audio watermarking from two University of Rochester engineering professors because the products come embedded with Cinavia copy protection watermark detectors, alleged a complaint Wednesday (in Pacer) in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Delaware.

Prospects appeared to immediately dim the hope that Apple’s launch of a Self Service Repair program for consumers who feel “comfortable” servicing their own iPhones (see 2111170034) would help thaw the icy relations between right-to-repair advocates seeking legislation to liberalize do-it-yourself repairs and tech companies fighting against proposals for loosened restrictions in every state house that has introduced them. Apple said it will deploy the program through a new and dedicated online store early next year, offering more than 200 individual parts and tools, “enabling customers to complete the most common repairs” on models in the iPhone 12 and 13 lineups.

Nearly a quarter (24.4%) of Sonos' FY 2021 sales were generated through its direct-to-consumer (DTC) channel for the year ended Oct. 2, up from 21.4% in fiscal ’20 and 12% in fiscal ’19, said the company’s 10-K annual report. Sonos expects the DTC channel to continue to contribute to growth, as it builds direct relationships with current and prospective customers through Sonos.com and the Sonos app "to drive sales."

Electronics had the highest online out-of-stock levels as of Tuesday, Adobe reported in a Wednesday email. Overall, out-of-stock messages were up 8% in a week; for November, they were up 261% vs. pre-pandemic levels in November 2019, it said.

Two of the world’s top five PC vendors sounded the common refrain Tuesday of elevated order backlogs and inability to meet surging demand due to component shortages and supply chain bottlenecks. Dell Technologies and HP both reported significant swings toward commercial PC demand as workplace customers strive to refresh legacy notebooks, desktops and workstations that predate the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Wireless Speaker and Audio Association (WiSA) is hoping to ride what Summit Wireless CEO Brett Moyer sees as an affirmation of the TV as the “central gateway” into the home’s entertainment room, the executive told us in an interview. The COVID-19 pandemic helped prop up the TV as the central screen in the home after several years of losing younger viewers' eye share to tablets and smartphones, Moyer said. Now the smart TV's growing sophistication as an interactive device in the streaming age is making it, again, “the center of the house,” he said.

Pointing to enterprise traffic increasingly being wireless, Ericsson plans to boost its presence in related cloud-based offerings with buying Vonage for $6.2 billion, announced Monday. Analysts evinced some skepticism about the deal, which Ericsson said should conclude in the first half of 2022.

Best Buy’s domestic revenue edged ahead 1.2% to $11.9 billion in Q3 of fiscal 2022 on 2% comparable sales growth, riding strength in appliances, home theater and mobile phones, said CEO Corie Barry on an earnings call Tuesday. Domestic online comparable sales fell 10.1% for the quarter ended Oct. 31 vs. a gain of 173.7% in the year-earlier COVID-19-affected quarter, said the company.

Amazon promised “thousands” of discounted items for Cyber Monday “deals weekend” running Saturday-Monday. Prime members get 30 minutes of early access to the “hottest Lightning Deals” on Amazon.com, said the e-commerce leader's Monday preview.