Three top patent law experts and Culver Franchising’s General Counsel Steven Anderson are to testify at a Tuesday House IP Subcommittee hearing on effects on patent law of the Supreme Court’s May ruling in TC Heartland v. Kraft Foods Group Brands, the House Judiciary Committee said Friday. Heartland limited eligible court venues for patent infringement lawsuits (see 1705220045). The ruling was seen as negating the need for a wider patent venue bill like the 2016 Venue Equity and Non-Uniformity Elimination Act, but could require a narrower bill to close any remaining loopholes (see 1705230050). Santa Clara University law professor Colleen Chien, George Mason University Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property Senior Scholar Adam Mossoff and Kellogg, Hansen patent lawyer John Thorne also will testify. The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 2141 Rayburn. Heartland “was a major victory for the integrity of our patent system, but the fight against patent trolls cannot end here,” said House IP Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif.

House Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, said Thursday he plans to circulate draft legislation on autonomous vehicle technology regulation by the start of the August recess. Latta committed earlier this year to working on autonomous vehicle legislation and his subcommittee had hearings on issues that might need to be addressed (see 1702140042 and 1703280005). House Digital Commerce wants to “make sure that we get the right things” into the legislation and is prioritizing work on the bills, amid concerns that states and municipalities could act on their own in a way that creates a regulatory patchwork for the autonomous vehicle industry, Latta said during a Telecommunications Industry Association event. The legislation will reflect the subcommittee's focus on a “soft touch” legislative approach on emerging technologies (see 1702080078), Latta said. The panel also wants to ensure any legislation looks at autonomous vehicle issues “over the horizon” five-to-10 years into the future since that's how the private sector examines such issues, he said. The subcommittee also wants to ensure it's “helping people and not hindering” on cybersecurity issues involving emerging technologies, though it recognizes the rising threat caused by distributed denial-of-service attacks and ransomware as seen in the WannaCry attacks (see 1705120055 and 1705150008), Latta said.

A coalition of U.S. tech companies, including Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft, is urging House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., to make changes to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Act, which expires at the end of the year unless reauthorized. A Friday letter also signed by Computer & Communications Industry Association, the i2Coalition and Internet Association said reauthorization legislation should codify NSA termination of the "about" collection of the upstream program (see 1705010010 and 1704280062) "with the imprimatur of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to correct deficiencies that implicate the constitutional rights of U.S. citizens." Reauthorization should mandate judicial oversight for government queries of contents for communications of U.S. persons when they're not the target of surveillance, the coalition said. The letter urged more oversight and transparency of the program "to improve confidence in both its utility and lawfulness" such as allowing companies to disclose the number of requests for data they get from law enforcement and more declassification of FISC orders. The intelligence community should provide more information about how communications of U.S. persons incidentally collected are used, the coalition said. TechFreedom Executive Director Austin Carson said the changes would ensure surveillance concerns "don't prevent new innovations or startups on our shores -- or drive existing companies offshore." Access Now U.S. Policy Manager Amie Stepanovich blogged the coalition's proposed Section 702 changes could be a "significant first step" to drive the trans-Atlantic data sharing framework Privacy Shield through its first review (see 1704200034). She said the framework "urgently needs substantial reform to bring its data protection elements in line with E.U. law and ensure the proper level of protection for personal data."

Reps. John Delaney, D-Md., and Pete Olson, R-Texas, formed the Artificial Intelligence Caucus aimed at informing lawmakers about the technology's impact on society and the economy, they announced Wednesday. They said the caucus already has been meeting with academic, government and industry experts and will participate in an IBM-hosted congressional briefing June 28. "AI will only continue to grow and policymakers have a responsibility to be forward thinking with respect to the revolutionary applications of it," said Olson, who's on the House Communications Subcommittee. Delaney said lawmakers can "either get caught flat-footed or ... proactively anticipate how things will change and work on smart policies to make sure that the country benefits as much as possible overall. We have to start becoming future-focused when it comes to policy.” Other members in the caucus, all Democrats, are: Reps. Andre Carson of Indiana, Debbie Dingell of Michigan, Anna Eshoo of California, Derek Kilmer of Washington and Jared Polis of Colorado.

Testifying at the House Communications Subcommittee’s Wednesday hearing on emergency alerts will be NAB Chief Technology Officer Sam Matheny; CGM Advisors CEO Chris Guttman-McCabe, a former CTIA official; and Qualcomm Director-Engineering Farrokh Khatibi. A GOP memo, dated Monday, said the hearing is part of a broader look at emergency communications: “Earlier this year, FirstNet established a public-private partnership for the deployment of a nationwide wireless broadband network for the Nation’s First Responders and steady progress is being made in the deployment of next generation 911 networks. This hearing will examine the third prong of public safety communications -- emergency alerting -- including its current state and its future against the backdrop of these and other evolving technologies.” It included sections detailing the emergency alert system, ATSC 3.0 and wireless emergency alerts. “In addition to EAS and WEA, social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have emerged as mechanisms for emergency communications,” the memo said. “Extensive work has been undertaken and continues in both academia and public safety to ascertain the impact and use of social media in times of emergency and as an alerting tool.”

Rep. Ryan Costello, R-Pa., introduced a companion bill Thursday to Senate legislation (see 1703150036) to “allow servicemembers to terminate their cable, satellite television, and Internet access service contracts while deployed.” HR-2409 has one co-sponsor: Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash. It was referred to the Veterans Affairs Committee.

Microsoft Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith and American University College of Law professor Jennifer Daskal will testify at a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism hearing Wednesday on law enforcement access to data across borders. In January, Microsoft successfully fended off a government search warrant that sought a customer's emails stored in a server in Ireland (see 1701240057 and 1607140071). Experts like Daskal have supported changes to the slow mutual legal assistance treaty process, which allow law enforcement agencies of different countries to share information for criminal investigations and prosecutions. Smith, Daskal and Christopher Kelly, who heads the digital evidence laboratory in the Massachusetts attorney general's office, will testify on the second panel of the 2:30 p.m. hearing, which will be in 226 Dirksen. Richard Downing, acting deputy assistant attorney general in DOJ's Criminal Division, and UK Deputy National Security Adviser Paddy McGuinness will testify on the first panel.

Oracle, backing a proposed return to Title I Communications Act net neutrality rules, sees debate having "inexplicably evolved into a highly political hyperbolic battle, substantially removed from technical, economic, and consumer reality," it wrote FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Friday in docket 17-108 after previously backing this move. "The stifling open internet regulations and broadband classification that the FCC put in place in 2015," the year of the past net neutrality order, "threw out" the "technological consensus" and "certainty," Oracle said. "Reclassifying broadband internet access as an information service will eliminate unnecessary burdens on, and competitive imbalances for, ISPs. ... It will restore the FTC as the impartial cop on the broadband beat with authority to reach all of the participants." The company was part of a meeting with Pai last month, before he unveiled a draft NPRM to undo Title II common-carrier net neutrality rules (see 1704260002 and 1705050025).

The Senate Judiciary Committee's Crime and Terrorism Subcommittee set a May 10 hearing on U.S. border agents' increasing requests for travelers to provide access to phones and other electronic devices at airports and border crossings. Civil society and reporters' groups were among those who campaigned against the practice. Reps. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, and Jared Polis, D-Colo., and Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore. filed the Protecting Data at the Border Act (HR-1899/S-823), which would require law enforcement to get a warrant based on probable cause to search electronic devices of U.S. citizens and green card holders (see 1703170019, 1704040081 and 1704050030). The hearing will begin at 2:30 p.m. in 226 Dirksen, said a notice.

IP Subcommittee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and four other House members formed the Congressional Caucus on Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality Technologies (the Reality Caucus) Wednesday to focus on those technologies. Reps. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., Bill Flores, R-Texas, and Ted Lieu, D-Calif., will co-chair the caucus with Issa. “This ‘Reality Caucus’ will work to foster information sharing between Congress" and the technology industry, the five co-chairs said. “These technologies have shown tremendous potential. ... As these technologies develop, questions will inevitably rise in privacy, intellectual property, and other areas.” The caucus will have the “opportunity to educate our colleagues and others to ensure Congress is doing all it can to encourage -- rather than hinder -- these enterprising fields,” the co-chairs said. Entertainment Software Association President Michael Gallagher lauded the formation.