Innovation Policy Post

Rep. Boucher, D-Va., is vowing to bring up privacy legislation in the House next year – regardless of which party ends up in control after the elections.  Last week, CCIA submitted a statement for the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on how to update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act for the digital age.  CCIA’s statement focuses on how and why ECPA must be updated to accommodate  new and increasingly prevalent technologies such as geolocational information and cloud computing.  These new technologies offer great opportunities for users, but also subject their personal information to uncertain and unclear privacy protections.  

CCIA’s concern is Internet users won’t fully adopt and implement new and valuable technologies, unless privacy rights get more clarity than ECPA currently provides.  

Senate Judiciary Committee leaders and staff are getting an earful from a broad coalition of tech companies, consumers’ groups and Internet engineers about a newly introduced bill it hoped to markup this week that would give the DOJ a new tool to essentially shut down domains accused of copyright infringement.

Tech companies and consumer, library and privacy groups sent a letter to Senate Judiciary committee leadership Monday, asking them to consider how proposed copyright enforcement measures in S. 3804 would impact free speech on the Internet before the Senate Judiciary Committee votes on the newly introduced bill. A markup had been scheduled for Thursday.

This month, the PTO issued for the very first time a five-item research agenda to be overseen by the new Office of Chief Economist.  This deserves applause, both for innovating and for taking a major step in ensuring that the patent system promotes innovation and economic growth -- not just patents.

For the last five years, Congress has struggled with major patent reform legislation to no avail, despite major studies by the National Academies and the Federal Trade Commission, both of which recommended major changes.  

While prospects for Congressional action on comprehensive immigration reform this year remain bleak, there has been some action on narrower immigration bills. CCIA has supported and continues to support comprehensive immigration reform that would address long-standing issues of inflexible visa caps and backlogs faced by skilled foreign workers and their employers.

However, one piece of legislation enacted in August illustrates how an inappropriate linking of legal immigration and illegal immigration could potentially be highly problematic.

Geneva – Stevie Wonder started a sing along Monday at the opening of a meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization. The blind soul singer, who has sold tens of millions of albums, asked the 184 member UN agency for better copyright laws that respect the rights of artists, but would unlock copyrighted material the disabled need.

The House Judiciary subcommittee on competition asked the FTC, several antitrust experts and some industry advocates and critics whether current antitrust rules are working and should be enforced for some of the most innovative companies in the economy.

FTC Competition Bureau Director Richard Feinstein said the existing antitrust laws work in the high tech arena. He said it’s not illegal to have a monopoly – just to engage in predatory and exclusionary conduct like Intel did.