Privacy Multistakeholder Launches on Thursday
The highly anticipated first multistakeholder event will kick of this Thursday, July 12, at the Department of Commerce. Led by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the meeting will be the first in a series of NTIA-convened multistakeholder discussions concerning mobile application transparency, where stakeholders engage in an “open, transparent, consensus-driven process to develop a code of conduct regarding mobile application transparency.” The meeting is open to the public, and an agenda is expected to be made available tomorrow.
Major Action on Several Global IP Issues
Euro Court Permits “used licenses” for software – On July 3, the European Court of Justice held that Oracle could not legally prevent a company from reselling its software when the software at issue had been licensed by Oracle to a third party even though the license included a non-transfer provision. The court concluded that because Oracle’s distribution right was exhausted when it licensed the software to the third party, the defendant, UsedSoft, was permitted to sell these so-called “used licenses” on the secondary market.
ACTA Rejected in Europe – Not surprisingly, on July 4, the European Parliament voted against ratifying ACTA by 478 to 39, with 165 abstentions. The vote leaves considerable uncertainty, as E.U. law holds that the treaty cannot go into effect in the E.U. without the Parliament’s endorsement.
IP Attache Legislation Docketed in House Cmte. – On July 10, House Judiciary Committee Chairmen Lamar Smith (R-TX) unveiled a new draft IP bill, “the Intellectual Property Attaché Act,”. legislation to: (1) move the current attaché program housed with the USPTO to the full DOC; (2) create a new assistant secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property; (3) change the titles and reporting structure of the attaches, and (4) give the PTO Director and new A/S the ability to reach directly into Embassies and direct the IP Attaches there. Chairman Smith also scheduled for full Committee markup for today. The Cmte. recessed without considering the legislation, and the outlook is still uncertain.
ICANN Receives Contract Extension – On July 2, the U.S. DOC announced that it has awarded the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Functions Contract to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). This is not a new role for ICANN, which manages the current IANA Functions Contract that is set to expire on September 30, 2012. The contract will run from October 1, 2012 to September 30, 2015, and has two 2-year option periods, for a total contract period of seven years.
House Subcommittee Reviews SAFE WEB Act this Week
This Thursday, the House Subcommittee on Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade will hold a hearing to discuss the the “U.S. SAFE WEB Act of 2006,” and draft legislation to renew the Federal Trade Commission’s authority to combat cross-border spam, spyware and fraud through reauthorization of the U.S. SAFE WEB Act of 2006 for an additional 7 years. The Act and its grant of authorities to the FTC will expire on December 22, 2013 without reauthorization.
SIIA Calls for Trans-Pacific Partnership Should Promote Cross-Border Flow of Information & Data
On June 29, SIIA and other industry leaders joined in promoting cross-border data flows in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which is currently being negotiated. Specifically, SIIA joined with the National Foreign Trade Council and other trade associations representing a broad range of U.S. companies in a statement of support and a letter to US Trade Representative Ron Kirk, regarding this major priority for the digital economy. Read more here.
Senate Cyber Compromise Expected, Consideration This Month Still Uncertain
An updated draft of a compromise framework on cybersecurity is expected to be made available this week, but the effort being led by Sens. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) has not yet garnered sufficient support to pave a path for Senate consideration of cyber prior to the August recess. It’s still possible that Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) will seek to bring the Lieberman-Collins legislation to the floor absent broader bipartisan consensus on controversial critical infrastructure section.
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David LeDuc is Senior Director, Public Policy at SIIA. He focuses on e-commerce, privacy, cyber security, cloud computing, open standards, e-government and information policy. Follow the SIIA Public Policy team on Twitter at @SIIAPolicy