Digital Discourse / Archives for IP

Reps. Schiff & Goodlatte: Thanks for the IP Protection Shout Out

February 25, 2013 By

SIIA thanks Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) for urging Congress to help protect IP. Last week, they sent a letter to fellow representatives that highlighted the economic impact of copyright theft, and asked for participation in the Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus. Schiff said in a statement to POLITICO that the caucus will continue working to cut the cash flow for pirating websites.

SIIA looks forward to working with administration and congressional leaders to fight intellectual property theft and protect American businesses, exports, and jobs.

Laura Greenback is Communications Director at SIIA. Follow the SIIA Public Policy team at @SIIAPolicy.

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Filed Under: Anti-Piracy, Policy, Policy - Intellectual Property Tagged With: , ,

SIIA Calls for Increased IP Protections from ICANN as New gTLD Applications are Announced

June 13, 2012 By

SIIA is reviewing 1,930 new generic top level domain (gTLD) applications—unveiled today by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN )—in order to identify potential intellectual property threats as part of the public comment and objection process. SIIA believes that ICANN must do more to ensure that proper safeguards are in place to protect intellectual property rights before any new gTLDs are approved and go live on the Internet.

SIIA supports, respects and has participated in the ICANN multi-stakeholder process, and a number of our members are new gTLD applicants themselves. Now that the scope and content of applications are known, ICANN will have another opportunity to address intellectual property concerns, and must do so. The rights protection mechanisms that ICANN has required gTLD applicants to implement are inadequate. While some gTLD applicants are voluntarily providing more protection than ICANN requires, this is not the case with all applicants.

SIIA and other concerned groups have promulgated “Enhanced Safeguards for New gTLDS Targeting Creative Sectors”—or gTLDs that pose a particular threat to become havens for infringement and related criminal and illegal activity. SIIA will evaluate and publicly comment on how applications stack up against these standards—especially whether the registry (the gTLD applicant) has committed to offer publicly accessible, authenticated, verified Whois data for all second-level domain names within the registry, and to implement standards that ensure prompt investigation and resolution of rights holder complaints.

The ICANN gTLD program, as currently formulated, represents a significant challenge to trademark and copyright owners,” continued Bain. “ICANN’s program may open up new opportunities, but it also presents a whole new frontier of potential—and likely—abuse by those seeking to profit from the name, reputation, and content of others. Intellectual property owners will need to familiarize themselves quickly with the Rights Protection Mechanisms in the gTLD Applicant Guidebook, and expend even more resources and time to protect themselves against cybersquatters and infringers.

Scott BainScott Bain is Chief Litigation Counsel & Director, Internet Anti-piracy at SIIA.

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Filed Under: Anti-Piracy, Policy, Policy - Intellectual Property Tagged With: , ,

ICANN Guidebook Vote a Challenge to Trademark and Copyright Owners

June 20, 2011 By

The Board of Directors of ICANN today approved a proposal to add hundreds and possibly thousands of new generic top level domains (gTLDs) to the Internet. The proposal has been years in the making, and the 400-page Draft Applicant Guidebook that describes it has undergone seven major revisions. SIIA believes that the decision to approve the Guidebook represents a significant threat to copyright owners.

The new gTLD program, as currently formulated, represents a significant challenge to trademark and copyright owners. While SIIA favored a targeted approach to address specific gTLD needs, such as non-latin script gTLDs, ICANN’s approved program is extremely broad. Intellectual property owners will need to familiarize themselves quickly with the Rights Protection Mechanisms in the gTLD Applicant Guidebook, and expend even more resources and time in enforcing their rights against cybersquatters and infringers.

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Filed Under: Anti-Piracy, Content, Copyright, Policy, Software Tagged With: , ,

Movement on privacy, IP, cybersecurity in Washington

May 17, 2011 By

ECPA/Privacy
Today Sen. Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) introduced legislation to update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). In response, SIIA issued a statement applauding the Chairman’s leadership and characterizing this as a big step toward making sure that the information Americans store virtually in the cloud receives the same level of protection as the information stored in their homes. Given the broad coalition of supporters and interest expressed by House Judiciary Chair Lamar Smith (R-TX), this issue is expected to receive considerable attention in both the House and Senate in the months ahead.

Cybersecurity
Last Thursday the White House released its long-awaited cybersecurity legislative proposal to address cybersecurity threats to the Nation’s critical infrastructure. In response to the proposal, SIIA released a statement commending the commitment to the strong public-private partnership and pledging to continue working with Administration officials and Congressional leaders on this critical issue. As if this wasn’t enough to increase the attention on cybersecurity policy, the Administration followed-up on Monday by announcing the U.S. International Strategy for Cyberspace that provides the President’s “vision for the future of the Internet” and sets an “agenda for partnering with other nations and peoples to achieve that vision.” Importantly, the plan emphasizes adhering to commitments to freedom, privacy and the free flow of information.

Intellectual Property
Also last Thursday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Leahy, ranking member Grassley, and Senator Hatch introduced “The Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act” (The PROTECT IP Act, s. 968), a legislation to provide the government and rights holders with improved tools to help stop the use websites to profit from piracy and counterfeiting of software, content and other intellectual property. SIIA issued a statement in support of the legislation, and urged Congress to make this issue a priority. The bill is included on the agenda to be mark up at the Senate Judiciary Committee business meeting this Thursday. On Sunday, the comment period for ICANN’s Draft Applicant Guidebook (6th version) closed. SIIA submitted comments urging ICANN to delay its vote on the DAG and address remaining concerns with the rights protection mechanisms and whois provisions. The ICANN Board will be meeting June 20 in Singapore to consider whether to approve the Guidebook at that time and open the process for new gTLD applications.

For SIIA policy updates including upcoming events, news and analysis, subscribe to SIIA’s weekly policy email newsletter, Digital Policy Roundup.

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Filed Under: Digital Policy Roundup, Government, Policy, Software Tagged With: , , , ,

This week’s top 6 IP enforcement headlines

May 4, 2011 By

Mike Tyson’s Tattooer Sues Warner Bros. (Courthouse News Service)
The tattoo artist who tattooed Mike Tyson’s face sued Warner Bros., alleging that they infringed the copyright in the tattoo in their advertisements for the movie, “The Hangover 2.”

Websites Complain About Fake Takedown Notices Being Used On Facebook (PaidContent.org)
Questions are being raised about how Facebook handles copyright and trademark complaints, after bogus complaints were used to remove the Facebook pages of at least three tech news websites over the past several days.

Will Netflix Curb Movie Piracy? (The New York Times)
The article asks whether Netflix legitimate streaming of movies will put a dent in movie piracy.

NYC Bill Would Criminalize Buying Knockoff Goods (The Wall Street Journal)
A city lawmaker has introduced a bill that would impose fines or jail time for the purchase of counterfeit goods, including knockoffs of designer handbags and watches. While it is already illegal to sell such goods, this bill would be the first in the U.S. to criminalize their purchase.

Dish, EchoStar to Pay $500M in TiVo Settlement (The Wall Street Journal)
Dish and its former unit EchoStar have agreed to pay TiVo $500 million to settle years of ongoing patent litigation over digital video recorder technology.

Viacom Takes a Final Shot at Youtube (PaidContent.org)
Viacom submitted what is likely to be a final set of briefs in the Viacom-Youtube appeal, making two main arguments focused on what type of “copyright-policing” system we should have.

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Filed Under: Anti-Piracy, Content, Policy, Policy - Intellectual Property Tagged With: ,

Heavy emphasis on IP issues continues in Washington

February 14, 2011 By

Last week, SIIA welcomed Mark MacCarthy as our new VP for Public Policy. Mark brings with him more than 30 years of public policy experience, where he has played a leading role in both the public and private sectors, as well as a thought leader teaching on communications and technology for many years.

The heavy emphasis on IP issues continued last week, with a key House Judiciary Sbcmte. conducting a hearing on Patent Reform, and Cmte. Chair Lamar Smith (R-TX) and IP Sbcmte. Chair Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) making personal commitments to move “fast out of the gate” on the issue — the House legislation is currently being drafted. Earlier in the week, President Obama issued an executive order establishing two intellectual property enforcement advisory committees designed to improve the Federal Government’s intellectual property enforcement efforts. This week, the Senate Judiciary Committee will proceed with a hearing on online infringement.

Last week also saw the highly anticipated introduction of multiple privacy bills, including one from Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL) reintroducing the “BEST Practices Act” with only minor changes from last session. Also, consumer advocate Jackie Speier (D-CA) introduced two privacy bills last week, one focused on “do not track,” and the other on financial information privacy.

Also of note last week, Federal CIO Vivek Kundra released a detailed Federal Cloud Strategy. The paper is a follow-up to the cloud-first policy announced in late 2010, providing a USG strategy for migration and outlining how the Fed. Gov. can accelerate the safe and secure adoption of cloud computing.

For more SIIA policy updates, including upcoming events, news and analysis, subscribe to the Digital Policy Roundup, SIIA’s weekly policy email newsletter.

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Filed Under: Anti-Piracy, Content, Digital Policy Roundup, Policy, Software Tagged With: , , , ,

House and Senate Committee leaders give positive signals on key tech policy issues

January 24, 2011 By

Last week, House Judiciary Sbcmte. Chair for IP, Competition and the Internet Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) made his priorities public. No real surprises, but it served as official confirmation that patent reform, copyright enforcement and net neutrality are at the top of the list. Not wasting any time, the Subcommittee will hold its first hearing on Patent Reform this Wednesday. Indeed, the new Committee structure instituted by new Chair Lamar Smith (R-TX) was intended to grant a substantially greater focus on IP protection and Internet issues. As a founding leader of the Congressional Internet Caucus, Chairman Goodlatte is just the guy to champion many of these key issues to the benefit of innovation, e-commerce and job growth.

Meanwhile, the Senate Judiciary Cmte. priority list looks similar, with Chairman Leahy (D-VT) recently highlighting his priorities to include an even broader slate, adding revision of the electronic communications privacy (ECPA) law and wiretapping (CALEA) to patent reform and combating online copyright infringement and counterfeiting (COICA). In fact, the Senate Cmte. is moving even faster than its House counterpart by moving to consider draft patent reform legislation this Thursday.

Of course, we already knew that privacy would be on the front burner in the House and Senate Commerce Committees. That’s continuing to take shape as well. Recent reports continue to indicate that Sen. Kerry (D-MA) will lead on this, with hearings likely in mid-February and his draft legislation on the issue likely to be introduced in the near future. Importantly, Mary Bono Mack (R-CA), Chair of the House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade, on Thursday sent a letter to her colleagues confirming her commitment to “work diligently” on the issue of privacy “both online and offline,” while also reiterating the complexity of the issue and her commitment to provide for “careful consideration and not ‘knee-jerk’ solutions.” Amen!

In all, while there are many issues Republicans and Democrats radically disagree on, some of these technology issues, like Patent reform and IP protection could possibly be in the right place, at the right time. Stay tuned.

For more SIIA policy updates, subscribe to the Digital Policy Roundup, SIIA’s weekly policy email newsletter.

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