Qualcomm formally asked the U.S. District Court in San Jose Monday to dismiss the FTC's complaint against the company, in which the agency alleges the smartphone chip firm had a monopoly in baseband processors used in cellphones and other devices. The FTC voted 2-1 to file the complaint in January, shortly before then-President Barack Obama left office (see 1701170065). Then-Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen dissented in that vote and since being named the FTC's acting chairman said the action was flawed (see 1701230043 and 1702230012). The FTC's complaint “does not plead facts supporting the basic elements of an antitrust claim and does not allege a plausible antitrust theory,” Qualcomm said in its motion (in Pacer). “Most strikingly, the Complaint does not contain any factual allegations of anticompetitive harm to Qualcomm’s rivals in the supply of modem chips. Moreover, the Complaint’s theories of harm to competition are foreclosed by governing law and are implausible on their face. Each of these fundamental flaws is independently sufficient to warrant dismissal.” District Judge Lucy Koh set a May 12 deadline for the FTC to respond to Qualcomm's motion. The agency didn't comment.

IBM scientists got a patent for a machine learning system that can contribute to crash protection in autonomous vehicles, the company announced. The system can dynamically shift control of an autonomous vehicle between driver and vehicle control processor in the event of potential emergency. It uses sensors and artificial intelligence to determine potential safety concerns and control whether self-driving vehicles operate autonomously or relinquish control.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act Section 512 safe harbor provisions let YouTube evade paying market music licensing rates, costing the U.S. music industry between $650 million and $1 billion in annual royalty revenue during 2015, the Phoenix Center reported. The group did its study using “accepted economy modeling techniques” to simulate how YouTube's service affects revenue. There's a “sizeable effect [which] lends credence to the recording industry's complaints about YouTube's use of the safe harbor,” said Chief Economist George Ford in a Wednesday news release. YouTube owner Google didn't comment.

Director Michelle Lee highlighted Patent and Trademark Office work on its patent prosecution highway footprint in Latin America, during a Wednesday speech at the Trilateral Conference in Seville, Spain. PTO, the European Patent Office and Japan Patent Office jointly lead the Trilateral Co-operation, which oversees global filing of patents. PTO expanded the PPH program to Argentina in early March, more than a year after the program began in Brazil, Lee said. PTO hopes to extend the program, currently set to expire next year, and broaden “the scope of the arrangement,” Lee said in prepared remarks. She continued to tout PTO's work on improving patent quality via its Enhanced Patent Quality Initiative. The speech was Lee's first international appearance since the Department of Commerce and PTO confirmed earlier this month that Lee is still PTO director. Then-President Barack Obama nominated Lee to lead PTO in 2014.

Nearly one in five mobile phones and one in four videogame consoles shipped internationally are counterfeit, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said Tuesday. “Smartphone batteries, chargers, memory cards, magnetic stripe cards, solid state drives and music players are also increasingly falling prey to counterfeiters,” OECD said in a news release. On average, 6.5 percent of global trade in information and communication technology (ICT) goods consists of counterfeit products, according to an analysis of 2013 customs data, OECD said. That's significantly higher than the 2.5 percent of overall goods found to be counterfeit, in a 2016 report. “Launched just ahead of the 2017 OECD Global Anti-Corruption and Integrity Forum on March 30-31, the report says the high value of smartphones and ICT accessories and insatiable demand makes them a lucrative target for counterfeiters, and cautions that the number and range of affected products is growing,” the organization said. “Counterfeit ICT goods entail health and safety risks, service outages and loss of income for companies and governments.”

The Electronic Frontier Foundation criticized the Register of Copyrights Selection and Accountability Act (HR-1695) Monday, as expected (see 1703240051). The bill, which the House Judiciary Committee plans to mark up Wednesday (see 1703270041), would make the register a presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed position with a 10-year term of office. EFF believes HR-1695 will “allow powerful incumbent interests to use their lobbying power to control this increasingly politicized office,” said Policy Fellow Kerry Sheehan in a blog post. “No president is going to select an appointee that will be shot down by special interests. And while the Librarian of Congress still oversees the Copyright Office, the Librarian of Congress would not be able to remove the Register no matter how poorly they perform their job.” The register already has “gone from being a neutral expert to a political player” over the past decade and HR-1695 “will inevitably accelerate the politicization” of the Copyright Office, Sheehan said.

The Supreme Court has denied a petition for a writ of certiorari Monday from Universal Music Group's Capitol Records, EMI and other record labels seeking a review of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' 2016 ruling against the labels' claims that Vimeo ignored infringing content posted to its website. The 2nd Circuit ruled that pre-1972 recordings included in videos are covered by safe harbor provisions in Digital Millennium Copyright Act Section 512 (see 1606160071). ABKCO Music & Records and RIAA backed labels' petition in amicus briefs. RIAA said the 2nd Circuit's ruling “upends the law on which the music industry has come to rely.” UMG and Vimeo didn't comment. The Supreme Court separately heard oral argument Monday in the TC Heartland v. Kraft Foods Group Brands patent venue law review case (see 1703270053).

Some Supreme Court justices appeared to struggle during oral argument Monday in TC Heartland v. Kraft Foods Group Brands over how much they're willing to rewrite existing rules on the venue for patent infringement lawsuits. Heartland Food Products Group asked the top court to review 28 U.S. Code Section 1400(b), which requires a plaintiff to bring a patent infringement suit only in a U.S. District Court where the defendant resides or has an “established place of business.” The tech sector has taken a substantial interest because of the case's potential to restrict movement of patent cases to Texas' Marshall and Tyler-based district court and others perceived as friendly to plaintiffs (see 1701170066). Justice Stephen Breyer directly questioned how concerns about the Marshall/Tyler district court's oversized role in patent law affected the Heartland case, which involved a transfer of a suit from Delaware to Indiana. Chief Justice John Roberts indicated he was in favor of Heartland's argument. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, Public Knowledge and many top tech firms supported Heartland via amicus briefs. ACT|The App Association, BSA|The Software Alliance and the Software & Information Industry Association were among Heartland's tech backers. The sector strongly supported Heartland's petition to the Supreme Court for writ of certiorari (see 1610140042). House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said in February he would re-evaluate whether to include language in future patent legislation aimed at revamping rules for placement of patent infringement suits in federal courts depending on the Heartland ruling (see 1702010069). The Supreme Court “has a chance to help rein in decades of misuse of the patent system by taking away a key tool for patent trolls -- venue shopping,” said Computer & Communications Industry Association President Ed Black in a statement. “We hope they use it.”

Mobile phone supplier BLU Products sells LTE devices in the U.S. and around the world that violate LG Electronics patents, LG alleged Monday in a motion (in Pacer) in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Delaware, for permission to file a complaint under seal. LG for about a year has “repeatedly contacted” BLU to offer to license the phone supplier its “portfolio of standards-essential patents” on “fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms,” said the motion. Portions of the complaint refer to confidential letters and a nondisclosure agreement LG sent BLU that are “not available through a public source,” said the motion. LG “would be harmed if this information became widely known,” it said. The squabble involves five patents "that have been declared as essential to the LTE standard," LG said in a Monday statement announcing the filing of an identical complaint against BLU at the International Trade Commission. "These are the first complaints LG has filed against another phone manufacturer," the company said. They were filed "because BLU, the largest seller of unlocked smartphones in the United States, has ignored all of LG's attempts to discuss a license to LG's intellectual property," it said. "LG is determined to enforce its intellectual property rights." BLU representatives didn’t comment Monday.

The Copyright Royalty Board issued an NPRM to amend rules for filing compulsory license royalty claims to reflect CRB implementation of its new electronic filing system. The Library of Congress said in October it would bring the e-filing system live by late 2017 (see 1610170055). The compulsory license filing rules will be amended to “accommodate electronic filing of claims,” CRB said Thursday. The board also proposes to consolidate “nearly identical regulations for cable and satellite claims and make other amendments to the claims regulation to remove outdated references and enhance readability.” Comments are due April 17.