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The European Union sealed an agreement for the creation of a single patent system across 25 countries, bringing to an end decades of argument. The measure aims to boost competitiveness and innovation as it reduces red tape for inventors and brings patent costs in line with other economies like the U.S. and Japan.
The European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in Strasbourg in favor of the new rules Tuesday, after governments backed the same rules Monday. The new patent should come into force in 2014, and a new unified patent court will be set up in Paris with some specialist services located in London and Munich. It will mean an inventor can file a single application with the European Patent Office with no need to validate it one by one in each country, a process that involves complex validation requirements and stacks up huge translation costs.
EU Approves the Creation of Common Patent System for Bloc
At least five applications have been made to take part in the mobile spectrum auction that will allow 4G services in the UK. The UK’s four mobile operators – O2, Vodafone, EE and Three – submitted applications along with an initial deposit of £100,000.
The groups are keen to acquire the lower frequency 800MHz band that can be used to broadcast fast 4G mobile services such as data-heavy video and gaming on the move. BT has also expressed initial interest, although only at the higher, and likely much cheaper, 2.6 GHz frequency that can be used to provide capacity needed to deliver faster speeds for voice and data users in local areas. Both bands are being packaged into smaller lots so that they can be acquired by multiple operators. The window for applying shut at 4pm on Dec 11.
Top UK mobile operators apply for 4G
Facebook has made it official: Its users will no longer get a vote in how the giant social network handles their personal information. And the votes that they did cast over the past week rejecting Facebook's proposed changes to privacy policies will not count.
Facebook said it has already adopted the policy changes. An external auditor reviewed and confirmed the final results, Facebook said. Nearly 669,000 Facebook users voted, most of them opposed to the policy changes, including taking away their right to vote on policy changes. Yet that was less than 1% of the 1 billion Facebook users around the globe, and Facebook requires 30% of users to cast ballots for the vote to be binding. That means 300 million users would have had to vote.
Facebook vote results: New policies are in, voting rights are out
[Commentary] Is the removal of the right to vote a crushing blow for online democracy? Hardly, because there isn’t any democratic right inherent in using Facebook, and there never has been — and you could argue that encouraging people to believe they have democratic rights when they actually don’t is the kind of approach that totalitarian states use, and is probably more dangerous in the long term than admitting that your vote doesn’t matter.
If it makes you as a Facebook user feel any better, it’s not just your vote that doesn’t count: as a result of the way that co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg controls the board of directors of the company through voting proxies and a number of other perfectly legal methods, the votes of the majority of Facebook shareholders don’t really count either. The social network has what’s called a dual-voting share structure — meaning some shares have 10 times as many votes attached to them as the regular class — and Zuckerberg controls a majority of the super-voting shares (other tech companies such as Google also use this structure). And since he also controls the board, his word is effectively law.
Why it’s a good thing that Facebook has given up on democracy
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) called on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to relax its rules for electronic device use on airplanes or face legislation from her forcing it to do so. The FAA said earlier this year that it was reviewing its policies regarding electronic devices, which have come under fire from both airline passengers and electronic manufacturers in recent years. Sen McCaskill said the result of the FAA's review should be more electronic device use.
Sen McCaskill threatens legislation on airplane electronic device rules
A coalition of technology companies sent a letter to key lawmakers, calling for Congress to provide more airwaves for smartphones and tablet computers. The letter was signed by Alcatel-Lucent, Apple, Cisco, Ericsson, Intel, Nokia, Qualcomm, Research In Motion and Samsung.
Although the Federal Communications Commission is currently working to implement a law to auction some TV stations' airwaves, called spectrum, to cellular carriers, the companies said more auctions will be necessary. The companies said that "authorizing new spectrum auctions is timely and relevant" to the debate over the "fiscal cliff" of automatic spending cuts and tax increases. The companies urged the top Democrats and Republicans on the House and Senate technology committees to look into auctioning some of the spectrum currently used by federal agencies.
Apple, Samsung, RIM push Congress for more airwaves HTSC: Don't Forget Government Spectrum (Broadcasting&Cable)
Google announced that the number of requests it receives each week to remove links to allegedly infringing websites in its search results has grown ten-fold over the past six months.
The number of copyright removal requests sent to Google has risen to more than 2.5 million per week from 250,000 in six months, Google Legal Director Fred von Lohmann said in a company blog post. He said the number spiked after it launched its copyright removals feature in May. "As policymakers evaluate how effective copyright laws are, they need to consider the collateral impact copyright regulation has on the flow of information online," von Lohmann writes. When asked about the spike in take-down requests, a Google spokesperson said they believe some of the increase is from Google streamlining the process to submit requests, and also due in part to copyright owners using more sophisticated tools to identify piracy and send notices to Google.
Google: Copyright removal requests spike to 2.5 million per week
The National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters (NABOB) has added its voice to the chorus of minority groups asking the Federal Communications Commission to delay a vote on loosening the limits on newspaper/TV and radio/newspaper cross-ownership.
In a filing at the FCC, NABOB made it clear they were against the rules, not just concerned they had not been sufficiently vetted for their impact on minorities. "Any relaxation of the FCC's ownership rules will further the ongoing precipitous decline in minority broadcast ownership," the group said. NABOB is also concerned the FCC has not adopted a definition of "eligible entity" that will boost minority ownership. "NABOB urges the commission to delay issuance of the report and order in this proceeding until the Commission has adopted a policy to promote minority ownership of broadcast facilities, as required by the U.S. third Circuit Court of Appeals."
NABOB: FCC Should Delay Ownership Vote
We’re announcing the availability of the first version of the Connect America Cost Model. At the end of our public process, it will become the cost model the Bureau relies on to decide how to distribute up to $9 billion in Connect America funding in price cap areas to support the provision of voice service and build-out of broadband-capable networks in rural America. This is a significant milestone in our implementation of the USF/ICC Transformation Order. Today’s model is the first of what are likely to be several versions; it was developed to allow testing of multiple scenarios and does not incorporate policy decisions at this point. With the help of comment from the public, we will make adjustments and changes until we adopt the final model in the coming months. The model is available to be examined and tested by any interested party pursuant to the procedures specified in the Protective Order
FCC Announces Availability of Connect America Cost Model
A new report from the World Intellectual Property Organization -- the IP arm of the United Nations -- has documented that proliferation of patents (and trademarks, and industrial designs) as it's played out on the world stage. And their findings are pretty staggering. The study tracks data as of 2011, detailing IP trends on a worldwide, and country-by-country, basis. And while the report lends itself to a major headline -- that China's patent office has ousted the United States’ as the world's largest -- the real story here is the fact that innovation, overall and officially, is on the rise. Around the world.
The State of Intellectual Property Around the World