The President's proposal also provides $22 Million for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which is a huge drop. However, this is due to a proposal to all but eliminate grant programs.

Finally, the proposal provides for $1,404 Million for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), up from an estimated $1,334 Million in FY 2003. The President's budget proposes continuing the practice of diverting fees to other programs. Total projected fees for FY 2004 are $1,504 Million.

See, statement by President Bush, White House summary, Budget and Management Highlights and page with links to more detailed documents.

The following table includes summary statistics from the White House press office's summary of DOC budget estimates. See, HTML or PDF [9 pages] versions.

USPTO. The DOC summary states that the USPTO will be funded at the level of $1,404 Million. The USPTO is funded out of user fees, which are estimated to be $1,504 Million. Hence, $100 Million would be diverted to other government programs. This continues the practice of prior years.

The DOC summary reviews improvements made in the trademark operations of the USPTO. Then, it states that "the patent side struggles to meet performance goals. While patent processing times currently average over two years, including time spent awaiting replies from applicants, patent examiners spend only about 18 hours, on average, on a patent application. PTO faces a backlog of 420,000 patent applications, and, as the accompanying chart shows, patent pendency is likely to rise to over 45 months in 2008 if changes are not made."

The DOC summary continues that "The proposed spending level of $1.4 billion, a $70 million increase over the President’s 2003 Budget, will allow PTO to begin implementation of its strategic plan, which will help address the challenge of accelerating the process for issuing patents. In addition this proposal narrows, by almost half, the amount that PTO’s fees are above spending -- from $193 million in the 2003 Budget to $100 million in the 2004 Budget."

NIST. The DOC summary states that "The budget provides increased funding for National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) laboratories in order to meet Commerce's challenge of promoting state of the art industrial standards that support technological innovation. NIST laboratories specialize in electronics, manufacturing, engineering, chemical science, physics, materials science, building and fire research, and information technology."

The DOC summary also stated that "The 2004 Budget provides an increase of $12 million for homeland security standards development related to biometric identification, threat detection, and high-rise safety. These activities will provide more accurate identification of individuals seeking to enter the United States, improve capability to detect nuclear and radiological weapons and help prevent smuggling of them across our borders, and update building and fire standards along with operational guidance for building owners and emergency responders."

The DOC summary states that "the 2004 Budget proposes to terminate the Advanced Technology Program (ATP)".

The FCC's budget estimates also address the strategic goals of the FCC, which pertain broadband, spectrum, media and homeland security. However, these are all addressed in vague terms.

For example, the document states that "The FCC intends to continue its efforts in FY 2004 to establish regulatory policies that promote competition, innovation, and investment in broadband services. It will also closely monitor and report to Congress and the American people on the Nation’s progress toward the deployment of broadband services in the United States and abroad."

The document also states that "FCC efforts to encourage the highest and best use of spectrum domestically and internationally will become even more essential in FY 2004 if the United States is to encourage the growth and rapid deployment of innovative and efficient communications technologies and services."

It also states that "In conformance with congressional mandates and judicial decisions, in FY 2004 the FCC must revise its media regulations so that media ownership rules promote competition and diversity in a comprehensive, legally sustainable manner and continue to implement the mandated migration to digital modes of delivery."

The proposed FCC budget would enable the FCC to expand its engineering staff. It states that "Managing the electromagnetic spectrum effectively and encouraging the provision of new technologies and services to the public are among the FCC’s most important core functions. Engineering expertise is essential to fulfilling these objectives. The Excellence in Engineering program established in 2001 launched a multi-dimensional, multi-year effort to rebuild the agency’s engineering staff and equipment. These efforts have been necessarily incremental and a number of mission critical functions are not being adequately staffed, including spectrum management, broadband, and competition related engineering matters."

It continues that "We are requesting funding for 20 additional staff with engineering expertise to be devoted to identifying spectrum for new services, handling increased complexities of spectrum sharing and interference analyses, and developing flexible use policies. In addition the increase in staff would enhance the effectiveness of the agency’s work on media-related digital service issues, wireless and network homeland security issues, and advanced wireless and high speed internet access issues."

The White House press office also released a document titled Other Agencies. This document's section on the FCC addresses FCC related legislative proposals. For example, it states that "To continue to promote efficient spectrum use, the Administration is proposing legislation permitting new authority for FCC to set user fees on unauctioned spectrum licenses, based on public-interest and spectrum-management principles. Fee collections are estimated to begin in 2005 and total $1.9 billion in the first 10 years."

It also states that "To encourage television broadcasters to vacate the analog spectrum after 2006, as required by law, the Administration is proposing legislation authorizing FCC to establish an annual lease fee totaling $500 million for the use of analog spectrum by commercial broadcasters beginning in 2007.  Upon return of their analog spectrum license to FCC, individual broadcasters will be exempt from the fee, and fee collections would decline."

Finally, this summary states that "the Administration will again propose establishing a Spectrum Relocation Fund for federal agencies that must move from spectrum that has been auctioned."

The White House press office released a document titled Other Agencies which includes a brief summary of the budget estimates for the FTC. It states that "In 2004, FTC will contribute to the Administration's consumer privacy agenda by helping the victims of identity theft, providing enforcement and outreach on children's on-line privacy, and enforcing against deceptive, mass e-mails (``spam´´).  The Commission also will keep rolling out a national ``do-not-call´´ list that will protect consumers from intrusive telemarketing calls, and bring consistency to the current patchwork of ``do-not-call´´ lists administered by the states and private sector. To carry out these aims, the 2004 Budget proposes $191 million, which will be primarily offset by fee collections from businesses for merger filings and the do-not-call list."

Rep. Eshoo (at right) represents a Silicon Valley district. She and 39 others wrote that "We do not wish to set accounting standards. However, in light of the proposed International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) standard that would mandate the expensing of employee stock options, and FASB's close coordination with IASB, we believe it is important to express our strong concerns about an approach that would limit transparency, truthfulness and accuracy in financial reporting, precisely at a time when America and its investors need these qualities the most. The public interest will not be served by an accounting standard that results in the disclosure of inaccurate corporate financial information and a flawed picture of company performance."

The letter continues that "It is apparent to us that a mandatory expensing standard lacks a clear and widely accepted accounting rationale. Accounting experts have vastly divergent views as to whether employee stock options should be accounted for as a cost to be deducted from earnings. Many respected, independent experts find that the "cost" of employee stock options is already accounted for and disclosed to investors through diluted earnings per share. Investors would be better served by full and complete disclosure of this diluted earnings per share number.

The letter also addresses the impact that expensing would have on the economy. It states that "mandatory expensing would effectively destroy broad-based stock option plans, which enhance financial opportunities for workers at all levels, stimulating economic growth and productivity.  Broad-based employee stock options plans play a vital role in America's economy, helping employees, shareholders, and companies alike.

The Representatives who signed the letter are David Dreier, Anna G. Eshoo, Darrell Issa , Jay Inslee, Joseph Crowley, Adam Smith, Dennis Moore, Zoe Lofgren, Carolyn McCarthy, Gary Miller, Cal Dooley, Jerry Weller, Pete Sessions, Ron Kind, Jennifer Dunn, Mike Honda, Rick Boucher, Bob Goodlatte, Lamar Smith, Tom Davis, J.D. Hayworth, Jane Harman, Doug Ose, David Wu, Joe Barton, Rick Larsen, Amo Houghton, Dennis Cardoza, Steve Israel, George Nethercutt, Darlene Hooley, John Boehner, Mike Simpson, Greg Walden, Butch Otter, Jeff Flake, Chris Cannon, John Carter, Heather Wilson, and Bob Etheridge.

The NTIA has spectrum management responsibilities with respect to spectrum allocated for federal government, including military, use. The FCC has spectrum management responsibilities with respect to spectrum allocated for non federal use.

The MOU states that the FCC and NTIA will meet at least twice per year to conduct joint planning. They are obligated by statute to do this.

The MOU makes no reference to spectrum rights, secondary markets for spectrum, unlicensed spectrum, WiFi, Third Generation (3G) wireless services, the FCC Spectrum Policy Task Force's (SPTF) recent report, or many other current spectrum issues. However, the MOU states that the two agencies will discuss "the actions necessary to promote the efficient use of the spectrum, including spectrum management techniques to promote increased shared use of the spectrum that does not cause harmful interference, as a means of increasing commercial access".

For more information, contact Lisa Gaisford at 202-418-7280 or lgaisfor@fcc.gov, or Clyde Ensslin at censslin@ntia.doc.gov or 202 482-7002.

9:00 AM - 12:00 NOON. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will hold a hearing to assist it in writing a report to the Congress regarding technological protection systems for digitized copyrighted works and to prevent infringement. USPTO Director James Rogan will deliver opening remarks. This report is required by the Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization Act of 2002 (TEACH Act). See, notice in the Federal Register, December 9, 2002, Vol. 67, No. 236, at Pages 72920 - 72921. For more information, contact Michael Shapiro at 703 305-9300 or teach.act@uspto.gov. Location: 2121 Crystal Drive, Crystal Park 2, Room 200 (Patent Theatre), Arlington, VA.

POSTPONED. 9:30 AM. The Senate Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on spectrum issues and the Report [73 pages in PDF] of the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Spectrum Policy Task Force. The witnesses will be Tom Wheeler (P/CEO of the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association), Kevin Kahn (Intel), Paul Kolodzy (Stevens Institute of Technology), Thomas Hazlett (Manhattan Institute), and Michael Calabrese (New America Foundation). Location: Room 253, Russell Building.

9:00 AM. Richard Clarida, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy, will deliver remarks at the Economic Briefing before Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee. Location: Department of the Treasury, Large Conference Room 3327, 1500 Pennsylvania Ave., NW.

10:00 AM. The House Budget Committee will hold an organizational meeting. It will also hear testimony from Mitch Daniels, Director of the Office of Management and Budget. Location: Room 210, Cannon Building.

11:00 AM. Department of Commerce (DOC) officials will host a press briefing on the sections of the President Bush's proposed budget that pertain to intellectual property, technology, science and innovation. The participants will include Phil Bond (Under Secretary for the Technology Administration), Arden Bement (Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology), James Rogan (Directory of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office), Kenneth Juster (Under Secretary for the Bureau of Industry and Security). Press contacts: Brigid Quinn (USPTO) at 703 308-7427 or Connie Correll (TA) at 202 482-1065 or Connie.Correll@ta.doc.gov. See, TA notice. Location: DOC, 14th Street between Constitution and Pennsylvania Avenues, Room 4830.

11:00 AM. Bruce Mehlman (Department of Commerce, Technology Administration), will lead a panel discussion titled "Protecting Digital Value" at the Precursor Group's Annual Economic Outlook Conference.

4:30 PM. The House Education and Workforce Committee will hold its organizational meeting for the 108th Congress. Location: room 2175, Rayburn Building.

6:30 PM. The House Rules Committee will meet. The agenda includes adopting a rule for consideration of HR 395, The Do-Not-Call Implementation Act. Location: Room H-312, The Capitol.

8:30 - 10:00 AM. Harold Furchtgott-Roth and Gregory Sidak of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) will host a press breakfast to discuss pending FCC reviews of telecommunications regulations and media ownership rules. RSVP to Veronique Rodman at vrodman@aei.org or call Heather Dresser at 202 862-5884. Location: AEI, 1150 17th Street, NW.

9:30 AM. The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on judicial nominations. The agenda includes the nomination of Jay Bybee to be a Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals (9thCir). See, notice. Location: Room 226, Dirksen Building.

10:00 AM. The Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing on the nomination of William Donaldson to be a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

10:00 AM. The U.S. Court of Appeals (FedCir) will hear oral argument in Altima Communications v. USITC, No. 02-1110. The U.S. International Trade Commission barred the import by Altima Communications, a Broadcom subsidiary, of certain ethernet networking products found to infringe Intel patents. Fish and Richardson represents Intel in this matter. Location: Courtroom 402, 717 Madison Place, NW.

10:00 AM. The U.S. Court of Appeals (FedCir) will hear oral argument in Crossroads Systems v. Chaparral Network Storage, No. 02-1158. This is an appeal from the U.S. District Court (WDTex) in a patent infringement case involving storage router technology. (D.C. No. 00-CA-217-SS.) Location: Courtroom 203, 717 Madison Place, NW.

10:00 AM. The U.S. Court of Appeals (FedCir) will hear oral argument in Digital Privacy v. RSA Security, No. 02-1440. This is an appeal from the U.S. District Court (EDVa) in a patent infringement case involving the pre-boot protection of unauthorized use of computer programs and data. Location: Courtroom 201, 717 Madison Place, NW.

11:00 AM. The Cato Institute will host a panel discussion titled "Battle over the Broadcast Flag: The IP Wars and the HDTV Transition". The speakers will be Fritz Attaway (Motion Picture Association of America), Jim Burger (Dow Lohnes & Albertson), Mike Godwin (Public Knowledge), and Andy Setos (Fox Entertainment Group). See, notice and registration page. Lunch will follow. Location: Cato, 1000 Massachusetts Ave., NW.

11:15 AM. Howard Beales, Director of the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) Bureau of Consumer Protection will speak to the Direct Marketing Association's Committee on Privacy on "Spam and Privacy." Location: 1111 Nineteenth Street, NW, Suite 1150.

12:30 PM. The House Armed Services Committee will hold its organizational meeting for the 108th Congress. Location: Room 2118, Rayburn Building.

1:00 PM. The House Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet will hold a hearing titled "Health of the Telecommunications Sector: A Perspective from Investors and Economists". See, notice. Location: Room 2123, Rayburn Building.

2:00 PM. The Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing on on revenue proposals in the President's FY 2004 budget. Secretary of the Treasury John Snow will be the only witness. Location: Room 215, Dirksen Building.

9:30 AM. The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold an executive business meeting. See, notice. Location: Room 226, Dirksen Building.

10:00 AM. The U.S. Court of Appeals (FedCir) will hear oral argument en banc in Festo v. SMC Corp., No. 95-1066. Location: Courtroom 201, 717 Madison Place, NW.

10:00 AM. The Internet Security Alliance (ISA) will hold a press conference to announce the release of new information security consumer guidelines. The scheduled speakers will include Orson Swindle (Commissioner, Federal Trade Commission), Dave McCurdy (ISA), Susan Grant (National Consumers League), and Mark MacCarthy (Visa). Location: Lisagore Room, National Press Club, 529 14th Street, NW. See, FTC release.

11:00 AM. The House International Relations Committee will hold its organizational meeting for the 108th Congress. Location: Room 2172, Rayburn Building.

11:00 AM. The House Financial Services Committee will hold its organizational meeting for the 108th Congress. Location: Room 2128, Rayburn Building.

3:30 PM. Madhavi Sunder (Professor of Law, University of California at Davis Law School) will give a lecture titled "IP3: Intellectual Property, Identity Politics, and the Internet Protocol". For more information, contact Julie Cohen at  jec@law.georgetown.edu. Location: Georgetown University Law Center, Faculty Lounge, 600 New Jersey Ave., NW.

Deadline to submit comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regarding BellSouth's December 20, 2002 Petition for Forbearance [16 pages in PDF] from application of the separate subsidiary requirements to provide international directory assistance service. BellSouth asked the FCC to forbear from applying the structural separation requirements of 47 U.S.C. § 272 to allow BellSouth to provide international directory assistance service on an integrated basis together with its local and nonlocal directory assistance services. See, FCC notice [2 pages in PDF]. This is CC Docket No. 97-172.

12:00 NOON - 1:30 PM. The Bureau of Industry and Security's National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC) will meet. Richard Clarke (Special Advisor to the President for Cyberspace Security) and Richard Davidson, (Chairman of NIAC) will speak. The agenda also includes a discussion of Internet Protocol Version 6.0 and responsible disclosure of cyber attacks or incidents. The public can attend only via teleconference. Call 1-888-899-7785 (toll free) or 1-913-312-4169 (toll), and when prompted, enter pass code 1468517. See, notice in the Federal Register, January 28, 2003, Vol. 68, No.18, at Page 4167.

12:15 PM. The Federal Communications Bar Association's (FCBA) Wireless Telecommunications Practice Committee will host a luncheon. The speakers will be wireless and spectrum Legal Advisors to FCC Commissioners. The price is $15. RSVP to Wendy Parish at wendy@fcba.org. Location: Sidley Austin, 1501 K St., NW, Conference Room 6E.

POSTPONED TO FEBRUARY 28. Deadline to submit reply comments to the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) regarding the Report [73 pages in PDF] of the FCC Spectrum Policy Task Force (SPTF). The report recommends that "spectrum policy must evolve towards more flexible and market oriented regulatory models." See, original notice [PDF] and notice of extension [PDF].

Deadline to submit reply comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regarding the Tier III Coalition's petition to forbear, up to December 31, 2005, from enforcing the E911 accuracy and reliability standards set forth in § 20.18(h) of the FCC’s Rules with respect to Commercial Mobile Radio Service (CMRS) provided by Tier III wireless carriers. See, FCC notice [PDF]. This is WT Docket No. 02-377.

Deadline to submit comments to the The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) regarding the health and life insurance cancellation notices exception to the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce (E-SIGN) Act. The Act provides, at §101, for the acceptance of electronic signatures in interstate commerce, with certain enumerated exceptions. §103 of the Act provides that the provisions of section 101 shall not apply to "the cancellation or termination of health insurance or benefits or life insurance benefits (excluding annuities)". (Parentheses in original.) The Act also requires the NTIA to review, evaluate and report to Congress on each of the exceptions. The E-SIGN Act is codified at 15 U.S.C. § 7001, et seq. The exceptions are codified at 15 U.S.C. § 7003. See, NTIA notice.

Extended deadline to submit applications to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for membership on the FCC's Consumer Advisory Committee. For more information, contact Scott Marshall at 202 418-2809 smarshal@fcc.gov. The deadline had been January 31. On January 31 the FCC extended the deadline.

Tech Law Journal is instituting several new practices and procedures with the New Year. All of these changes have one central purpose -- protecting the rights of the author, David Carney.

The Tech Law Journal web site and the Tech Law Journal Daily E-Mail Alert (TLJ Alert) are both authored and published by David Carney. This is a business. The sole source of revenue for this business is subscription payments for the TLJ Alert. Yet, it is currently being widely infringed. This is undermining the financial viability of the business.

See, Letter from the Publisher, which summarizes the new practices and procedures.

See, Subscription Information page for price schedule, methods of payment, and related matters.

See, Memorandum regarding "E-Mail Monitoring".

See, Memorandum regarding "Disclosure of Information to Third Parties".

See, Memorandum to law students explaining why free subscriptions for law students will end after the January 17 issue.

See, Memorandum regarding "Termination of state officials' subscriptions" explaining why free subscriptions for state government officials will end after the January 17 issue.

See, Subscription Form and Contract (for firms, companies, groups, and other entities), or the shorter Subscription Form and Contract (for persons subscribing individually). These contracts are for new paying subscribers, and paying subscribers renewing their subscriptions. Persons receiving free subscriptions (journalists and government officials) should not sign a contract. Paying subscribers whose subscription term has not expired should not sign a contract, until their existing subscription term expires and they resubscribe.

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