9/29. The U.S. Department of Commerce's (DOC) National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) signed a Joint Project Agreement [6 pages in PDF].

It states that it is "for the purpose of the joint development of the mechanisms, methods, and procedures necessary to effect the transition of Internet domain".

John Kneuer (at right), the acting head of the NTIA, stated in a release [PDF] that "We continue to believe that ICANN is the appropriate private sector entity to coordinate the technical elements of the DNS". But, he added that "We are committed to working with ICANN to ensure that they have the established transparency and accountability mechanisms necessary to be a stable, lasting and independent institution".

This agreement extends the existing Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) until September 30, 2009. The MOU was set to expire on September 30, 2006. See, NTIA web page with hyperlinks to the original MOU, and amendments.

Paul Twomey, P/CEO of the ICANN stated in a release that "ICANN has secured an agreement that recognizes it as being responsible for the management of the Internet's system of unique identifiers on an ongoing basis. It means ICANN is more autonomous".

The just signed agreement also provides that either party can terminate it with 120 days notice.

The Senate adjourned on September 30 for its election recess without confirming Kneuer's nomination to be head of the NTIA.

10/2. The House and Senate adjourned without last minute enactment of any of several major pending intellectual property related bills.

There are two bills that have been approved by both the House and the Senate that await the President's signature: HR 1036, the "Copyright Royalty Judges Program Technical Corrections Act", and HR 683, the "Trademark Dilution Revision Act of 2006". The House approved these bills, as amended by the Senate, early last week.

For a summary of the trademark dilution bill, see story titled "Senate Approves Trademark Dilution Revision Act" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,327, March 10, 2006. This bill is a reaction to the Supreme Court's March 4, 2003 opinion [21 pages in PDF] in Moseley v. V Secret. See, story titled "Supreme Court Rules in Trademark Dilution Case" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 618, March 6, 2003.

However, neither the House Judiciary Committee (HJC), nor the Senate Judiciary Committee (SJC), have yet approved any version of the Perform, SIRA, orphan works, or patent reform bills. Moreover, none of these proposals was inserted into any of the conference reports approved by the House and Senate just before adjournment for the November 7, 2006 elections.

The House approved HR 5418, a bill regarding specialized patent judges, by voice vote, on Thursday, September 28. This untitled bill would establish a limited ten year pilot program in a least five U.S. District Courts to develop expertise in judges and court staff in patent and plant variety cases. See also, items titled "HJC Approves Bill Regarding Specialized Patent Judges" and "HR 5418 As Approved by House Judiciary Committee" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,449, September 14, 2006.

The Senate version is S 3923. It was introduced on September 21, 2006. It has not yet been approved by the SJC.

Another bill, that has been approved by the HJC, but not brought to the House floor for consideration, or included in another bill brought to the floor, is HR 2955, the "Intellectual Property Jurisdiction Clarification Act of 2005". The HJC approved this bill on March 2, 2006, and reported it on April 4, 2006. See, Report No. 109-407. See also, story titled "House Judiciary Committee Approves Amendment Regarding Jurisdiction of Federal Circuit" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,325, March 8, 2006.

9/30. The House and the Senate recessed until after the November 7, 2006, elections. The House and Senate approved HConRes 483, which provides for adjournment until 2:00 PM on Thursday, November 9, 2006. Members of the House and Senate have stated in speeches that they will return on Monday, November 13, 2006.

9/29. The House and Senate approved the conference reports on HR 4954, the "Port Security Improvement Act of 2006", HR 5441, the "Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2007", and HR 5122, the "John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007".

9/28. The Senate Judiciary Committee (SJC) held an executive business meeting. The Committee again held over consideration of several bills, including S 2644, the "Perform Act of 2006", S 3818, the "Patent Reform Act of 2006", S 2831, the "Free Flow of Information Act of 2006", and S 1845, the "Circuit Court of Appeals Restructuring and Modernization Act of 2005".

10/2. William Moschella was named Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice (DOJ), effective immediately. He replaces William Mercer, who was nominated last month to be Associate Attorney General. Moschella was Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Office of Legislative Affairs. He was active in securing Congressional approval of the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005. He was previously a long time Capitol Hill staffer. He was Counsel to the House Government Reform Committee, General Counsel to the House Rules Committee, Chief Investigative Counsel to the House Judiciary Committee (HJC), and Chief Legislative Counsel and Parliamentarian to the HJC. See, DOJ release.

9/29. The Senate confirmed Cynthia Glassman to be Under Secretary for Economic Affairs at the Department of Commerce.

9/29. The Senate confirmed Sharon Hays to be Associate Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in the Executive Office of the President.

9/29. The Senate confirmed Mary Peters to be Secretary of Transportation.

9/29. The Senate confirmed John Veroneau to be Deputy U.S. Trade Representative.

9/29. The Senate confirmed Robert Steel to be an Under Secretary of the Treasury.

9/29. The Senate confirmed Christopher Padilla to be an Assistant Secretary of Commerce.

9/29. The Senate confirmed Rodger Heaton to be the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of Illinois for the term of four years.

9/29. The Senate Judiciary Committee (SJC) approved the nominations of Nora Fischer (to be a Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania). Gregory Frizzell (USDC, Northern District of Oklahoma), Marcia Howard (USDC. Middle District of Florida), Robert Jonker (USDC, Western District of Michigan), Paul Maloney (USDC, Western District of Michigan), Janet Neff (USDC, Western District of Michigan), Leslie Southwick (USDC, Southern District of Mississippi), Lisa Wood (USDC, Southern District of Georgia), Sharon Potter (USDC, Northern District of West Virginia), and Deborah Rhodes (USDC, Southern District of Alabama). See, Congressional Record, September 29, 2006, at Page S10675. However, the SJC again held over consideration of the nominations of Terrence Boyle (to be a Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit), William Haynes (4th Circuit), Peter Keisler (District of Columbia Circuit), and William Myers (9th Circuit).

10/2. Franck Journoud was hired by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) to be its Manager of Information Security Policy. He was previously Manager of Government and Industry Affairs for RSA, The Security Division of EMC. See, BSA release.

9/29. The U.S. District Court (EDVa) sentenced Robert E. Johnson to two years in prison, following his previous plea of guilty to one count of wire fraud. He was Chief of Quality Assurance and Contracting Officer's Technical Representative for the US Army Information Technology Agency (USAITA). He used the wires to direct two prime contractors to subcontract with two companies in which he secretly held a financial interest. See, DOJ release.

9/29. Anthony Spadola and Broadcom Voice & Data Inc. entered pleas of guilty in U.S. District Court (SDNY) in connection with their rigging of bids for telecom equipment contracts. The Department of Justice (DOJ) stated in a release that this case involves "kickbacks, bid rigging, bribery, contract allocation, and related charges for the supply of telecommunications equipment and services to Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the Mount Sinai Hospital (Mount Sinai)". Spadola was previously an information technology manager at Mount Sinai. Another Mount Sinai employee, Stephen Cogliano, pled guilty on September 26. Broadcom and Spadola both pled guilty to bid rigging in violation of 15 U.S.C. § 1. The DOJ stated that "Between January 2001 and September 2003, Broadcom paid Spadola and Cogliano a total of approximately $154,000 in kickbacks in order to ensure that Broadcom would be allocated a portion of Mount Sinai's total contracts for purchasing telecommunications equipment and services and that no alternative vendors would be chosen for those contracts. The kickback money was paid through checks issued by Broadcom to the sham consulting companies created by Spadola and Cogliano."

9/29. The U.S. Court of Appeals (9thCir) issued an order [PDF] in Odom v. Microsoft, stating that an en banc panel of the Court will rehear this case. This case is James Odom v. Microsoft Corporation and Best Buy Co., Inc., U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, App. Ct. No. 04-35468.

9/26. The National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Computer Security Division released its Draft Special Publication 800-98 [126 pages in PDF], titled "Guidance for Securing Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Systems". The deadline to submit comments is 5:00 PM on October 27, 2006.

9/26. The National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Computer Security Division released its Draft Special Publication 800-82 [164 pages in PDF], titled "Guide to Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and Industrial Control Systems Security". The deadline to submit comments is December 22, 2006.

9/26. The National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Computer Security Division released its Draft Special Publication 800-54 [57 pages in PDF], titled "Border Gateway Protocol Security". The deadline to submit comments is November 30, 2006.

The House will not meet. It may return from it elections recess on Monday, November 13, 2006. The House adjournment resolution (HConRes 483) provides for returning on Thursday, November 9, at 2:00 PM.

The Senate will not meet. It may return from it elections recess on Monday, November 13, 2006.

8:30 AM - 1:30 PM. The President's Committee on the National Medal of Science will hold a closed meeting to discuss the selection of the 2006 National Medal of Science recipients. See, notice in the Federal Register, August 10, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 154, at Page 45862. Location: Room 1235, National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA.

5:00 PM. Deadline to submit comments to the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Computer Security Division regarding its Draft Special Publication 800-78-1 [22 pages in PDF] titled "Cryptographic Standards and Key Sizes for Personal Identity Verification".

5:00 PM. Deadline to submit comments to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) regarding its Special 301 review of the nations of Canada, Latvia and Saudi Arabia. The Trade Act of 1974 requires the USTR to identify countries that deny adequate and effective protection of intellectual property rights or deny fair and equitable market access to U.S. persons who rely on intellectual property protection. See, notice in the Federal Register, August 23, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 163, at Pages 49491-49492.

10:00 AM. The U.S. Court of Appeals (FedCir) will hear oral argument in Immersion v. Sony Computer, an appeal from the U.S. District Court (NDCal) in a patent infringement case involving the technology used in the controller in Sony PlayStation consoles. This case is App. Ct. No. 2005-1227 and D.C. No. C-02-071 CW (WDB). Location: Courtroom 201, 717 Madison Place, NW.

10:00 AM - 1:30 PM. The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) will host a program titled "The World Trading System after the Collapse of Doha: The WTO, Developing Countries, and Regionalism". There will be a panel discussion at 10:00 AM. The speakers will include Grant Aldonas (recently Under Secretary of Commerce), Claude Barfield (AEI), Daniel Drezner (Tufts University), and Daniel Tarullo (Georgetown University Law Center). U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab will give the luncheon address. See, notice. Location: 12th floor, 1150 17th St., NW.

12:00 NOON - 2:00 PM. The DC Bar Association will host a panel discussion titled "Sued in China -- Litigation Exposure and Solutions for American Businesses". The speakers will include Xiang Ji (Fangda Partners) and Jonathan Cedarbaum (Wilmer Hale). The price to attend ranges from $10 to  $15. For more information, call 202-626-3463. See, notice. Location: Morrison & Foerster, 2000 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Suite 5500.

3:00 - 5:00 PM. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will host a roundtable on interactive data. The speakers will include Chris Cox (SEC Chairman), Indra Nooyi (CEO of PepsiCo), Terry Savage (Chicago Sun-Times), Alfred Berkeley (Pipeline Trading Systems), Robert Blake (Rivet Software), Timothy Bray (Sun Microsystems), Martijn Cremers (Yale School of Management), William Diefenderfer (enumerate Solutions), Darren Duffy (Lipper Inc.), and Frank Hodge (University of Washington). The SEC also seeks written comments. See, notice and notice. Location: SEC, auditorium, 100 F Street, NE.

5:00 - 7:00 PM. The DC Bar Association will host a panel discussion titled "The International and Comparative Antitrust Law Lecture Series Fair Processes and Efficient Markets: The Goals of Antitrust in a Global Trading Environment". The speakers will include Deborah Majoras (FTC Chairman), Joseph Seon Hur (Secretary General, Korea Fair Trade Commission), Shyam Khemani (World Bank Group), and Jay Holsten (Torys LLP). The price to attend ranges from $50 to $100. For more information, call 202-274-4075. See, notice. Location: American University law school, Room 603, 4801 Massachusetts Ave., NW.

11:00 AM - 12:00 NOON. The Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) WRC-07 Advisory Committee will meet to discuss preparations for the 2007 World Radiocommunication Conference. See, notice in the Federal Register, September 6, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 172, at Page 52544. Location: FCC, Room TW-C305, 445 12th Street, SW.

12:00 NOON - 1:00 PM. The Heritage Foundation will host a panel discussion titled "Government 2.0: How Bloggers Claimed Their First Major Policy Victory". It will address the role of bloggers in the enactment of S 2590, the "Federal Funding Accountability Act". The speakers will be Bill Allison (Sunlight Foundation), N.Z. Bear (Truthlaidbear.com), Rebecca Carr (Cox Newspapers), Justin Rood (TPMmuckraker.com), Mark Tapscott (Washington Examiner), and Tim Chapman (Heritage). See, notice. Location: Heritage, Massachusetts Ave., NE.

12:00 NOON. John Samples will talk about his book titled "The Fallacy of Campaign Finance Reform" [Amazon]. The Cato Institute's notice of the event does not state whether or not Samples will discuss use of the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) to regulate internet based speech. The other speakers will be Robert Bauer (Perkins Coie) and Eliza Carney (National Journal). See, notice and registration form. Lunch will be served after the event. Location: Cato Institute, 1000 Massachusetts Ave., NW.

8:00 AM - 11:30 AM. The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), Federal Communications Bar Association (FCBA), Kirkpatrick Lockhart Nicholson Graham (KLNG), and Washington Metropolitan Area Corporate Counsel Association (EMACCA) will host a continuing legal education (CLE) seminar titled "Media, Telecom & Technology Convergence". The speakers will be Joe Bogdan (World Wrestling Entertainment), Lawrence Cooper (BET Holdings), Susan Fox (The Walt Disney Company), Anne Hoge (Yahoo), Kevin Kuzas (Comcast Interactive Media), Ross Vincenti (Sprint Nextel), and Ted Stern (Amazon.com). See, notice. For more information, contact Nikki Stevens at 202-778-9341 or nstevens at klng dot com. Location: KLNG, 1601 K St., NW.

10:00 AM. The U.S. Court of Appeals (FedCir) will hear oral argument in Safeclick v. Visa International Service Association. This is an appeal from the U.S. District Court (NDCal) in a patent infringement case involving a patent pertaining to authentication of the identity of a payment cardholder in an online transaction. This is case is App. Ct. No. 2006-1227 and D.C. No. 03-5865. Location: Courtroom 201, 717 Madison Place, NW.

10:00 AM. The U.S. Court of Appeals (FedCir) will hear oral argument in Dolby Laboratories v. Lucent Technologies. This is an appeal from the U.S. District Court (NDCal) in a patent infringement case involving Dolby’s AC-3 technology. This is case is App. Ct. No. 2006-1053. Location: Courtroom 203, 717 Madison Place, NW.

10:00 AM - 12:00 NOON. The Department of State's (DOS) Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy will meet. The agenda includes (1) the USG telecommunications/ICT consultations in Tokyo on October 16-18, 2006, and in Beijing on October 19-20, 2006; (2) the International Telecommunication Union Plenipotentiary Conference on November 6-24, 2006; (3) the Internet Governance Forum on October 30-November 2, 2006; (4) the U.S.-India Working Group Meeting on December 14-15, 2006; and (5) the U.S. domestic public safety radio communications coordination in United States border regions. See, notice in the Federal Register, September 22, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 184, at Pages 55542-55543. Preregistration by 5:00 PM on October 2 is a prerequisite for attending this meeting. Location: Loy Henderson Auditorium, Truman Building, 2201 C Street, NW.

12:00 NOON - 2:00 PM. The DC Bar Association will host a panel discussion titled "Developments in U.S. Policies and Procedures Concerning Exports to the PRC". The speakers will include Matthew Borman (Deputy Assistant Secretary for Export Administration, Bureau of Industry and Security), William Reinsch (National Foreign Trade Council), Stephan Becker (Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman), and Debra Cheng (McGuire Woods). The price to attend ranges from $15 to $35. For more information, call 202-626-3463. See, notice. Location: D.C. Bar Conference Center, 1250 H Street NW, B-1 Level.

5:00 PM. Deadline to submit comments to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) regarding its Draft Special Publication 800-76-1 [33 pages in PDF] titled "Biometric Data Specification for Personal Identity Verification".

Day one of a two day conference hosted by the Association of American Publishers' (AAP) School Division and the Software & Information Industry Association's (SIIA) Education Division titled "School Technology Summit on K-12 Digital Content: Evolving Models and Markets". See, notice. Prices vary. Location: Renaissance Hotel, 999 Ninth St., NW.

2:00 - 3:30 PM. The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) will host a panel discussion event titled "Warehousing Consumers' Online Travels to Catch Child Predators and Terrorists". The panelists will include Jim Halpert (DLA Piper) and David Sobel (Electronic Freedom Foundation). For more information, contact Danielle Yates at dyates at netcaucus dot org or 202-638-4370. Location: Mike Mansfield Room, U.S. Capitol Building.

Day two of a two day conference hosted by the Association of American Publishers' (AAP) School Division and the Software & Information Industry Association's (SIIA) Education Division titled "School Technology Summit on K-12 Digital Content: Evolving Models and Markets". See, notice. Prices vary. Location: Renaissance Hotel, 999 Ninth St., NW.

Deadline to submit comments to the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Computer Security Division regarding its Draft Special Publication 800-45A [143 PDF], titled "Guidelines on Electronic Mail Security".

Columbus Day.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and other federal offices will be closed. See, Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) list of federal holidays.

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