4/24. The U.S. Court of Appeals (FedCir) issued an order [2 pages in PDF] in Verizon v. Vonage granting Vonage's motion for a stay pending appeal.

The U.S. District Court (EDVa) previously entered judgment of patent infringement against Vonage, and awarded $58 Million in damages. On April 6, 2007, the District Court issued a permanent injunction barring Vonage from signing up new customers with certain VOIP technology. The just issued order stays this injunction.

The Court of Appeals also provided for expedited briefing and oral argument. It ordered that "Vonage's opening brief is due May 9, 2007. Verizon's opening brief is due May 23, 2007. Vonage's reply brief and the joint appendix are due May 30, 2007" and that "The appeal is scheduled for oral argument before the same panel at 10 a.m. on June 25, 2007".

Vonage Chairman Jeffrey Citron stated in a release that "We thank the appellate court for its thoughtful consideration of the merits of our case ... It's business as usual for us. We will continue providing reliable, quality digital phone service at the best value in the market and connecting thousands of phone calls every day. We remain focused on growing and strengthening our business and driving toward profitability. ... We continue to believe we have not infringed on any of Verizon's technology and remain optimistic that we will ultimately prevail in this litigation."

Sharon O'Leary, Vonage's Chief Legal Officer, stated in this release that "We believe the original verdict was based on an erroneous claim construction -- meaning the patents in this case were defined in an overly broad and legally unprecedented way ... We believe the district court's decisions repeatedly neglected well-established law on claim construction and, as a result, artificially expanded the coverage of Verizon's patents well beyond what was intended by the patent trademark process. ... We are confident this error will be rectified by the appeals court ... As a result, we remain highly confident Vonage will prevail on appeal."

Vonage added in a second release that "Verizon has pursued litigation against Vonage in an effort to achieve in court what it cannot achieve in the marketplace."

Citron added in this release that "We think this issue warrants national attention because when competition is stifled, consumers literally pay the price. Vonage is the target today, but what other innovative companies might be next?"

This case is Verizon Services Corp., Verizon Laboratories, Inc., and Verizon Communications, Inc. v. Vonage Holding Corp. and Vonage America, Inc., U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, App. Ct. Nos. 2007-1240, 2007-1251, and 2007-1274, appeals from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

4/24. The DC Bar Association hosted a panel discussion titled "The Orphan Works Dilemma: What is it and can it be fixed?".

Maria Pallante, Deputy General Counsel of the Copyright Office, stated that Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee (SJC), had wanted to introduce the patent reform bill before he focused on the orphan works bill. However, now that Sen. Leahy and others have introduced the Patent Reform Act of 2007, Sen. Leahy and his staff are now focusing on the orphan works bill.

Pallante stated that the bill would likely be introduced in coming months. She also said that it would have "no major substantive changes" from the versions of the bill introduced in the 109th Congress.

See also, stories titled "Patent Reform Act of 2007 Introduced", "Summary of Patent Reform Act of 2007" and "Reaction to the Patent Reform Act of 2007" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,567, April 19, 2007.

The orphan works bill would substantially reduce the remedies available to copyright holders whose copyrights have been infringed when the infringer demonstrates that he was not able to locate the copyright holder after a "reasonably diligent search".

The bill would particularly degrade the protection afforded to creators of visual works, including photographers, illustrators, sculptors, native American artists, and designers of jewelry, carpets, wallpaper, textiles, and ceramics. It would have a lesser impact on authors of software code and text.

The other speakers on the panel were Allan Adler of the Association of American Publishers and Victor Perlman of the American Society of Media Photographers. Adler advocated enactment of the legislation, and argued that it has broad support from across the copyright based sectors.

Perlman opposed enactment of the legislation on the basis that it would encourage a "wild west" mentality regarding infringement of visual works, and leave photographers and other visual artists unable to enforce their copyrights.

He said that "the notion that there is peace in the valley is just not quite right", and that "I don't think they are going to get it."

For a legislative history of orphans works legislation in the 109th Congress, see the Copyright Office's report [133 pages in PDF] titled "Report on Orphan Works", released on January 31, 2006; HR 5439 IH [PDF] and HR 5439 [LOC], the "Orphan Works Act of 2006", introduced by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) on May 22, 2006; and HR 6052 the "Copyright Modernization Act of 2006 ", which included a revised version of the "Orphan Works Act of 2006".

No bill pertaining to orphan works was approved by either the House of Senate in the 109th Congress.

See also, TLJ stories regarding orphan works:

• "Copyright Office Recommends Orphan Works Legislation" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,302, February 2, 2006.
• "House CIIP Subcommittee Holds Hearing on Orphan Works" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,326, March 9, 2006.
• "Rep. Smith Introduces Orphan Works Act of 2006" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,377, May 24, 2006.
• "House CIIP Subcommittee Approves Orphan Works Act of 2006" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,378, May 25, 2006.
• "House Judiciary Committee Puts Off Consideration of Copyright Legislation Until Next Year" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,457, September 27, 2006.

4/20. Commissioner Paul Atkins of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) gave a speech in Washington DC titled "Is Excessive Regulation and Litigation Eroding U.S. Financial Competitiveness?"

He said that "Many global competitive forces will continue to challenge the position of the United States, including the rise of liquidity pools and capital markets in Europe, Russia, China, India, and other places as well. Americans through technology have unprecedented access to these markets. E-Trade, for example, now offers its customers direct access to foreign markets with a click of a computer mouse. With burgeoning foreign capital centers and easy direct access of Americans to those markets, foreign companies no longer have to come here."

Atkins said that "placing blinders on ourselves and ignoring what other countries are doing will not address" securities regulation problems. "To proclaim that our current regulatory structure as superior and dismiss the capital markets of other countries as the ``Wild West´´ or some other pejorative label will not solve the issue either. In a free market economy driven by innovation, our regulatory structure cannot remain static."

He stated that the SEC "has been long dominated by lawyers", who "often are risk averse, seeking to avoid blame for the next Enron rather than laying the groundwork for the next Microsoft or Google." He discussed the regulatory obstacles that Apple's IPO faced in 1980. He concluded that "The Apple situation was one where government bureaucrats made the decision about the value of the offering, not the markets."

He also criticized recent implementation of Section 404 of the Sarbanes Oxley Act. He said that "Audit Standard 2 of the PCAOB has been a failure -- the costs exceed the benefits, especially to smaller companies".

Atkins also discussed "abusive class actions that result in few or imaginary benefits for class members, but for which large cash fees are paid to plaintiffs' attorneys. Such suits add to the global perception that the U.S. legal system operates as a ``lottery-like´´ system of justice. Modeled after the success of the tobacco lawsuits, businesses are now being subjected to various class actions that previously would have previously been thought laughable. There are legitimate purposes for class action tort lawsuits. But the key is to quickly separate those with merit from those without in a timely and cost-efficient manner."

Atkins spoke at a joint American Enterprise Institute (AEI) Brookings Institution event.

4/25. The Progress & Freedom Foundation (PFF) released a paper [9 pages in PDF] titled "The Role of Patents in Venture-Backed Software Start-ups". The author is Ronald Mann of the University of Texas School of Law. He argues that while there is little data on the role of patents in small start-up software firms, the data does suggest that patents provide substantial benefits for the firms that acquire them, with respect to obtaining financing and to appropriating the value of innovation. However, he finds that gauging the net effect of patents on innovation is a more difficult question. The House Judiciary Committee's (HJC) Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property will hold a hearing on HR 1908, "The Patent Reform Act of 2007" at 2:00 PM on Thursday, April 26.

4/24. The Copyright Office (CO) published a notice in the Federal Register with a minor correction to its previous notice in the Federal Register regarding its Notice of Inquiry (NOI) regarding the operation of, and continued necessity for, the cable and satellite statutory licenses under the Copyright Act. The April 24, 2007, correction notice makes clear that the deadline to submit initial comments is July 2, 2007, and that the deadline to submit reply comments is September 13, 2007. See, original notice in the Federal Register, April 16, 2007, Vol. 72, No. 72, at Pages 19039-19055, and correction notice in the Federal Register, April 24, 2007, Vol. 72, No. 78, at Page 20374.

4/24. The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), the export regulation agency, published a notice in the Federal Register that contains changes to several previously announced rule changes. One of these pertains to the export of "Devices primarily useful for the surreptitious interception of wire, oral, or electronic communications; and parts and accessories therefor". See, Federal Register, April 24, 2007, Vol. 72, No. 78, at Pages 20221-20223.

4/24. The Department of Commerce's (DOC) National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published a notice in the Federal Register in which it stated that it "is considering developing protocol implementation profiles for VoIP communications between public safety personnel". In addition, the NIST and the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Office of Interoperability and Compatibility (DHS/OIC) will host an event titled "Roundtable for Organizations Interested in Utilization of VoIP for Communication Between Public Safety Personnel" in Boulder, Colorado, on May 31, 2007. This roundtable will be held at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's (NTIA) Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS). See, Federal Register, April 24, 2007, Vol. 72, No. 78, at Page 20324.

4/23. The Supreme Court of the United States (SCUS) granted certiorari, vacated the judgment of the U.S. Court of Appeals (DCCir), and remanded to the Court of Appeals in APC Services v. Sprint Communications. See, Orders List [10 pages in PDF] at page 1. The SCUS issued its opinion [40 pages in PDF] in a related case, Global Crossing Telecommunications v. Metrophones Telecommunications, on April 17, 2007. See, story titled "Supreme Court Rules in Global Crossing v. Metrophones" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,566, April 17, 2007. The SCUS remanded the present case to the Court of Appeals for further consideration in light of its opinion in Global Crossing. This case is Sup. Ct. No. 05-766. See also, Supreme Court docket.

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The House will meet at 10:00 AM for legislative business. There are no technology related items on the calendar. See, Rep. Hoyer's weekly calendar [PDF].

8:30 AM. The Center for Democracy and Technology's (CDT) Advisory Committee to the Congressional Internet Caucus will host an event titled "Location Meets Social Networking: A Wireless Policy and Practices Dialogue". See, notice. Location: Renaissance Hotel at Metro Center, 999 9th, NW.

9:00 AM. Day one of a two day meeting of the Department of Commerce's (DOC) Bureau of Industry and Security's (BIS) Information Systems Technical Advisory Committee (ISTAC). The April 25 meeting is open to the public. The agenda includes "Processor Technology Roadmap", "Information System Technology in the Military Critical Technologies List (MCTL)", and "Commercial Encryption Technology". See, notice in the Federal Register, April 3, 2007, Vol. 72, No. 63, at Page 15862. Location: Room 3884, 14th Street between Constitution and Pennsylvania Ave., NW.

TIME? The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) may hold an event titled "Open Meeting". See, agenda [PDF] and notice in the Federal Register, April 24, 2007, Vol. 72, No. 78, at Pages 20337-20338. Location: FCC, Commission Meeting Room, 445 12th St., SW.

10:00 AM. The Senate Commerce Committee (SCC) will meet in executive session. The SJC's published agenda (which is usually wildly inaccurate as a predictor of what will transpire) includes consideration of HR 740, the "Preventing Harassment through Outbound Number Enforcement (PHONE) Act of 2007", S 495, the "Personal Data Privacy and Security Act of 2007", and S 239, the "Notification of Risk to Personal Data Act of 2007". The agenda also includes consideration of several judicial nominees: Frederick Kapala (to be a Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois) and Benjamin Hale Settle (U.S.D.C. Western District of Washington). See, notice. Press contact: Tracy Schmaler at 202-224-2154 or Tracy_Schmaler at judiciary dot senate dot gov. Location: Room 226, Dirksen Building.See, notice. Location: Room 253, Russell Building.

10:00 AM - 12:00 NOON. The House Science Committee (HSC) will meet to mark up several bills, including HR 1867, bill to authorize appropriations for FY 2008, 2009, and 2010 for the National Science Foundation (NSF), and HR 1868, a bill to reauthorize the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Location: Room 2318, Rayburn Building.

10:00 AM. The Senate Judiciary Committee (SJC) may hold an executive business meeting. See, notice. Location: Room 226, Dirksen Building.

1:00 PM. The House Homeland Security Committee's (HHSC) Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology will hold a hearing titled "Addressing the Nation’s Cybersecurity Challenges: Reducing Vulnerabilities Requires Strategic Investment and Immediate Action". The witnesses will be Daniel Geer (Geer Risk Services), James Andrew Lewis (Center for Strategic and International Studies), Douglas Maughan (Department of Homeland Security, Science and Technology Directorate), Sami Saydjari (Cyber Defense Agency, LLC). Location: Room 1539, Longworth Building.

1:00 PM. The Fiber to the Home Council (FTTHC) and the Guadalupe Valley Telecommunications Cooperative (GVTC) will host a web and phone conference on the GVTC's deployment of FTTH in an area north of San Antonio, Texas. To listen to the audio portion, call 1-888-447-7153. The participant PIN is 5625527#. See, FTTHC notice.

6:00 - 8:30 PM. The Federal Communications Bar Association's (FCBA) Communications Law, Copyright & Digital Rights Management Committee will host a continuing legal education (CLE) seminar titled "Everything You Wanted To Know About Copyright Law But Were Afraid To Ask". See, registration form [PDF]. The price to attend ranges from $50-$125. The deadline to register is 5:00 PM on April 23. Location: Wiley Rein, 1776 K St., NW.

Day three of a three day conference hosted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) titled "Interoperability Week". See, notice. Location: NIST, Red Auditorium, 100 Bureau Drive, Gaithersburg, MD.

TIME? Day two of a two day meeting of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). Location?

The House will meet at 10:00 AM for legislative business. There are no technology related items on the calendar. See, Rep. Hoyer's weekly calendar [PDF].

9:00 AM - 2:00 PM. The Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) will host an event titled "Intellectual Property: Driving Global Growth". The speakers will include Chris Israel (U.S. Coordinator for International Intellectual Property Enforcement), Michael Keplinger (Deputy Director General, World Intellectual Property Organization), Vivek Wadhwa (Duke University), Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL), Jon Dudas (head of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office), former Rep. Patricia Schroeder (now head of the Association of American Publishers), and Sam Pitroda (CEO of C-SAM and Chairman of the India Knowledge Commission). RSVP to Sonia Blumstein at 205-620-2087 or soniab at ipi dot org. Lunch will be served. Location: Hyatt Regency Washington, 400 New Jersey Ave., NW.

9:00 AM - 3:30 PM. The President's National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC) will meet. See, notice in the Federal Register, December 29, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 250, at Page 78451. Location?

9:00 AM. Day two of a two day meeting of the Department of Commerce's (DOC) Bureau of Industry and Security's (BIS) Information Systems Technical Advisory Committee (ISTAC). The April 26 meeting is closed to the public. The agenda is undisclosed. See, notice in the Federal Register, April 3, 2007, Vol. 72, No. 63, at Page 15862. Location: Room 3884, 14th Street between Constitution and Pennsylvania Ave., NW.

10:00 AM - 12:00 NOON. The Department of State's (DOS) International Telecommunication Advisory Committee (ITAC) will meet "to prepare advice on U.S. positions for responses to: ITU letter of March 14, 2007 to Members of the Council regarding organizational changes within the General Secretariat and the Bureaux of the Sectors of the Union, ITU DM-07/1008 to the entire ITU membership regarding ITU's role on international public policy issues pertaining to the Internet and the management of Internet resources, and ITU DM-07/1003 to the entire ITU membership regarding the planning schedule for the fourth World Telecommunications Policy Forum on convergence and emerging policy issues". See, notice in the Federal Register, April 13, 2007, Vol. 72, No. 71, at Page 18722. Location: AT&T, 1120 20th St., NW.

CANCELLED. 12:00 NOON - 1:30 PM. The Alliance for Public Technology (APT), National Caucus and Center on Black Aged (NCBA), and Benton Foundation will host a brown bag lunch titled "Achieving Universal Broadband: Healthcare, Independent Living and Seniors". The speakers will be Karyne Jones (head of the National Caucus and Center on Black Aged) and Jenifer Simpson (American Association of People with Disabilities). See, notice. Location: NCBA, Suite 800, 1220 L St., NW.

12:15 PM. The Save the Internet Coalition will host a news teleconference. The speakers will include Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Craig Newmark (founder of Craigslist), Tim Wu (Columbia University Law School), Michele Combs (Christian Coalition), Adam Green (MoveOn.org), and Gary Maricle (NMChili.com). The phone number is 973-582-2847, and the ID number is 8728466.

1:15 - 5:00 PM. The President's National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC) will hold a partially closed meeting. The first hour of the meeting, which will be open, will be a discussion of the work of the Emergency Communications and Interoperability Task Force (ECITF), and a discussion of and vote on the International Task Force (ITF) Report. The rest of the meeting, which will be closed to the public, will be a discussion of Global Infrastructure Resiliency (GIR) and Cyber Security. See, notice in the Federal Register, April 6, 2007, Vol. 72, No. 66, at Page 17176. Location: U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 1615 H St., NW.

2:00 PM. The House Judiciary Committee's (HJC) Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property will hold a hearing on HR 1908, "The Patent Reform Act of 2007". The witnesses will be John Thomas (professor at Georgetown University Law Center), Gary Griswold (3M Innovative Properties), William Tucker (Research and Administration and Technology Transfer, University of California), Antony Peterman (Dell), Kevin Sharer (Amgen). See, notice. Location: Room 2141, Rayburn Building.

2:00 PM. Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA) and Rep. Lee Terry (R-IA) will hold a news conference to announce their introduction of the "Universal Service Reform Act of 2007". See also, HR 5072 (109th Congress), the "Universal Service Reform Act of 2006", and story titled "Reps. Terry and Boucher Introduce Universal Service Bill" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,345, April 7, 2006. Location: Room 2218, Rayburn Building.

5:00 - 8:00 PM. The Congressional Caucus on Intellectual Property Promotion and the Prevention of Piracy, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and George Washington University Law School will host a World Intellectual Property Day event. The speakers will include Carlos Gutierrez (Secretary of Commerce), Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL), Rep. Dianne Watson (D-CA), and Michael Keplinger (Deputy Director General of WIPO). There will also be showcases provided by the Recording Industry Association of America, Motion Picture Association of America, Association of American Publishers, Entertainment Software Association, Business Software Alliance, and Software & Information Industry Association. For more information, contact Frank Pietrucha at 202-253-7376 or Suzanne Stoll at 202-955-7999. Location: Rayburn Foyer, Rayburn Building.

6:30 - 8:30 PM. The Federal Communications Bar Association's (FCBA) Young Lawyers' Committee will host an event titled "Happy Hour". For more information, contact Erin Boone at erin dot boone at t-mobile dot com or 202-654-5919, or Nguyen Vu at nvu at wbklaw dot com or 202-383-3371. Location: Hard Rock Café, 999 E St., NW.

Day one of a two day visit by Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan, to Washington DC and Camp David. See, White House release.

Rep. Hoyer's weekly calendar [PDF] states that "no votes are expected in the House".

2:00 - 3:30 PM. The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) will host a panel discussion on the book [Amazon] titled "Terror in the Balance: Security, Liberty, and the Courts". The speakers will include the authors, Eric Posner (University of Chicago) and Adrian Vermeule (Harvard Law School), and Louis Michael Seidman (Georgetown Law Center) and Michael Greve (AEI). See, notice. Location: AEI, 1150 17th St., NW.

Deadline to submit comments to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in response to its notice in the Federal Register regarding hash algorithm requirements and evaluation criteria. The notice states that the "NIST has decided to develop one or more additional hash functions through a public competition, similar to the development process for the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)." This notice is a prelude to this competition. The NIST has drafted, and seeks comment on, minimum acceptability requirements, submission requirements, and evaluation criteria for candidate algorithms. The NIST does not yet want competition candidate algorithms. See, Federal Register, January 23, 2007, Vol. 72, No. 14, at Pages 2861-2863, and notice in NIST web site.

Day two of a two day visit by Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan, to Washington DC and Camp David. See, White House release.

12:15 - 1:30 PM. The Federal Communications Bar Association's (FCBA) Wireless Committee will host a luncheon panel discussion titled "Meet the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Chief". The speaker will be Fred Campbell. See, registration form [PDF]. The price to attend is $15. The deadline for registrations and cancellations is 12:00 NOON on April 26. Location: Latham & Watkins, 10th floor, 555 11th St., NW.

An annual US-EU summit will be held in Washington DC. President Bush will meet with European Council President Angela Merkel and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. See, White House release.

6:00 - 8:15 PM. The DC Bar Association will host a continuing legal education (CLE) seminar titled "The Ethics of E-mails". The speaker will be Thomas Spahn (McGuire Woods). The price to attend ranges from $80 to $115. For more information, call 202-626-3488. See, notice. Location: DC Bar Conference Center, 1250 H St NW B-1 Level.

Deadline to submit applications and nominations for membership on the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee (ETAAC). See, notice in the Federal Register, March 15, 2007, Vol. 72, No. 50, at Page 12264.