12/18. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) delayed a REAL ID Act effective date.

This is a statute enacted in 2005 under conditions of legislative intransparency. Title II federalizes the state identification document process, and mandates state electronic databases and data sharing. The REAL ID Act sets minimum standards for states, penalizes states that do not implement its standards, but nevertheless relies upon states to implement it, at their own cost. See, Division B of HR 1268 (109th Congress). It is now Public Law No. 109-13.

Most states have balked at implementation. The DHS maintains a facade of implementation by certifying non-compliance as compliance, and by extending deadlines ignored by the states.

The DHS stated in a release that "a large majority of states and territories -- 46 of 56 -- have informed DHS that they will not be able to meet the Dec. 31 REAL ID material compliance deadline".

The DHS continues to hopelessly assert that the "May 10, 2011, deadline for full compliance remains in effect".

On June 15, 2009, Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI) and others introduced S 1261 [LOC | WW], the "Providing for Additional Security in States' Identification (PASS ID) Act of 2009". This bill would repeal and replace Title II of the REAL ID Act.

12/15. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published a notice in the Federal Register announcing that is seeks applications for grants under numerous of its grant programs. Several of these subsidize information and communications technology related research.

The Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory Grants Program (EELP) applies to "semiconductors, electronic instrumentation, radio-frequency technology, optoelectronics, magnetics, superconductors, electronic commerce as applied to electronic products and devices, the transmission and distribution of electrical power, national electrical standards (fundamental, generally quantum-based physical standards), and law enforcement standards". (Parentheses in original.)

In FY 2009 the NIST gave away a total of $388,383 to five recipients under the EEEL Grants Program.

The Information Technology Laboratory Grants Program (ITL) applies to "mathematical and computational sciences, advanced network technologies, information access, and software testing."

This NIST notice elaborates that "Specific objectives of interest in these areas of research include: Quantum information theory, computational materials science, network science, mathematical foundations of measurement science for information systems, mathematical knowledge management, visual data analysis, verification and validation of computer models, computational biology, semantic data integration, software testing, biometrics, human language technology, interactive systems, multimedia technology, human factors/security/core requirements/testing of voting systems, information visualization, systems biology, grid computing, service oriented architecture and complex systems, security for the IPv6 transition from and coexistence with IPv4, and device mobility among heterogeneous networks".

In FY 2009 the NIST gave away a total of $797,226 to eight recipients under the ITL Grants Program.

The Physics Laboratory Grants Program (PL) applies to, among other things, optics. The NIST gave away a total of $2,566,192 in 21 grants in FY 2009 under the PL Grants Program.

See, Federal Register, December 15, 2009, Vol. 74, No. 239, at Pages 66276-66291.

12/17. Shamai Kedem Leibowitz, aka Samuel Shamai Leibowitz, pled guilty in U.S. District Court (DMd) to one count of violation of 18 U.S.C. § 798(a)(3), which pertains to disclosure of classified information.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) stated in a release that the Information charged him with "disclosing to an unauthorized person five FBI documents classified at the ``secret´´ level that contained classified information concerning the communication intelligence activities of the United States".

This Information contains only one substantive sentence, and no factual details. It states that he "did knowingly and willfully communicate, furnish, transmit, and otherwise make available to an unauthorized person classified information concerning the communication intelligence activities of the United States".

The DOJ added in its release that he gave documents to a blogger, who published them. However, the DOJ did not disclose the name of the blogger, the subject matter of the documents, or the nature of Leibowitz's work.

The DOJ and Leibowitz entered into an eight page plea agreement in which they agreed that 20 months in prison would be an appropriate sentence. However, this agreement does not disclose any details of the crime or Leibowitz's work. It does reference a "Sealed Supplement".

20 months is a short sentence for an intelligence espionage case.

The DOJ also stated that Leibowitz worked for the DOJ's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) "as a contract linguist in an office in Calverton, Md." The FBI's Cyber Division's Innocent Images National Initiative, which investigates online child porn and enticement, is located at 11700 Beltsville Drive, in Calverton, Maryland.

Leibowitz also publishes a web site titled "Pursuing Justice: Civil rights, international law, religion, media and current events". He states in this web site that "I am an Israeli-American attorney, licensed in Israel and the United States. I also work as a Hebrew-English translator and interpreter."

Section 798(a)(3) provides that "Whoever knowingly and willfully communicates, furnishes, transmits, or otherwise makes available to an unauthorized person, or publishes, or uses in any manner prejudicial to the safety or interest of the United States or for the benefit of any foreign government to the detriment of the United States any classified information ... concerning the communication intelligence activities of the United States or any foreign government ... Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both".

It further defines "communications intelligence" as "all procedures and methods used in the interception of communications and the obtaining of information from such communications by other than the intended recipients".

12/16. The U.S. District Court (DKan) sentenced Leonard Douglas LaDuron to serve 57 months in prison following his plea of guilty to conspiracy and making a false statement, in connection with his defrauding of the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) waste, fraud and abuse plagued e-rate tax and subsidy program. See, Department of Justice (DOJ) release.

12/8. The U.S. District Court (SDCal) unsealed a 16 count indictment (returned on November 19, 2009) that charges Jeffrey Steven Girandola and Kajohn Phommavong with violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 (conspiracy), 18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(4) (computer fraud), 18 U.S.C. § 1029(a)(2) & (b)(1) (access device fraud), and 18 U.S.C. § 1028A (aggravated identity theft), in connection with their use of peer to peer software to obtain the bank account login information and passwords of others. The Department of Justice (DOJ) stated in a release that the defendants "are charged with using the account information and passwords that they obtained by searching the P2P networks to access the bank accounts of the victims and transfer funds to prepaid credit cards which they obtained in their own names". It adds that the "victims include five users of the online payroll system of the United States Department of Defense".

12/16. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (OUSTR) published a notice in the Federal Register that announces, describes, and requests comments upon, the negotiation of a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement.

This OUSTR announced that it seeks comments upon, among other things, "Relevant trade-related intellectual property rights issues that should be addressed in the negotiations". The OUSTR also seeks comments on "electronic commerce issues", "competition-related matters", and "government procurement issues".

The OUSTR notice states that "the initial TPP negotiating partners include Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam". However, it adds that the objective of the U.S. is to "expand on this initial group to include additional countries throughout the Asia-Pacific region".

The deadline to submit comments is January 25, 2010.

The House will not meet.

The Senate will meet at 9:45 AM. It will resume consideration of HR 3590 [LOC | WW], the huge health care bill.

10:00 AM. The Senate Judiciary Committee (SJC) may hold an executive business meeting. The agenda includes consideration of the nomination of Rogeriee Thompson to be a Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals (1stCir). See, notice. Location: Room 226, Dirksen Building.

Deadline to submit comments to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regarding its consent agreement with Panasonic Corporation and Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. regarding Panasonic's acquisition of Sanyo, subject to Sanyo's divestment of its assets relating to the manufacture and sale of portable NiMH batteries to FDK Corporation. See, notice in the Federal Register, December 1, 2009, Vol. 229, No. 74, at Pages 62778-62780.

Christmas Day. This is a federal holiday. See, Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) web page titled "2009 Federal Holidays".

The House will not meet the week of December 28 through January 1. See, Rep. Hoyer's release and release. See also, Section 11 of HRes 976 and HConRes 223.

Deadline to submit applications to Google for "Google Policy Fellowships" for the summer of 2010 at various public policy groups. See, Google notice, and story titled "Google to Fund Summer Internships at Tech Policy Groups" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,014, November 12, 2009.

No events listed.

No events listed.

12/22. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published a notice in the Federal Register that announces, describes, and sets dates and deadlines for, its rulemaking regarding practice before the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (BPAI) in ex parte patent appeals.

The USPTO will hold a public roundtable at 9:30 AM on January 20, 2010 in the USPTO's Madison Auditorium. The deadline to submit requests to participate in the roundtable is 5:00 PM on January 8, 2010.

The deadline to submit written comments on the USPTO's proposals to modify its rules is 5:00 PM on February 12, 2010. The deadline to submit written comments on other matters discussed at the roundtable is 5:00 PM on February 25, 2010.

See, Federal Register, December 22, 2009, Vol. 74, No. 244, at Pages 67987-68004.

This is related to the USPTO's July 30, 2007, notice of proposed rule making (see, notice in the Federal Register, July 30, 2007. Vol. 72, No. 145, at Pages 41472-41490), the USPTO's June 10, 2008, final rule (see, notice in the Federal Register, June 10, 2008, Vol. 73, No. 112, at Page 32937-32977), and the USPTO's December 10, 2008, notice indefinitely extending the effective and applicability dates of the final rule (see, notice in the Federal Register, December 10, 2008, Vol. 73, No. 238, at Page 74972).

The USPTO is considering numerous changes to the June 10, 2008, final rule. The Federal Register notice states that these are "(1) Deleting portions of the rule that require the filing of a petition to the Chief Administrative Patent Judge seeking extensions of time to file certain papers after an appeal brief is filed in an ex parte appeal or seeking to exceed a page limit; (2) deleting portions of the rule that require the filing of a jurisdictional statement, table of contents, table of authorities, and statement of facts in appeal briefs, a table of contents, table of authorities, and statement of additional facts in reply briefs, and a table of contents and table of authorities in requests for rehearing filed in ex parte appeals; (3) deleting portions of the rule that require an appellant to specifically identify which arguments were previously presented to the Examiner and which arguments are new; (4) deleting portions of the rule that require specific formatting requirements and page limits for appeal briefs, reply briefs, and requests for rehearing; and (5) deleting portions of the rule that require appellants to provide a list of technical terms and other unusual words for an oral hearing."

The notice adds that the USPTO "is also considering a revision to the final rule so that an examiner may continue to enter a new ground of rejection in an examiner's answer (as is allowed under the current rules). The Office is also considering not allowing an examiner to file a supplemental examiner's answer in response to a reply brief. For reasons of administrative efficiency, the Office is also considering revising the final rule to make clear that the Chief Administrative Patent Judge, rather than the Board, may remand an application to the examiner." (Parentheses in original.)

12/17. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published a notice in the Federal Register regarding public key infrastructure (PKI) certificates and use of its Electronic Filing System-Web (EFS-Web). This notice announces, effective immediately, the expansion of "the procedure for PKI certificates to permit a holder of a PKI certificate to designate more than one employee to use the PKI certificate under the direction and control of the holder in accordance with the revised PKI subscriber agreement and the rules and policies of the USPTO". See, Federal Register, December 17, 2009, Vol. 74, No. 241, at Pages 66955-66958.

12/16. The Copyright Royalty Judges published a notice in the Federal Register that announces, describes, recites, and sets the effective date for, its proposed rules regarding the rates for the satellite digital audio radio services' use of the ephemeral recordings statutory license under the Copyright Act, at 17 U.S.C. § 112(e) and 17 U.S.C. § 114, for the period 2007 through 2012. The deadline to submit comments is January 15, 2010. See, Federal Register, December 16, 2009, Vol. 74, No. 240, at Pages 66601-66602.

12/14. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published a notice in the Federal Register that requests public comments on its proposal to change its procedure for handling notices of appeal and appeal briefs that identify fewer than all of the rejected claims as being appealed. This notice states that "Under the proposed procedure, if appellant files a notice of appeal, or an appeal brief, that clearly identifies fewer than all of the rejected claims as being appealed, the non-appealed rejected claims would be deemed canceled by operation of this action on the part of the appellant as of the date on which such a notice of appeal, or appeal brief, is filed, regardless of whether the appellant also files an amendment canceling the non-appealed rejected claims." The deadline to submit comments in January 13, 2009. See, Federal Register, December 14, 2009, Vol. 74, No. 238, at Pages 66097-66098.

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