The Library of Congress lacks “clear direction” for its IT program and needs to “expeditiously” hire a chief information officer (CIO), the Government Accountability Office said in a report released Tuesday. “Although the Library obligated at least $119 million on IT for fiscal year 2014, it is not effectively managing its investments,” it said. After the GAO finished its review in January, LOC officials said the library would draft a “strategic plan” for IT within 90 days and hire a CIO, the report said. “If it follows through on these plans, the Library will be in a stronger position to address its IT management weaknesses and more effectively support its mission,” it said. Copyright stakeholders have pointed to the Copyright Office’s outdated IT procedures as a chief reason for removing the office from the purview of the library (see 1502260057 and 1502200040). The library hired an interim CIO as it searches for a permanent hire, which is expected to be completed by September, Librarian of Congress James Billington said in a letter attached to the report. He said the LOC will complete its strategic plan in April. "The Library appreciates the work of the GAO and believes the report ultimately will be helpful," a spokeswoman said. "Several recommendations are already underway, such as developing a new IT strategic plan, finalizing an enterprise architecture plan and updating regulations and governance regarding IT."

The Copyright Office posted the second round of comments filed in connection with the CO's sixth triennial rulemaking process for Digital Millennium Copyright Act Section 1201, which prohibits the circumvention of technological protection measures. The comments, which were due Friday, were limited to parties opposed to some of the office's proposed exemptions (see 1503300053). The Software and Information Industry Association opposed the proposed exemption for the circumvention of electronic literary works to allow for the noncommercial use via “space-shifting or format-shifting.” The Software Alliance opposed the exemption for the jailbreaking of cellphones. Comments in favor of the exemptions were due Feb. 6 (see 1502110062). Comments by those who support or oppose specific proposals and neutral parties wishing to reply to other comments are due May 1.

The Copyright Office is "struggling to keep up" with the pace of technological change in the copyright industry, said Michi Iljazi, Taxpayers Protection Alliance communications and policy manager, in a Hill op-ed Thursday. “The question isn’t whether the Copyright Office should be fixed, it is how the US Copyright Office can make needed changes to be fully capable of dealing with the creative forces that are driving today’s knowledge based economy.” That’s not a “herculean task,” but a matter of “updating their IT systems and optimizing the technology,” Iljazi said. He added that the CO should have “greater independence” from the Library of Congress: “This arrangement may have outlived its usefulness.”

An independent license administration company, HEVC Advance, wants to start a one-stop-shop patent pool for the HEVC platform, the company said in a Thursday announcement. The HEVC Advance patent pool "will address marketplace demand for an additional licensing option of HEVC essential patents," the company said. It expects to attract a "critical mass" of HEVC patent holders, with more than 500 "essential patents" to be available for license at launch, and the number of patents expected to grow significantly soon thereafter, it said. It named Dolby Labs, General Electric, Mitsubishi, Philips and Technicolor as likely to be on "the initial list of licensors." Royalty rates and licensing terms will be made available in Q2 in preparation for a formal launch in Q3, it said. The announcement would appear to put HEVC Advance in competition with MPEG LA, which runs an HEVC license program as a one-stop shop for about two dozen companies and universities that hold HEVC-related patents, including Apple, Fujitsu, Hitachi Maxell, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Samsung and Siemens. Last week, MPEG LA said it updated coverage of its HEVC patent portfolio to reflect recent ITU revisions in the HEVC standard (see 1503190037).

Comments on copyright royalty judges' proposed regulations for rates and terms of digital performances of sound recordings and ephemeral recordings to facilitate such transmissions are due April 16, said a Copyright Royalty Board notice in Thursday's Federal Register. The rates and terms are for Jan. 1, 2016, through Dec. 31, 2020, it said.

Immersion said it agreed to a settlement and license agreement with HTC to resolve a patent infringement lawsuit it brought against the Chinese smartphone maker. The settlement preserves Immersion’s right to appeal the invalidity ruling affecting three of Immersion’s patents. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Delaware, was based on HTC’s uses of a simple form of haptic effects in its mobile devices, referred to as Basic Haptics. Under the settlement and license agreement, HTC will pay an undisclosed amount to compensate for prior shipments of its devices containing Basic Haptics and an additional undisclosed licensing fee to continue manufacturing and selling devices with Basic Haptics, said Immersion Monday. Immersion CEO Victor Viegas said the settlement won't have a material impact on 2015 financial results. Immersion announced similar settlements and licensing agreements (see 1211280083) with Google and Motorola in 2012. Immersion announced a multiyear licensing deal in 2013 with Samsung for Basic Haptics. HTC didn’t comment.

Panasonic will provide access to its software, patents and experience royalty-free to speed development of the Internet of Things, it said Monday at the Embedded Linux Conference in San Jose. The company, a board member of the AllSeen Alliance, said it would also boost its intellectual property contributions to the alliance. Panasonic will make available mature and tested device-to-cloud software technology currently being used in home monitoring systems, solar energy and in retail applications, the company said. Chief Technology Officer Todd Rytting said Panasonic hopes its IoT initiative will “inspire other global companies to contribute intellectual property and ideas to making networks work together through this alliance.” Other premier members of the AllSeen Alliance are Electrolux, Haier, LG, Microsoft, Qeo, Qualcomm, Sharp, Sony, Silicon Image and TP-Link.

The Senate deserves praise for again "tackling" patent reform, CEA President Gary Shapiro said, citing hearings Wednesday and Thursday to study what he said is “the impact of abusive patent litigation practices ... on American businesses.” Since Congress last acted on patent reform legislation in December 2013, “patent trolls have bled over $100 billion from the U.S. economy,” Shapiro said Thursday in a statement. “And with each week that passes, trolls send more demand letters to small businesses and startups, and drain another $1.5 billion from our economy. The immense amount of money spent fighting bogus patent lawsuits amounts to a massive tax for over 80 percent of victims who are startups or small and medium businesses. Blatant patent extortion needs to be stopped.” Wednesday’s hearing was before the Senate Judiciary Committee (see 1503180042), and Thursday’s was before the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee. Shapiro has identified patent reform as one of CEA’s highest legislative priorities and has been an outspoken critic of former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., for “single-handedly” killing patent reform legislation in the last Congress (see 1411050022).

Three telecom giants from China and the U.S. led international patent filing activity via the World Intellectual Property Organization in 2014, the group said in a year-end review released Thursday. China and the U.S. combined caused 87 percent of the total growth in filings under WIPO’s Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), which saw some 215,000 applications in 2014, a 4.5 percent increase over the previous year, WIPO said. China’s Huawei, with 3,442 published PCT applications, was 2014’s most prolific applicant, followed by U.S.-based Qualcomm (2,409 published applications) and China’s ZTE (2,179 published applications). The U.S. was the most active country of origin for PCT filers in 2014, with 61,492 applications, a 7.1 increase from 2013, WIPO said. Japan followed with 42,459 applications, a 3 percent decline from 2013, it said. Applicants from China filed 25,539 applications, an 18.7 percent increase from 2013, putting China in third place in terms of PCT application activity, it said.

Microsoft signed a broad patent cross-licensing agreement with Fuji Xerox, a provider of document managing systems, wrote Microsoft Executive Director-Technology Licensing Nick Psyhogeos in a blog post Thursday. The agreement “builds on our 2007 cross-licensing agreement, and offers expanded patent coverage to both companies,” Psyhogeos said. Microsoft announced a similar agreement with Melco Holdings Monday. “While patents, by definition, involve a right to exclude, Microsoft thinks about it differently,” Psyhogeos said. Microsoft’s licensing program has a goal of inclusion, he said, saying the company has signed more than 1,000 licensing agreements in the past 10 years. “Licensing of technologies contributes to the discovery and development of new synergies between innovative companies,” Psyhogeos said.