Congress can “reinvigorate” U.S. chipmaking by funding initiatives authorized in the Chips for America Act and enacting an investment tax credit to “build and modernize” U.S. fabs, the Semiconductor Industry Association, Information Technology Industry Council and 18 other groups and associations wrote the House and Senate leadership Thursday. The Senate approved $52 billion in funding last month; the House hasn’t acted. “These initiatives will help grow the U.S. economy, create hundreds of thousands of good-paying middle-class jobs in advanced manufacturing and other fields, unleash billions in private-sector investments, assure the supply of critical components essential to virtually all sectors of the economy, and strengthen our national security,” said the organizations. “The need is urgent.”

Univision filed a restated version of a request from April (see 2104290081) seeking an FCC declaratory ruling to allow the company to be more than 25% foreign-owned, so SoftBank and Liberty Global Ventures can own voting interests of more than 5%. The undocketed petition posted Wednesday was filed “pursuant to discussions with Commission staff.” The request is in the public interest because SoftBank and Liberty “are experienced investors with expertise in the media and communications sectors, and they are committed to supporting Univision’s decades long history of providing local broadcasting,” said the petition. “These investments likewise should not pose any national security or law enforcement concerns.”

The $8.3 billion five-year “landmark” deal announced Friday to supply 5G solutions to Verizon is the largest contract in Ericsson’s history, said CEO Borje Ekholm on a Q2 call. “We see the North American market moving very fast with a strong demand for 5G and it will be a key opportunity now as the operators are building out mid-band spectrum that will be lit up at the end of the year.” The big priority is building out coverage, followed by density, “because ultimately that is what's going to give the end consumer the user experience of 5G,” he said. Ericsson is “the largest contributor to the overall alliance” on open radio access network standards, but “we recognize there is a need to build out the 5G networks around the world right now,” he said. “Purpose-built networks actually can deliver the performance that's required in 5G today.” By the time ORAN is ready for broad commercialization, “we will also be there with solutions, but we don't feel it's the right time right now and divert focus from actually what goes on in the market,” he said.

Ireland's privacy watchdog must investigate whether Facebook is wrongfully processing WhatsApp Ireland (IE) users' personal data by combining or comparing it with other data sets processed by other Facebook companies in the context of other apps or services they offer, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) said Thursday. It told the Irish Data Protection Commission not to impose any final measures on Facebook Ireland (IE) now. The board's first "urgent decision" under the general data protection regulation followed a request from the Hamburg, Germany, data protection authority (DPA); it ordered Facebook to stop processing WhatsApp user data for its own purposes after changing the terms of service and privacy policy applicable to European users of WhatsApp (IE). In exceptional circumstances, GDPR lets DPAs impose provisional measures when they believe there's an urgent need to act to safeguard data subjects' rights. The board said those conditions weren't met. Given contradictions, ambiguities and uncertainties in WhatsApp's user-facing information, some written commitments adopted by Facebook IE and WhatsApp IE's written submissions, it's "not in a position to determine with certainty which processing operations are actually being carried out and in which capacity." The Hamburg order "was based on fundamental misunderstandings as to the purpose and effect of the update to our terms of service," emailed a company spokesperson.

Utah v. Google is assigned to Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley and to the alternative dispute resolution multi-option program. The sides are scheduled to meet for a case management conference 1:30 p.m. PDT Oct. 7 in San Francisco for the state’s antitrust case (see 2107080063) against the company, per a U.S. District Court in San Francisco order in cv-05227 Tuesday.

TiVo licensed its viewership data to Horizon Media, said the licensor Tuesday.

A Laguna Hills, California, man was sentenced Friday to 24 months in federal prison for conspiring to smuggle counterfeit Apple, Samsung and Motorola smartphone parts from China for sale to U.S. consumers, generating tens of millions of dollars in revenue for him and his co-conspirators, said DOJ. U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton in Santa Ana also ordered Chan Hung Le, 46, to pay $250,000 in fines. Le pleaded guilty in November to conspiracy to defraud the U.S., to intentionally trafficking in counterfeit goods and to illegally bringing merchandise into the U.S. Efforts to reach his lawyers for comment Monday were unsuccessful.

Verizon settled two patent lawsuits filed by China’s Huawei. Last year, Huawei sued in Texas, alleging the carrier used its patents without authorization. Huawei noted it holds more than 100,000 active patents, including some 10,000 in the U.S. Verizon's Monday statement is here.

The 120-day initial national security review for iHeartMedia’s request for declaratory ruling on its level of foreign ownership began Thursday, said the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the U.S. Telecom Services Sector, in a letter to the FCC posted in docket 21-141 Friday. The FCC “will be notified promptly in the event of an extension of the 120-day initial review period or the need arises to conduct a 90-day secondary assessment,” the letter said. IHeart has been battling with investor Global Media & Entertainment Investments over how much the company’s allowed percentage of foreign ownership should be increased (see 2106090077).

The Mechanical Licensing Collective should maximize outreach and transparency to reduce incidence of unclaimed royalties, the Copyright Office recommended Thursday. CO's report responds to the Music Modernization Act (see 2102110040). It recommended publicity about the MMA, the MLC, the blanket license and the public musical works database. It said the database should be “simple, accessible and well-organized.” The data should be “complete, accurate, up-to-date and de-conflicted as possible,” the office said: The MLC “should adopt transparent, practical, and equitable policies, practices, and procedures, especially with respect to holding and distributing unclaimed royalties.”