Roy Mark

UPDATED: WASHINGTON — As Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer and other top technology executives worked the halls of Congress today championing patent reform, one smaller tech firm and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office took a more moderate stance. Bruce Bernstein of InterDigital , a Pennsylvania wireless platform designer and developer, told the Senate Judiciary Committee that […]

WASHINGTON – Congress today turned its attention – again — to illegal peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing on college campuses, an issue that has already prompted a March Judiciary Committee hearing and numerous other hearings over the past few years. Tuesday afternoon, the House Science Committee took its turn, focusing on the effectiveness of technologies used […]

WASHINGTON — An interconnected medical network would save more than 100,000 lives annually, former U.S. Sen. John Breaux said today at the launch of a new coalition promoting the deployment of health information technology (IT) systems. The Health IT Now! coalition plans to lobby Congress to eliminate barriers to electronic health records and to establish […]

Tech groups, consumers, political activists and at least one presidential candidate are flooding the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with advice for the agency’s upcoming auction of spectrum that may sell for more than $12 billion. The primary thrust of their comments is simple: keep the spectrum out of the hands of incumbent telecom and cable […]

Internet telephone companies like Vonage must contribute to the Universal Service Fund (USF), a federal appeals court ruled Friday afternoon. If VoIP providers follow the lead of local, long-distance and wireless services that already pay into the USF, the costs will be passed on to consumers. The decision is limited to VoIP providers that interconnect […]

The effort to reform the royalty rate-setting process for streaming music over the Internet, it appears, has failed. The issue is back in the courts and Congress, which is where it all began three years ago. The legal maneuvering has also left the music industry and webcasters right back where they were the last time […]

Data broker ChoicePoint agreed Thursday to pay $500,000 to 44 states as part of a settlement stemming from a 2005 data breach at the Alpharetta, Ga.-based company. The breach involved more than 160,000 records. As part of the settlement, ChoicePoint also agreed to strengthen its new customer review and credentialing process, marking the first time […]

Webcasters went to court today seeking to stave off a Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) ruling tripling Internet radio royalty rates. Without intervention by the courts or Congress, the new rates become effective July 15. According to the webcasters, the new rates will force many Internet radio stations — large and small — out of business. […]

A California jury today ordered Qualcomm to pay $19.6 million for infringing on three patents owned by Broadcom. The jury also decided Qualcomm’s infringement was intentional, which could potentially treble the damages. After the Tuesday afternoon verdict in Santa Ana, Calif., Broadcom  announced it would ask the court for a permanent injunction barring Qualcomm  from […]

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) plans to investigate any antitrust implications of Google’s proposed $3.1 billion acquisition of online advertising firm DoubleClick. The merger would combine two of the biggest players in online advertising. An FTC spokesman said Monday morning all investigations are non-public, but confirmed the agency was opening a probe into the merger. […]

The U.S. Senate voted Thursday to increase H1-B visa fees for employers to $5,000 per application, $3,500 more than the current fee. Proceeds from the fee hike would be used to fund scholarships for Americans seeking degrees in math, technology and health-related fields. The 59-35 vote came on an amendment to the current immigration bill […]

You can’t manage what you don’t measure. That’s the message behind Sen. Daniel Inouye’s legislation filed Thursday calling for better broadband metrics to inform telecommunications policy. The Broadband Data Improvement Act (S. 1492) would require the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to revise its formula for determining U.S. broadband penetration rates and to reevaluate its current […]