Earlier this week, SIIA filed a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court on patent venue, urging it to reverse the Federal Circuit’s interpretation of the existing patent venue statute, 28 U.S.C. 1400(b).  Although the argument is a technical one, the resolution of this case has important implications for the technology industry.  The misinterpretation of that statute has concentrated patent litigation in a single district that has encouraged the growth of the patent assertion business model.

Menendez Wants FCC to Clarify Set-Top Box Plan’s Copyright Protections (Morning Consult Tech) Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) asked FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to address concerns that third-party companies will not be able to abide by contracts which govern content, advertising, and channel placing when they enter the cable marketplace.  The proposal to open set-top box markets for third-party manufacturers was passed in February and has since been the cause of many copyright and privacy concerns.

More Federal Open Source Appreciated, If it Behaves (FCW) Tech groups weigh in on the White House’s new proposed policy to make software code used by federal agencies open source.  While many are voicing support, there is still concern that certain types of software that will be required to be made open source should not be made so. German Court Ruling Threatens Apple’s Video Services (Reuters) Apple was found by a German district court to have violated patents from the Swiss security company, Kudelski that are related to its video-streaming services.  Now there is pressure on Apple to seek a licensing deal with Kudelski unless it simply disables these features.

U.S. Top Court Mulls Boosted Patent Damages in Stryker, Halo Cases (Reuters) The U.S. Supreme Court showed that they may be willing to relax the standard held by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit where to be awarded damages in a patent suit, the patent owner “must prove a defendant acted despite a high likelihood of infringement and had no reasonable explanation to do so.”

Soon You Might Be Able to Vote on Google (Time) Google was awarded a patent that would allow it to build a voting interface that would accompany search results.  This voting feature could be used for entertainment shows, polls, elections, contests, and marketing, but only to “authenticated” users.

Jury: Apple must pay $626 million to patent troll VirnetX (Ars Technica) Apple lost a $626 million suit against the patent troll VirnetX where it was found that Apple infringed upon every single patent claim at hand. U.S. Investigates Toyota, BMW, Volkswagen for Patent Infringement (Computerworld) The U.S. International Trade Commission is investigating charges of patent infringement by Advanced Silicon Technologies that several car companies infringe on its patents related to car infotainment systems. Arista Just Lost a Patent Round Against Cisco and Could Face an Import Ban (PC World) The U.S. International Trade Commission found that Arista Networks violated three Cisco patents on networking technologies.  This win could block the importation of Arista products into the United States. Nokia Patent Sales Forecast from Samsung Deal Hits Shares (Reuters) Nokia’s shares fell by more than 10% after it settled a patent dispute with Samsung.  This comes after N ...

Senate Judiciary Committee Votes in Favor of Passage of an Amended Defend Trade Secrets Act (Lexology) On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted in favor of the passage of an amended version of the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016.

Senate Judiciary to markup trade secrets, Judicial Redress Bills (Politico Pro) The Senate Judiciary Committee scheduled the Defend Trade Secrets Act and the Judicial Redress Act on its agenda for markup this week.  This bill would give companies the means to go after trade secret thieves in federal court.