The business of Internet, wireless, and telecom law.
This month the FCC narrowly avoided addressing the messy political hot-potato of comprehensive intercarrier compensation reform. Very few, even inside the industry, have a full grasp of the complex problems involved with reform. On November 5, 2008, the FCC issued a lengthy order addressing the dial-up reciprocal compensation issues related to the Core Communications order [...]
There has been a great deal of talk about open mobile applications, devices and access since last year’s FCC 700Mhz auction order for open mobile devices. The open mobile proposal was teed up by Google as a requirement for the successful bidder of the 700Mhz C Block. The C Block covered the nation with a [...]
On May 28, 2008, the FCC issued yet another declaratory order relating to TRS (Telecommunications Relay Service) providing clarification of a 2007 order related to the use of customer information by TRS providers. By issuing the clarification order, the Commission is seeking to avoid litigation initiated by TRS providers regarding their right to contact and [...]
For this post on IMS and FMC developers’ intellectual property, I collaborated with my friend, Michael Dowd, a partner at Foley, Hoag, LLP, in Boston. I provide counsel on licensing patents and trademarks, and Michael’s practice involves developing patenting strategies and resolving inventorship issues, software licensing disputes and trade secret misappropriation claims. As we explain below, these are intellectual [...]
The Football v YouTube action was reported immediately by Reuters on May 4, 2007. In a new twist, the plaintiffs created a web site specifically for the lawsuit. The plaintiffs in the case are England’s soccer club Football Association Premier League Ltd and the Bourne Company, an indie music producer. The suit alleged that YouTube willfully and deliberately encouraged copyright violations [...]
There is a now a second lawsuit against Google/YouTube for copyright infringement. The class action complaint, Football Association Premier League Ltd and Bourne Co. v YouTube, Inc., YouTube, LLC, and Google, Inc., was filed on on Friday, May 4, 2007, in the U.S. District Court Southern Discrict New York, and is 39 pages in length. One of [...]
Although reported today by the New York Times as a “Setback” for Verizon v Vonage, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal District denied in its May 3, 2007 order Vonage’s May 1, 2007 motion for a new trial based on the recent April 30, 2007 Supreme Court opinion in KSR v. Teleflex. KSR [...]
