On The Hill
Techies Hopeful About New House Panel Chairmen
     The New Year will bring new chairmen from the newly dominant Democratic Party in Congress, but technology industry lobbyists are not too concerned about all of the change. They are taking comfort in the bipartisan dialogue of key lawmakers like Charles Rangel of New York, who is slated to run the House Ways and Means Committee. Tech lobbyists expect that they will have to do more work to get trade deals passed with Rangel as the chairman, but they do not see him as an enemy. They also are hopeful about the ascension of Michigan's John Conyers at House Judiciary because of his past support for patent reform. The same is true of Howard Berman of California at the Judiciary subcommittee that oversees intellectual property. Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank, meanwhile, said his priorities as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee will include strengthening data security.

On The Hill
John Dingell's Universe: What It Means To Techies
     When 80-year-old John Dingell last chaired the House Energy and Commerce Committee, a photograph of the Earth taken from the moon hung in the chamber. Those working with the committee used to joke that the image represented Dingell's jurisdiction. With the Michigan Democrat set to reclaim the gavel for the first time in 12 years, there is slight concern among some technology industry lobbyists that Dingell could try to take on too much, slowing progress on other legislation. "If it was in his constellation, it was his jurisdiction," Bill Archey, the CEO of the tech group AeA, said of Dingell. But while he may have inspired fear in the 1980s, Dingell also is respected for knowing how to move legislation, and many tech groups look forward to seeing that happen again. "If you do your homework, he treats you extremely well and professionally," Archey said.

On The Hill
Oversight May Be Biggest Change At Senate Panels
     When Democrats take over key Senate committees come January, one of the biggest changes is expected to be oversight. "We do have a system of government that provides checks and balances," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "A big challenge for the 110th Congress will be to do that." He said both parties likely would agree that the Republican-led Congress has not provided much oversight of Republican President Bush lately. Rotenberg predicted that Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who is expected to head the Senate Judiciary Committee, "will be very good at that role." Technology interests also look forward to patent reform under Leahy's leadership. Techies do not predict much change at the Senate Commerce or Finance committees, whose top Republicans and Democrats are known for working closely together.

Intellectual Property
Longstanding Patent Rule Not Obvious to Justices
     Companies are not supposed to be eligible for patents related to "obvious" inventions, but the standard used for making such decisions was not all that obvious to Supreme Court justices this week. The court heard a case that features two makers of gas pedals fighting over whether a patent on that product line is legal. The technology industry is watching the battle in the hopes that the court's decision will add clarity to patent law, but that may be difficult to achieve. Under the standard test, a patent can be found obvious if there was a "teaching," "suggestion" or "motivation" to combine pieces of "prior art" into the claimed invention. But Justices Stephen Breyer and Anthony Kennedy said they did not understand the "motivation" prong. Justice Antonin Scalia called the checklist "gobbledygook." Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg also said a proposed standard focused on whether an invention is "sufficiently innovative" is "rather vague."

Antitrust
High Court Hears Views In Telecom Competition Case
     The Supreme Court heard arguments in a case about the practice of price-fixing without a verbal agreement between competitors. The dispute involves dominant telephone companies accused of not helping to facilitate competition in local markets. Such "conscious parallelism," several justices agreed, is commonplace in highly competitive sectors in the U.S. economy. Under such an arrangement, one firm takes the lead in hiking prices and others follow suit with the shared belief that greater profits will benefit them all. An American Bar Association synopsis characterizes the case, Bell Atlantic v. Twombly, as the most important antitrust matter to reach the Supreme Court since a 1986 dispute that pitted Japanese television makers against U.S.-based competitors. Justice Antonin Scalia said a complaint that gives "no idea who agreed with whom" to fix prices is tough to argue. Justice Stephen Breyer said the suit would be more fruitful if it provided "evidence that something else occurred."

Net Governance
Commerce Approves New VeriSign .com Agreement
     The Internet registry VeriSign will continue to serve as the master of the popular .com Internet space under a new agreement. It reached the deal with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which oversees the Internet-addressing system, and the U.S. Commerce Department just endorsed the plan. Under the agreement, VeriSign will operate the domain through 2012. ICANN's current agreement with VeriSign expires in 2007. NetChoice Director Steve DelBianco said the accord "is good news for electronic commerce because it ensures the long-term availability and integrity of the Internet's domain-name system." But Christine Jones, general counsel of the VeriSign competitor Go Daddy Group, complained that the agreement "allows an unregulated monopoly to have permanent presumptive renewal of its monopoly contract with built-in, non-justified price increases every year."

E-Government
Standards Body Pens Critical Review Of E-Voting
     Election officials should focus their efforts on improving the accessibility and usability of paper-based, software-independent voting systems, according to a white paper issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. According to the NIST white paper, direct-recording electronic machines should not be acceptable under the pending standards because reliable, paperless auditing methods have not been developed. The report will be discussed at a technical guidelines committee meeting of the Election Assistance Commission next week. In a telephone interview, former EAC Vice Chairman Ray Martinez applauded NIST for thinking aggressively on the issue. "If this white paper coming out of NIST is saying this, then it's a pleasant surprise," Martinez said. "It coincides with a lot of what I've been saying." In Florida, meanwhile, a Democratic House candidate sued an e-voting firm for alleged flaws in its machines Nov. 7.

Telecom
Network Neutrality Debate Moves To Michigan
     Opponents of a measure in Michigan to overhaul the state's video-franchising rules have thrown a new wrinkle into their argument. Debate over the measure now has shifted to how it will allow high-speed Internet operators to treat online content. Discussion over such network neutrality provisions to ensure equal treatment of similar content derailed a federal telecommunications proposal earlier this year. This is the first time network neutrality has become a major issue at the state level. A coalition of various opposition groups held a rally in Lansing to urge lawmakers in the Wolverine State not to act on a measure, H.B. 6456, that the state House overwhelmingly passed earlier this month. The groups sponsoring the event said they have prepared more than 18,000 petitions to deliver to state senators.