Intellectual Property
PTO Unhappy With Parts Of Patent Overhaul Bill
     On the same day that a House panel approved the legislation, the Patent and Trademark Office and its parent department this week criticized portions of a bill that aims to overhaul the U.S. patent system. The Judiciary Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property Subcommittee approved the bill, H.R. 1908, by voice vote, despite concerns raised by Commerce Department General Counsel John Sullivan in a letter to the measure's authors. PTO believes a "second window" for patent review would be too broad. Sullivan said the office is afraid it could not handle the potential workload. A proposal to institute a "first-to-file" patent regime in the United States also gives PTO pause. The change would give priority to the first person to send a patent application to the agency, regardless of the invention date. Such a change should be "contingent on significant progress" in multinational patent harmonization talks, the letter said.

Intellectual Property
Gonzales Proposes Legislative Crackdown On Piracy
     Attorney General Alberto Gonzales sent to Capitol Hill a legislative proposal aimed at curtailing intellectual property theft. He said the recommendations would increase the maximum punishment for pirates and set stronger penalties for repeat offenders. Gonzales, who joined Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce briefing, said the proposal would "hit the criminals in their wallets" by ensuring that all illicit profits from IP theft would be forfeited. A Justice Department official said the plan would bolster restitution for certain IP crimes that involve the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. It also would outlaw exportation of copyright-infringing goods. "IP theft is not a technicality, and its victims are not just faceless corporations," Gonzales said. "It is stealing and it affects us all." The Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus, meanwhile, released its list of countries to watch for piracy violations.

Labor
Senators, Techies Get More Time For Immigration Deal
     A deadline extension for senators to negotiate an immigration compromise gave the technology industry more time to try to shape visa provisions before a deal was announced Thursday. Floor debate is planned for next week. The bill contains provisions for highly skilled workers, including a Bush administration proposal to create a point system to prioritize visa applicants. The point system is designed to favor advanced degrees over family connections. Technology industry lobbyists would just as soon see proposals offered by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. His measure last year would have increased the number of H-1B visas for skilled foreigners from 65,000 to 115,000 annually and the green-card cap from 140,000 to 190,000. A new Cornyn bill would not count H-1B workers with advanced science, technology, engineering and mathematics degrees toward the cap. But the tech industry is trying to be open to the idea of the point system.

Broadband
Value Of High-Speed Data Challenged By Lawmakers
     House lawmakers criticized the FCC for using outdated methods to compile data on high-speed Internet access and setting a low threshold for the speed of broadband. Massachusetts Democrat Edward Markey said there is unanimity that the agency's methods are flawed. "This can lead to highly inaccurate and overly generous notions of broadband availability," he warned. The FCC has faced growing scrutiny for assuming that one subscriber in a five-digit ZIP code indicates the entire area has access to service. Markey is spearheading legislation that would require the FCC to collect data within smaller, nine-digit ZIP codes and create a nationwide connectivity map. Markey also complained that the agency defines broadband too slowly. His proposal would require the FCC define broadband as two megabits per second instead of 200 kilobits.

Telecom
FCC Chief Pledges Loyalty To USF, Seeks Reforms
     FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has responded to a detailed query from Rep. Edward Markey regarding the regulator's positions on the multibillion-dollar universal service program that subsidizes telecommunications and Internet connections in rural and impoverished areas. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who chairs the Energy and Commerce Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee, plans to hold a hearing on universal service later this year. In his response to Markey, Martin said preserving the stability of USF "is one of the commission's most important responsibilities." He added that "the system requires fundamental reform, and I support modifying the current contribution system and moving to a more competitively and technology-neutral system." Martin also said he wants the FCC to explore "how and to what extent" the fund could assist with the deployment of high-speed Internet service in rural and low-income areas.

Telecom
Firms Seek Shield As Wiretapping Deadline Arrives
     Providers of high-speed Internet access and Web-based telephone service now must comply with federal wiretapping laws, the last major milestone toward implementing the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act. The requirements stem from a 2005 FCC order declaring that the services are subject to court-ordered surveillance. The law, known as CALEA, already permits the wiretapping of phone traffic carried over the public-switched telephone network. "I don't know of any who have indicated that they're not going to be in compliance," an industry official said of compliance with the new rules. The deadline arrived as major telecom firms are seeking legal protections on a separate but related item: cooperation with law enforcement on clandestine wiretaps aimed at uncovering terrorist activity.

Health
Hearing Highlights Dangers Of Internet Pharmacies
     The ease and increasing frequency with which children are buying addictive, controlled substances online without prescriptions became clear to lawmakers at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. "At a time when we were worried about our children being exposed to pornography and predators, marijuana and alcohol, we did not know that drug dealers were in our own family room," testified Francine Haight, whose teenage son Ryan died from an overdose. Haight, a registered nurse, later founded Ryan's Cause to warn about the dangers of online pseudo-pharmacies. Ryan had met a "drug dealer" in a chat room who told him where he could buy drugs online for "experimental purposes," and a medical doctor whom he never met mailed the Vicodin to the Haight home. Witnesses from the public health arena, academia and the government validated Haight's warnings. In other news, Senate Judiciary unanimously approved legislation aimed at curtailing Internet cigarettes sales.

Lobbying
GOP's Silence Angers Bill Backers, Rep. Calvert's Foes
     Online activists are getting frustrated as they push Republican lawmakers for more transparency. The party's own activists have joined the Sunlight Foundation in working to expose the senator or senators behind an objection to a bill that would require electronic disclosures of campaign filings. Sunlight Foundation Director Ellen Miller said backers of the measure are frustrated that "numerous" telephone calls to Republican Senate offices have been met with a wall of silence, and she blamed Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Online GOP activists also want to know which House Republicans voted to put Ken Calvert, R-Calif., on the Appropriations Committee, a move they oppose. RedState Editor-in-Chief Erick Erickson asked readers to bombard key members with calls. He later charged the office of House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, with telling lawmakers not to reveal their votes. Spokesmen for both Boehner and McConnell denied that the lawmakers are blocking the efforts.