U.S. President Donald Trump signed the phase one trade deal Wednesday alongside Chinese Vice Premier Liu He. It's "a transformative deal" and "a sea change in international trade," Trump told a White House ceremony. It reflects "great progress on protecting intellectual property, on preventing forced technology transfer" and other measures, said Vice President Mike Pence, per a government transcript. It "signals a turning point for the U.S. tech sector," said CompTIA Executive Vice President-Advocacy Cinnamon Rogers. "This agreement will begin to address key industry concerns with China, including forced technology transfer and IP protections," said Information Technology Industry Council CEO Jason Oxman. The U.S. will reduce tariffs on about 3,800 eight-digit tariff lines from 15 percent to 7.5 percent in 30 days, when the just-signed agreement takes effect, an administration official told reporters on condition of not being identified by name.

Samsung with subsidiaries was 2019's “most inventive” company, with 9,413 U.S. utility patents granted, reported Sqoop. The document search engine for journalists has compiled patent-search data since 2014. Rounding out the top five in U.S. patents granted: IBM, 9,190 patents; LG, 4,938; Canon, 3,565; and Intel, 3,501.

Not much about Public Interest Registry will change after its sale to Ethos Capital, the registry told ICANN in a response published Saturday. In December, ICANN queried PIR, its owner the Internet Society and buyer Ethos about the continuity of registry operations, nature of the proposed transaction, how the proposed new ownership structure would comply with the current registry agreement, and how the parties intend to keep their promises to serve the .org community (see 1912090002). PIR said its proposed change from the nonprofit "Public Interest Registry, a Pennsylvania corporation" to the for-profit "Public Interest Registry, LLC" won't amount to the creation of a new entity under law and that all of PIR's current debt, obligations and other liabilities will continue. If anything, PIR said, the transaction wouldn't jeopardize security of registry operations and "the infusion of outside resources only acts to strengthen PIR's position in the competitive marketplace." Management will remain and "continue to operate the business of PIR in a manner consistent with past practices in furtherance of the .ORG community," and back-end operations will still be served by Afilias. PIR noted many ICANN questions came from the new generic top-level domain applicants' guidebook and "do not apply to a fully functioning, legacy gTLD registry operator." PIR denied it knew ISOC was looking to sell the registry at the time the .org registry agreement was being renegotiated. The final version was posted in March, and PIR didn't know the registry was potentially for sale until July, it said. It wasn't aware until September that ISOC was considering an offer, and "was not involved in any process ISOC may have run with regards to the potential sale of the .ORG registry prior to" that time. ICANN doesn't have a timeline for making a decision about the deal, a spokesperson emailed Monday.

U.S. smartphone importers shifted toward Vietnam and from China in November, the last full month before then-U.S. scheduled imposition of 15 percent tariffs on Chinese handsets, said new Census Bureau data we accessed Thursday through the International Trade Commission. The Trump administration suspended the levies Dec. 13, less than 48 hours before they were to take effect (see 1912130062). China was 73.7 percent of the 21.1 million smartphones imported to the U.S. from all countries in November, down 5.8 points sequentially. The U.S. imported 4.6 million smartphones from Vietnam in November, a 21 percent increase sequentially and a 65 percent jump from November 2018.

Licensees with 5,000 or more unique sound recordings during the relevant annual calculation period are subject to an annual minimum fee of $60,000, the Copyright Royalty Board said Wednesday in final regulations for the Music Modernization Act’s mechanical licensing collective (see 1907080032).

The Patent and Trademark Office declared dead two December 2018 applications from Sharp’s Japanese parent company to trademark “NXT-GEN” for consumer TVs and monitors, agency records show. Both applications, one for a plain-text trademark, the other for a stylized logo, got provisional PTO approval June 4, pending Sharp’s filing of a statement of use (SOU) within six months or a request for a deadline extension. PTO ruled the applications abandoned Monday after Sharp filed neither by the Jan. 4 deadline. Agency rules require the SOU to prevent companies from hoarding trademarks they have no intention to commercialize in order just to keep them out of competitors' hands. Abandonment of the Sharp applications appears to render moot a possible controversy in CTA’s effort to register the NEXTGEN TV logo as a certification mark for ATSC 3.0 consumer products (see 1910020024). CTA risked “potential refusal” of its Sept. 25 trademark request because Sharp’s NXT-GEN filings were “prior-pending applications,” and there would have been “a likelihood of confusion between the marks,” the agency notified CTA Friday, three days before Sharp's applications died. Had they survived, CTA’s application would have faced “suspension” at the agency pending “final disposition” of the Sharp docket, said PTO. Sharp didn’t comment Wednesday on why it let its applications lapse, nor did CTA on averting the possible controversy.

Google began “willfully infringing” five Sonos patents for wireless multiroom audio technology when it introduced Chromecast Audio in 2015, alleged a Sonos complaint Tuesday (in Pacer) in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. “Google’s misappropriation of Sonos’s patented technology has only proliferated, as Google has expanded its wireless multi-room audio system to more than a dozen different infringing products,” it said. “Google has persisted despite the fact that Sonos has warned Google of its infringement on at least four separate occasions dating back to 2016.” Google has “profoundly compounded” the harm by using its multiroom audio products to “vacuum up invaluable consumer data” and “further entrench the Google platform” to “ultimately fuel its dominant advertising and search platforms,” alleged Sonos. Its actions “have caused significant damage to Sonos.” “Over the years, we have had numerous ongoing conversations with Sonos about both companies' IP rights," emailed Google Tuesday. "We are disappointed" that Sonos brought legal action "instead of continuing negotiations in good faith," it said. "We dispute these claims and will defend them vigorously.”

The Chinese government will offer legal services through "an intellectual property service station" at CES, to respond to intellectual property rights infringement injunctions, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said, according to an unofficial translation. "The service station employs American practicing lawyers from well-known American law firms to provide exhibitors with free legal advisory services on intellectual property rights and assist enterprises in resolving intellectual property infringement disputes," said MOFCOM. American companies in recent years have used emergency temporary injunctions to force seizures during past conferences, said MOFCOM. "Chinese companies as defendants should have sufficient time to refute infringement lawsuits to the court, but during the CES, American companies will declare that CES has only four days, and Chinese companies will leave after the end, so they can go to the court." The ministry provided the phrase in English that Chinese exhibitors should use for "police" who attempt to seal up a booth: "We will cooperate with you. We have lawyers who represent us. So before you seize our products, we would like to speak with our lawyer." Upon contact, one of the lawyers will rush to the scene, said MOFCOM. The Chinese Consulate General in San Francisco, MOFCOM and China Council for the Promotion of International Trade established the service station.

Apple filed to seal confidential information in FTC v. Qualcomm (see 1912020029). Qualcomm is appealing an FTC lawsuit over the company's alleged mobile chip monopoly. Apple wants to "intervene in this appeal solely for the purpose of moving to seal Apple’s confidential information,” it wrote the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, released Thursday evening and accepted the next day.

Verance is adding Aspect-branded video watermarking to its suite of advertising and interactivity technologies, said the company Thursday. Aspect video watermarking “brings enhanced capabilities to the Aspect audio watermark that has already been deployed by major broadcasters,” it said.