October 2013

This post highlights material recent developments in Europe concerning standard essential patents (SEPs) and FRAND licensing, including Samsung’s commitments proposed in the context of the ongoing antitrust probe of the European Commission (see our previous post).

Samsung’s Commitments Proposal  

In its commitments proposal, Samsung offered not to seek injunctions based on its patents essential

On October 22, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) introduced a bill serving to “provide for regulating medical software, and for other purposes” in the House of Representatives.  The bill, entitled the Sensible Oversight for Technology which Advances Regulatory Efficiency (“SOFTWARE”) Act (“the bill”), was co-sponsored by a bi-partisan group of lawmakers.

The bill creates a regulatory

Only a few days after the leading parliamentary committee waved through the proposed amendments to the European Commission’s legislative proposal for a General Data Protection Regulation (see here and here), the EU Member States’ governments have decided to postpone the adoption of the Regulation to 2015.  Germany and the UK, in particular, supported the delay,

This post was originally published as a Covington E-Alert
Very recently, the General Court of the European Union held that European institutions and agencies (e.g., European Commission, ECHA, EFSA, EMA) must disclose to the public, upon their request, information on the impurities and composition of substances emitted into the environment even if this may affect

By Mark Young

On Monday, the LIBE Committee of the European Parliament adopted proposed amendments to the Commission’s legislative proposal for a General Data Protection Regulation.  Earlier this week we summarized the vote and procedural details (here).  In this alert, we provide more detail on the amendments that companies are likely to

In a historic vote today, the leading parliamentary committee on the European Commission’s proposed General Data Protection Regulation, the Civil Liberties Committee (“LIBE”), adopted all compromise amendments put forward to the Commission’s original proposal. The compromise amendments had been prepared by the rapporteur, Green Member of the Parliament, Jan Philipp Albrecht, in close collaboration

By Dan Cooper and Mark Young

This week, the Article 29 Working Party (the “WP29”) released an opinion paper on what constitutes “consent” for purposes of complying with the EU’s “cookie” rules — rules that were revised to include a consent requirement nearly four years ago.  The paper will be relevant to website providers that

Earlier today, two entities — the Direct Marketing Association (“DMA”) and a Coalition of Mobile Engagement Providers (“Coalition”) — filed petitions at the FCC asking the agency to stay and forbear from enforcing, or clarify, certain aspects of the “prior express written consent” requirement that went into effect yesterday for prerecorded calls to residential numbers and autodialed