What's New @ IEEE-USA - Eye On Washington

Vol. 2008, No. 15 (3 November 2008)

Don't Forget to VOTE!

CAPITOL HILL ACTIVITY

EXECUTIVE ACTIVITY

Music Stars Urge Caution At FCC

PTO Engaged In Global Work-Sharing Effort

REPORTS & DOCUMENTS OF NOTE

U.S. STATES WATCH

AWARDS & GRANTS

CONFERENCES, FELLOWSHIPS, PROGRAMS & INTERNSHIPS FOR ENGINEERS

OTHER ITEMS OF POSSIBLE INTEREST

Microsoft Announces Worldwide Anti-Piracy Blitz

LATEST IEEE-USA & IEEE ACTIVITIES

CAPITOL HILL ACTIVITY

Congress is in recess until after the elections.

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US COURTS

FedCirc Decides High-Profile Patent Case

30 OCT: The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a decision by the Patent and Trademark Office's appeals board in a high-profile "business methods patent" dispute. At issue was PTO's rejection of an application by inventor Bernard Bilski, who tried to patent what some believe is an abstract idea to reduce risk in buying and selling commodities. The case generated immense interest in the high-tech and intellectual property communities with amicus briefs filed by the American Intellectual Property Law Association, Business Software Alliance, Computer and Communications Industry Association and a number of individual firms.

The 9-3 ruling largely rejected State Street Bank & Trust v. Signature Financial Group, a decade-old case that established a test that helped pave the way for business method patents. Chief Judge Paul Michel, who wrote the majority opinion in the Bilski case, explained that "because the applicable test to determine whether a claim is drawn to a patent-eligible process under § 101 is the machine-or-transformation test set forth by the Supreme Court and clarified herein, and Applicants' claim here plainly fails that test." Michel has repeatedly criticized State Street but court watchers were unsure of which way the wind would blow.

The case has significance far beyond whether the inventor in question ought to be granted a patent, Accenture Intellectual Property Director Wayne Sobon said earlier this year. The judges acknowledged that impact by focusing on the possible effects of "any kind of a bright-line rule on our new economy," which is largely information-driven. At an April briefing, Foley & Lardner attorney Pavan Agarwal predicted the case would be sent to the Supreme Court, regardless of who won since the justices have shown more interest in hearing patent cases in recent years.

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EXECUTIVE ACTIVITY

Music Stars Urge Caution At FCC

The digital TV switchover apparently affects more than your ability to watch Desperate Housewives. A-list music stars, who usually don't care much about the workings of Washington, are concerned about their ability to deliver state-of-the-art live performances. The rock band Maroon 5, pop princess Miley Cyrus, country crooners the Dixie Chicks, and "American Idol" contestants Clay Aiken and David Archuleta are among the more than 100 musicians urging the Federal Communications Commission to tread cautiously ahead of a Tuesday vote on what's to become of vacant portions of the television spectrum.

Google and Microsoft have been pressuring the FCC to open the vacant portions to unlicensed wireless devices after February's nationwide transition to digital TV, but performers worry that such a move could interfere with wireless microphones at concerts. High-tech firms want to use the airwaves, called "white space," for new wireless Internet services. Google spokesman Adam Kovacevich said that the 20,000 Americans who have petitioned the FCC to open the airwaves "may not be regulars in the pages of Us Weekly, but when it comes to expanding broadband access ... it's consumers who are the experts, not celebrities."

PTO Engaged In Global Work-Sharing Effort

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office unveiled a blueprint for work-sharing among five major intellectual property offices to address the common challenges they are currently facing. The heads of the agencies met in Jeju, Korea, Oct. 27-28 to discuss a unified vision for work sharing and collaboration. Jung-Sik Koh, commissioner of the Korean IP office, chaired the meeting which was attended by PTO Director Jon Dudas; European Patent Office chief Alison Brimelow; Takashi Suzuki of the Japan Patent Office; and Tian Lipu of China's IP office. Their joint vision: "The elimination of unnecessary duplication of work among the offices, enhancement of patent examination efficiency and quality, and guarantee of the stability of patent right."

The offices established a cooperative framework of 10 projects devised to harmonize the search and examination environment of each office and to standardize the information-sharing process. The projects are expected to facilitate the work-sharing initiative by enhancing the quality of patent searches and examinations and building mutual trust in each other’s work, PTO said. Each office will oversee two projects and agreed that by the end of April 2009, they would exchange detailed proposals on the initiatives.

The impact of work-sharing is expected to be tangible and substantial, PTO said. Up to 250,000 applications are filed at two or more of the IP offices per year and reutilization of the work of another office for duplicate applications can lead to significant improvements in patent examination efficiency across the board. IP leaders pledged to continue working together toward the realization of the shared vision and agreed to reconvene in 2009.

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REPORTS & DOCUMENTS OF NOTE

Government Accountability Office

Export Controls: Challenges with Commerce's Validated End-User Program May Limit Its Ability to Ensure That Semiconductor Equipment Exported to China Is Used as Intended GAO-08-1095, 25 September 2008
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d081095high.pdf

Responses to Questions for the Record; September 2008 Hearing on the Next Generation Air Transportation System: Status and Issues GAO-09-130R, October 20, 2008 Summary (HTML)

New WIRES Report: Shift to Renewable Power Generation Demands New Approaches to Transmission Challenges

WIRES, "a non-profit trade association of transmission providers, customers, and equipment and service companies formed to promote investment in electric transmission and progressive State and Federal policies that advance energy markets, economic efficiency, and consumer and environmental benefits through development of electric power infrastructure," released a study detailing a first-of-its-kind survey of practices that will facilitate clean energy's integration into the electric system. The study - Integrating Locationally-Constrained Resources Into Transmission Systems: A Survey of U.S. Practices - addresses investment priorities, planning, operational and regulator issues, and rate and tax matters.

The study concludes that the U.S. is making significant progress to prepare the electrical grid for integration of innovative, renewable and carbon-neutral generation sources. But a successful, large-scale shift to clean energy demands a bold and far-reaching commitment by utilities, regulators, and policymakers to provide infrastructure and new rules that enable power from often-remotely located clean resources to be delivered to consumers efficiently and economically. The study also indicates that a strong regional planning regime is critical; wind forecasting and regional aggregation of intermittent resources result in highly reliable power; cost allocation and cost recovery should be made less uncertain; and queue reform processes are promising and should be accelerated.

Library of Congress, Congressional Research Service

The America COMPETES Act and the FY2009 Budget - 17 October 2008

Dear Mr. President: Tech Experts Offer Advice for the Next President

Three of the nation's leading experts in technology policy offer some pointed advice to the next President in the latest issue of Technology Review. Former MIT President Charles Vest makes a strong pitch to support Federal research, fully fund the America COMPETES Act, and to appoint a high level White House Science Advisor. Harvard Medical School's John Halamka recommends a major new initiative to develop electronic medical health records. This effort will save both money and lives as it will improve service and reduce medical errors. Finally, Ernest Moniz, Director of the MIT Energy Initiative, presents a four-part proposal to boost low-carbon energy technologies. Regardless of who prevails in tomorrow's elections, these ideas are likely to be on the agenda for future science and technology policies. Read the article.

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US STATES ACTIVITIES

If you like to keep up with what's going on in state politics, StateLine.org provides a good overview of the activities in all 50 state legislatures.

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AWARDS & GRANTS

AAAS Grant Site

The American Association for the Advancement of Science supports GrantsNet Express.  Each week, GrantsNet provides a listing of science funding opportunities from private foundations and organizations, and new U.S. government grant announcements in the sciences. AAAS will send GrantsNet by e-mail to AAAS member subscribers.

Grants.gov

The President's 2002 Fiscal Year Management Agenda established grants.gov as a governmental grants resource. Grants.gov is a central storehouse for information on over 1,000 grant programs, and provides access to approximately $400 billion in annual awards. Most agencies, such as the DOE's Office of Science, use only grants.gov to list all funding opportunities. Other funding opportunities of interest include the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and NASA.

National Science Foundation

For information on NSF Engineering Active Funding Opportunities, visit: http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_list.jsp?org=ENG

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CONFERENCES, FELLOWSHIPS, PROGRAMS & INTERNSHIPS FOR ENGINEERS

IEEE ENERGY 2030 - Towards A Sustainable Energy Infrastructure ( November 17 – 18, 2008, Atlanta, GA)

This new conference will provide a forum for the exchange of ideas amongst experts from a broad range of disciplines on the technology, policy and economic framework required for the creation of a global sustainable energy infrastructure by 2030. The IEEE, as a global technology leader in electrical and related technologies, with 43 societies and 370,000 members, is uniquely positioned to help define what the transformed infrastructure is likely to look like, and to initiate the discussion on the challenges that need to be overcome to achieve success. The Conference is initiated by the IEEE TA New Technology Directions Committee, and co-sponsorship by IEEE-USA; IEEE Standards Association; and the following IEEE Societies: Industry Applications Society, Power Electronics Society, and the Power and Energy Society. For more info, visit: http://ewh.ieee.org/conf/energy2030/

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OTHER ITEMS OF POSSIBLE INTEREST

Microsoft Announces Worldwide Anti-Piracy Blitz

High-tech behemoth Microsoft unveiled its Global Anti-Piracy Day, a simultaneous launch of education initiatives and enforcement actions in 49 countries on six continents to combat the sophisticated, illegal trade of pirated and counterfeit software. The programs include intellectual property awareness campaigns, business partnerships, consumer outreach, local law enforcement training, and new legal actions against alleged counterfeiters and pirates.

The anti-piracy day serves as a 24-hour snapshot of the range of initiatives that take place on an ongoing basis around the world, the company said in a press release. For example, in the United States, Microsoft filed 20 civil lawsuits in federal court in nine states against resellers alleged to be distributing computers with preloaded unlicensed and/or counterfeit Microsoft Windows XP Professional and Microsoft Office software. In Brazil, Microsoft has partnered with the American Chamber of Commerce to launch an educational blog and in Turkey, Microsoft announced it is providing the government with training sessions on cyber crimes and their impact.

"Software piracy and counterfeiting is a sophisticated, global trade with a damaging impact on consumers, businesses and economies, and Microsoft is committed to working with others around the world to stay a step ahead of this illegal industry," Microsoft's associate general counsel David Finn said. INTERPOL IP chief John Newton added that transnational criminal organizations are involved in counterfeiting, which is "a global problem with global sources of supply." "This is why we need to work together -- the public and the private sectors -- to stop this trade."

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LATEST IEEE-USA & IEEE ACTIVITIES

IEEE-USA President Encourages Greater Investment in People, Technology, Energy R&D at Innovation 2008 Conference

21 OCT: IEEE-USA President Russ Lefevre told a national conference audience that the United States should invest more in the nation's science, engineering and technology enterprise. "There is much more that needs to be done in terms of investing in technology, in people, and in incentives that will drive innovation and entrepreneurship," Lefevre said as part of the Innovation Panel at the Innovation 2008 conference at the University of Minnesota on Monday. Lefevre said one of the top priorities of the new presidential administration should be to fully fund the America Competes Act. "This is an important step that the new administration can take to help shore up long-term U.S. innovation and competitiveness."

The America Competes Act, which was signed into law in 2007, authorized, among other things, doubling the budgets at the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy's Office of Science and the National Institutes of Standards and Technology; establishing the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy at the Energy Department; strengthening science, technology, engineering and mathematics educational opportunities at the elementary through graduate school levels; increasing funds to improve the skills of math and science teachers; and providing college scholarships for hundreds of future math and science teachers.

"Everybody supports science, motherhood and apple pie, but when it comes to funding, it's a different story," Lefevre added during the question and answer session.

Lefevre also discussed the importance of expanding our nation's energy portfolio to include greater use of alternative energy, the electrification of our transportation sector, and smart-grid technologies to manage electricity more efficiently and reliably.

"The new research and development priority is in energy, but there is no silver bullet," Lefevre said. "We need to invest our research dollars to ensure a diverse set of energy resource options."

The Innovation 2008 conference, which concludes today, is part of Science Debate 2008, a national movement that strives to restore science and technology to America's public dialogue. IEEE-USA was an early supporter. Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain answered 14 questions from Science Debate 2008, the first time in U.S. history the endorsed candidates for president revealed their science policies in this detail before an election. Their responses are at www.sciencedebate2008.com.

IEEE-USA Applauds NASA on Space Agency's 50th Anniversary, in Commemorative Publication and Public Radio Announcements

30 OCT: IEEE-USA is commending NASA on its 50th anniversary in 2008, through tributes in a commemorative publication and in public radio announcements. A 368-page commemorative publication, "NASA: 50 Years of Exploration & Discovery," was distributed at all of the space agency's anniversary celebrations, events and galas, as well as to multiple NASA facilities and contractors, and to members of Congress.

In an advertisement appearing in the publication, IEEE-USA noted:  "U.S. members of the IEEE, the world's leading technical professional association, have been contributing scientific, technical and engineering know-how to NASA since the space agency began -- from the first NASA launch in 1958, to Apollo 11 (1969), to the Mars Exploration Rovers (2004)." Copies of the ad are available on request to <p.mccarter@ieee.org>.

In addition, IEEE-USA is highlighting the space agency's anniversary in four IEEE-USA promotional announcements on WETA-FM, the U.S. capital's only all-classical music station, with some 400,000 Washington, D.C.-area listeners.  The public radio announcements, which also recognize NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., are scheduled in November and December on WETA-FM (90.9).  

Two announcements will be aired during NPR newsbreaks at 8 a.m. Eastern Time (ET) on Monday, 3 November; and at 8 a.m. ET on Monday, 1 December. Two more announcements will be included on the WETA-FM radio simulcast of  PBS' "NewsHour With Jim Lehrer" at 6:59 p.m. ET on Friday, 7 November; and on the afternoon opera between 1:00-5 p.m. ET on Saturday, 6 December.

To listen to the radio programs and IEEE-USA announcements online, go to http://www.weta.org/fm. IEEE National Capital Area volunteers are also participating in two WETA fall pledge drives to help raise funds for the public television and radio station.

2009 WISE Applications Now Being Accepted

Applications for the Washington Internships for Students of Engineering (WISE) program are sought from outstanding engineering students with a keen interest in public policy and evidence of leadership skills. The Summer 2009 WISE Program is scheduled from 8 June - 7 August 2009. To qualify for consideration, applicants must be juniors, seniors, or entering their final year of undergraduate studies in engineering (or computer science). WISE will also accept applications from engineering grads who are beginning Masters level study in a technology policy-related degree. Interns must be U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents of the United States of America.

WISE applicants should apply directly to their desired sponsor using the contact information provided. ANS, ASCE, ASME, IEEE and SAE will sponsor only individuals who are members of their societies at the time of application. Minority students are encouraged to apply. Applicants are required to fill out an application form, write two brief (one page) essays in response to questions, arrange for two faculty references, and forward an official transcript. Download the 2009 WISE program application at: http://wise-intern.org/application/index.html

2008 WISE students at the Rayburn House Office Building, Capitol Hill

Public Policy Priority Issues - 110th Congress, 2d Session (2008):http://ieeeusa.org/policy/issues/index.html

Position Statements: http://ieeeusa.com/policy/positions/index.html - IEEE-USA position statements identify important technical and/or engineering career-related aspects of specific public policy issues deemed to be of concern or affecting IEEE's U.S. members.  They make specific public policy recommendations and provide recommended approaches for consideration by the U.S. Congress, Executive Branch officials, the Judiciary, representatives of State and Local Government, and other interested groups and individuals, including IEEE members. 

Check out the new positions statements approved in June 2008 . Many more are Under Review by committees. Check back in December after the November board meeting for their approval status.

IEEE-USA In The News: http://ieeeusa.org/communications/inthenews/default.asp.

Former IEEE-USA Government Fellows Available to Speak to Sections

Earlier this year, former IEEE-USA Congressional Fellow George Hanover spoke to an IEEE PACE group in the San Francisco Bay area. He discussed the innovation and competitiveness issues that he worked on during the year he served as an IEEE-USA government fellow, working as a staffer for the Environment, Technology and Standards Subcommittee of the House Science Committee. George also served on the personal staff of Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), a member of the House Science Committee. George also discussed an engineer's perspective on the "government process" and the IEEE-USA's involvement in that process. If your section is interested in having one of the former government fellows speak to your group about the program, how the legislative process works in Washington, and how IEEE-USA is influencing it, please contact Erica Wissolik at e. wissolik @ ieee. org. For more information on the IEEE-USA Government Fellows Program, please visit: http://ieeeusa.org/policy/govfel/default.asp

 

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Top of Page | What's New@IEEE | IEEE-USA

What's New @ IEEE-USA's Eye on Washington highlights important federal legislative and regulatory developments that affect U.S. engineers and their careers. In addition to this biweekly newsletter, subscribers receive legislative bulletins and action alerts on IEEE-USA priority issues, including: retirement security, employment benefits, research & development funding, computers and information policy, immigration reform, intellectual property protection and privacy of health/medical information.

You can change your IEEE-USA Eye on Washington subscription status by using the forms at http://www.ieeeusa.org/communications/emailupdates/default.asp

Copyright © 2008, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.  Permission granted to copy for personal use or for non-commercial republication with appropriate attribution.

Updated: 12 September 2008