Archive

Russia/Ukraine conflict

Google stops short of ban in Russia

…However, Google has put an end to Russia state backed media from monetising ads, via apps and YouTube, and YouTube have stopped recommending videos coming from such media. Adtech is also no longer available to Russia.

Twitter, TikTok, Facebook are also making similar moves.  

Ukrainian prime minister seeks better internet coverage from Musk and is responded to

…[Space X’s] Starlink service is now active in Ukraine…more terminals en route came the Twitter reply (though when it would be, is not clear). It won the approval of proud mum Maye Musk.

Toyota shuts down all factories as major Japanese supplier is hit by cyberattack

…Japan is apparently a prominent supporter of Ukraine, which is speculated to be the reason why it has been targeted. 

All is fair in love and war?

… Ukrainian women are finding a whole host of Russian soldiers appear as matches on Tinder. Some have given their military locations away…but then Russian soldiers were told to turn off their phones. 

Supply chain disruptions expected to affect tech industry

…Who knew so much came from Russia and Ukraine?

Nickel – car batteries

Titanium – making aircrafts and aero-engines

Palladium – catalytic converters, electrodes, electronics such as semiconductors

Aluminium – electronics and devices

Platinum – catalytic converters

Iron 

Neon – semiconductor production (used in lasers to etch on the silicon)

Krypton – semiconductor production

Electrical cables for cars – in fact VW has halted its factory as it is finding it difficult to source them. 

Auto parts generally – because Auto parts manufacturers (eg. Bosch) have factories in Ukraine

PLUS the small issue of impact on oil and gas supply that is the blood supply of all industry.   

Apps

Peloton rejuvenated with new CEO at the helm – raises possibility of opening up platform 

…Ex-CTO of Spotify /Netflix and new CEO of Peloton Barry McCarthy considers shaking the business up by opening up an app store for others to plug into. This would help scaling up for sure and Peloton can take a page out of Apple’s book and start raking in some app-sales and increase subscription numbers by broadening out the offering. He is also thinking about changing the subscription model – rather than clients forking up a hefty upfront cost for the bikes, they may subscribe to the hardware+services for a set price per month that we see in many kinds of phone contracts. 

Data

EU Commission publishes its proposed Data Act

…It’s an act to ensure data in the EU is exploited in the EU; big industrial data flowing out of smart devices – which are mostly to be fed into AI as training data, will be available for use by users and will remain in the EU. See further below, In the Spotlight section. 

US DOJ puts in the spanner over UnitedHealth’s takeover bid of Change Healthcare

…What’s this about?

UnitedHealth: Major business in health, including Optum, a provider of health services and it also owns one of the largest health insurance business. The insurance business collaborates synergistically with Optum. 

Change Healthcare: Healthcare insurance technology group. It provides software and services which are widely used, meaning it has access to data (eg payment details between healthcare services provider and insurance services) of competitor insurance companies. 

DOJ has said that it will reduce competition in health insurance (which is huge in the US as they don’t have the national health service equivalent in the UK), and it will mean UnitedHealth with gain access to rivals’ data. The interesting point is that UnitedHealth is asserting that its acquisition would actually reduce costs for the consumers (meaning it can’t possibly be anti-competitive). However, Biden administration has proposed looking at competition law from a different lens – in terms of reduction of competition between the businesses – rather than short term financial harm to consumers. 

California Consumer Privacy Act is similar to the EU

This law is interesting also in view of a case that is being prepared (or filed?) in the UK against Facebook (a claim about Facebook taking users’ valuable data and not giving users commensurate compensation). According to this Act,

• Taking of customer data needs to be coupled to financial incentive. 
• Needs to justify the taking of data
• State what the financial incentive is to the customer
• Explanation as to how the price/financial incentive relates to the value of customer data, how it has been calculated, and this needs to be done in good faith

EU and US close to agreeing a data transfer mechanism

The mechanism will attempt to bridge EU Human Rights Law (protection of citizens’ data) VS US National Security Commitments. A couple of cases to bear in mind by way of background: 

• Google Analytics:  Held in breach of GDPR because it transfers European users’ personal data back to the US – US Cloud Act means US authorities can demand Google to turn over personal data – thus Austrian Data Protection Authority has held Google has not provided adequate protection to AT citizens’ data in breach of GDPR. 

• Facebook: says it might have to withdraw from providing services in Europe because of the requirement not to transfer European users’ data to the US 

Gaming

Enforcing sellers of cheat codes not as straightforward as you might think

…The US is seeing a lot of cheat code seller cases and UK has a couple too that I know of. However such cases can be tricky:

• If the cheat code seller is not a seller (eg. provided for free), can’t sue them for breach of contract
• Can’t identify them
• Can’t serve them with the court papers (located abroad)
• Can’t enforce judgment
• Can’t find assets to enforce against

There is also a shift in the objective of these suits – initially companies may have sued individuals to ward people off cheating. More recently, the game publishers have shifted to suing the software providers, to obtain damages. 

IoT

New interoperability for Smartphone products – the Matter Standard

…Have you got an Amazon Echo, Google Ring, and an Apple TV? The Matter Standard is coming our way – the goal is to try and connect up our connected devices that originate from different manufacturers seamless. Standardised technology allows all businesses to build on top of things. If Amazon Echo and Google Ring were interconnected by use of the standards, for example, Google Ring can be programmed so that the user can speak to the courier service at the door through Amazon Echo. What standardisation does is to discourage the closed ecosystem which some manufacturers, notably Apple, tries to promote. It prevents lock in to any particular ecosystem. 

Patents

Nokia branded phones banned in Germany

This follows loss by Nokia TM licensee HMD following audio codec Standard Essential Patent enforcement action by Fortress funded (ie: Masayoshi Son’s Softbank) VoiceAge EVS. HMD phones no longer deal with the EVS standard (ie: to minimise effects of injunction) but the phones will be reportedly worse in quality for streaming content rather than voice calls per se.

Satellites

FCC raises concern over Starlink’s many satellites

…Too many space debris, increased likelihood of collision and difficulty detecting catastrophic asteroid strike on earth, it says. May be Elon’s giant chopsticks would do the trick of taking out satellites. 

Trade Secrets

US ex parte Rapid response measure included in the proposed SECRETS Act tries to deter theft of IP

…The aim is “to provide procedures for national security exclusion from the United States of articles or components of articles that contain, were produced using, benefit from, or use trade secrets misappropriated or acquired through improper means by a foreign agent or foreign instrumentality, and for other purposes”. This provision is not that different from Article 4(5) of the EU Trade Secrets Directive. 

However where the US and EU parts ways is the new ex parte rapid procedure. Any filed complaint will be reviewed by an Interagency Committee on Trade Secrets (Director of National Intelligence, Secretary of Treasury, Secretary of Homeland Security, Secretary of Commerce, Attorney General, IP Enforcement Coordinator, US Trade Representative) which can move to get the International Trade Commission to block imports of products including digital products. 

Requires Congress support – but there is reported to be no reason why there will be no such support. 

Taiwan approves the National Security Act making it crime to steal trade secrets and using critical national technologies (i.e. chip manufacturing) outside Taiwan

Special courts to be set up as cases are likely to involve top top secret information. 

In the Spotlight

The EU Commission’s PROPOSED Data Act – Data of Europe, by Europeans, for the Europeans

This is major. What are the headlines?

• It is no way near set in stone (only a proposal) – but still needs to be taken seriously
• It is not about personal data though most data is mixed. In such an instance GDPR will prevail.
• Its aim is to unlock the value in data, facilitate more sharing, in preparation for IoT – if your connected car were to collect valuable data, who should own it? Who should be able to decide who can access to the data of your connected devices for aftermarket services such as repair?
• Insight/data inferred from data itself / content are out of scope. 
• Governments are able to demand private companies to turn over data in exceptional circumstances like public emergencies

Why did the EU Commission feel the need to revise law in relation to data? 

Simply because data (especially machine generated data) is concentrated by a few, and was felt under-utilised for the following reasons:

• Siloed data
• Poor metadata management
• Lack of interoperability
• Lack of data sharing practices
• Power unbalance between data holder and licensee leading to abusive practices

To stimulate EU’s digital economy, the Commission felt that measures had to be provisioned to facilitate fairness, remove barriers and increase competition, and encourage more data sharing. 

Data Portability

• The proposed Act clarifies who can use IoT generated data – avoid lock-ins which may ensue if only OEMs could access that data  and so explicitly allows users to use the data generated by them – subject to payment on Fair Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory and transparent conditions by the third party seeking access to the data to the manufacturer (“access right”). The OEM’s ability to use data remains unaffected. Third party access to data cannot be prevented by assertion of Database Rights (because the conditions are not fulfilled under Database Rights law – not because there is an additional provision that apply to the Database Rights law). 

• Need to remove barriers to switching so that users of cloud services can switch between different providers. Data transfer should include user’s metadata. Standard contractual clauses to be developed. 

SMEs

• SMEs have no option but to accept data providers’ terms of data sharing. The Act aims to tackle unfair contract terms in relation to access and use where SME is involved – terms must pass an “unfairness test”.  Model contractual terms to be developed. Only unfair terms are liable to be invalidated.  

Flexible use of data

• Need to facilitate the ability to combine data from different sectors to ensure data is utilised fully thereby unlocking full value of data. 
• But the proposed Act sets obligations in relation to liability for accessing, processing, sharing and storing data. 

Protection of data from unlawful access by ex EEA governments

• Need to ensure data generated in Europe is not subject to unlawful access by non-EU/EEA governments (those without relevant international agreement) in the interests of human rights, national security, IP rights and trade secrets. [it seems to be at least as strict as the restrictions for personal data – if not more]
• But free flow of data within the internal market needs to be preserved. 

Public Interest 

• Where there is high public interest (emergency), private companies must provide relevant data (eg. adverse weather, floods, fires, cybersecurity incidents, pandemic). This provision is relatively wide. 

Examples to illustrate what the proposed Data Act purports to do

• Suppose you own a Volkswagen. Owners of the car has the right to use the data recorded by the car – for example, to give the data to an independent repairer (who may be cheaper than Volkswagen repairer), or a non Volkswagen partnered car insurer to calculate premiums depending on your driving patterns.

• Owners of factories should be allowed to use the data generated by their machines to optimise operational cycles, detect faults, manage supply chain, including using machine learning processes. That data should be usable by new machineries, which may be made by a different manufacturer.

Artificial Intelligence

Former Google chief executive Eric Schimidt sets up AI fund AI2050 to solve difficult problems

…What are the difficult problems in mind?

• Bias
• Harm & misuse – how to neutralise toxic consequences of AI
• Geopolitical conflict
• Scientific limitations in technology
• Harmful effect on jobs
• Social networking algorithms
• Deepfakes
• How can AI measure and mitigate socio-economic inequality? 

Sainsbury’s rebuilds data capability to enable automation and decision-making

… This newsbulletin is not at all remarkable.

What Sainsbury’s doing is a must if businesses want to survive. We are all creatures of habit – how many new things did you include this week in your shopping cart? That’s why Sainsbury’s – and its relatively recently acquired business Argos will be able to fairly well predict the demand, namely how many of each items it will have to stock. It may be different from day to day. For example, more tuna sandwiches on Friday, not so much on Monday. Or even, ham sandwiches to be increased if the day before is rainy. It will lead to much less waste in the case of perishables, it could work out the logistics better to calculate how best to get products supplied to it at the cheapest possible price, and make decisions such as discontinuance, better ad targeting etc. In short, it will be using AI, and human brains can’t beat AI. 

Sainsbury’s success, I think will depend on how they use humans in the decision making process. Do it too much, it will be too inefficient, not enough could lead to mistakes and damage to reputation. 

Auto

Stellantis unit Fiat Chrysler sued for using Internet Media Interactive Corp’s patented link-shortening software to promote its services on social media

…The defendant allegedly used Sprinklr’s service to generate links which led to Fiat Chrysler’s vehicle service Mopar’s website. The patent owner is seeking damages or royalties. Shortened URL links are particularly useful for use in Twitter feeds which have a size limit. 

BigTech

Facebook settles $90m claim agreeing to delete “wrongfully collected” browsing data while users had logged out

…The original 10 year old claim was for breach of US WireTap Act and California Invasion of Privacy Act

Google sued by District of Columbia for using dark patterns to obtain consumer data

This is relevant to EU law as well in the form of Digital Services Act. It is implemented with the objective of protecting people’s fundamental freedom of expression and information, preserve the ability of users to make free, autonomous and informed choices (Art 13a). Dark patterns includes the following types of conduct:

• Unsubscribe button so small it’s difficult to spot
• Making sure option to select Yes is the same in prominence and ease as the option to select No (for subscription services)
• Asking for consent when it has been refused previously
• Urging users to change settings after the user has already made a choice
• Making services difficult to cancel, threatening users that they may be missing out on something if they cancel

Back to the Google case. The charge is against Google making it hard for people to choose more robust privacy settings. 

Tracking Apple’s strategy, Google too to limit tracking across apps

… It has been reported that a staggering 80% of Apple users have opted out of ad tracking. 

Google is however planning to give the option for users to prevent apps tracking them, in 2 years’ time. Move comes in response to calls for users’ right to control own data and privacy. Google will be alright though as it has plenty of first party data with access to billions of users’ data as a result of their popular search engines in which users directly type and thereby disclose to Google the sort of things that is of concern or interest. 

Nick Clegg promoted to head of global affairs at Meta

…the former deputy UK prime minister is certainly experienced in negotiating frameworks with politicians across the globe. His main task is to negotiate regulatory, antitrust, data privacy, child safety policies. He will be the guy that will be in the firing line when regulators start increasing the heat. He did get himself a promotion to Zuckerburg (in charge of products) and Sandberg (in charge of operations) level in return now that Thiel has left. So the idea is Nick Clegg does all the firefighting whilst Zuckerburg and Sandberg get on with the biz. 

By the by, Meta is now calling their employees Metamates. That’s a bit like Disney which labels their staff Cast members. 

UK’s Online Safety Bill gets Cabinet backing

…The government wants the UK to have one of the strictest internet rules. The rules would

• Limit intermediary liability
• Give Ofcom powers to require tech companies to proactively seek and remove illegal and legal harmful content (for children) using technology

There are fears that these rules would make UK unattractive to tech and start up businesses. Tech industry is critical. Nicely segues onto…

US FTC considers the Social Media NUDGE Act

…the proposed approach does not target harmful content per se, but more how that harmful content spreads. Twitter asks users to re-consider mean tweets and Facebook gives moderator tools to prevent conversations from overheating. 

Connectivity

EU has filed a case against China concerning low SEP licence rates and anti-suit injunctions

…The EU complains of:

• Licence rates which are too low, so much so that it does not compensate Licensor’s investment in R&D
• Chinese Courts issuing fines pressurising licensors to settle at a low rate
• Decision of Chinese Courts to prohibit patent holders from going to a non-Chinese court to enforce patents is unfair.  

The result is that EU’s vibrant high tech industry is being taken for a ride. US and Japan have also expressed concerns and are expected to join in on the action. 

Crypto

Colorado accepts tax payment in Crypto

…Crypto is volatile, so the coins will be converted promptly on receipt. The governor was one of the first to accept donations in crypto. 

Mainstream Venture Capitalist fund Sequoia to create funds to invest in cryptocurrency

…The main point is taken together, crypto is likely to become more mainstream rather than fade into obscurity. 

EV

Start up Redwood partners up with Ford and Volvo in its EV battery recycling venture

…Redwood is a business which purports to recycle end of life battery packs in EVs and hybrids. It also deals in the recycling of other electrical goods such as laptops, batteries, power tools, e-bikes etc. As battery metals are a limited resource, these schemes are likely critical for sustainability. 

Gaming

Patent case against Activision Blizzard to be held next week

…The patent concerns a computer protocol “that allows multiple networked users to simultaneously upload and download segments or pieces of the same file to and from each other”, owned by AC Technologies and Via Vadis. 

The same patent is asserted against Amazon. 

Metaverse/NFT

JP Morgan becomes the first lender on the “metaverse” Decentraland

…It has issued a whitepaper on how businesses can operate in the new medium. Interested people should take a look.  

Melania Trump buys her own NFT – allegedly on behalf of another party

…Why did she do this? It has been suspected to save face despite what has been said by the spokesperson. As the crypto heist of last week has shown, it is possible to trace wallets. In the case of Mrs Trump, it wasn’t such a hard thing to do because the wallet which created the NFT actually bought the NFT. A practice called “wash trading”, crypto dealers have been known to do buy and sell repeatedly to artificially inflate prices. Reuters reported that wash trading accounted for much of the high value NFT sales in January. 

Her husband has launched new social media app Truth social, which is set to rival Twitter and Facebook.

Metaverse and Employment 

Employment lawyers are grappling with new issues before the metaverse user-base expands. These include questions such as the following:

• Can you get harassed in the metaverse?
• Is there discrimination laws? [and what if your avatar is not a human, but a thing – such as a metronome, for example? – is discrimination prohibited on the understanding that a person is behind that avatar]
• Is it OK if your avatar doesn’t resemble you?
• Which national employment laws apply? 
• How should workers’ data be protected?

Satellites

EU decides to advance €6bn to vie with Space X and Amazon to create satellite internet

…The offering will be encrypted and will span Europe and Africa  – to provide them with an alternative to Chinese services. To be approved by EU Parliament and member states. It is reported to be spurred by the gaining of UK Government’s stake in OneWeb jointly with India’s Bharti Enterprises, which operates a low earth orbit satellite broadband network. 

Semiconductor

Intel buys Tower Semiconductor (Israel) to boost the creation of its foundary business

…Usual regulatory scrutiny permitting.

Magnetar funded Arigna targets Qualcomm chipped devices (Alphabet, Apple, Lenovo, Microsoft, Oneplus, Samsung and TCL) in patent infringement litigation

…The feature targeted is IoT modules related to tracking. Qualcomm is likely to have an indemnity obligation – it is reported, and if so (or even if not) likely be dragged in, the first step being patent validity challenges in the US. 

Arigna has previously targeted wireless charging Qi systems and devices that include NFC communications (tap and go technology).

Smart City

Disney to launch a masterplan residential community

…You have to have at least $1.6million though. I did have a quite look at the demo of the city and what really did strike me was that the people featuring in the video were so diverse. 

Anyway, for tech peeps, what I really wanted to say is that this kind of themed community could expand. It will be like a smart city, comprised of like-minded people. I would not be surprised if Google did something similar, or Apple. Or Tesla owner’s community. I would not be surprised if celebrities were to do the same – I covered off a newspiece that Snoop Dogg is constructing one in the metaverse. Why stop in the virtual world?

15 February 2022

US

US Companies need $4billion more than budgeted by the government to rip and replace Chinese network devices (mainly Huawei and ZTE) says the Federal Communications Commission

…Because it is much cheaper to replace network devices with Open RAN architecture  which is a modular system, compared to what the network uses at present in which you have an integrated hardware and software structure (out of the non-Chinese companies, this is really the preserve of Nokia, Ericsson and Samsung), Open RAN adoption may see acceleration – though it probably will not be the only answer given that that too takes time to implement.  Open RAN will open up competition in the network architectural infrastructure providers allowing especially BigTech companies to become involved. 

Meanwhile, network operators (eg Deutsche Telecom, Orange, VodaFone) in the EU have written an open letter asking EU lawmakers to make BigTechs pay for having to stamp up heaps of cash to upgrade their infrastructure to be able to support the increase in traffic caused by their successful streaming services, despite the tight squeeze on margins [SK Telecom of South Korea even sued Netflix because they were compelled to upgrade the network owing to the very popular Squid Games viewing traffic]. 

The letter comes on the heels of the Commission’s statement “all market actors benefiting from the digital transformation . . . make a fair and proportionate contribution to the costs of public goods, services and infrastructures” in the declaration on digital rights last month. An FT commentator says it’ll be interesting to see what the BigTech sceptic French presidency of the EU Council might do. 

As an aside FCC’s bleat will surely help Ericsson defend Apple’s claim before the ITC (International Trade Commission) asking for an import ban against Ericsson’s network devices which is said to be infringing Apple’s patents. The pair is fiercely battling out a licence dispute around the world. Indeed in Ericsson’s Public Interest Statement for the ITC case it explained that replacement of infrastructure is not a plug and play exercise, with the network operators needing to redesign networks, test and deploy, which would also lead to significant delay rolling out 5G network. 

By the by, Ericsson is also trying to get Apple iPhones banned from importation into the US (iPhones are made in China). Apple is protesting, saying there is no alternative to an iPhone because only Apple sells iOS based goods. This statement could come back to haunt Apple in disputes concerning Apple’s allegedly monopolistic conduct. 

US FTC threatens to sue companies which fail to sort out known software vulnerabilities

…The particular threat was in relation to a well known bug known as Log4j, but the principle would apply across all bugs. This is fair enough, as cyberhacks have been carried out by exploiting known flaws in the programming.

Apps

Peloton seeks buyer – Amazon, Nike and Apple rumoured to be interested but new CEO denies its up for sale

…Peloton failed to foresee the drop in demand as our lives go back to a more pre-pandemic pattern. It has a huge inventory of heavy, expensive products that they are finding it hard to sell off. Last month, it was reported that the firm planned to temporarily halt the production of its machines. 2800 jobs, or 20% of the workforce, will be lost. Ohio plant will be shuttered. They have a new CEO, Barry McCarthy who has an impressive CV: a CFO at Netflix and then Spotify, help managed to boost the companies to the successful companies they are today. Here’s a man good at taking charge of inventory. Sounds like a perfect fit. 

Some of the following companies supposedly interested – here are some possible business cases:

Amazon – Peloton could be a portal to expand into healthcare. Many see that Amazon has an opportunity to bundle the Peloton offering with its Prime service, to keep Prime subscribers signed up and to grow. Possibly gives an opportunity to offer different levels of Prime services too.  

Nike – it sells complementary products, can utilise Peloton’s fitness community. As I understand it, Peloton’s fitness community is rather hardcore (exercise wise). 

Apple – experienced at hardware business. However, Apple hardly ever buys businesses, preferring to organically grow. The purchase of Beats headphones (which was really quite small in comparison to some of the buy outs we are seeing) has been the exception. 

However McCarthy has denied that Peloton is up for sale. 

Artificial Intelligence

Bill Gates-backed start up Kobold Metals uses AI to mine EV battery metals Lithium and Nickel

…Mining these metals are becoming more and more expensive because the low hanging fruits have already been mined. Clues for where it may be worth prospecting for these metals may be determined by analysing some 20 million pages of documents in the public domain, including “two centuries worth of mining rights’ agreements in countless jurisdictions”, collecting rock data and using a large metal detector with a helicopter. Kobold digitises them and uses AI to analyse. I’m sure this type of disruption will spill over to other industry areas.

Big Tech

 UK Publishes Online Safety Bill to protect children from being exposed to harmful content

…The main feature seems to be that sites which contain adult content need to provide robust measures to stop underage persons from accessing them. What will follow is a valuable database of people that access pornography, ripe for hacking & blackmailing. 

However, the UK Parliamentary Joint Select Committee has identified a number of issues (such as the need to focus on the design of the platforms not just the content), which makes it difficult to assess whether the bill could be passed within the year. 

European Publishers Council lodges complaint with the EU Commission over Adtech

…The complaint is that Google has end-to-end control of the Adtech value chain, accounting for 90-100% in the chain, the complainant says. Google is both a buyer, seller and the intermediary of Adtech business. 

Comparison site Price Runner (soon to be acquired by Klarna) sues Google for preferencing Google services over theirs in breach of competition law

…The suit appears to be a follow on damages claim filed in Sweden. Last November, Google failed to successfully appeal the 2017 decision of the EU Commission finding that it was in breach of competition law, as Google’s preferential treatment of its own price comparison shopping service gave Google an unfair advantage. This appeal decision itself is being appealed. 

The suit follows Axel Springer’s suit in 2019, based on its comparison shopping service, Idealo. 

Peter Thiel quits Meta Board

…This is a name worth bearing in mind. Thiel is a co-founder of Paypal with Elon Musk, and member of Facebook board since 2005. He had supervoting powers on Facebook together with Zuckerberg and Sandberg. One of the most prominent Trump allies, he has decided to step down to help back Republican candidates for the mid-term elections. You may see him appear in the Cabinet in the future.  

Facebook is cleared to buy Kustomer, a customer service management provider, but on two conditions

…Germany and EU Commission gave the blessing on two conditions which were (i) that Facebook give non-discriminatory access, without charge to its publicly available APIs for its messaging channels to rival providers and (ii) any changes to the messaging services used by Kustomer customers must also be made available to Kustomer rivals on the same terms – for 10 years. 

UK Competition Markets Authority OK’d without any conditions. 

Is there a difference between the stringency of assessing impact on market competition between the UK and Europe? If so, is there a difference in the authorities’ attitudes? Alternatively, could the differences depend on the different market landscape?  

Crypto

Coinbase Commercial proves a hit at Super Bowl

…Super Bowl is some sports event that swathes of Americans watch every year, attracting around 90 million viewers. Click on the link here  and check out the low tech ad Crypto exchange company Coinbase released – an ad comprised of moving QR Codes which has scored a huge hit leading to (some say aptly) a crash. Coinbase now holds the number two position in the App Store rankings after Peacock, which was the App that streamed Super Bowl itself. At the same time it effectively educated and familiarised the nation about the use of QR Codes.

The take away points are:

• Crypto isn’t going away despite the low valuation at present. In fact a whole host of crypto companies (eToro, crypto.com, FTX) advertised on Super Bowl. Some say it smells a bit bubbly.

• QR Code is a powerful tool to enable companies behind it to get first party data.

$3.6bn crypto heist by a colourful married couple – now arrested

…$3.6 BILLION. It was said to have been stolen from the 2016 hack of HK based Bitfinex exchange. 

It’s a colourful story, in particular, the wife is a part time Forbes contributor (which included the article  “Expert Tips to Protect Your Business from Cybercriminals” – sadly no longer available) and rapper going under the name Razzlekhan (which included raps about ditching toxic friends like vacuum cleaners – sadly (?) no longer available too). 

Search warrants were issued for the couple’s crypto wallets, and the US authorities somehow managed to trace the money to seize. They tried to launder the crypto by in part, chain-hopping, which means to jump between different cryptocurrencies (ie: different blockchains) very rapidly and using tokens that have higher cryptography built into them (who knew that different blockchain had different security standards)? 

It appears that the couple did not do the actual hacking, but the hacker placed the stolen coins into their wallet. 

Interesting point is that it appears you can track the people behind a crypto-wallet. And it has left the US authorities with a conundrum – the coins which were hacked in 2016 were only worth $70m or so. The Bitfinex exchange has settled claims with the victims already. So what will they do with it? In the US usually seized items (eg. art – but presumably not drugs or other illicit items such as weapons which I hope gets de-commissioned) get auctioned off – and presumably the authority gets to keep the proceeds?. How do you then auction off a $1 crypto currency? Do they just get to keep this? In the UK, in accordance with the Proceeds of Crime Act, Police force and the Home Office can keep proceeds of seizure half and half….which nicely segues to the next news item….

UK HMRC seizes NFT worth £1.4million

…Not the same level of magnitude as the US case mentioned above, but HMRC was successful in tracking down stolen NFTs and cryptocurrency as a part of a probe into tax fraud involving 250 or so companies. Quite how they got so many companies to agree to defraud is an interesting question in itself.

Again, it goes to show that you can track individuals down for perpetrating hacks, though it is undoubtedly is complicated. This case apparently involved pre-paid phone numbers, false addresses, stolen addresses and use of VPNs. It certainly highlights the drawbacks of NFTs. It only records the “ownership” of a particular file, by pointing to where that file can be found. It doesn’t protect the file itself, which could be compromised if the server it’s stored on is damaged, or the original uploader of the file deletes it.

In a U-turn, Russia decides to allow cryptocurrencies, but they will be regulated

…The government has had a re-think and decided it ought to keep its toe in the crypto water. 

This is a huge reversal from the Russian central bank which had earlier considered crypto to be a threat. However, the banking system (SWIFT) is controlled by the west and sanctions have been issued to hurt Russia. One way to get round this is by using cryptocurrency, the most efficient monetary system. Therefore, rather than ban crypto trading, they have decided to recognise crypto as a form of currency. 

It’s not a legal tender though (therefore stores will not have to accept it as form of payment cf for example. El Salvador where it is a legal tender) – but transactions of crypto in Russia will be regulated. Cryptocurrency purchases will be allowed only through locally registered and licensed companies so users can be verified and information about transactions can be made available to government authorities. All crypto transactions over a certain amount have to be reported to federal taxation services and failure to do so will be considered a felony. Banks can act as intermediaries between users and crypto exchanges even though that defeats the point of crypto currencies. 

Fintech

Apple introduces Tap to Pay on iPhone

…US merchants will be able to use the features requiring users to tap iPhones together for one payment to transfer over to the other. 

NFT

Nike Sues StockX, a marketplace for selling unauthorised Nike trainers’ NFTs

…StockX is a online marketplace, which resells garments including trainers, and verifies authenticity (ie: is this Gucci bag really Gucci?). It also offers NFTs linked to physical goods (Vault NFTs) which can be redeemed for physical items but can also be traded as digital goods. Vault NFTs are comprised of images of the product (eg trainers) with the TM on it. Nike complains that it looks like it has endorsed StockX, or that there is some economic connection. Nike considers that the offering is comprised of “inflated prices and murky terms of purchase and ownership” and thereby damages Nike’s reputation. 

Patents

Google’s Nest thermostat feature infringes valid patent of EcoFactor says the jury of Western District of Texas

…Jury awarded EcoFactor $20m, shy by $9m of EcoFactor’s asks. EcoFactor failed to show infringement of the other patent. Both concerned thermostats. 

Google has had to fight a few patent infringement cases of late:

• November 2021: Google/YouTube held to infringe a VideoShare’s Video Sharing patent

• October 2021: Google successfully defended an infringement case claiming that Nest was infringing Profectus’ picture frame patent. 

US patent litigation fun fact: Judge Albright who oversaw this case decides 20% of US patent litigation. He also promises to get to trial faster than any other US court. The EcoFactor case took 2 years. Western District of Texas is also well known for juries giving huge damages awards since VSLI v Intel. 

US Federal Court says patent licences should remain sealed

…In relation to the case Uniloc v. Apple, a third party, Electronic Frontier Foundation argued that relevant licences should be disclosed to the public because:

• The public has an interest in inspecting the valuation of the patent rights
• disclosure of patent licensing terms would facilitate ‘up-front cost evaluations of potentially infringing conduct
• inform reasonable royalties in other courts

Federal Court, overturning the District Court’s decision to unseal said:

• District Court failed to assess whether any of the third-party information was protectable as a trade secret or otherwise entitled to protection under the law
• It was an error of law in making a blanket ruling that the public has a broad right to licensing information relating to patents. The public’s interest in patents was to ensure that they are not procured by fraud or improper means. 
• No rule of law or binding precedent says that the public is generally entitled to know what consideration a patentee receives for licensing its patent
• The parties agreed that licences should be sealed

Certainly, the UK Courts would agree with the Federal Court. 

Semiconductors

EU decides to put up €43bn to set up semiconductor manufacturing in the region

…The pandemic has exposed a major fragility in today’s economy causing serious supply chain issues leading to shut down of factories  for companies which have failed to manage its supply chains. This was especially prominent in the disruption of chip supply. Most of today’s the cutting edge chip manufacturing facilities are in Asia (specifically, TSMC and Samsung). To protect the EU economy from future chip supply chain issues, the Commission has decided to put up a €43bn fund. The US has done the same, advancing some $52bn, and China $33bn. 

Ukraine/Russian tension spells tension in the semiconductor industry

…Key materials for semiconductor manufacturing, such as Neon and EU decides to put up €43bn to set up semiconductor manufacturing in the region

Palladium which come from Russia/Ukraine, could be blocked. Russia may prioritise other states, notably China, over other countries especially if they impose sanctions on them. 

In the Spotlight

In a Power Move, Microsoft publishes Open App Store Principles

…Microsoft publishes “Open App Store Principles” on its Microsoft Store on Windows – to be incorporated into their gaming store it plans to build, ahead of Activision Blizzard deal. Essentially it’s promising it won’t do what Google and Apple have been accused of doing in the Epic trial (ie: allegedly acting exorbitantly by not allowing third party App Stores on their mobile phone operating systems (there are only two, iOS and Android), not allowing apps to use different payment systems, not allowing app developers to download app without going via the App Store run by the operating systems, charging 30% commission on all in-app purchases etc). They are:

Quality, Safety, Security & Privacy

Developers can access app store provided they have reasonable and transparent standards for quality and safety. [but this does mean effectively, that Microsoft has control]. Consumers can control how their data will be used. 

Accountability [Echoes EU Commission’s proposed Digital Markets Act]]

Own apps will have the same standards, and non-public information or data from the app store won’t be used to compete with developers’ apps.

Fairness and Transparency [Echoes EU Commission’s proposed Digital Markets Act]]

Treat all apps equally, no preferencing or ranking of own apps or business partners’ apps over others. Being transparent about rules for promotion and marketing.

Developer Choice

• Developers don’t have to use Microsoft payment system to process in-app purchases. [So if this principle were to be applied across the board, you’d be able to use for example, Paypal, in a game downloaded from the Apple App Store]
• Developers aren’t required to provide more favourable terms in Microsoft app store than in other app stores.

• Not to disadvantage developers if they choose to use non Microsoft payment processing system 
• Microsoft will not prevent developers from communicating directly with their customers through their apps for legitimate business purposes, such as pricing terms and product or service offerings.

It cleverly contains provisions similar to the proposed US Open App Markets Act, which is currently being considered for incorporation. That Act mainly targets Apple/Google duopoly over their app stores that are offered within the mobile ecosystem. Microsoft has also said the following:

• Its top games (especially ones purchased from Activision Blizzard) will remain available to SonyPlaystation, and support Nintendo as well [note that the promise isn’t forever]

• But, the Developer’s Choice principles do not apply to app stores on Xbox because the consoles are sold at a loss, and Microsoft requires additional revenues to make up for that loss. [Note that Open App Markets Act do not apply to gaming consoles]

Fun fact: Last December, Apple was fined € 5million / week by the Dutch Competition Authority for breaching its competition laws by preventing the Match App from allowing in-app purchases using third party payment system. Weirdly, the finding of breach only applies vis-a-vis the dating apps (Match was the complainant), not all App developers. It is reported that changes made by Apple was minimal because it is not simple to use an alternative payment method, and Apple still charges 27% commission (instead of 30%) on purchases made by alternative payment methods – supposedly a reduced rate that excludes value related to payment processing and related activities – with developers responsible for collection and remittance of taxes & VAT. Apple is appealing the decision, but meanwhile decided that it would be more beneficial for the bottomline to make minimum changes to the system and cope with the Authority’s decision that it is non-compliant and pay the €5 million/week! South Korea has also passed laws forcing platform owners (namely Apple and Google) to open up payment systems that could be used on their operating systems. Apple says there is operational costs for running the platform to ensure that it is safe from fraud, and to provide privacy protection (including features like parental control).

Auto

Tesla to fix software bug over the air

…Not entirely sure whether it was a bug, actually. The car was designed to slow down (5.6miles/hour) at stop signs if the junctions are clear (called roll stop) when they are supposed to come to a full stop regardless per the highway code of the US. Tesla’s cars had been programmed to do a roll stop – because it is much more energy efficient that way.  Tesla now have to “recall” their vehicles to disable that feature which breaks the law – which can be sorted by updates on the software.

Over the air software updates enable auto manufacturers to come up with all sorts of add-on features to the cars

…The article lists the following add-on features:

• Heated seats 
• Advanced cruise control 
• Lock or start their cars remotely
• Automatic high beam which dims when it sees an oncoming traffic

…but a survey said people will not be willing to pay for it. Or potentially, customers will decide on the brand of car depending on what features can be accessed without having to make any regular payment.

BigTech/Platforms

Facebook ordered by German Constitutional Court to disclose personal data of users who insulted a politician

…The insults posted are horrific. The Courts picked out those comments which can be regarded as criminal, balancing the right to free speech and privacy rights, as stipulated by the constitution. The disclosure of user information will then enable the politician to sue. New laws in Germany obliges platforms to pass on the data of suspected criminals to the German police. This is to enable the government to control far-right extremist posts in particular.

In parallel, the UK is preparing to pass an online safety bill, aimed at holding tech companies liable for illegal content (including the metaverse), for example hate speech, posts that incite violence, revenge porn, promotion of suicide, human trafficking, etc much resisted by tech platforms and strong supporters for free speech. If the law comes into force, platforms will be expected to take proactive measures, not merely to take down once notified of illegality. Breach can lead to penalty up to 10% of global turnover. 

All sounds reasonable – but it’s a difficult issue. Should there be a line, between free speech and censorship, and if so what standards should be used to draw that line? 

• BigTech/Platforms Camp: These (Facebook, Google, Twitter, and recently Spotify, etc) were started with an ideal to democratise information (be it search results, media, content). They believe that platforms should function to passively provide information (“a mere conduit”), they don’t edit and consider that consumers should be treated like adults – let them choose and research and decide what to consume, what to believe. 

• BigTechs aren’t a Platform but a Publisher Camp: By allowing harmful information to be made available, platforms are permitting harmful content to be accessible, and even amplifying it; this means they should be considered as de facto publishers with responsibility to remove harmful content. Too much responsibility could lead to the removal of users’ ability to upload content for free because it would just become too costly for the platforms (note that 25% of content on the internet is user generated). 

The Spotify saga (Joe Rogan v Neil Young) of last week, is a good example.  This debate – often called “section 230” in the US (which essentially states that Platforms are immune from liability for user created content, but if they are complicit in the creation of illegal content, then they will be liable) – is being continued in Washington. The hurdle for showing complicity may be quite low. Transparency on how content editing is done could help strike the right balance. Business personality Jason Calacanis suggested it ought to depend on whether you are doing any of the following P activities: Pay, Promote, Publish or Produce. In the case of Spotify, it is doing all those things vis-à-vis Joe Rogan. 

Interestingly, Spotify’s strategy is not only to get more subscribers, but also to secure deals with car makers (eg. Tesla) to get on their platform.

Facebook faces the biggest single day drop in market capitalisation in history – here’s why

…Zuckerberg has blamed competitor TikTok’s formidable growth stealing attention time away from users who would have used that time browsing Facebook [to Decode: we aren’t market dominant, guv]:

• Facebook sits within platforms (ie: Apple/Google), which means it is at the behest of such platforms.

• Apple’s policy for limiting ad targeting impacted Facebook massively. At the same time advertisers (eg. retailers) are now deciding to allocate spending on Google (which does have that deal with Apple to keep Google its default search engine. Furthermore, Google benefits from having granular and direct data about users’ interests (when they use the Google search engine, by directly typing in the terms of interest e.g. “where can I buy Victorian door handles?”– so called first party data) over Facebook – because Google is more effective at providing advertisers with targeting ad services. 

• Privacy scandals – whistleblower employee disclosed Facebook’s business decision-making which revealed that it was interested in growth even where it knew its services could be damaging to mental health of users; pushing users to content which elicited emotion, often negative ones (which tend to have more hold over users’ attention). 

• This has led to huge regulatory scrutiny of Facebook, and Facebook is now not in a position to acquire businesses with promising technology. Antitrust complaints on foot by the US Federal Trade Commission over Facebook’s past acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp which completed several years ago. The allegation is that Facebook bought them because it saw them as a future competitor and so had made the acquisition to kill the competition at an early stage.

• Facebook is hamstrung from growing organically. It was failing to gain sign ups by the younger generation anyway, and users, investors and developers are distancing themselves from Facebook following the whistleblower’s disclosure. 

• TikTok really is a formidable competitor, and it is eating into their lunch. 

• Facebook has now attempted to break into the content market by launching Reels, but this is getting little traction. Reels is basically like TikTok – but users use Facebook to connect with friends, not to see content made outside the friendship circle. In the users’ minds, TikTok is the platform for that. 

• It has bet the farm on the metaverse – a grand project which is not expected to see any returns for another decade or so. 

• VR division is losing $10-12bn / year. 
• VR market is crowded with other BigTechs (Apple, Microsoft, Google). 

• Its global digital currency project Diem was crushed under regulatory pressure. 

Meta threatens to pull Facebook and Instagram out of Europe amid tightening regulatory shackles

…Meta says it needs to be able to send European user’s data to the US, and cannot agree to storing all its data in Europe.  However, Schrems II ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU for short – Europe’s top court) means it is unlawful to send EU citizens’ personal data to the US, which impacts on the firm’s critical operations. Query whether they really can’t separate data storage between the EU and the US. Note that Apple already does this for their Chinese users – Apple has no control over data on iPhone in China, as I understand it, so Apple itself holds no data on Chinese subjects. 

Belgium’s Data Protection Authority finds Interactive Advertising Bureau of Europe’s Transparency and Consent Framework as being non-compliant

…This Framework was created to help advertisers to comply with GDPR. However, it has been found to be non-compliant, in particular, pop-ups asking users for certain permissions to collect data is inadequate – users don’t know that their profiles will be sold widely so more relevant ads can be shown to them. You simply cannot ask someone to consent to a data breach, said one member of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties. 

Crypto/Digital Currency /NFTs

Diem caves due to Regulatory Pressure

…Meta has sold off Diem assets to Silvergate Capital Corp, which is a crypto-focussed bank. 

Meta will take a seat on the board of Crypto Open Patent Alliance spearheaded by Jack Dorsey, which promises not to enforce patents unless it is for defensive purposes. Dorsey earlier criticised Meta for not embracing Bitcoin in the first place. Dorsey believes Bitcoin is key to financial inclusion. 

India to launch digital currency in 2022-2023

…It closely follows China, which is ahead. 

HitPiece, a website without regard for Intellectual Property gets slammed by artists

…A website which claims to “let fans collect NFTs of your favourite songs” is getting slammed (predictably) by artists. It appears that the website is providing the service without the artist’s consent.

Gaming

Sony – number two largest gaming company, to buy Bungie which is the developer of Halo and Destiny franchises  – for $3.6bn

…Bungie has in its history an acquisition by Microsoft back in 2000, only for it to be later spun out. Sony will get Destiny but not Halo, however. The deal follows a number of studio acquisitions by Sony last year as well as Microsoft, EA, Tencent. 

What’s Sony’s aim? 

Sony has produced one of the best consoles (PlayStation) on the market, and its popular exclusive titles are strong on role playing games with compelling story lines. Bungie is particularly well known for FPS (First Person Shooter) games. By purchasing Bungie it hopes to gain knowhow on “live games” in which gamers battle it out online, and build gaming communities – which come with in-community transactions and experience sharing (such as live music within a game). Naturally Sony has one eye on using the tie up to gain some vantage in the metaverse. 

Sony’s aim has been to get users buying its cutting edge consoles by offering up exclusive titles developed in-house – though Bungie has managed to get an agreement from Sony to remain independent. This could be similar to Microsoft’s proposed plans for Activision Blizzard, which is to profit from making available some of its popular titles to ostensibly, all.  

Metaverse

Mortgage over metaverse land successfully issued in Decentraland

…The mortgagor TerraZero Technologies provided most of the financing. Each mortgage is collaterised with the virtual real estate, represented as an NFT, it is reported. 

Where you might be located could be a key to how effectively you can promote your products on the metaverse. Consumer brands have already purchased virtual real estates in key areas (Decentraland has a Fashion Street Estate studded with apparel brands). Early adopters can hope to profit, because each of these platforms have their own tokens which will increase in value as more people decide to jump in. 

In another metaverse, one fan of Snoop Dogg (a rapper, if you didn’t know him) spent $450k on a piece of virtual land in Snoopverse, a virtual space Snoop is creating in the Sandbox. Snoop is re-creating aspects of his real life, including his Californian mansion in the Sandbox. Residents will be invited to his exclusive members-only parties. 

Semiconductor

EU Chips Act which funds chip manufacturing in the EU struggle in Brussels

…Chips are the building blocks of technology, which is the foundation of economy of the modern era. Governments and other organisations are busy trying to shore up chip manufacturing by the provision of generous subsidies and there is reported some struggle over whether relaxation of state aid rules is required. Note the amounts that are being contemplated is around a mere €40bn (including member states’ contribution – unclear over how many years)– compare with TSMC (just to labour on the point – this is just one company!) that announced a budget of $44bn for this year to boost its manufacturing facility.

GlobalWafer (Taiwan)’s €4.35bn acquisition of chip supplier Siltronic (Germany) falls over

…National security concerns on the German side has prevented the merger, it has been reported. 

Nvidia’s proposed purchase of Softbank’s ARM collapses amid competition concerns

…Softbank will receive a break up fee of $1.25bn [wow], and semiconductor design company ARM will be floating. Strongest voices against the acquisition includes Microsoft and Qualcomm, who fear access to ARM will become restricted, and nervousness over disclosure of key technological innovations to ARM which may be shared with Nvidia.

Apps

Apple and Google backed Information Technology and Innovation Foundation policy director says increasing competition in App stores could hurt users 

…The US Senate is presently considering whether it should bring the Open App Market Act bill to a vote. This proposes to

• Restrict the mandatory use by apps of proprietary in-app payment software (ie: Apple can’t say that apps must use their payment system to make purchases within the app)
• Protect users’ ability to install third-party app stores
• Protect users’ ability to install apps without using an app store

The concern is: 

• No control of app quality (you get spammy stuff advertised on the App store)
• Less privacy
• Insufficient security

Peloton successfully fends off wilful infringement claim by rival iFIT (NordicTrack)

…iFIT had last April sued Peloton for infringing a patent which relates to the feature that automatically controls the exercise device with an integrated weight system. Peloton was claimed to be infringing by offering devices with a feature which changes the resistance in response to the virtual instructor’s call outs. 

Peloton had known about iFIT’s patent application but that was not enough to substantiate a claim for wilful infringement (which if succeeded would entitle iFIT to be awarded three times the damages amount). iFIT must provide evidence to show that Peloton knew it was infringing, the judge said.

The case continues on. 

Auto

Tesla says Full Self Driving Autopilot safer than a human by end of this year

…”I would be shocked if I don’t achieve it”, says Musk. Though many don’t actually believe the oft over-promising Tesla boss. According to Tesla, Full Self Driving is available for $199 per month to drivers. Good drivers as adjudicated by Tesla’s algorithms can access software updates before they are rolled out. It is not entirely clear what “Full Self Driving” would offer, but it may include self-driving city streets. 

“Being better than a human is relatively straightforward, frankly…but how do you be 1000 percent better, 10,000 percent better? That’s much harder”, says Musk. He certainly likes to strive for heights. 

May be the regulatory hurdles will save him from getting egg on his face; though he probably couldn’t care less about that. 

Sceptics may snigger, they may roll their eyes, but Tesla is by far ahead in product, market share (in the US, they have the best network of superchargers which contributes to the marketshare – those superchargers only recently became available to other EVs), supply chain management, production capacity and battery capacity (much better range than many others) compared to any other. They are also highly profitable because of their add-on subscription services; Full Self Driving which I’ve mentioned above, better connectivity, and insurance (out of the ones I can think of – may be others). I guess that is why he has been quite able to indulge in hyperbolic promises thus far. 

Note that the term “Self-Driving” has been dumped by what was Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets, which has been renamed as “Autonomous Vehicle Association”. The group founded in 2016 by well known disruptors and legacy car companies (Waymo, Lyft, Uber and Ford and Volvo – now joined by other well known disruptor companies such as Cruise and Zoox) changed their name because that term is misleading they say. 

Alphabet’s autonomous vehicle unit Waymo in a bid to stop San Francisco’s Department of Motor Vehicles from releasing sensitive information

…Chronology would probably be helpful.

• Waymo applies for a permit allowing its vehicles to be deployed on public roads. Application includes sensitive information (says Waymo) such as:
  • Internal analyses of collisions
  • What happens in emergency situations
  • Geography where the vehicles will operate
  • Restrictions on Vehicle’s operation
  • Details of how the vehicle reacts when it’s driving outside the geography
  • Manufacturer’s testing of autonomous technologies
  • How to avoid circumstances which lead to certain collisions

• Department of Motor Vehicles receives request for information relating to Waymo’s application. 
• Redacted information was provided to the unidentified requesting party.
• Requesting party challenges the redaction. 
• Department of Motor Vehicles says Waymo must justify the redaction, and seek an injunction to prevent release. 

Waymo says the information reveals strategic insight into Waymo’s competitors and strategy. It will reveal information on critical technological engineering issues in this highly congested (excuse the pun) technological area. Interestingly though Waymo describes the information as a business secret (not technical secret) – according to the article. 

Calilfornia Privacy Rights Act states that public records are exempt from disclosure if it can be shown that the public interest is served by not disclosing that information. 

Practical point: if you are working for Auto companies, you might consider whether it would bed worth obtaining information via making a FOIA request (with the proviso that the position taken could haunt you if someone then makes a request against you).

BigTech/ Data / Platform

US State Attorney Generals sue Google for secretly tracking users’ location

…Tracking was said to take place even after users had disabled the feature. Users were led to believe that turning off location history would stop the collection of data, but it was not the case, the complaint claims. It is said that Google collected the data despite lack of consent, and monetised the data by using it unlawfully in targeted advertising. 

The claim also complains of using “dark patterns” by telling users who switch off location tracking that certain services won’t function properly otherwise, to try and persuade users from turning off the functionality.

Google said it will defend the claims vigorously. 

And on a similar theme…

US DOJ head Jonathan Kanter echoes Lina Khan in being anti-concentration of markets

…He stated:

• Mergers short of blocking transactions often miss the mark
• If a merger is likely to lessen competition we will simply block [note that most mergers are anti-competitive because the point of the merger is that you end up in a better position…]
• Competition is not static, but “dynamic, complex and often multidimensional” making it hard to see “with precision the contours of competition in the market” – potentially meaning that if in doubt, he’ll block transactions
• Focus on structural fixes (requiring divestments of targets) rather than behavioural commitments

Ninth Circuit (essentially Court of Appeals for the area which contains California ie: liberal) OKs California to apply Net Neutrality laws

…Net Neutrality means that internet service providers must not be able to block or prioritise certain cables and cell towers over others. It means for example, Sky can’t pay BT to provide faster information for Sky services or Amazon can’t pay Virgin to slow down data flow on Netflix in a bid to get customers off Netflix onto Amazon. 

FCC under Trump Administration did away with Open Internet Order aimed at net neutrality and California said well, we’ll do it anyway. This was challenged, and the Ninth circuit said that California law can stand, and that net neutrality doesn’t necessarily fall within the province of Federal law. Will Congress say, pass law applicable across the US? This will be potentially Supreme Court stuff if Congress decide to stay out of the debate. 

US follows UK, Canada and Australia by proposing new immigration visas for start up entrepreneurs

…Didn’t know UK had that sort of visa available. But this is a logical move. There is huge potential in start ups, thanks to the development of internet based infrastructure. Anyone can easily set up a home page, start a business, reach out to customers across the globe, communicate, outsource, get things made and get securely paid for services rendered. It would seem also to suit the Gen-Z philosophy too. The visa is proposed in the America COMPETES Act of 2022. 

Californian judge partially lets off Google in a class action

…The plaintiffs, who were users of Google phones said Google Analytics and Firebase software is quietly integrated into third-party smartphone apps including NY times, the Economist, Lyft and Alibaba. 

The claims which were dismissed were two:

• Breach of contract because Google collected data allowing it to target ad its users after users adjusted its account settings not to track them.

• Decision: Users can’t expect to be entering into a contract just by changing account settings.

• Breach of Californian Invasion of Privacy Act which prevents anyone from intercepting and recording communications without consent.

• Decision: What Google did was to record and then transmit. This is not interception. 

Other claims such as breach of Californian Computer Abuse and Invasion of Privacy laws remain live. 

But then….

German publishers and marketing agencies complain to the EU Commission that Google’s privacy sandbox and abolishment of third party cookies will reduce their ability to compete

…Google says that their initiative to turn off Cookies will safeguard privacy but other businesses say it will disable them from access to effective online advertising because they cannot target potential customers, although Google itself will be able to collect data. Furthermore the publishers complain that Google’s proposal will block users who want third-party cookies (for more personalised web browsing experience).  

Google to track users’ interests in relation to broad categories amid privacy concerns

…Google proposes to change advertising cookies by using Topics which tracks users’ interests broadly. For example a user that frequents baseball related sites would be identified in relation to the broad category of Sports. It was feared that granular categorisations could lead Google to identify individuals. Google will not be categorising sensitive interests, it said (eg. mental health, guns, religion). 

In contrast, Apple says its user data is processed on the device, and not sent to the cloud. 

Google pays $1billion to Bharti Airtel to boost smartphone and internet access in India

…Airtel has 1 million SME clients through its enterprise offerings. Subject to regulatory approvals.

Apple files the most profitable quarterly revenues – what do they do right?

• Managed to sort supply chain issues
• Good take up of products in China (Macs (they are now using their own designed chips called M1), and iPhone) – Apple is one of the few mega cap companies that are doing well in China which have a tech savvy demographic who are quick to upgrade on new technical futures. It has knocked Huawei off the number one spot on mobile phone sales (Huawei phones were popular with the increase of nationalism when it was banned by the US in the past– but that appears to have been short-lived, or rather the lure of the cool Apple brand may have been too much – either that, or their products just integrate better with other products – see below). 
• Increased first time buyers of iWatch
• Further integration – Apple is seeking to integrate Macs, iPhones, iWatch, AirPods, home pods and in the future AR, EVs – confidence is high that Apple will be able to do it well.

There are risks though, especially regulatory around App Stores. Also relationship with Google may well be called into question – because Google pays Apple for it to be a default engine on the iOS. 20% profit of Apple comes from the deal with Google + added risk that Google might decide its search engine is good enough without having to pay Apple. 

Neil Young gets dumped over Joe Rogan by Spotify

…Neil Young (who is far from young, but has an impressive legacy back catalogue of music) has refused to share a platform with Joe Rogan who has secured a reportedly up to/more than (depending on the source) $100m exclusive with Spotify. Joe Rogan is a very popular comedian, but is somewhat controversial because of his anti-vax views. Young said that this is highly dangerous because if more people are persuaded not to take a vaccine, it could lead to unnecessary deaths. Joni Mitchell (another artist of similar profile) has now followed. What is perhaps more eyebrow raising is that fact that Rogan has his own range of vitamins that is said to boost immunity….

The interesting question is the duty of Spotify. Does it have to police the contents of its podcasts? Or lyrics of the songs they have made available? If so, that would be pretty burdensome. Does it matter that Spotify offers tracks of controversial artists?  For example, Michael Jackson’s music? The key issue is the fact that Spotify has an exclusive relationship with Rogan means Spotify can be said to have sort of added responsibility. In other words, Spotify isn’t just a directory vis-à-vis Rogan, but has a level of control over him – should it not do something about his views, which aren’t backed by science? It isn’t quite the same issue that Twitter, Google and Facebook are facing over not doing anything about the possible incitement of the Capitol Hill riot, because they lack the necessary relationship with the rioters. 

The article notes that Spotify makes revenue from people listening to Joe Rogan (because Rogan has been paid upfront) and more people will click on the ads owing to his fanbase size (some 11 million – placing an ad on his show costs x$10k), whereas Neil Young’s fanbase is much more limited, and each time a subscriber pays to listen to Neil Young, they lose the revenue – because it will have to pay its record label/Neil Young the royalties due. Having to choose Neil Young v Joe Rogan may be a simple choice, but what if more popular artists such as Taylor Swift or BTS followed? What would they do? Meghan and Harry who work with Spotify have expressed concern but has not said they will pull out. Thankfully for Spotify, none of these perhaps, more popular celebrities have yet placed Spotify onto that horn of dilemma.

Another interesting move is Apple, who was quick to advertise Neil Young catalogue availability on iTunes, describing itself as “home of Neil Young”. Neil Young has previous told his fans not to listen to music on iTunes because his music sounds terrible on it. Oops….

Shopify moves to dismiss publishers’ claim that it is liable for pirated textbooks on the platform

…Shopify is a subscription based service enabling individual shop owners to set up shop on the platform. Some shops have cropped up on Shopify selling pirated textbooks. The educational publishers sued Shopify claiming copyright infringement and trade mark infringement. Shopify is relying on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, stating that the law gives them a defence as it has diligently responded to take down notices. 

Gaming

Riot Games sues rival game maker for copyright infringement in Central District of California

…Imba Technology is accused of taking League of Legend characters and storylines (verbatim). Imba’s game is free to play but derives revenue from in-app purchases. Riot has sued other companies before, such as Shanghai Moonton Technologies co and Shanghai MoBai Computer Technology for infringing League of Legends designs and details. 

Health

“Digital Medicine” company Akili valued at $1billion as it goes public

…Ever heard of digital medicine? Akili is a US prescription digital medicine company which treats depression and attention hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, multiple sclerosis and inflammatory diseases using personalised video games…

NFT

Art collector seeks ruling in NY that he owns copyright in physical art entitling him to sell NFTs based on it

…These sorts of issues are likely to increase in the world of NFTs. 

Semiconductors

European Commission’s €1.2billion fine against Intel concerning rebates overturned by Europe’s second highest court (General Court)

…The charge was that Intel had acted anti-competitively by offering rebates to computer manufacturers HP, Dell, Lenovo and NEC for buying most of their chips from Intel. Rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) complained that they had been blocked out from selling their chips to the same clientbase. The General Court said that there were flaws in the rebate analysis and the legal standard that the rebates were capable of having, or likely to have anti-competitive effects was not met. 

Supply chain woes continue

…US Department of Commence said chip inventory held by manufacturers is down to 5 days’ supply, down from 40 days of 2019. Cue – factory shut downs, furloughs, increase in price of cars and everything else with chips in them (phones, PCs etc).

Chinese regulator give green light for chip manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) to buy Xylinx (also chip manufacturer) 

…AMD had had the all clear from all regulatory authorities but China. China has given the go ahead now. Xylinx is no ordinary chip maker, it makes chips for data centre networking, cars, military use and satellites. Furthermore Xylinx chips are programmable, meaning the customer can configure it to intended design after manufacturing. That ability makes these chips suitable for new computing uses and updating after deployment. AMD itself has expertise in making chips for graphics and server processors, supplying the likes of Microsoft and Sony for video game servers.  

US ITC takes up Future Link Systems’ complaint against Semiconductor dealers (Qualcomm, AMD, Apple, Google Broadcom, Dell, Lenovo, HP) for importing patent infringing chip containing devices seeking an injunction against importation 

…This would seem to be a tall ask given that the economy as a whole (US certainly not excluded) is getting a pounding owing to lack of chips. 

Future Link Systems is an IT solutions provider. 

5G

Roll out of C-band 5G clashes with Airline safety in the US

…Airlines are fearing that “C-band” 5G signal (which is separate from normal 5G) have the potential of disrupting some airplanes’ navigation systems. The Federal Communication Commission had sold this spectrum to carriers notably AT&T and Verizon (for colossal sums following an auction – despite being asked not to, to avert this situation – the sum no doubt reflects the scale of potential digital services markets that 5G can realise) and had not managed to agree a solution with Federal Aviation Administration before the roll out date. Airlines have demanded 5G signals be excluded from 2 mile radius of runways.
C-band roll out has already been carried out in 40 countries without any reports of planes falling out of the sky.
C-band frequency is high powered with wide coverage but limited in bandwidth, and so highly sought after by the carriers. It has been commented that rarely do C-band 5G is required for currently offered services; we are only readying ourselves for the future filled with AR glasses (as for which, see In the Spotlight section below)

Apps

Amazon Style launched as its first clothing store poised to open in Los Angeles this year

…You guessed it, it’s not your usual shopping experience. The clothing store only displays one item of each clothing, and you input your size, and budget. I’m not sure whether you can also set the colour, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you can. Check out done by biometrics. 

It will obviously be powered by its clever algorithm – which probably means very dangerous Amazon recommendations will also be included in your personalised wardrobe. If Amazon algorithms get it right, it might be very difficult not to yield to temptation. Thank goodness we are far away from LA! (for now).  

Se the one minute demo video: https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/amazon-clothing-store-algorithms-b1997655.html

Netflix shares plummets as it fails to attract further subscribers

…Netflix is well known for its good value. Low subscription prices + high quality and wide ranging content. However it faces increasing competition with HBO max and Disney + both of which have far higher subscription fees and doing well on subscriber numbers. How will Netflix  jack its prices up substantially to a level that equals their rivals so suddenly, without losing subscribers?. 

Autos

Broadcom asks Federal Circuit to overturn ITC Commission not to block imports of Toyota’s infotainment (navigation) systems into the US

…The claim had prior failed because Broadcom did not succeed in showing that Broadcom practices a key claim in the patent asserted. 

John Deere forecloses competition by giving no access to software that controls farming machinery preventing independent dealers and farmers from repairing says US Law suit

…Compare in the EU (which includes the UK because the rule was in force before Brexit) where certain information has to be made available to car dealers in the EU, designed to enable independent dealers to service cars.  Seeing news pieces like this, I realise how ahead the EU had been on policy shaping and implementing laws with the future in mind. 

US electric battery company Factorial Energy announces further investment from Mercedes and Stellantis

…following on from joint development and investment agreements struck last year. The company says its solid state batteries are better than Lithium ion batteries, providing 50% more range and safer. Factorial already has joint development agreements with Hyundai and Kia.

BigTech

EU Parliament adopts the draft of Digital Services Act

…Negotiations with Member States can now start. What does the draft DSA contain?

• Online platforms responsible for countering illegal products, services and content online, including clearly defined take-down procedures 
• Stronger obligation to ensure products can be traced on online marketplaces
• More options for tracking-free advertising
• Ban on using a minor’s data for targeted ads, as well as other vulnerable groups (based on sexual orientation, religions beliefs etc)
• Prohibition from influencing behaviour through dark patterns (eg. if you unsubscribe, you could miss out because of X, do you really want to unsubscribe?) 
• Very large Platforms subject to mandatory risk assessments risk mitigation measures, independent audits and the transparency of so-called “recommender systems”, which should include at least one system not based on profiling
• Clarity on how data will be monetised
• Should be easy to decline consent as it is to give consent 
• Recipients of services would have the right to seek compensation for damages

Small enterprises are exempted

American Innovation and Choice Online Act may become law meaning platforms can’t treat its goods and services better than those of third parties

…Unsurpsingly it will hit Google and Amazon the hardest…though supermarkets have been carrying out preferential product placements for years (the issue with platformers though is the scale).  As I understand it, it all sort of started with Amazon clocking the most popular products sold on its website, manufacturing own versions of it, and displaying it more prominently (eg. top of the search results) to any other similar products on the platform. The Act also plans to ban merchants from purchasing more prominent placements on platforms. The concept is similar to EU’s Digital Markets Act. 

• Apple is against it because it would mean it would have to allow users to download an App from its iOS App store which Apple says will compromise safety and security standards. Also, Apple’s App Tracking Transparency Policy will not apply to those Apps which is a feature enabling users to choose what sorts of data if any they will allow the App to track [followers of the epic Epic v. Apple litigation will be well aware of this]

• Google is also against it because it won’t be able to offer its users the best service [Google also faces similar suit advanced by Epic], such as having to give equal prominence to spammy services, and harming small businesses if Gmail and Calendars can’t work seamlessly. 

Note that the Act is considered to apply to free services (like Google’s) not subscription based ones (like Microsoft’s software services), which Google says will harm consumers [but see the proposed UK Class action against Facebook– where the main complaint is that “free services” aren’t really free because Facebook extracts valuable user data]. 

No doubt heavy lobbying would follow, and amendments will be made to the bill. 

Unsealed law suit in the US complains of alleged anti-competitive agreement between Google and Facebook

…The agreement allegedly provided: 

• Facebook to agree not to be involved in header bidding (which is a type of advertising exchange routing)
• Google to give Facebook information, speed and other advantages in auctions for mobile phone app advertising

Contains evidence on Google’s dominance in the online ad industry, and how Google is said to have manipulated the price of ad bids. 

Apple settles iCloud storage class action in the US

…Plaintiffs had complained that contrary to what was advertised Apple did not store data in its own infrastructure. 

Amazon reverses on Visa credit card ban, at least for now

…I am delighted to hear. Amazon had said before it will drop Visa credit cards in the UK because its transaction rate is too high (not sure why the prohibition was UK only – was it a test case?). The parties have decided to re-negotiate. Both parties were due to lose out (with Amazon’s estimated losses amounting to over a billion). I guess Visa made Amazon blink first. 

Patent infringement and antitrust suit in Florida against Apple on behalf of innovative software platform developers

…The complainant The Coring Co complains that Apple has stifled competition in the App marketplace. The complainant is associated with a suit against Apple in Northern District of California about Covid-19 trackers but the case failed because it did not plead market-wide competitive harm. The complainant claims its own App marketplace enables source code screening, which in turn enables one to check for corrupt algorithms and bypass Apple’s censorship. 

Apple says Coring is attempting to re-litigate. 

Google Analytics unlawfully transfers data in contravention of GDPR says Austrian Data Protection Authority

…Use of Google Analytics on an Austrian website involved data transfer from Google LLC in the US, and there were insufficient measures to ensure this was lawful, meaning Google provided inadequate level of protection. When a EU user accesses a website using Google Analytics whilst logged in his Google account, personal data is transferred to Google LLC. In accordance with US CLOUD Act, US authorities can demand personal data from Google, even when they are operating outside the US. Google therefore cannot satisfy the protection level for protecting the personal data of EU citizens under GDPR according to the Austrian Data Protection Authoritiy. 

Royalty Society study says don’t ban fake news

…Royal Society says banning fake news will only make them harder to access, leading to distrust in authorities. It called for a more nuanced, sustainable and focussed approach. What is required is collective resilience, it was said. Instead, we need information literacy programmes and mechanism for data-sharing to ensure that high quality information can compete (- I assume, against sensationalist or divisive posts). 

Crypto

Federal Reserve publishes whitepaper and seeks public comment on the Digital Dollar

…although many commentators say it will happen no matter what, there are a number of options on implementation, which the Fed can consider following consideration of responses to its call for public comments.

Main advantages are

• Faster financial payments
• Stimulation packages can reach to public more quickly
• Greater financial inclusion
• Enables quicker actions, can avoid crashes
• Safer (cf: cash robbery) 

But also drawbacks

• Privacy  (dealing in cash enables consumers to work “off-line” so spending cannot be tracked)
• Stability
• Fraudulent use

Russia follows China in banning crypto

…Russia is the third biggest territory which mine digital tokens (after US and which country? – the answer is surprising). It’s too speculative, used for illegal activities, not green and it undermines national fiscal policy says Russia’s central bank. 

Gaming

Microsoft agrees to buy gaming major Activation Blizzard for $69bn

…This is Microsoft’s biggest shopping in its history. To put it in context for the broader entertainment industry, Disney’s acquisition of Star Wars was for $4.05bn, and its acquisition of Marvel was $4bn. This deal is approx. 20 times larger. 

Metaverse

Meta plans to create marketplace for NFTs and allow users to use NFTs as their profiles

…Also, Meta plants to enable creators can create – or “mint” – tokens it has been said. Facebook’s digital wallet Novi will be key to facilitating the transactions. 

Semiconductors

Intel plans to build a semiconductor factory in Ohio

…There are generally two processes in semiconductor manufacturing that tend to draw focus:

• Designing the chip: most dominantly by ARM for mobile phones, Nvidia (for AI type processing chips and graphics) and recently by other companies which have entered the fray (Apple, GM, Ford). 

• Fabrication/Manufacturing (so-called foundaries): TSMC and Samsung are the main ones. These require major investment. 

Intel has recently announced it will start the foundary business because it is simply too unstable to rely on semiconductor manufacturing carried out mainly in SE Asia (especially the cutting edge sort). They will benefit from the US government subsidy. Note that Samsung and TMSC are coming to the US to build a foundary business (also taking the opportunity to receive the subsidy).  

Intel has announced it will split these two processes into two business units – it had until recently carried out both the designing and manufacturing, but because the manufacturing capability fell behind, it was thought that their designs also suffered. They announced the decision to have the two businesses less integrated to avoid similar mistakes.

In order to compete effectively, TSMC has announced a record high $44bn budget this year alone to strengthen chip manufacturing capability this month. 

Semiconductor business will likely be hot for some time. 

In the Spotlight

What does head of US FTC (that’s the competition authority in the US), and longtime critic of BigTech, Lina Khan say about deals involving large tech companies generally?

…It so happens that Lina Khan was slated to talk about her vision of future US competition on the same day as Microsoft’s announcement. You may recall they are trying to unwind Facebook’s purchase of Instagram and WhatsApp (after several years following the acquisition) because their view is that Facebook is now clearly dominant (although last week I noted that there are strong arguments against it), and considers that the Facebook’s game plan was to buy nascent companies with promising technology specifically to kill off future competition. It is true that those deals have enabled Facebook to reach out effectively to the entire mobile community and effectively gain dominance using their infrastructure and data they have managed to amass. The question is whether their conduct was anti-competitive. Should FTC have scrutinised those deals more carefully? Was the deal which enabled Facebook to become too dominant (in their view) foreseeable? Similarly, will Microsoft ‘s Activision Blizzard also enable it – with its predominantly enterprise clientbase to iterate over to the mobile users’ market?

FTC is looking at assessing deals which might reduce competition in the future – what is the problem with this?

What FTC wants to do is to catch and prevent deals which might lead to significant erosion of competition early, not 3, 4 deals later. This is a new concept because it looks at competition not from a consumer harm standpoint where one looks at whether a certain M&A would lead to higher prices for the consumer…

Case Study: Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard

The proposed acquisition can be good for consumers. Consumers can buy Microsoft’s subscription services and they can get Call of Duty without any hikes in the subscription price (ie: get more for the same price). It’s a bit like being offered say, Peaky Blinders (iPlayer) on Netflix without any hike in Netflix prices. If the offering is increased, then consumers can potentially just buy one streaming service, not a number of offerings such as Netflix and Disney Plus and Amazon Fire and etc etc. 

But it could reduce competition in the future – for example, if Sony is denied access to Call of Duty (currently available on Sony PlayStation) and other popular titles, it will not be able to compete as effectively against Xbox. It’s the nature of deals involving BigTech, because a few players are the gatekeepers over any particular sector. Indeed, the whole assessment of competitive harm from a pricing standpoint may no longer cut the mustard where consumers are being given ad based services free of charge. How could that possibly constitute consumer harm in one sense? 

However, looking at competition in this way could lead to uncertainty in businesses – deals are often done to decrease competition – for businesses to get stronger so per se, so should not be struck down out of hand. But, how do you know if the FTC will view your deal as the sort sufficiently likely to reduce competition “substantially” (Lina Khan’s words) in the future such that it ought to be prevented? It has been pointed out that the assessment requires a more objective criteria, as otherwise, whether a deal can be done or not could be highly politicised. This could chill the M&A market, with future M&A accompanying higher break-up fees (which is the $ you pay to your counterparty if the deal can’t go through). 

US FTC also wants to look at competition from a labour viewpoint

FTC are looking to see if any deal might impact the labour market. In the US FTC’s view, labour markets are significantly concentrated, and so they are looking at the anticompetitive nature of no-poach agreements, employers’ collusion to supress wages. Mergers may lead to significant redundancy and needs to be looked at, she added. 

This has been one of US labour unions’ asks, but commentators have said this does not make sense:

• BigTech aren’t dominant in the labour market as they compete with other tech companies for a pool of skilled engineers. 

• Some large technology companies aren’t known for treating their engineers all that well because they consider that the opportunity to work for them is a privilege in itself. 

• The acquisition by BigTech of smaller companies do not necessarily lead to redundancy
  • Example: when Google purchased YouTube which had a very limited number of employees, Google amplified the workforce for YouTube, to accelerate YouTube’s limited footprint to scale up massively using Google’s wide reach. The acquisition led to more employment and consumers benefited from YouTube’s services. Which was free. However, that deal may have been classified as potentially anti-competitive to the extent that it was foreseeable that YouTube will become so successful that no company would ever be able to compete with it. 

Aside from the competition viewpoint, and the uncertainties new ways of looking at competition may prove to be, will M&A be a trend? 

Microsoft is relatively well known for having a diverse portfolio (and actually whilst it may have been viewed as a software company traditionally, it is probably better to view it as a cloud company nowadays):

•  [Intelligent] Cloud services (Azure – top two with Amazon’s AWS) – by the way critical for fancy gaming visuals
• Software (Microsoft office including Outlook for a start)
• Teams (video-conferencing and virtual workplaces)
• Internet search (Bing)
• Mixed reality (HoloLens)
• Gaming (Xbox, Game Pass) 
• Digital Services Market (MSN)
• Surface (PC)
• Social Platform (Linked-In – and via Game Pass)
• Healthcare (Nuance)

This is in contrast to other BigTechs which do not have such a diverse and relatively even portfolio; the majority of Facebook & Google revenues come from Ads, Apple – hardware (though increasingly services through the revenues from in app purchases of apps downloaded from the App Store) and Amazon – cloud services. 

It is thought that there is a trend for businesses to diversify its business portfolio. We see here Microsoft strengthening its gaming business vertically (Activision’s content and Microsoft’s software distribution/platform), but others might expand out into different areas, different jurisdictions, yet some others might explore emerging technology (web3, blockchain, IoT, metaverse, cryptocurrency etc) to help them get a foothold into yet unknown future markets. 

Google is also throwing the hat into the ring as leaks suggest it is making an AR headset 

…Ostensibly not such an interesting piece of news, but I need to highlight why Google is joining the race. 

The most important point about this is that the technology industry is viewing augmented (AR) as the potential next platform device, following on from laptops and mobile. Of course, Google has got to get in on the race. I didn’t twig this point until this week…

Google’s main competitors

Understood to be progressed under the name project Iris. So who are its contenders?

• Meta are investing tremendous amounts following acquisition of Oculus (technically VR) and is seen to be currently leading in terms of progress

• Apple are also behind it, but in a more low profile way because’ well that’s Apple, they like to make a big splash on launch 

• Microsoft also has its HoloLens and has a venture with Qualcomm to make specialised AR chips – all in preparation for when Metaverse takes off, and the current gaming market (which is likely to be the first portal into the Metaverse). Note also that Microsoft’s HoloLens is actually being tested by the US Military, so it has huge scope for picking up on faults and improving quickly. 

There are other names like Snap and Magic Leap which are good names to be aware of. 

What about VR (Virtual Reality)?

AR is much more difficult than VR in terms of technology, which is why VR is being launched first. For AR you are actually looking at the real world and you have an overlay of information. So you can see the world (like wearing normal spectacles), and an AR device will augment your physical space, such as pointing out which shops are around you, or which shops are in the building in front of you. It may include opening hours.  Both Apple and Google will be trying to make MR (mixed reality VR and AR) devices for now – where there is an out-ward facing video camera so the real world can be blended with the virtual (apparently called “pass through” – so it’s not really AR) – you do not see the real world direct, but the processed videoed images.

What businesses are trying to do – particularly Apple who don’t really believe VR will take off, because it will be too isolating and assumes most users would not really want to be cut off from the real world –  is to make VR now, get people developing Apps to run on their VR devices, find use cases, pick up on issues and develop these, build an ecosystem and then step into the AR world. It’s really a stepping stone to AR. 

The gaming world is the most obvious starting point for VR, because it is played out in fantasy worlds, plus it is probably true to say it is populated with more techy people than average, who are willing to try new technology. Another use case may be is to watch films in VR. The other one is a better version of video conferencing experience (see the videos of Facebook and Microsoft as they advertised their vision of the metaverse). 

What are Google’s chances?

Google’s Google Glass project has sort of failed. Will the story be different this time? Maybe so:

• Google Glass didn’t really take off because it was a bit ahead of its time. It was also quite expensive but people have gotten used to paying handsomely for devices (prices of iPhone devices have kept increasing), especially those with advanced technology. 

• From the Google Glass experience, they will have some assets and know how in this area. This does include the feature of identifying faces in your vicinity – though this may have also been the reason Google Glass did not take off, because it was deemed to be too intrusive.  People didn’t want to be around Google Glass bespectacled people. There were reports of persons being abused for it and shops banning people with them on. 

• Less controversially, Google already has Google Lens capability where you point a mobile at something (eg. plant) and it can identify what it is. 

• Incredible AI capability. 

• Amazing volumes of data, which are highly indexed – users of Iris glasses (?) may be presented with better and more relevant information (though see Google’s issue with American Innovation and Online Choice Act, above)

• Great cloud expertise – it can render complex information and deliver to users. 

Just by the by, other of Google’s projects include Starline – enables one to talk remotely with your colleagues as if you are having an in-person meeting. It was shown that colleagues focused more compared with traditional video calls using Starline. Check it out by clicking on to the link. 

The World

US House Committee subpoena Alphabet, Reddit, Twitter and Meta to explain their potential contribution to Capitol Hill riot of 2021

…House Committee considers bills and issues and oversee agencies, programs, and activities within their jurisdictions. They have subpoenaed these platformers because they have in their view provided insufficient information. The questions these platforms have been asked are roughly (i) how did the spread of misinformation occur in their platforms and (ii) what had they done to prevent such an outcome. Note that, it is a bit of a tricky situation. If they are made to account for what goes on on their platforms, then it will give them a reason to monitor what people are saying on their platforms.

AI

Covid vaccine maker BioNTech teams up with North African AI startup InstaDeep to identify Covid variants ahead of WHO designation

…They had identified the Omicron variant two months before the WHO designation it i

Apps

Uber’s grocery delivery arm, Cornershop agrees to stop scraping data and images of items off rival Instacart and using them on its platform

…Instacart, which boasts owning the largest and most comprehensive grocery catalogue in the world, had sued Cornershop in Eastern District of Texas for copyright infringement, breach of Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and Digital Millenium Copyright Act.

Auto

[Old News not covered before] Huawei enters into JV with Volkswagen

…Announced in October 2021, the JV will develop autonomous vehicle technology, with Huawei supplying solutions, including software and chip. 

Huawei has two main auto businesses:

• Supply of whole designs or individual parts of cars 
• Smart Selection Mode – Sale of cars through Huawei’s sales channels

It is reported that Huawei has launched the HI brand, which is also known as Huawei Inside Solution. This includes input from other Chinese companies

BigTech

Game developer Krafton sues Google, YouTube and Apple for making available alleged copyright infringer Garena’s game Free Fire in the Central District of California

Alleged copycat game maker Garena also sued. Garena’s App Free Fire is alleged to be copyright infringing, by copying copyright protected aspects:

• unique game opening “air drop” feature, the game structure and play, the combination and selection of weapons, armour, and unique objects, locations, and the overall choice of colour schemes, materials, and textures.

• Pre-game lobby idea which enables players to have a play with the weapons before starting the game

• Look and feel

This was despite Garena having settled a dispute out of court before. Krafton had also asked Apple and Google to stop making these infringing games available on the App stores but have refused. 

What appears to be a good summary of US case law on contributory copyright infringement where infringing material is found on a platform, can be found here.

Crypto Assets

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey sets up a fund to protect bitcoin developers

Jack Dorsey, a strong advocate of bitcoin and the democratisation of access to financial systems, has offered up support to bitcoin developers who are under legal attacks, most prominently by Craig White who is a serial litigator and claims to own the copyright to the original bitcoin whitepaper. Last year he mounted a legal claim in the UK requiring a bitcoin venture to take down the whitepaper. 

White is also known for attacking bitcoin developers for failing to support him recover his access to his crypto assets. He claimed that his private keys were stolen and deleted causing major losses.  

Why did UK Fintech Checkout.com manage to hit $4billion valuation? 

You might think here’s another fintech company, another hype. The interesting aspect of this start up is its focus on working in the web3 (decentralised, blockchain based) space. It only deals with enterprise customers, and aims to facilitate global payments, including digital currencies. Got a bit of crypto? Maybe buying an item online using digital currencies will become as easy as paying with your credit card soon. 

Data

US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) plans to get stricter on data breaches by telecom companies

…There are already laws that compel businesses to protect customer’s personal information. However, the FCC wants to tighten the obligation to protect consumers and increase security: 

• Telecom customers to be notified promptly when there has been a data breach (plan to scrap the 7 day wait period)

• Obligation to notify FCC, FBI, US Secret Service, including inadvertent breaches

Old-fashioned world of London Insurance Market will go digital with the help of DXC Technology says Lloyds

..Lloyds are biting the bullet to go single platform and digital from being paper-based. This will present a cultural shift and huge cost saving opportunities, it has been said. It will involve a core data record which will involve a common data standard across the market, which will lead to inter-operability and faster processing. DXC Technology is a US based information tech company. As if we didn’t know already – everyone’s going to go AI…

EV

World’s second largest EV battery maker LG Energy Solutions to float in South Korea

…Huge spends (CapEx in market terms) are required to expand and develop further in one of the hottest sectors of today (being EV). South Korea’s LG Energy Solutions aim to challenge the top battery maker, China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL). LG Energy Solutions supply batteries to Tesla, Ford and VW (although not necessary exclusively – for example CATL supplies Tesla) and has a JV with Stellantis. 

Of course, the Chinese market is huge and CATL has a home advantage there. 

LG’s batteries are Nickel based and expensive, and there had been some safety issues. CATL’s LFP (Lithium iron phosphate) batteries are cheaper and safer. However, they have less energy and power density than Nickel based batteries. The batteries area is heavily patented as you will not be surprised to learn…

Netradyne, an AI analytics vehicle camera company sued for violating Illinois biometric privacy law

The camera situated on the internal windshield can record drivers movements to ensure that they are alert and focused on the road. Images are uploaded to Netradyne’s servers and truck drivers’ employers can log in to check. The suit said that such conduct violates Illinois biometric privacy law because no consent of the drivers was obtained. Drivers were told that the camera will be installed to reduce costs owing to traffic accidents, nothing was mentioned about collection of biometric data. 

The idea of being monitored behind the wheels first seemed to me to be a terrible violation of privacy (with or without consent), but on the other hand if the system could reliably detect whether drivers were properly focused and that would cause a reduction in serious accidents then it may well be a good idea – provided sufficient consent has been obtained. 

Amazon drivers famously have to consent to AI surveillance or get the sack – at least in the US. It also uses Netradyne. But I think the important difference here is that consent will have been obtained

Gaming

Following on from last week, more on cheat codes but cheating is not unlawful the defendant says in Bungie v  AimJunkies

…The cheating defendant AimJunkies says software cheat code is not an unauthorised copy of Claimant Bungie’s copyrighted works. Breach of contract claims ought to be arbitrated in accordance with Bungie’s own terms the defendant say. 

Grand-Theft auto publisher Take-Two agrees to buy Zynga for $12.7bn – but what’s the rationale for the deal? 

but what’s the rationale for the deal? 

The most straightforward reason is to enable Take-Two to compete with other eminent game publishers, such as Activation Blizzard, Epic etc. But Zynga is unusual in that it has great reach in mobile games. This goes to show how very out of touch I am but I was staggered to learn that the key driver of conversations in social platforms concerns gaming, Twitter reporting 14% increase in tweets centred on gaming in Q4 2021 year on year. That also chimes with Facebook’s report, with 900million in gaming groups, watching people playing games, and actually playing games, and Reddit reported that gaming was the second highest viewed topic. The feel is that gaming will not be just for “gamers” in the future. Simply, the intense widespread interest equates to:

• Advertising revenues (so called Ad dollars)
• More data – spelling this out, this means data on what people buy in the games, which translates to valuable data on what will people pay for, who is connected to who meaning who else can you target any particular services to. 

Remember a while ago, Amazon bought one of the most popular gaming platforms Twitch, and you may see that these days YouTube is pushing YouTube gaming apps in a big way. Also recall Apple has Arcade, and Google has Stadia. In other words, gaming is a space crowded with well resourced businesses. 

Meta’s VR Oculus was the most downloaded App on Christmas day in the US

Oculus was bought by Facebook back in 2014. Whether it is just for Christmas, or whether it has long time appeal is something worth monitoring. It has been said that VR glasses can cause nausea, still somewhat clunky and not light enough because the battery is too heavy etc. However, it is incredible that this app has beaten all other apps despite the need to use in conjunction with the VR glasses itself, costing $300-400. 

Metaverse

Metaverse is off-limits says Apple as it assiduously develops MR hardware in the background

There appears to have been a leak of Apple’s MR (Mixed Reality – in this case VR and) headsets. It looks like ski goggles if the leaked info is to be believed. Whilst other tech companies strive to keep us connected for long periods (why? – more data, of course!) Apple has said it isn’t intended for long period of usage. It has also said no to Metaverse – one analyst speculated that Apple wants nothing to do with having to control the masses – it gets messy and it’s not interested. That’s why Apple hasn’t dabbled in social media even though it could do it well, if it wanted to.   When you look at all those platformers subpoenaed by the House Committee (see above), one can’t really blame Apple…I should think though it is positioning itself to implement the work into future Apple cars. 

The question is whether these smart glasses would ever replace smart phones. 

Semiconductors

In the markets, semiconductor ETFs (ie: semiconductor company market index) continue to perform well – here’s why

This was picked up by CNBC. The reasons are chips are undergoing a “transformational development”, with increase in demands on high performance chips with the advent of 5G for PCs, EVs and IoT, owing to implementation of Cloud Computing and AI – matched with an expanding addressable market. Chips will become more and more specialised, and more complex involving “heterogeneous computing” – which is where different types of processors are used in one system – EVs are especially known for this). 

Established tech businesses are now taking on the chip designs as they sculpt the functionalities they need on the chips to suit their products 

Bonus News

Musk’s Boring company’s Hyperloop underneath Vegas unveiled in CES conference

In a bid to avoid traffic, Musk’s company has been “boring” a “hyperloop” (ie a tunnel) to transport cars from one place to another without a traffic jam. Backers have said it will go from Los Angeles to New York in 45 minutes. Unfortunately on this occasion it caused a traffic jam of 90 Teslas…The clip gives you a glimpse of this hyperloop from the inside.

Check out BMW’s colour changing car at CES

Just so cool…It uses e-ink, which is the same technology Kindle uses. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=499TkWOl4PM

Apps

Nike sues Lululemon Athletica saying Mirror Home Gym infringes patents

…The patents in play concern exercise instruction depending on fitness level and heart rate, setting up competition on atheletic activity between users, transmitting and storing activity time period in accordance with a goal, rating a user’s athleticism through sensors, recording and sharing activity, communication with workout equipment.

This is not dissimilar in the trend to Peloton’s suit against rivals Echelon and iFit over alleged patent infringement related to the company’s on-demand fitness classes of last year.

If you were the defendants in any of these cases, you’d hope to have patents you can countersue against the claimant.

Brands

Snap (formerly Snapchat) sues USPTO for wrongly rejecting trade mark application Spectacles for their smart glasses as being generic

…The suit is in Central District of California.

USPTO says – The evidence comprised of various news articles which describe AR devices in general as “smart spectacles” or “VR spectacles”. It stated in its ruling “Applicant cannot seriously dispute that ‘spectacles’ is merely descriptive”

Snap says – the applied for mark evokes an incongruity between an 18th century term for corrective eyewear and Snap’s high-tech 21st century smart glasses. It also claims acquired distinctiveness.

See Snap’s product here: https://www.spectacles.com/uk/new-spectacles/

It isn’t often that IP Offices get sued. It goes to show how “hot” the area of emerging technology is, with businesses jockeying to get the best branding for their products and services.

BigTech

French privacy watchdog CNIL fines Facebook and Google €210m for making it difficult for users to refuse Cookies in breach of ePrivacy Directive

…Several clicks are required to refuse Cookies as opposed to a single click to accept them said the Commission.

Californian class action says Google gave Apple preferential treatment in breach of antitrust law

…It is alleged that in an agreement:

• Google paid Apple billions each year not to develop its own search engines
• Google shares profits with Apple [not sure if this is the payment referred to above or is in addition to the above – those interested should do a further search]
• Apple gives Google preferential treatment on its devices [sort of conduct that will likely breach the Digital Markets Act of the EU, if it comes into force]

Meta is sued by parents of minors for unlawfully harvesting minors’ images in Alabama

…It was argued that minors’ data including biometric data were harvested and used for profit in breach of privacy rights and antitrust law. Whilst Meta did announce plans to purge a lot of biometric data to limit the use of technology, the plaintiffs say the damage has been done and Meta has been enriched unjustly.

WhatsApp suit against Israeli spyware company NSO to go ahead

…NSO is a well-known spyware company. As I understand it, it doesn’t choose its clients (ie: takes a strict non-discriminatory approach) – it will provide the service to anyone who will pay for their technology.

WhatsApp had sued NSO in Northern District of California (NDCal) for hacking the WhatsApp accounts of 1400 users who are human rights lawyers, journalists and politics dissidents, which is reported as likely on behalf of its government clients (WhatsApp suspects Mexico, Bahrain and UAE, based on the targets). WhatsApp claims that this unlawful under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (in the UK we have the Computer Misuse Act) and California state anti-hacking, breach of contract and trespassing laws. The Ninth Circuit has held that NSO cannot claim protection under Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which is a sovereign immunities doctrine that applies to foreign officials.

NSO complains that WhatsApp’s real dispute is with the governments, not NSO but because they can’t sue the governments who can defend themselves by claiming that they are core sovereign activities, WhatsApp have sued NSO.

Brexit

.eu websites have been taken off-line as a result of Brexit

…As a result of Brexit, UK individuals and organisations cannot own .eu domains and so have been taken off-line.

EV

Toyota to launch its own Operating Software for cars Arene, by 2025

…It’s a bit like iOS or Android for phones, but for cars. It will vie with other auto (eg. vw.OS, mb.OS [Mercedes Benz] and Tesla OS) and IT companies (Google, Apple) to become a platformer in this space, with the ability to licence out to other auto/EV manufacturers. To be developed by Toyota subsidiary Woven Planet. What will Arene do?

• Control of the car itself, such as braking and steering
• Navigation systems
• Traffic information handling
• Updating of software Over the Air (meaning using cellular network. See note below – Toyota is being sued for this capability in its current car range – see below).

What’s the benefit of a platform – other than the capture of a lot of data (which would in itself be a motivation to become a platformer)? Current cars have ECU (Electronic Control Units) which have software installed in them. There are said to be about 30 pieces of software in any one car at present and these push up the costs. Having a foundational operating system means only one software is necessary to operate the car.

Energy

Bill Gates-backed new form of solar energy company Heliogen goes public

…It concentrates solar rays by using AI – it has huge potential for industrial use as it can heat to temperatures beyond 1000 Celsius, which makes it ideal for industrial use, such as generation of hydrogen, a key component for Green Tech (See Tech News Digest of 11 October). The company expects to facilitate industries to decarbonise AND save money, at a time the world demands more energy and without pollution. A spokesperson has described it has a game-changer.  Click on the title and see what it looks like.

Gaming

German Cheat code sellers sued in Central District of California by publishers of popular game Call of Duty

…Plaintiff Activation Blizzard says that it loses business because non-cheating players quit in frustration and also availability of cheat codes causes harm to its reputation.

Causes of action are: Trafficking in Circumvention Devices (violates Circumvention of copyright protection systems, Digital Millenium Copyright Act) and Intentional interference with contractual relations, Unfair Competition. There have been similar cases, including those involving Epic, the publisher of popular game Fortnite against a YouTuber who published cheat codes on YouTube.

Green Agenda

US Copyright Office recommendation allowing users to circumvent technological measures for repair and maintenance can be dangerous

…for patient safety when applied to medical devices, it has been commented. What if the calibrations for the medical device is not quite right? I think there are probably safety implications for other items which are being considered as well (eg. Autos). In the process of repairing an electronic component it could also compromise security measures, it has been said. The Copyright Office recommendation can be reached here: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2021-10-28/pdf/2021-23311.pdf

NFT

Largest NFT market OpenSea freezes stolen assets

…Bored Apes among assets that were stolen from the “hot wallet” (digital wallet that is accessible from devices that are connected to the internet – cf cold wallet or cold storage which is a physical device that keeps your crypto safe offline so it can’t be hacked) of an art gallery in New York. The gallery tweeted the theft and OpenSea froze the stolen assets.  Cue outcry. Why is this? Because NFT = web3 = decentralization. The code should be the law – one software engineer says. It shouldn’t be possible to centrally intervene.  But in practice, it is not entirely centralised because you need Open Sea API to actually visualise the NFT. This means that the protocol is open, but things have to be built on top of it to be usable, meaning platforms, that is the entity that centrally controls the relevant blockchain always win out.

National Security

UK’s got new power to intervene in transactions with national security implications

…This is because on 4 January 2022, the UK’s National Security and Investment Act (the “NSI Act”) enters into full force. NSI Act may apply to corporate restructures and reorganisations, even if the transaction takes place within the same corporate group.

For certain transactions where the target entity has activities in 17 defined areas of the UK economy, a mandatory notification requirement will apply. These are:

advanced materials; advanced robotics; artificial intelligence; civil nuclear; communications; computing hardware; critical suppliers to the UK government; cryptographic authentication; data infrastructure; defence; energy; military and dual-use; quantum technologies; satellite and space technologies; suppliers to the emergency services; synthetic biology; and transport.

In short, any areas which are a bit sexy or obviously national security related. This is wide-ranging Major consequences are due if not complied with.

Patents

US International Trade Commission (ITC) bans Google from importing Google Home smart speakers, Chromecast streaming devices and Pixel phones and computers into the US because it infringes Sonos patents

…but the injunction is limited. It comes 2 years after the Sonos filing during which it has been found that Google has managed to re-design. The commission’s decision is subject to review by the White House. Sonos urged the ITC to overturn the finding that the re-designs are non-infringing, saying that it allows Google to non-infringe by making “trivial” modification to the software. The interesting point here is that, even where the patent claims are ostensibly targeted to hardware these days, it is the software that dictates patent infringement. Changes can therefore be made to the software so that they are non-infringing, which is much simpler than having to make changes to the components of the products. Note that ITC cannot order damages. 

There are other ITC cases between Sonos and Google as well as parallel litigation in Germany, France and the Netherlands.

Patent Pools utilising AI to operate are launched

…It was always a matter of time. Some say AI is still too unreliable, but even if critics are right about that, it will happen in earnest at some point.

Alium – this is a patent pool for Open RAN (see 8 November Tech News Digest on this technology), driven by MPEG-LA and Unified Patents. They are using AI to decide how royalties collected should be split among the various licensors in the patent pool.

IPwe – this is a blockchain focused start-up. AI is to be used to decide on the quality of the patents (not necessarily standard related patents) and licence fee allocation among licensors. The advantages are to cut down on expensive expert fees to carry out analysis of patents (eg. whether the patent reads on a standard which means all devices implementing that standard (eg. 4G) will infringe and therefore dealers will need to pay a licence) or how valuable any particular patent/patent portfolio is (not all patents are created equal – some cover more valuable technology than others).

Quantum Computing

US’s National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) expected to select the algorithms to be standardised perhaps this month – to combat vulnerabilities to encryption as a result of Quantum Computing implementation

…In short, when quantum computing technology become realised for use, a lot of the encryption methods used (eg. for payment, logging in, electronic signatures – one well known encoding method is called the RSA and has been around for decades) will become decodable. NIST has been working on creating standards for new algorithms strong enough to withstand attacks by quantum computers.  The actual standards will be crystalised in 2024, it is said. Software will require updating to reflect the new encoding method before quantum computing technology becomes mature enough (projected to be after 2030).

Trade Secrets

UK High Court hears case about copyright infringement of algorithm concerning price saving on airfares

…The point I want to make here is that cases of this nature is likely to increase as AI gets implemented in many more services in the future years.

It isn’t entirely clear whether it is a copyright case, not a trade secret case or both – interested readers should do a further internet search. Spanish start up Trappit says that GBT (JV with AmEx and Private Equity firm) stole the computer code when it demonstrated its system to GBT in relation to discussions about acquiring the business, only then later to back out of it having stolen the software design. GBT said all information disclosed to it is a trade secret.  The defendants say the algorithm is well known.

Interestingly, it is reported that the claimant was assigned the rights and has sued GBT – the assignor (another Trappit company) appears to have a confidentiality agreement with GBT which prohibits it from suing GBT, but the assignee was held not to be bound by it. There may be some drafting errors here.

Voice over IP

Estech – Texas based patent holder sues Toyota and BMW over VoIP patents in Texas

…Look at the titles of the patents to glean the technology: dialing using caller ID, quality of service in a voice over IP telephone system, voice mail in a voice over IP telephone system, phone directory in a voice over IP telephone system.
You get the gist. This isn’t surprising. This sort of technology will determine user experience in EV and homes. Plus, see the next clip.

Amazon says it is moving from e-Commerce to services through devices

…So said Senior Vice President of Devices and Services at Amazon. A lot of the functionalities rely on VoIP.

Alexa – people are using it to control the home without having to reach out the mobile. Alexa is being used to re-order and create lists.

EVs – provision of in-cabin software for Stellantis (owns Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Citroën, Dodge, DS, Fiat, Fiat Professional, Jeep, Lancia, Maserati, Opel, Peugeot, Ram and Vauxhall, and Mopar brands). You can tell the car to drive to the “nearest Starbucks”.

Ringo – home security

Astro Robot – launched in September 2021, it is a household robot. It has been described as Alexa on wheels. It can check whether the hob is turned on, bring drinks to you (but someone will have to load the robot with the drink), check everything is OK in the house, and if not, sound an alarm. Amazon has stated that all data storage and processing will happen locally. Click on the link and see the demo on YouTube.

Fire TV devices – provides more streaming than ever as people are stuck in their homes during the pandemic.

Surgical equipment and implant maker Stryker buys Vocera, a communication service platform and provider in the healthcare space

…Vocera provides among other things hands-free (ie: no need to carry a smart phone) real time voice communication device particularly in the health care sector (although not confined to this sector) allowing users to communicate freely (critical for health professionals and patients) with a platform that enables sharing of information easily. This business was purchased by Stryker. The provision of such services, enabling remote communication is important (i) in the pandemic as everything goes digital, and (ii) when dealing with patients where timing of such communication can be critical, has potential of being very lucrative.

In the Spotlight

What’s going on in the largest tech exhibition, CES (formerly called Consumer Electronics Show)?

…CES is one of the biggest events in the world of tech where leading businesses showcase their technical prowess to the world. It was reported that compared to 2020, this year’s CES businesses in mobility increased by 30%, being approximately 200 companies. Other notable areas included space and crypto assets. Having said this the pandemic have dented the number of companies exhibiting to less than half compared to pre-pandemic numbers, with Amazon, Google, Waymo, Microsoft, Lenovo, GM being notable absentees.

Sony enters EV market

…Though it says it’s just “exploring”. Their prototype Vision S-Sedan unveiled two years ago, has been tested in Europe in 2020. The market understood Sony was wishing to showcase batteries and sensors. The new business will be called Sony Mobility. They might have a massive advantage in the infotainment arena. Sony itself will design the EV, and provide the user experience (image processors, audio, wireless communication, entertainment) whilst manufacturing will be contracted out to Magna Steyr (AT), and car parts to Continental and Bosch (DE).

Qualcomm’s vision in EV

…Qualcomm considers that the EV industry requires the digital chassis which will be the service platform (Snapdragon ride) for EV, dealing with connectivity with the cloud, data analytics, security, ADAS and autonomous driving as well as infotainment. Earlier its partnership with BMW was announced, and now GM, Hyundai Volvo, Renault and Honda. Qualcomm considers that soon, digital experience will become the most important aspect of car ownership with prospects of profiting more from the provision of services than the sales of car themselves. I think that could be said of other types of products and services – see the Stryker/Vocera deal reported above.

Qualcomm has also announced a collaboration with Microsoft to make Next Generation Augmented Reality chips for the Metaverse and for the PC. Qualcomm have the technology related to connectivity and spatial computing. The new chip is designed to enable the creation of power efficient and light AR glasses.

In relation to PCs, as 5G becomes integrated to mobile, there is much more interest in boosting a PC’s connectivity (especially cloud connectivity), portability, AI, Camera, multimedia and power for productivity and entertainment. The latter aspect is important for gaming. Laptops such as Acer, Lenovo, HP contain Qualcomm chips.

Biotech

The biggest thing since recombinant technology, the Elixir of life enabling people to live forever, could take off in 2022

…According to one venture capitalist. The reasons for this is as follows:

Alto Labs – a new anti-ageing company that pursues rejuvenation technology, founded earlier this year by Jeff Bezos and others.

Calico labs – pursuing the same, backed by Google co-founder Larry Page, and partnered with AbbVie.

NewLimit – again, pursing the same, founded this month by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and others.

All based on Nobel-prize winning Prof Yamanaka’s discovery that the addition of four proteins (called Yamanaka factors) can make a cell act like stem cells (iPS –induced pluripotent stem cells).

Big Tech

Polish Competition Authority to challenge Apple’s decision to enable users to prevent tracking as anticompetitive

…The issue is only Apple will be able to tap into users’ data leaving third party digital advertisers unable to efficiently carry out targeted advertising.

UK Competition and Markets Authority frowns on Apple/Google duopoly in the mobile market ecosystem in its 445 page report

…The CMA considers that the two tech giants have wielded its power anticompetitively to create closed ecosystems by way of owning operating systems, digital marketplaces, and preinstalled applications on the smartphones. It will consult on its findings and collect responses in February next year, with the final report planned to be published in June. 

FTC Chair Lina Khan expresses concern about provision of payment systems by BigTech

…BigTech critic Lina Khan makes the following points in her letter concerning the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s investigation into payment services provided by Big Tech (eg. Apple Pay etc)

• It could extend further their already dominant market positions by having privileged access to “hyper-granular” data and AI enabling them to wield anticompetitive power

• Advantages gained in marketing activities owing to better targeting / personalizing ability

• Get users to use their products and services over third party’s resulting in market expansion, and access to even more data

• Ability to create alternative credit scoring models for loaning services, combined with lack of transparency, fairness (including algorithmic bias) [see Delving Deeper, on what Tesla’s doing below]

• Their algorithm use enables discrimination, bias and opacity [see more on Delving Deeper section below too]

• Concentrates risk and single point of failure (especially with their co-mingled roles such as payment and authentication providers).

• Power to ban users from services in arbitrary ways

Data

Virginia and Colorado follows California to protect consumer data

…California Privacy Rights Act which will come into force in 2023 enables consumers the right to veto the sale of and sharing of their data to third parties. Virginia and Colorado has announced similar law which will come into play also 2023. Other rights include rights of access, correction, deletion, data portability and protections for sensitive data. This is all very similar to EU data laws.

Apple aims to gain revenue by buying Google ads for 3^rd party premium apps

…What does this mean? For example Apple might purchase an ad for Tinder (a premium app with high in-app purchases) on Google. Users will click on that link instead of perhaps an ad purchased by Tinder itself. Apple can then enjoy its 30% commission on in-app purchases by users who downloads Tinder through the App store (which the ad leads you to), not Tinder’s own website. It can thereby undercut Tinder, plus Tinder doesn’t get to access its subscriber’s data – that is kept by Apple on privacy grounds. Moreover, Tinder will have to pay more to beat Apple’s Google ad. Google policy says that “The ad’s landing page is primarily dedicated to selling (or clearly facilitating the sale of) products or services, components, replacement parts, or compatible products or services corresponding to the trademark” –so Apple can purchase ads for third party products and services in accordance to the Google policy.

On a similar theme, you may recall that Apple has been ordered not to prohibit developers from steering users away from the App store (ie: anti-anti-steering injunction) [order currently stayed] in the case Epic v. Apple. I have never heard of anti-anti-steering injunctions before but this possibility has been raised in other types of cases such as:

• U.S. v. Charlotte Mecklenburg Hospital Authority d/b/a Carolinas Healthcare System – where US Department of Justice claimed that the practice of healthcare provider defendant preventing healthcare insurers from persuading users to go to cheaper hospitals was anticompetitive. This case has settled.

• Ohio v. American Express – where AmEx prevented merchants from persuading customers to use cheaper credit cards, such as Visa. Plaintiff complained it was anti-competitive but failed in its case because it failed to meet the burden of proof.

Meta sues HK Social Data Trading (but allegedly bank-rolled by Russian individuals) for scraping data off Instagram

…This seems very close to the HiQ v LinkedIn saga in the US – in which HiQ had been data scraping public data from LinkedIn to let employers know which employees are likely to be wanting to leave firms. This case is still trundling on. It is very likely that cases like this will continue – with interesting jurisdictional issues.

The Complaint alleges that the Defendant used automated Instagram accounts and a network of computers or “bots,” which pretended to be mobile Android devices connected to the official Instagram app, to scrape publicly viewable profiles of Instagram users, including the username, profile photo, number of followers, posts, and likes, and information about their followers, including gender, language, and location and sold off “in-depth insights into the demographics and psychographics of influencers and their audiences”.

Want to know about a particular person you follow Instagram? Type in their username and the Defendant will provide you a report. Instagram complains that this is unlawful.

Causes of action are breach of contract, California Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act.

Software

Widely used open source software Apache Log4j has weakness which has been targeted

…The weakness enables hackers to upload and take control of a server – Apache software has been installed in almost one third of web servers globally. Cloud products from tech giants are affected, as well as defence system of Belgium. Apache Log4j enables apps to collect information on how people use the apps.

HSBC fined £64m by FCA because their automated money laundering processes were inadequate

…They failed to

• Carry out timely assessments of new scenarios
• Appropriately test and adjust parameters
• Check the quality of data input into the processes

Note that, in the case of automation, mishaps will be systematically repeated until it gets spotted, whereas human errors failing to identify fraudulent activities tend to arise on an ad hoc basis. Thus critical to have systems in place to spot issues in the software processes asap.

EVs and Auto generally

Ford and Rivian no longer working together

…Rivian’s opening market value was way over $100 billion –without producing a single EV for market consumption. The share price has now reduced considerably, partly because they have failed to produce as many EVs as they said they would. Now Ford, a major rival and shareholder of Rivian has announced it is no longer working together to make future EVs (here, trucks) jointly. Ford will retain the shareholding for the time being though. Ford’s main profit centre is the trucks business with the traditional auto division not making much by way of profits. Analysts have said it makes sense to focus on making its own EV trucks rather than spending the resources on joint development with Rivian.

NPE sues Toyota, Blackberry and Subaru for infringing patent concerning process for retrieving automatic software updates in electronic systems

…The Claim, which is initiated in the Eastern District of Texas by Liberty Patents (which may possibly be some relation to Intellectual Ventures), seeks an injunction. This sort of claim where the patent covers the software upgrade system is bound to rise….

The EV with $4,500 price tag

…That’s right. I haven’t just dropped a zero. Any guesses for how this auto company does it? The line is profitable, and not even reliant on subsidies.

It’s the cost of a Hongguang Mini EV, courtesy of GM backed SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile of China. And it’s outselling Tesla’s Model 3 in China. There is no magic in it though, just pure business logic:

• Lack of regenerative breaking system – this adds to the cost of EVs and reduces the EV range (the distance it can travel with one charge). But it’s perfectly adequate for a short run around.

• No cooling system – this cuts down the cost but reduces the lifespan of the semiconductor and other electrical components. But that’s OK because the auto maker has made it easy to replace them.

• Use of off the shelf components rather than EV specialised components – it’ll do, it considers, because it passes the performance test.

Metaverse/NFT

Nike buys premier metaverse fashion brand RTFKT [Artifact] NFT collectibles studio

…This follows Adidas’ partnership with Bored Apes Yacht club [NFTs of bored looking apes, trading for enormous amounts]. RTFKT is reported to have previously collaborated with Bored Apes to make physical shoes.

It’s a good branding strategy, Nike gets to embody a cutting edge image. No doubt other brands are already poised to jump in if they have not already done so. There are those that are sitting on the fence, such as Hermes who states that it values the “tangible expression of handcrafted physical objects” – see here an article on an artist Mason Rothschild who created Birkin NFTs, complaining of knock-off material that appears to have flooded the market, which then in turn attracted a complaint from Hermes). I guess Hermes and Nike will have different brand strategies with different client bases. The issue will be whether Rothchild’s pieces of work can be considered as art and so protected by the First Amendment (Freedom of Speech).

A comment that has been made is that NFTs can help lower entry points for luxury goods for those who can’t afford it. Can’t afford a Chanel bag? Well maybe you can afford to buy your avatar one. Mind you is that really true when physical objects can be often actually cheaper than the virtual price?

NFT hits the wine world

…[Slightly old news] Back in September the first all NFT wine brand, Hello Fam was launched. One Hello Fam Grape Fam NFT is equal to one 6 bottle case of wine. Apparently the cases of wines in this instance are not all equal, so there is an element of gambling; you could end up with a very valuable case. Each case is registered for authenticity on a blockchain. Once bought, it will not be delivered to you immediately, but stored in appropriate conditions – hence wine trade is ripe for NFTs – until you decide to sell your NFT (preferably at a higher price), or consume it, by redeeming, or “burning” your NFT (meaning you sort of delete it so that the NFT can no longer be traded on). Never knew you could go from NFT world to the physical world by this burning process…

Privacy

End to end encryption (E2EE) – should it be mandated?

…Should end to end encryption be mandated? It’s a Privacy vs Safety debate.

The Yes Camp:

• Confers privacy to users.
• Protects users from cybercriminals hacking into the messages
• Businesses that host the platforms cannot abuse data by using it in a way which is not consented to.

The No Camp:

• Surveillance necessary to prevent crimes such as child abuse and other online harms.
• Safeguarding against terrorism

Meta has said it will delay implementing E2EE except WhatsApp has E2EE by default– but WhatsApp itself has been criticised for allowing moderators to check the content of messages flagged as being abusive.

Online Harms Bill imposes a duty on social media firms to protect users from harm (by taking down harmful content such as hate speech). This will inevitably require social media firms to scan content. Breach can result in penalty amounting to maximum 10% of annual turnover plus criminal liability for executives of social media firms. The Bill has been criticised as undermining security. 

Digital Health

Hunt for data continues as Microsoft poised to buy Nuance a healthcare service provider

…Microsoft has been cleared by the EU Commission to buy Nuance, from the perspectives of transcription software, cloud services and PC operating systems markets. The Commission said healthcare transcription service providers are not particularly important users of cloud computing services.

Nuance specialises in speech recognition and transcription services for clinics and its product is used in 77% of US hospitals (as well as by a majority of physicians and radiologists in the US).

…and Oracle to buy Medical Records company Cerner

…The Digital Health sector is on the cusp of taking off. Due to sensitivity of patient information, sheer volume, lack of interoperability (ie: formats of information are not uniform, and there are different types of files such as PDFs, other files, doctor’s notes, X-ray images etc), digitalisation of health records has not been easy. It takes a business that can process digital information to execute. In steps Oracle – it aims to use the Cerner business as a stepping stone into the digital health business.

Cerner’s health record system will run on Oracle database to which medical professionals can have access but not the IT profession which operate the system, it is said. Subject to regulatory approvals.

mRNA x AI

Moderna to collaborate with AI driven CRIPR gene editing company Metagenomi

…Moderna of mRNA Covid vaccine fame, has entered into an R&D collaboration agreement with Metagenomi, which boasts AI-based cloud computing technology which identifies and improves natural enzyme systems for gene editing to cure serious genetic diseases. 

Baidu (Chinese answer to Google) licences its algorithm for mRNA to Sanofi for designing vaccines

…Baidu’s algorithms are designed to identify optimised mRNA sequences for tackling targeted diseases. 

Trade Secret Litigation

AbbVie sues Teva and Alvotech for trade secret misappropriation via its former employee and asks ITC to block the import of their biosimilar equivalent of Humira

…AbbVie claims that Alvotech directed AbbVie employee to provide it with proprietary information before leaving AbbVie for Alvotech. 

Bonus News

Japanese Billionaire Yousuck MZ [real name Yusaku Maezawa] delivers Uber Eats in Space

…He didn’t make the 30mins delivery target though. Enjoy the clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiJKfuJlF30

Headline of the Week

The UK Government hosts the Inaugral Future Tech Forum

…[Hosted two weeks ago or so]. This was a closed-door forum, which included Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition commissioner, Lina Khan, chair of the US Federal Trade Commission, and Andrea Coscelli, chief executive of the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority alongside representatives from other countries from the “Republic of Korea to Kenya, Finland and the United States”. In her speech, Digital Secretary Nadine Dorries acknowledged that the entire infrastructure of the global economy – and modern society – is now built around tech, which can do good as well as harm. It was this reason that we needed to get the governance of tech right from the start, rather than playing catch-up, including at the international level with like-minded partners.

She considered that the UK is leading the way [not entirely sure how diplomatic it is…or how true…], and mentioned tie ups that UK have brokered or in the process of brokering:

• Online Safety Bill (creates duty of care between social media companies and users giving rise to as duty to remove harmful content) – it was claimed that the bill went further than any other country to regulate Facebook, Twitter and TikTok [but this is only at the Bill stage, and critics are concerned with freedom of speech, over-policing, and how the rules will be applied]

• 10-year plan to become a global AI superpower, through our National AI Strategy [anyone can make a plan – the crunch is, whether there is enough budget and can it be executed effectively]

• pro-competition Digital Markets Unit

• Digital Trade Network – UK tech companies are given support to expand into Asia Pacific [unclear how effective this is – it appears to be about brokering connections]

• negotiating a “ground-breaking” Digital Economy Agreement with Singapore [not entirely sure how much negotiation space the UK has if we have to preserve EU adequacy status]

Four themes were raised:

• Tech is critical for tackling major challenges such as climate change and the pandemic. However, there is a digital divide within the population, between those who have access to tech and those that do not – even in richer countries.

• Distrust of tech is problematic, borne out by concentration of power in the largest tech companies, spread of misinformation, erosion of privacy and algorithmic bias.

• Necessity of cross-border regulation

• Need to anticipate issues and implement measures, so that we are not playing catch-up.

Big Tech

Facebook hit with allegation that it is responsible for facilitating the genocide of Rohingya muslims

…The claim was issued in the UK, and Facebook has been on notice that it is about to be sued in the US. Facebook’s algorithms is said to be programmed to increase hatred against the Rohingya muslims.  In response, Meta has removed some relevant pages.

Complaint before the US Federal Trade Commision against Amazon for unfair practices

…The Strategic Organizing Center has complained that Amazon’s e-commerce platform is not transparent enough as it is not clear why some hits are placed higher up the on the search result. Sponsored offerings should be clearly labelled, it states. Similar sort of principles are proposed by the European Commission for its Digital Services Act.

Apple succeeds against Epic in staying injunction against anti-steering measures allowing Apple to continue prohibiting App downloads via third party sources

…Following a claim by Epic accusing Apple of acting anti-competitively by among other things, placing measures in its App Store that prohibit third party developers from offering Apps to iPhone users without going through the Apple’s App Store, the District Court held that such conduct breached Californian unfair competition law. Apple has appealed, and asked the Federal Circuit to stay the injunction prohibiting Apple from placing anti-steering measures. Federal Circuit agreed, apprehending irreparable harm to Apple pending appeal. Apple had said that the anti-steering measures were necessary to enable Apple to maintain a high privacy and security environment for iPhone users. 

Meta’s proposed purchase Kustomer, a customer service management provider is scrutinised by the German Competition Authority

…The main concerns are (i) the possibility that Meta will be able to block Kustomer’s customers from using mainstream communication channels such as Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp and (ii) further data advantage which the merger may confer Meta. Both German and EU investigators are assessing the merger, whilst the UK Competition and Market Authority has given the transaction a green light.

Facebook (now Meta) successfully acquired Instagram and WhatsApp, which some now consider ought to have been blocked, on the account of sheer volume of data Facebook was able to access and amass. The US federal and state enforcers are seeking to unwind these deals, years after the merger.

Uber loses UK High Court case which held that its business model was unlawful

…Uber argued that it was a mere booking agent, and booking acceptances were contracts between the driver and passenger – to limit its liability. This claim was rejected with the High Court holding that “in order to operate lawfully under the Private Hire Vehicles (London) Act 1998 a licensed operator who accepts a booking from a passenger is required to enter as principal into a contractual obligation with the passenger to provide the journey which is the subject of the booking”. It means drivers will have workers’ rights protections, increasing liability for Uber and creating tax burdens.

Uber fares will inevitably go up.

Workers for the likes of Uber, Deliveroo complain of AI software determining HR issues (including job allocation, detection of fraud e.g. falsely lengthening the travel time)

…Gig workers have complained that AI software is being used to make decisions about employees without any explanation for the decisions. Deliveroo explains in its privacy policy that manual checks on its service “would simply not be possible in the timeframes and given the volumes of deliveries that we deal with”. Courts on the continent have already fined employers who fail to explain reasons for HR type decisions.

Apple allows app developers to collect data of iPhone users – provided the data is anonymised and aggregated

…It is said that Apple has softened its privacy stance because of the damage it is causing the mobile ad ecosystem. If the apps can’t perform optimally, then it will also have knock on effects on Apple itself, which rely on the commissions it charges the app developers when in-app purchases are made.

Artificial Intelligence

Google to use AI to design semiconductor chips

…[slightly old news which I’ve just picked up] Google can design chips using AI in just 6 hours, which takes humans months. Chip designs are all about working out the most computationally efficient layout (out of over 10 to the power of 2500 [that’s 1 with 25 zeros] permutations) of components on a nanometer scale, on a silicon die.

It uses an AI training method known as Reinforcement Learning, very much based on trial and error iterations (rather than finding patterns in a data) – it’s what Deepmind’s AI did to formulate its AlphaGo, the AI which beat a human professional Go player.

Auto

Intel says it will spin out Mobileye

…Intel will retain majority shareholding.

Mobileye (originally Isareli company bought by Intel), is sitting on major assets such as:

• Silicon Systems Software
• Mapping Software + Major data repository, being high resolution digital representation of roads to enable cars to navigate (10 million miles of data uploaded every day – cars are being driven from many locations across the globe).
• ADAS (Advanced driver-assistance systems)

According to CEO Amnon Shashua (interview by CNBC):

What is key to autonomous vehicles?: Cloud Connectivity is key (i) to update Cars over the air (OTA), very much like updating smartphones and (ii) for piecing together detailed map of surroundings of the car.

What are the big challenges for Mobileye? There are two, (i) Scalability – the cars will be camera centric, which will work tougher with specialised sensors, and Mobileye is designing an autonomous vehicle focused system on chip to achieve scalability and (ii) Regulatory – this is in progress.

How do you see the future for Autonomous vehicles? It is difficult to predict. Either (i) there will be Robo taxis, self-driving cars will be used by passengers and with proven safety records and low cost per mile, cities may prohibit the use of legacy cars OR (ii) consumers will hold on to their cars, but they will be autonomous.

Green Agenda

Amazon, BASF and others sign Power Purchase Agreements with Off-shore wind and other renewable energy companies

…BASF has signed a 25 year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Orsted, the offshore wind farm operator. The term is much longer than usual (usually 10 years at longest)– clearly BASF is betting on prices rocketing in the future and decided to bank on an early bird deal.

https://www.basf.com/global/en/media/news-releases/2021/11/p-21-369.html

Amazon signs PPA with Mitsubishi for wind and solar energy supply

https://www.energyglobal.com/solar/08092021/amazon-and-mitsubishi-corporation-sign-solar-ppa-in-japan/

Others PPAs include Toyota (solar), Tata (solar), P&G (wind and solar), DuPont (wind)

Apple aims for 2030 carbon neutral goal

Apple is already carbon neutral across its global operations, but by 2030 it says its products will achieve net-zero, which involves its suppliers promising to use clean energy.

Space

Elon Musk left free to make rules for Space warns European Space Agency

…Some info about Starlink:

What is Starlink?: A Satellite internet constellation operated by SpaceX [one of Musk’s companies. I mistakenly thought Starlink was the name of another of Musk’s companies]

Objective: Provide high-speed, low latency internet accessible from all four corners of the earth [but in practice, this is subject to the requisite licences to be issued by relevant jurisdictions].

Number of Starlink Satellites orbiting earth right now: about 1600

Projected number of total Starlink Satellites: about 12,000

Any clever facts?: It is designed to autonomously avoid collisions based on tracking data.

Other partners? : SpaceX has contracts with Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform to provide the on-ground networking services.

What’s the problem?: There are 90 or so other businesses such as Amazon’s Project Kuiper, which want to launch satellites in the Low Earth Orbit (defined to be between 150-2000km), but there is no international practice or standards to ensure everybody operates responsibly in space (such as who clears up the space rubbish).

European Space Agency calls for the putting in place of international standards now. 

IP Infringement

e-cigarette maker Juul tackles importation of counterfeit vape cartridges in the US

…Juul has successfully prevented importation of counterfeit vape cartridges especially to prevent damage to youths, by filing a number of actions against counterfeit dealers before the ITC on the grounds of patent and design patent infringement. Juul has confirmed many dealers settled once action filed, injunctions have been ordered against those in default.  In the latest case, the judge had recommended an exclusion order blocking infringing imports against all importers, not just against identified infringers. This is wide ranging and would have been significant but the ITC announced it will be reviewing whether Juul has a domestic industry which needs to be protected. 

In the Spotlight

EU Commission publishes summary of public consultation in relation to the planned Data Act

…Herewith a summary of the summary report of EU Commission’s consultation.

Why is it worth your attention?

It gives a birdseye snapshot on

• what data businesses companies are carrying out [did you know so much dealing in data was happening?]
• what businesses are doing with the data and
• what are the issues and
• what technical facilities and tools are relied upon

The Summary

The EU Commission’s planned Data Act aims to ensure fairness in the allocation of data value among actors in the data economy and to foster access to and use of data. The Act will not alter data protection legislation and will seek to preserve incentives in data generation.

Some interesting findings [very subjective – please review the summary]

With respect to Business –to- Government (B2G) data sharing

• Level of compensation for a business sharing data with public bodies should depend on the specific use-case (55% of the stakeholders).

• Data security measures is important: protection of commercially sensitive data (85% of the respondents to this section) and transparent reporting on how the authority has used the data (79%)

Business-to-Business (B2B) data sharing

• Much data sharing going on in the private sector:

• companies (91%) share data  
  • ‘many times’ (86% )
  • either on voluntary basis (44%) or both on a mandatory and voluntary basis (48%).

• A range of use cases [the last 3 is loosely AI]:

• design innovative products and services (44%),
  • optimise the supply chain (31%),
  • training algorithms for Artificial Intelligence (29%),
  • predictive maintenance (26%)

• A range of obstacles [most of it appears to be stemming from market forces]:
  • technical (formats, lack of standards) (69%),
  • legal (i.e. refusal to grant access not linked to competition concerns) (55%),
  • the lack of a legal basis for the data holder to give access to data (48%)  
  • abuse of contractual imbalance (44%)
  • unreasonable prices (42%).  

• Contractual issues – the following thought to encourage data sharing

• model contract terms (60%, agree, 14% disagree).
  • a contractual fairness test to avoid unilateral unfair conditions (46% agree, 21% disagree).
  • horizontal data access modalities applicable to data access rights established in specific sectors (46% agree, 19% disagree).

• View on Smart contracts  – do you think it’s an effective tool to facilitate data transfer/access?

• yes, to use in the context of co-generated IoT data, in particular where the transfer is not only one-off but would involve some form of continuous data sharing (79% in support)
  • yes, when individuals request data portability from businesses, (66% in support)

• IoT data originating from professional use [does this mean non-consumer data?]

• Yes, plans to, or already uses IoT objects (55%)
  • Data coming from IoT objects may represent new challenges for market fairness, especially when access to relevant information about the functioning and performance is held by the manufacturer of such objects (70%)
  • Business organisations in particular see many problems with IoT contracts, such as lack of clarity in terms of data access rights

• Data portability right under Article 20 GDPR – who should control, and what are the issues? (The right to data portability allows individuals to obtain and reuse their personal data for their own purposes across different services – example, user on Facebook may import contacts from Google’s Gmail email service)

• manufacturers of connected objects should not be able to decide unilaterally what happens to the data generated by such objects (70%)
  • decisions should be taken by the owners/ users of the objects (68%)
  • Need standards ensuring data interoperability is an issue (38%)
  • Need clearer rules on data types in scope (33%)
  • Need universally used identification/ authentication methods to secure the request (31%)

• Survey on Intellectual Property – which IP Rights are relied upon?

• Trade secrets (45%)
  • Contractual terms (45%)
  • IP Rights  [Copyright? Database right? Unclear] (31%)
  • Technical means (31%)
  • [Probably in reality all of them are relied upon]
  • Database rights need to be reviewed, in particular in relation to the status of machine-generated data (54%)

• Cloud services and non-personal data in international contexts – what are the issues?
  • Need to establish a right to portability for business users of cloud computing services in EU legislation (52% agree, 19% disagree)
  • Lack of standard APIs, open standards and interoperable data formats, timeframes and potentially other technical elements (51% agree, 16% disagree)
  • Potential access to data by foreign authorities on the basis of foreign legislation as a risk to their organisation (76% agree, 0.4% disagree)