1/8. Clearwire announced in a release that "it has received an unsolicited, non-binding proposal" from the Dish Network Corporation.

Clearwire, which is based in Bellevue, Washington, provides broadband wireless internet access. Dish provides video programming via satellite.

Clearwire elaborated that Dish's proposal "provides for DISH to purchase certain spectrum assets from Clearwire, enter into a commercial agreement with Clearwire, acquire up to all of Clearwire's common stock for $3.30 per share (subject to minimum ownership of at least 25% and granting of certain governance rights) and provide Clearwire with financing on specified terms." (Parentheses in original.)

Clearwire added that "The DISH Proposal is only a preliminary indication of interest and is subject to numerous, material uncertainties and conditions, including the negotiation of multiple contractual arrangements being requested by DISH (some of which, as currently proposed, may not be permitted under the terms of Clearwire's current legal and contractual obligations). It is also subject to regulatory approval." (Parentheses in original.)

The Dish Network Corporation announced in a release that "it has formally approached Clearwire Corporation with respect to a potential strategic transaction on terms as generally outlined in the Clearwire release, including an offer to purchase all of the Clearwire common shares at $3.30."

Back on December 17, 2012, Sprint announced in a release that it "has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the approximately 50 percent stake in Clearwire ... it does not currently own for $2.97 per share, equating to a total payment to Clearwire shareholders, other than Sprint, of $2.2 billion." See also, Clearwire release of December 17.

1/4. On December 20, 2012, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) yet again extended deadline for states to come into compliance with the state identification process requirements imposed by the REAL ID Act. Nominally, the deadline had been January 15, 2013. Also, the 112th Congress adjourned without revising the REAL ID Act.

The Congress enacted this widely disregarded mandate back in 2005 in an attempt to impose federal control over the state identification document process, and to mandate state electronic databases and data sharing.

This expensive mandate is largely unfunded by the federal government, unwanted by many voters, and hence, unfulfilled by most states.

The DHS stated in a release that "Beginning January 15, 2013, those states not found to meet the standards will receive a temporary deferment that will allow Federal agencies to continue to accept their licenses and identification cards for boarding commercial aircraft and other official purposes."

The DHS added that "develop a schedule for the phased enforcement of the Act's statutory prohibitions to ensure that residents of all states are treated in a fair manner. DHS expects to publish a schedule by early fall 2013 and begin implementation at a suitable date thereafter. Until the schedule is implemented, Federal agencies may continue to accept for official purposes driver's licenses and identity cards issued by all states."

The DHS has set no new deadline for compliance.

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), the current Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee (HJC), stated in a release that "The Administration should not prolong REAL ID implementation. By doing so, they disregard the law of the land."

Rep. Smith, however, has little cause to be shocked by state and DHS disregard for the REAL ID Act.

First, the enactment of the REAL ID Act demonstrates that Congressional leaders, by manipulating agendas, can alter legislative outcomes. Since Kenneth Arrow first published his Social Choice and Individual Values in 1951 economists and game theorists have been writing theoretically about this.

Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), the architect of the enactment of this Act, manipulated the agenda masterfully. He sponsored the original bill, HR 418 (109th Congress), the "REAL ID Act of 2005". But, it was not going to be enacted into law as a stone alone bill. So, HR 418 was added to HR 1268 (109th Congress), an emergency supplemental defense and anti-terrorism appropriations bill, that also included additional funding for the FBI, DEA, and other agencies. Many members of the House and Senate voted for this bill because of the defense appropriations, and in spite of the REAL ID Act.

President Bush signed HR 1268 (109th) on May 11, 2005. It is now Public Law 109-13. See, Sections 201-207 of Title B.

Second, while scope of the federal legislative power is broad, under the US system of separation of powers -- both between legislative, executive, judicial, and regulatory bodies, and between the federal government and the multitude of state governments -- the power of the legislature to see its laws put into effect is minimal. Without the assistance of other governmental bodies, the power of the Congress is reduced to merely adding words to the U.S. Code.

Rep. Sensenbrenner and Rep. Smith were successful in adding words. They have not succeeded in implementation.

While the REAL ID Act was enacted as part of an appropriations bill, it did not appropriate funds necessary to reimburse the states for the cost of implementing the standards contained in the Act. That is, it is an unfunded mandate. The federal government has provided some grants to states, but these provide only a small fraction of the actual cost of coming into compliance with the Act.

Rep. Sensenbrenner, the architect of the enactment of the Act, complained in a release that "Earlier this year, the Administration testified before a Judiciary Subcommittee hearing that DHS would not delay the deadline for states to comply with REAL ID." See, story titled "House Judiciary Subcommittee Holds Hearing on REAL ID Act" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,352, March 21, 2012.

He continued that "I am disappointed and extremely concerned that the Obama Administration will not be honoring that commitment. This is a dangerous reversal. The Administration is not taking seriously the security risk of delaying REAL ID implementation further."

Rep. Sensenbrenner added that "Every step of the way, the Administration has stonewalled implementation of this critical national security law. They have not given states necessary and timely guidance, encouraging states not to comply with delay after delay. This is the fourth time DHS delayed implementation of something the 9/11 Commission said was critical to preventing another terrorist attack. The 9/11 hijackers had at least 30 pieces of identification on them. We need the Administration to implement the law and fulfill the 9/11 Commission's recommendations."

The Obama administration and DHS have reasons not to try to compel states to enforce the statute. Realistically, this would mean directing the federal government not to recognize non-compliant identification. For example, the Obama administration could tell citizens of entire states that they lack sufficient identification to board an aircraft. But, the administration does not wish to incur the consequences of such a decision.

On September 21, 2012, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report [47 pages in PDF] titled "Drivers License Security: Federal Leadership Needed to Address Remaining Vulnerabilities".

On January 28, 2013 at 11:00 AM the Heritage Foundation (HF) will host a panel discussion titled "REAL ID Realities: Perspectives on the Future of the REAL ID Program". The speakers will be Jennifer Cohan (Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles), Lori Rectanus (GAO), Andrew Meehan (Coalition for A Secure Driver’s License), and Jessica Zuckerman (HF). See, notice.

1/4. The Department of Labor's (DOL) Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released employment data for the U.S. for the month of December 2012.

The BLS stated in a release that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the US in December was 7.8%. It stated that this is unchanged from November.

Actually, one month ago the BLS reported that the November unemployment rate was 7.7%. It then revised that up to 7.8%.

Data for employment by industry sector shows that employment decreased in most tech sectors. One exception was in the category of "Computer systems design & related services", which continued its job growth trend.

BLS Table A-1, which is based on household surveys, shows that the seasonally adjusted total labor force grew from 155,319,000 to 155,511,000, an increase of 192,000. The labor force participation rate remained constant at 63.6%. This same table shows that total employment grew from 143,277,000 to 143,305,000, an increase of 28,000. The BLS reported that total unemployment increased from 12,042,000 to 12,206,000, an increase of 164,000 unemployed people.

Using these numbers, the unemployment rate, calculated out to two more digits, rose from 7.753% to 7.849%. The BLS rounds to the nearest one tenth of one percent. However, without this rounding, unemployment rose by almost a tenth a one percent in December.

BLS Table B-1, which is based upon business surveys, reveals employment trends in various industry sectors, including information and communications technology (ICT) sectors. The BLS's categories do not facilitate precise analysis of trends in ICT. Nevertheless, the data set out in the table below contains ICT related categories. (This table also includes legal services because most of the subscribers to TLJ are lawyers.)

The table below contains ICT related excerpts from the BLS table titled "Table B-1. Employees on nonfarm payrolls by industry sector and selected industry detail". This is the seasonally adjusted data.

1/4. This commentary piece explains the unemployment rate and participation rate, and recites their recent trends. While far more attention is focused on the unemployment rate, this piece argues that the participation rate now warrants notice. It is in a steep decline.

This piece also argues that this could impact technology related policy making. In particular, there is a large and growing number able bodied trained workers who no longer have jobs, and are not longer looking for jobs. They now longer count in calculating the unemployment rate, but they still vote. Politicians may seek their support by casting blame for their lack of employment on foreign competition. This may result in policies that undermine free trade, and the free flow of services, capital, data, and tech workers. This would harm tech companies and consumers both in and outside of the US.

Most of the attention to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) employment data is focused on the unemployment rate. In December it was 7.8%. In December of 2011 is was 8.5%. In December of 2010 it was 9.3%. In December of 2009 it was 9.9%. It was at a low point of 4.4% for several months in 2006 and 2007.

The participation rate in December was 63.6%. It has dropped precipitously from 66.2% in the last four years. The unemployment rate peaked at 10% in October of 2009. In contrast, the participation continues its steady decline. The participation rate had remained very close to just over 66% from mid 2003 through mid 2008.

See, TLJ table titled "U.S. Civilian Labor Force Participation Rate:January 2001 through December 2012: Seasonally Adjusted".

The unemployment rate is the ratio of the number of persons who are in the labor force, but cannot find employment, to the number of persons in the labor force. If persons loose their employment, but remain in the labor force, then the unemployment rate increases. But, if these same people are later counted as being outside the labor force, the unemployment rate decreases.

In December of 2012, the BLS reported that there were 244,350,000 persons in the civilian noninstitutional population, and 155,511,000 in the labor force. Dividing 155,511,000 by 244,350,000 produces the participation rate of 63.6% (which the BLS just reported).

BLS definitions provide that "The civilian noninstitutional population consists of persons 16 years of age and older residing in the 50 States and the District of Columbia who are not inmates of institutions (for example, penal and mental facilities and homes for the aged) and who are not on active duty in the Armed Forces." (Parentheses in original.)

If one were to assume that the participation rate remains at 66.2% (which is about the rate that the BLS had been reporting for years up through mid 2008), then 66.2% of 244,350,000 (the civilian noninstitutional population in December of 2012) would produce a civilian labor force estimate of 161,759,700. This is 6,248,700 higher than the BLS's reported figure for the civilian labor force, 155,511,000. That is, this is about 6 million people without jobs, but who are not longer being counted as unemployed. Many of these people have searched for work, but given up in frustration. Some have resigned themselves to premature retirement.

143,305,000 (total employment in December of 2012) divided by 161,759,700 (adjusted civilian labor force in December of 2012 using a 66.2% participation rate) produces an employment rate of 88.59%, and hence, an unemployment rate of 11.41%. This is, of course, substantially larger than the 7.8% unemployment rate reported by the BLS.

There also exists the argument that the decrease in the participation rate is not due to changes in BLS accounting procedures, or weakening labor demand in the US, but rather it is a natural consequence of demographic changes in the US. Under this argument the participation rate is declining because the work force is getting older, and older people do not work as much. That is, an increasing percentage of the work aged people are in age categories for which the participation rate is lower. This is a reference to baby boomers reaching their 50s and 60s.

The participation rate was around 59% from the late 1940s through the early 1960s. It then grew for over three decades, as women entered the work force. However, this monumental labor demographic shift only caused the participation rate to grow by 8 percentage points in over 30 years. The participation rate has dropped by 2 1/2 percentage points in just 4 years. This suggests something more than variations in the birth rate is causing the drop in the participation rate -- namely, decreasing demand for labor in the US.

See also, TLJ table titled "U.S. Civilian Labor Force Participation Rate: January 1948 through December 2012: Seasonally Adjusted".

Also, historical data shows that decreasing participation in the labor force does not naturally follow during and after recessions. For all but three of the recessions since 1948, the participation rate held steady or increased during recessions. This held for the four recessions of the 1970s and 1980s. Moreover, after these recessions, the participation rate then grew.

The 1990 recession marked a change. The participation rate dropped during that recession. However, it resumed its growth afterwards. With the 2001 recession, the rate dropped during the recession, and then continued to drop for several years afterwards. This bears out the popular understanding of the years after that recession as a jobless recovery. The unemployment rate dropped, in significant part, because people left the workforce.

The most recent recession follows the same pattern, but in much greater magnitude. The participation rate dropped by about one percentage point in the 2001 recession and its aftermath. The rate has already dropped 2 1/2 percentage points for the most recent recession. Moreover, it could continue to drop much further.

A few have suggested that the BLS may be adjusting its data collection and analysis methods to bring down the unemployment rate, for political reasons. However, the BLS and other federal government units that collect economic data, such as those in the Federal Reserve System and the Department of Commerce, enjoy reputations among economists for objective and non-partisan work.

It might be noted though that the BLS has engaged in policy driven fact finding in at least two areas during the Obama administration. Although, both of these are minor, and lie outside its core responsibilities. First, the BLS has been reclassifying jobs as green jobs, without cause, in order to enable the Obama administration to claim that it is fulfilling campaign promises to create green jobs. The BLS has also played politics with data on disability employment. The Congress enacted the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, in part, to increase employment of disabled persons. However, during the 1990s, economists published research papers in peer reviewed economics journals that reported the results of econometric analysis of employment and disability employment data collected by government agencies. The papers demonstrated that the ADA had caused a decrease in disability employment. The BLS asserted (during the Bush administration) with little basis that those studies were wrong. It basically disavowed the government's own survey results regarding disability status.

However, for the purposes of this commentary, it is not important to determine how consistent, or how objective, the BLS has been in calculating the unemployment rate and the participation rate.

Regardless of how the BLS classifies people, the fact remains that there is a huge body of people who are able bodied, mentally fit, educated and trained, who want to be working, but are not. Also, while the BLS has the power to shift these people outside of the workforce for its counting purposes, it does not have the power to remove these people from voter registration roles, or to preclude them from participating in political processes. Without the commitments of employment, these people have plenty of time to vote in every primary and general election, and participate in more time consuming political activities.

There are millions of persons whose jobless state does not add to the BLS calculation of unemployment rate. Nevertheless, they may be living under reduced financial circumstances, and without the non-financial rewards of being part of a work team. They may be living in unwanted retirement, forgoing many things for which they had long planned. These are unwanted and unpleasant outcomes for these people.

There are many psychological and social consequences of creating a increasing large body of such people. Most do not relate to technology related areas of law and policy. However, it is possible that many of these people, and the politicians who represent them, will blame foreign competition and trade for their status.

People who loose jobs, or cannot find jobs, often do not assign responsibility to themselves. Also, government policies may harm labor markets. However, politicians are adept at claiming credit only for things that benefit some, and diverting blame for things that harm others. Politicians looking for votes may look for blamable targets in foreign governments, foreign companies, foreign workers, and US companies that buy, invest, manufacture, outsource, or hire abroad.

The tech sectors are inherently international, and dependant on both imports and foreign sales. Tech companies, and their investors and workers, and consumers of tech goods and services, that are available today, or have yet to be invented, benefit from free trade.

US tech companies, like many farmers and ranchers, and other sectors, urge their elected officials to pursue free trade policies. There have long been groups that argue for closed or protectionist policies. The growth of a huge body of recently employed people, as reflected by the BLS's plummeting participation rate, may result in an increasing chorus for protectionist or anti-trade policies that would harm the IT sectors and consumers.

The House will not meet. It will next meet on January 14.

The Senate will not meet. It will next meet on January 21.

10:30 AM - 12:00 NOON. The Heritage Foundation (HF) and Project 2049 will host an event titled "Security, Alliance, and the Japanese Political Landscape". The keynote speaker will be Motohiro Oono (former Parliamentary Secretary of Defense). The other speakers will be Yoshihide Yoshida (Major General, Ministry of Defense of Japan), Tomohiko Taniguchi (Keio University), Yukio Tada (Sojitz Research Institute), Bruce Klingner (HF), and Randy Shriver (Project 2049). Free. Open to the public. See, notice. Location: HF, 214 Massachusetts Ave., NE.

12:15 - 1:30 PM. Federal Communications Bar Association's (FCBA) Mass Media Committee will host a brown bag lunch titled "Current Legal Issues for Non-Commercial Broadcasters". The speakers will be Lisa Delaney (WETA), Gregory Lewis (National Public Radio), Kate Riley ( Association of Public Television Stations), Todd Gray (Dow Lohnes), and Howard Liberman (Drinker Biddle & Reath). Free. Open to the pubic. No CLE credits. Location: DBR, 1500 K St., NW.

1:00 - 2:30 PM. The American Bar Association (ABA) will host a webcast and teleconferenced panel discussion titled "Trademark Search Strategies in Europe, Latin America, Canada, and the U.S.". The speakers will be Matthias Berger (Harmsen Utescher), Katrin Lewertoff (Arent Fox), John McKeown (Cassels Brock & Blackwell), Mariano Municoy (Moeller IP), and Naresh Kilaru (Finnegan Henderson). Prices vary. CLE credits. See, notice.

9:30 AM. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will hold a prehearing conference in the matter of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Certified Public Accountants Ltd. and BDO China Dahua CPA Co., Ltd., et al., Administrative Proceeding File Nos. 3-14872 and 3-15116. See, story titled "SEC to Hold Prehearing Conference in Cases Against PRC Accounting Firms" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,500, December 31, 2012. Location: SEC, Hearing Room 2, 100 F St., NE.

12:15 - 1:45 PM. The DC Bar Association's Media Law Committee will hold a brown bag lunch meeting. Free. No CLE credits. Closed to reporters. See, notice. For more information, call 202-626-3463. Location: Washington Post, 1150 15th St., NW.

6:00 - 9:15 PM. The DC Bar Association will host a program titled "Introduction to Export Controls". The speakers will be Carol Kalinoski and Thomas Scott (Ladner & Associates). The price to attend ranges from $89 to $129. CLE credits. See, notice. For more information, call 202-626-3488. The DC Bar has a history of barring reporters from its events. Location: DC Bar Conference Center, 1101 K St., NW.

1:00 - 2:30 PM. The American Bar Association (ABA) will host a webcast and teleconferenced panel discussion titled "iPhone and iPad Apps for Lawyers". Prices vary. See, notice.

EXTENDED TO MARCH 10. Deadline to submit comments to the Department of Justice's (DOJ) Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in connection with their joint workshop on December 10, 2012, titled "Patent Assertion Entity Activities". See, notice and agenda.

Supreme Court conference day. See, Supreme Court calendar.

8:30 AM - 12:00 NOON. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will host a roundtable to address the possibility of changing its rules of practice to require the disclosure of real party in interest information during patent prosecution and at certain times post-issuance. See, notice in the Federal Register, Vol. 77, No. 227, November 26, 2012, at Pages 70385-70389. See also, story titled "USPTO to Host Roundtable on Requiring Real Party in Interest Disclosures" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,483, December 5, 2012. Location: USPTO, Madison Auditorium, Madison Building, 600 Dulany Street, Alexandria, VA.

10:30 AM - 3:30 PM. The Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Emergency Access
Advisory Committee will meet. See, notice in the Federal Register, Vol. 78, No. 1, January 2, 2013, at Page 97. Location: FCC, Commission Meeting Room, 445 12th St.,  SW.

12:00 NOON - 1:45 PM. The American Bar Association (ABA) will host a telecast panel discussion titled "The FTC’s Investigation of Google". The speakers will be Thomas Rosch (Federal Trade Commission), Paula Render (Jones Day), Hill Wellford (Bingham McCutchen), Jonathan Jacobson (Wilson Sonsini), Geoffrey Manne (Lewis & Clark Law School), and Gary Reback (Carr & Ferrell). Free. No CLE credits. See, notice.

2:00 - 2:40 PM. The National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC) will meet via conference call. This meeting is open to the public. See, notice in the Federal Register, Vol. 77, No. 244, December 19, 2012, at Page 75182.

The House will meet at 2:00 PM. See, House calendar for 113th Congress, 1st Session.

8:00 AM. There will be a closed event titled "Learn How to Increase Your Blog Traffic by 1000%". The speaker will be Devon Hopkins (Social Driver). This event is open only to members of the National Press Club (NPC). See, notice. For more information, contact Anthony Shop at anthony at socialdriver dot com. Location: NPC, Truman Lounge, 13th Floor, 529 14th St., NW.

12:00 NOON - 1:30 PM. The American Bar Association's (ABA) Section of Antitrust Law will host a teleconferenced panel discussion titled "Selecting and Working with Experts in Antitrust". The speakers will be Jonathan Bowater (Compass Lexecon), Shari Lahlou (Crowell & Moring), Greg Rosston (Stanford University), and Judith Zahid (Zelle Hofmann). Free. No CLE credits. See, notice.

1:00 - 2:30 PM. The American Bar Association (ABA) will host a webcast panel discussion titled "Moving Your Law Practice to the Cloud Safely and Ethically". The speakers will be Natalie Kelly (Georgia State Bar Association), John Simek (Sensei Enterprises), and Daniel Siegel. Prices vary. CLE credits. See, notice.

6:00 - 8:15 PM. The DC Bar Association will host a program titled "The 10 Most Important Cloud Computing Issues". The speakers will be Henry Classen (Computer Sciences Corporation) and Philip Porter (Hogan Lovells). The price to attend ranges from $89 to $129. CLE credits. See, notice. For more information, call 202-626-3488. The DC Bar has a history of barring reporters from its events. Location: DC Bar Conference Center, 1101 K St., NW.

Deadline to submit reply comments to the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (PSHSB) in response to its Public Notice (PN) regarding Next Generation 911 (NG911) services. This PN is DA 12-1831 in PS Docket Nos. 10-255, 11-153, and 12-333. The FCC released it on November 13, 2012.

EXTENDED FROM DECEMBER 17. Extended deadline to submit reply comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) [146 pages in PDF] regarding its program access rules. The FCC adopted and released this item on October 5, 2012. It is FCC 12-123 in MB Docket No. 12-68. See, notice in the Federal Register, Vol. 77, No. 211, October 31, 2012, at Pages 66052-66065, and stories titled "FCC Lets Expire Its Per Se Ban on Exclusive Program Distribution Contracts", "FCC Adopts Report and Order on Program Access Rules", "FCC Adopts NPRM on Case by Case Analysis of Exclusive Contracts", and "Reaction to FCC's Program Access Order" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,460, October 6, 2012. See also, extension notice in the Federal Register, Vol. 77, No. 234, December 5, 2012, at Pages 72295-72296.

Deadline to submit replies to oppositions to Motorola Solutions's petition for reconsideration of the FCC's Report and Order regarding certification and use of Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) technology on certain Part 90 land mobile radio frequencies. This R&O is FCC 12-114 in WT Docket No. 11-69. See also, notice in the Federal Register, Vol. 77, No. 243, December 18, 2012, at Pages 74822-74823.

EXTENDED FROM DECEMBER 24. Extended deadline to submit initial comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) regarding its licensing and operating rules for satellite services. The FCC adopted and released this NPRM on September 28, 2012. It is FCC 12-117 in IB Docket No. 12-267. See, original notice in the Federal Register, Vol. 77, No. 217, November 8, 2012, at Pages 67171-67201. See also, extension notice in the Federal Register, Vol. 77, No. 250, December 31, 2012, at Pages 77001-77002.

The House will meet. See, House calendar for 113th Congress, 1st Session.

10th anniversary of the Supreme Court's opinion in Eldred v. Ashcroft, 537 U.S. 186 (2003). See, story titled "Supreme Court Upholds CTEA in Eldred v. Ashcroft" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 584, January 16, 2003.

Day one of a three day conference hosted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) titled "NIST Cloud Computing and Big Data Forum and Workshop". Free. See, NIST notice and notice in the Federal Register Vol. 77, No. 243, December 18, 2012, at Pages 74829-74830. Location: NIST, Red Auditorium, Administration Building, 100 Bureau Drive, Gaithersburg, MD.

8:00 - 10:00 AM. Broadband Census News LLC will host a panel discussion titled "The President Elect's and Congress' New Broadband Agenda". The speakers will be Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Rep. Lee Terry (R-NE), and David Grossman (Rep. Eshoo's staff). Breakfast will be served. This event is open to the public. The price to attend is $47.12. See, notice and registration page. This event is also sponsored by Comcast, Google, ICF Intl., TIA, and US Telecom. Location: Clyde's of Gallery Place, 707 7th St., NW.

12:00 NOON - 1:15 PM. The American Bar Association (ABA) will host an on site and teleconferenced panel discussion titled "How Far Can Patent Holders Go?". The speakers will be Mark Whitener (General Electric), Jonathan Gleklen (Arnold & Porter), Hwang Lee (Korea Univ. School of Law), Frances Marshall (DOJ Special Counsel for IP), and Yizhe Zhang (Jones Day). Free. No CLE credits. See, notice. Location: Arnold & Porter, Room 220, 555 12th St., NW.

6:00 - 8:15 PM. The Federal Communications Bar Association's (FCBA) Wireless Telecommunications Committee will host an event titled "The Role of Spectrum Sharing in Addressing the Bandwidth Crunch". There will be a panel of government speakers: Shawn Chang (Democratic staff, House Commerce Committee), David Redl (Republican staff, HCC), Peter Tenhula (NTIA), and John Leibovitz (Deputy Chief of the FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau). There will be a second panel of industry representatives: Scott Bergmann (CTIA), Dean Brenner (Qualcomm), Mark Racek (Ericsson), and Steve Sharkey (T-Mobile). CLE credits. Prices vary. See, notice. Reservations and cancellations are due by 12:00 NOON on January 14. Location: Arnold & Porter, 555 12th St., NW.

Deadline to submit reply comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) [21 pages in PDF] regarding applications and notifications from foreign carriers or affiliates of foreign carriers for entry into the U.S. market for international telecommunications services and facilities under section 214 of Communications Act. This pertains to the effective competitive opportunities test or ECO Test. The FCC adopted this NPRM on October 10, and released the text on October 11. It is FCC 12-125 in IB Docket No. 12-299. See, notice in the Federal Register, Vol. 77, No. 227, November 26, 2012, at Pages 70400-70407.

Deadline to submit comments to the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Computer Security Division (CSD) regarding its draft NIST IR-7298 Rev. 2 [222 pages in PDF] titled "Glossary of Key Information Security Terms".

1/8. The Copyright Alliance published an essay titled "Copyright and the 113th Congress". The author is Marla Grossman (American Continental Group). It lists and describes copyright issues that the Congress is likely to consider in 2013. These are copyright reform, exceptions for libraries and archives, the first sale doctrine and the Supreme Court's forthcoming opinion in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, orphan works, creating a small copyright claims process, and music licensing (such as the 112th Congress's Internet Radio Fairness Act and Interim FIRST Act). There will also be appointments to replace David Kappos (USPTO), and possibly James Billington (Library of Congress).

1/7. The Cato Institute published a paper [36 pages in PDF] titled "A Rational Response to the Privacy Crisis". The author is Larry Downes.

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