Inside the EU’s Digital Markets Act Workshops
A Developer Community Spotlight with Five Unique Startup Founders For startups, scaleups, and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the Digital Markets Act (DMA) isn’t just an abstract policy; it’s a daily reality. These companies operate with limited resources and rely heavily on the tools and services that platforms provide. However, despite being intimately familiar with how these platforms function and how developers build their business on them, startups and SMEs have had limited opportunities to take part in the [...]
Encryption in the EU: What Startups Need to Know
Developers keep users safe by building security-by-design with tools like encryption, authentication, and abuse-prevention protections that are the front line of protection. However, proposals currently being considered in Sweden and at the European Union level could threaten those tools and the critical protections startups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and their users rely on. The European Commission’s draft Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) Regulation would require online services, from messaging apps to cloud platforms, to scan, report, and [...]
ACT | The App Association is Deeply Concerned About Deleterious Effects of H-1B Visa Announcement
Washington, D.C. – Last week’s announcement of a new $100,000 tax on H-1B visas is a gut punch to small and medium-sized tech companies. For more than 15 years, ACT | The App Association has firmly held the position that access to H-1B visas for specially skilled employees is a huge competitive advantage for our small business members and a driver of their innovation. “By making H-1B talent financially infeasible for startups and small developers, this policy punishes America’s [...]
No Clarity, No Protection: What the Withdrawal of the SEP Regulation Means for EU Startups
Despite being adopted by a super-majority vote (454 to 83) of the European Parliament, the European Commission decided to withdraw its proposed Standard Essential Patents (SEP) Regulation earlier this year. This leaves startups, scaleups, and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across Europe exposed to the same unpredictable and costly licensing environment they were promised relief from. Introduced in April 2023, the regulation was designed to make the SEP licensing landscape more transparent and predictable, especially for SMEs, by reducing [...]
ACT | The App Association Statement on Confirmation of John Squires to Lead U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today in a letter to newly confirmed Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) John Squires, ACT | The App Association and a diverse coalition of industry trade groups provided recommendations to support job creation and growth for American businesses. “Now that John Squires has been confirmed, we look forward to working with him to advance U.S. innovation and competitiveness through intellectual property (IP) [...]