Charting New Waters: Supporting Underrepresented Innovators for Talk Like a Pirate Day
International Talk Like a Pirate Day (TLAPD) emerged in the mid-‘90s as a day for people across the globe to “talk and act like pirates for the day,” and although this somewhat unserious observance started as a joke by two friends, we appreciate the opportunity to celebrate the importance of intellectual property rights for creators, users, and lovers of innovation. Lovers of TLAPD and its IP inclusion have championed September 19th with the notion that “It may be fun to [...]
Five Questions Small Businesses Have for the FTC Nominees
In a serious blow to its reputational capital, the two Republican commissioners at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC or Commission) resigned before their terms expired, frustrated with current leadership. As a result, the typically bipartisan Commission is now led by three Democratic commissioners, with no Republican counterparts. President Biden has selected two nominees to fill the Republican slots, and the Senate Commerce Committee is now poised to consider their qualifications in confirmation hearings before recommending them to the full chamber. [...]
Balancing big tech and SMEs: the DMCC’s role in the UK
The UK’s Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill (DMCC) was introduced earlier this year in an effort to regulate digital markets and safeguard consumers. The bill, currently under review by the UK House of Commons, mainly targets large corporations deemed to be ‘big tech’ with a strategic market status (SMS) designation. Although the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that make up ACT | The App Association’s membership are unlikely to receive an SMS designation, their success is closely linked to [...]
ComMission Creep: 2022 and 2023 at the FTC and What it Means for Small Business
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been on a tear. The court losses that punctuate its campaign make it hard to call it a winning streak, but the concerted efforts to reinvigorate the Commission’s “national nanny” status will leave plenty of marks for years to come. Notably, the FTC’s struggle against the private sector cuts across both of its major bureaus—the Competition Bureau and the Consumer Protection Bureau—and avails itself of all the tools within and legally beyond its reach, [...]
App Makers Need Copyright and IP Protections
On July 18, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing debating the so-called “right to repair” for devices like smartphones and tablets as well as larger machinery like cars and tractors. The hearing displayed a limited set of views on whether federal law should create an exception to copyright protections for repair purposes. For small businesses, like the member companies of ACT | The App Association (the App Association), federal mandates to allow open access to otherwise protected software involves [...]