Cox Communications is the latest to file a brief in the battle between it and Sony Music Entertainment over whether an internet service provider (ISP) should be liable for infringement by its subscribers. According to Cox’s brief in opposition to Sony’s petition for certiorari, “[p]etitioners want to make a terrible situation even worse.” Music publishers including Sony, Arista Records, Warner Music and Universal Music Group filed copyright claims against Cox in July 2018, alleging that Cox was liable for the infringement of 10,017 musical works that were illegally distributed by the ISP’s subscribers. A 2020 jury verdict found that Cox liable for both vicarious and contributory infringement, leading to a $1 billion damages verdict against Cox after damages were increased for the jury’s willfulness finding.

Over the last six months, only 6.3% of Federal Circuit actions have been precedential patent decisions. If so little of what the Federal Circuit is doing relates to patents, why do we need or want a “patent court”? Meanwhile, what decisions the Federal Circuit does issue are panel dependent and show not a care in the world about the court’s original mandate, which was to create a unified national patent law and recognize that at least some patents have to be valid and enforced. And now, over the last two years, we have an inexplicable usurpation of authority with the virtual impeachment of Judge Newman. If these judges are so unfamiliar with basic due process and the opportunity to be fairly heard, why should anyone believe they are themselves competent to be judges on any level? The Federal Circuit is a mess.

This week on IPWatchdog Unleashed we have a special episode. At the end of September we held our annual all-topics conference, which we call IPWatchdog LIVE. This conference brings together some of the top thought leaders and newsmakers from the entire industry, with a variety of different backgrounds and people who focus on various different niche verticals within the IP community. So, while the conference was ongoing, Eileen McDermott, our editor in chief, asked some of the industry leaders in attendance what they thought was the most important issue facing the intellectual property industry.