Lawmakers lament detriment to startups of Trade Rep’s digital trade reversal
After overcoming childhood shyness in the warmth of his local Caribbean-owned barbershop, Royon Jeffrey knows the power of the beauty industry firsthand. He set out to create ListedB, an online marketplace for beauty industry professionals. We spoke to him about the financial opportunity within the industry, navigating capital access and investors, and his desire to empower small businesses owners.
Foreign nations are saddling U.S. companies — including startups — with discriminatory burdens.
MegaMinds was created out of a need to make learning more creative, fun, and hands-on for students. In our conversation with Co-Founder and CEO Eric Tao, we learned about the growing popularity of immersive learning, the tricky regulatory landscape for a product like MegaMinds, and what it’s like for many first-time entrepreneurs to build businesses.
A flood of perspectives on privacy. Late last week, the federal government got dozens of comments from companies, trade groups, non-profits and more on how to approach consumer privacy online. As part of the response to a request for comments on a broad framework for consumer privacy, Engine submitted comments to the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, outlining the ways in which various privacy proposals and laws affect startups.
After Tuesday night’s midterm elections, we’re facing a new makeup of Congress next year, with a Democratic-led House and a Senate with a more significant Republican majority. Despite the new composition, we’re sure to see a lot of familiar debates surface around policy issues that impact the U.S. startup ecosystem, including around privacy, net neutrality, immigration, access to capital, and more.
A U.K. tax on online services. The British government has announced a new tax on the biggest companies offering online services in the United Kingdom. The tax, 2 percent of U.K. revenues, will be levied on companies with global revenues of $640 million or more starting in April 2020.
The Big Story: Patent trolls aren’t a fairy tale. Last week, in a speech to the Eastern District of Texas Bar Association, the United States Patent and Trademark Office Director Iancu told a room full of trial lawyers that there is no patent troll problem and that it's just a "narrative" being pushed by large companies trying to decrease innovation and competition. This week, we pushed back on that claim, explaining that abusive patent litigation is “a real threat and one every startup founder dreads.”
Pushing 5.9 GHz for 5G. The federal government is seeing more and more pressure to free up airwaves currently reserved for vehicle safety so that they can be used for the next generation of wireless networks, especially as different vehicle safety technologies that don’t depend on that spectrum are becoming commonplace.
The Big Story: A second Senate privacy hearing. The Senate Commerce Committee held its second hearing on online privacy this week, which included testimony from privacy advocates pushing for federal privacy legislation.
The Big Story: Privacy Looms Large in Washington.
This week, the European Parliament approved sweeping changes to its copyright regime, including Article 13, which would effectively require all websites hosting user generated content to adopt expensive and ineffective content filters. The proposal also creates a new IP right for publishers that requires websites to pay publishers if the website creates a link to the publisher’s content.
The Big Story: Europe passes online filtering rules.
This week, the European Parliament approved sweeping changes to its copyright regime, including Article 13, which would effectively require all websites hosting user generated content to adopt expensive and ineffective content filters. The proposal also creates a new IP right for publishers that requires websites to pay publishers if the website creates a link to the publisher’s content.
As the voice of startups to government, Engine proudly assisted in organizing this year’s Startup Week Across America. Officially held August 20-24, more than 50 House members met with startups in their communities to learn more about the issues that matter most their businesses.
The Big Story: California advances net neutrality. A key committee of California lawmakers approved a strong net neutrality bill this week, setting it up for a vote by the full Assembly next week.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year – Startup Week Across America. In partnership with Reps. Suzan K. DelBene, Susan Brooks, Yvette Clarke, Randy Hultgren, Jerry McNerney and Mimi Walters, Engine, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Economic Innovation Group, and the Center for American Entrepreneurship, we are excited to celebrate Startup Week Across America from August 20 through August 24.
The Big Story: FCC wrong about net neutrality comment ‘attacks.’ The Federal Communications Commission repeatedly made inaccurate statements about supposed distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks related to last year’s net neutrality proceeding, according to a new report from the agency’s internal watchdog.
The Big Story: Warner’s Internet platform proposals. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, is circulating a set of 20 proposals to regulate Internet platforms, according to a report this week from Axios.
A new report out this week highlights the many problems law enforcement agencies at all levels face when trying to access digital information.
The Big Story: A Republican’s net neutrality push. Colorado Republican Rep. Mike Coffman came out this week with two major moves on net neutrality; he introduced a bill that enshrines much of the FCC’s 2015 protections in law, and he became the first House Republican to sign onto the discharge petition to bring to the House floor the Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to undo the FCC’s repeal of those protections.
The Big Story: SCOTUS pick’s tech record. President Donald Trump announced this week that he is nominating Judge Brett Kavanaugh to replace the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court left by the departing Justice Anthony Kennedy. As a current judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Kavanaugh has a record on several hot-button tech issues, including privacy and net neutrality.
The Big Story: California’s new privacy law. This week, California lawmakers passed—and Governor Jerry Brown signed into law—a sweeping new online privacy law that will dramatically increase burdens and legal risks for startups with users in California.
Your privacy is important to us. To better protect your privacy we provide this notice explaining our online information practices and the choices you can make about the way your information is collected and used.
