The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. John Conyers (D.-Mich.), has announced that on January 20, the Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts and Competition Policy will hold a hearing on the Supreme Court’s pending decision in American Needle, Inc. v. National Football League. 

The notice of the hearing can be found here:

http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/hear_100120.html

In the case below, the Seventh Circuit held that the NFL was a single entity for antitrust purposes – not a group of 32 separate companies that could conspire together. 

            That decision can be found here: 

http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/tmp/T40LC5H9.pdf

            The Court granted certiorari last June and heard arguments on January 13.  The Subcommittee has not as yet released a witness list for the hearing.

News reports indicate that the Senate Judiciary’s Antitrust Subcommittee will vet the Comcast-NBC Universal joint venture in late January or early February.  The reports indicate that Comcast Chairman Brian Roberts and NBC Universal President Jeff Zucker will testify at the hearing.  

Comcast and NBC Universal announced the $30 billion deal on December 3, 2009.  Because it combines substantial assets in television programming and distribution in one company, the deal will face considerable congressional and regulatory scrutiny.

In addition to the expected Senate hearing, other congressional committees will likely hold similar hearings.  Under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, the Department of Justice will review the deal for competitive concerns.  The Federal Communications Commission will consider the communications policy aspects.

Update 01/06/10 – For more information, see today’s Wall Street Journal article on this topic here.

On December 3, the House of Representatives passed a 5-year extension of the compulsory copyright license for satellite television providers.  The bill passed by a vote of 394-11.  The current license is scheduled to expire on December 31, 2009. 

Chairman John Conyers (D.-Mich.) of the House Judiciary Committee described the other major changes the bill makes:   

In addition to simply reauthorizing the license, the bill ambitiously tackles several other issues for consumers, for content owners, and for cable and satellite companies as well. For example, this bill restores the section 119 license to DISH Satellite Network if they serve every market in the United States, even neglected rural markets. The bill also resolves the phantom signal problem that has caused instability and confusion for the cable and content industries, to the detriment of consumers.

In addition, the bill provides an audit right to content owners so they can be sure that they are being fairly compensated for the use of their intellectual property. It significantly increases penalties for copyright infringement under the licenses and updates the licenses to reflect the national digital television transition.

You can find the full text of the House debate here.

You can find the text of the bill as passed by the House here.

The Senate has not yet considered the bill, but it is expected to do so before it adjourns for the year.

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. John Conyers (D.-Mich.), has announced that the Committee will meet to consider H.R. 3190 (the “Discount Pricing Consumer Protection Act of 2009”) tomorrow.  The bill would reverse the effects of the Supreme Court’s decision in Leegin Creative Leather Products, Inc. v. PSKS, Inc., 551 U.S. 887 (2007).  Leegin overruled a 1911 Supreme Court decision holding that resale price maintenance was per se illegal.  Under Leegin, resale price maintenance would be judged under the rule of reason. 

The notice of the markup can be found here.

The Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts and Competition Policy passed the bill by voice vote on July 30, 2009. 

For further information on the legislative history of the bill, see our earlier post here.