Timing the sowing and watering of crops is as important as ever in agriculture. Jessi Korinek and her co-founders at Nave Analytics are developing a software that uses satellite data to help farmers cut down on water costs for irrigation. We sat down with Jessi to discuss her product, the impact of tariffs on the agricultural industry, and the challenges she faced in receiving federal research and development (R&D) grants.
Startup ecosystem feels the effects of DOGE cuts
The Trump administration’s push for “efficiency” is undercutting key programs and tools that maintain balanced intellectual property frameworks that protect startups against low-quality patents and meritless, but expensive and time consuming, litigation.
With a looming reauthorization deadline later this year, Congress has a chance to renew and improve a government funding program that can be critical to startups engaging in costly R&D.
The Big Story: UK moves forward with plan to regulate online harms. The United Kingdom announced this week that it plans to give British regulators the authority to fine social media companies and online platforms for any harmful content that might be found on their sites—the next step in the country’s plan to combat harmful Internet speech. The regulations would apply to any Internet platform that allows for the sharing of user-generated content in the country.
TLDR: The Senate is convening a hearing later today to discuss the law surrounding accusations of online copyright infringement. As it stands, online platforms (including startups) are not automatically liable for infringement based on content created or posted by their users. As the Senate reviews the law this year, it’s important to consider the interests of startups since changes in the law could create unreasonable burdens on fledgling companies.
TLDR: House lawmakers are moving towards a vote on legislation that would threaten workers, startups, and larger companies alike by reclassifying many independent contractors as employees. The bill shares many concerning similarities with California’s “gig worker” law that went into effect at the beginning of the year and has drawn considerable pushback from the state’s startup community.
The Big Story: Lawmakers, FCC push for broadband investments. House Democrats introduced a new infrastructure framework that would invest $760 billion over a five-year period in critical transportation and development projects, including $86 billion to help expand broadband access across the United States. The Federal Communications Commission also voted yesterday to approve a $20.4 billion fund to support broadband expansion efforts across rural portions of the country over the next ten years.
TLDR: As countries continue to debate whether or not to levy digital services taxes on tech companies, several states are considering implementing their own digital tax measures. While the currently proposed state-level bills are unlikely to receive much traction, they demonstrate a growing willingness on the part of state representatives to levy their own taxes against online companies of all sizes.
TLDR: The Department of Justice is continuing its push for tech companies to undermine their users’ security by building in intentional vulnerabilities. In the latest spat between Apple, Attorney General William Barr is claiming that the company is not helping officials unlock two iPhones belonging to the shooter in last month’s deadly shooting at a Florida naval air base, despite the fact that the older model devices can likely be accessed and Apple has already turned over the relevant data in its possession.
The Big Story: USMCA, China trade deals move forward. The Trump administration and Congress made significant progress this week on two critical trade deals, with President Donald Trump signing a phase one trade deal with China and the Senate passing the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
TLDR: Later this year, the Supreme Court will weigh in on a long-standing copyright dispute between Oracle and Google over the permissible use of application programming interfaces, or APIs. APIs are software interfaces that startups rely on to promote interoperability and reduce costs. If they were eligible for copyright protection, then companies that own the API copyrights would be able to prevent others from using those APIs without paying for a license. This week Engine filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court, arguing that APIs should not be eligible for copyright protection, and in particular that extending copyright protections to APIs is an attempt to evade patent law in a way that would unduly harm startups and entrepreneurs.
The Big Story: France’s digital services tax could harm startups. U.S. tech companies told the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) this week that they support retaliatory tariffs in response to France’s new digital services tax that would impose a three percent tax on online platforms with a global revenue of over 750 million euros and 25 million euros in France. The Trump administration has threatened to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on certain French imports, such as champagne and cheese, in response to the tax.
A recent Federal Circuit decision about fee shifting is important to startups facing patent litigation and has broader relevance for confirming that attorney fee awards can be a tool for deterring abusive patent litigation. Startups facing extortive settlement demands for specious patent infringement claims can ask to have the plaintiff pay their attorney fees if they prevail in court. The availability of fees is valuable, because the cost of defending even a meritless patent lawsuit is expensive. But if plaintiffs who file those meritless cases may have to cover the costs of defense, it can help level the playing field, even before the parties find themselves in court.
A key House panel is holding a hearing tomorrow morning to examine the dangers of online misinformation, deception, and deepfakes. Lawmakers are rightfully concerned about the spread of misinformation across the Internet, but they have largely failed to offer solutions that would not stifle startups and other platforms’ ability to moderate troublesome—but otherwise legal—content.
As the year draws to a close, we wanted to highlight some of the main policy issues that have affected the startup community this year, and what we’ve done to advance the goals of the entrepreneurial community.
The past year put technology policy in the spotlight in many ways. From concerns about the spread of misinformation online, to proposals that would open up the door to a new breed of copyright and privacy trolls, technology companies of all sizes, especially startups, watched to see whether and how the Internet’s rules of the road would change in 2019.
The Big Story: U.S.-China trade deal touches tech. Officials from the United States and China announced last week that the two nations reached a phase-one trade compromise that will reportedly reduce a 15 percent tariff on roughly $120 billion in certain Chinese goods to 7 ½ percent. The deal would further halt additional tariffs that were slated to go into effect this month on other popular electronic goods.
This year, Engine focused on a number of critical policy issues impacting entrepreneurs and technology startups across the United States. Guided by the startup community’s concerns, we stood up for strong net neutrality rules, highlighted the importance of intermediary liability protections, called for a federal data privacy framework that works for both consumers and startups, and much more.
As the year draws to a close, we wanted to highlight some of the main policy issues that have affected the startup community this year, and what we’ve done to advance the goals of the entrepreneurial community.
The Big Story: USMCA includes critical digital provisions. This week, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced that a deal was reached with the Administration, Canada, and Mexico on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) that includes digital provisions that will help startups grow their businesses abroad. Prior to this agreement, Speaker Pelosi indicated a desire to remove certain language in USMCA that echoes the intermediary liability protections found in U.S. law.
This morning, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on “encryption and lawful access.” While the hearing largely focused on the ways large tech companies use encryption—Apple and Facebook testified—companies of all sizes, especially startups, rely on increased privacy and security protections to gain and keep user trust as well as to differentiate themselves from larger competitors.
The Big Story: Digital trade provisions critical for startups. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is reportedly pushing to have digital trade provisions that provide intermediary liability protections for startups removed from the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). These protections are based on the U.S. legal framework that startups rely on to launch, grow, and compete with major Internet companies.
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