- As the U.S. government shutdown rolls on, concerns about IP arise
- AI standards, cybersecurity frameworks, and tech policy is paused
- U.S. Copyright Office is closed but accepting filings for date-of-receipt purposes
Now that the latest government shutdown under the Trump regime has surpassed the longest shutdown ever under his last term at 36 days and counting, we thought we'd take a look at how it is affecting the telecom industry.
Fierce reported at the start of the shutdown that it would impact Ericsson, Nokia and a host of smaller firms that use the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) databases. Nothing has changed with regard to those databases — and the vendors seem to be weathering the shutdown without issue.
“I don’t think telecom vendors are at a big financial risk with the government shutdown so long as their contracts were already funded pre-shutdown,” Daryl Schoolar, analyst at Recon Analytics told Fierce this time. “Even MNOs that have government contracts should get paid, but the payments may come late.”
New Street Research (NSR) policy advisor Blair Levin, who commented on our previous story, wouldn’t comment for this one because he said that he didn’t have any conviction in the answers he could offer.
Levin said then that the shutdown shouldn't affect the major tech vendor government contracts as long as it doesn't last too long.
However, this is the longest shutdown in U.S. history, so perhaps all bets are off.
IP worries mount
One factor we didn’t cover last time is how intellectual property concerns could come into play. Some lawyers are now chiming in because the U.S. Copyright Office is closed — however it is "accepting filings for date of receipt purposes," according to Amadou Kilkenny Diaw, a partner at King & Spalding, dealing with copyright and intellectual property (IP) law, who mapped out the IP issues in recent post on LinkedIn.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is “largely closed” and the majority of its staff are furloughed, he noted. “Although many core IP functions at the federal level remain intact for now, a prolonged shutdown will have a significant impact across the board."
“NIST’s essential work on AI standards, cybersecurity frameworks, and tech policy is paused, affecting ongoing collaboration with industry,” Diaw wrote. “A prolonged shutdown will continue to disrupt its operations and could significantly impact cybersecurity and other emerging risks.”
Back to normal? How long?
“Once the shutdown is finished the FCC should be able to get back to normal operations immediately. ... The frustrating part is there has been very little movement towards ending the shutdown,” noted Recon Analytics' Schoolar.
“Historically, one of the drivers for ending a shutdown has been what the shutdown does to our aviation industry with air traffic controllers and TSA agents not showing up for work. As we get closer to Thanksgiving I think Congress will be motivated to end the stand-off instead of risking air travel chaos during the holidays,” the analyst concluded.