Good morning tech

Good morning!

Today is a first for American intellectual property, as the country gets an official enforcement strategy.

Vice President Joe Biden will host an event where Victoria Espinel, IP coordinator, will unveil the strategy. Expect Ben Franklin references and polarized criticism on whether the plan is draconian or needs backbone. Grievance-airing is scheduled for Wednesday, when Espinel sits before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Flanking Biden: Eric Holder, Gary Locke, Janet Napolitano and Ron Kirk (11 a.m., Eisenhower Executive Office Building).

Another top development on Tuesday: The Federal Communications Commission has gotten (almost) everyone in the room. The Wall Street Journal reported last night that the FCC is quietly meeting with major cable and phone companies this week in an attempt to broker a deal on broadband regulation.

The deal would replace the FCC’s plan to heighten its authority over broadband services, which Internet service providers hotly oppose.

— In question: whether the big providers can come to an agreement with online companies.

— Invited: AT&T, Verizon and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association; Google and Skype.

— Not invited: Consumer advocates such as Free Press and Public Knowledge. 

Public Knowledge’s Art Brodsky: “Even if those meetings resulted in an agreement, which is dubious, the FCC wouldn't have the authority to do anything about it.”

NOTED:

…e-readers may be headed mainstream, now that Barnes & Noble and Amazon have slashed the prices of their models to less than $200 to challenge the iPad. (AP) 

...Comcast's merger with NBC-Universal has another hearing scheduled, this time before the House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee. Chicago, July 8.

WHO, WHERE

Russian President DMITRY MEDVEDEV is visiting Silicon Valley this week. He arrives in San Francisco today and will meet with ERIC SCHMIDT, but not with his nation’s most prominent tech emigre, SERGEY BRIN. (WSJ)

GALEN PANGER is leaving Google to go back to school.

Sunlight’s JAKE BREWER and the Weekly Standard’s MARY KATHARINE HAM are engaged. 

ANEESH CHOPRA and ROBERT ATKINSON are on the Hill this afternoon for a hearing on innovation (2:30 p.m., Russell Senate Office Building, Room 253).

IVAN SEIDENBERG keynotes an Economic Club of Washington event at the Fairmont today at noon.

BLAIR LEVIN, WALT McCORMICK, JOHN HORRIGAN, RICK HERRMANN, KERRY MURRAY and NAVARROW WRIGHT are going to a United States Internet Industry Association/Broadband for America event today at the Park Hyatt. 

ROBB TOPOLSKI and OK Go’s DAMIAN KULASH will discuss net neutrality on the Kojo Nnamdi Show today. JOSEPH MENN discusses cybercrime (WAMU 88.5 FM, noon).  

KAREN JAGODA will chat with KYLE ROBERTS of Smart Media Group, the media buyer for MEG WHITMAN, as well as SHAUN DAKIN, founder of the National Do Not Call Registry, on Digital Politics this afternoon (WsRadio.com, 3 p.m.).

MICHAEL BRACY, MICHAEL PETRICONE and MARKHAM ERICKSON honored Barbershop Punk, a documentary about net neutrality. The Future of Music Coalition hosted a reception last night at Science Club.

JEFF HAWKINS, who invented the Palm Pilot, has joined the Secular Coalition for America advisory board, which includes CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS and SALMAN RUSHDIE.

LARRY KING, FACEBOOK and TWITTER teamed up to raise $1.3 million for the Gulf Coast in a telethon last night.  

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CAN'T-MISS NEWS

States to probe Google Wi-Fi breach: Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced Monday he will head a multi-state investigation of a Google privacy breach, charging that the company’s response to authorities has been insufficient so far. Google’s response “raises as many questions as it answers,” he said in a statement, calling on the company to “provide a complete and comprehensive explanation" for an act that "invaded home and business computer networks and vacuumed up personal information and communications.” Blumenthal is a Democratic nominee for Connecticut’s Senate seat. 

Coalition urges FCC to block NBC-U merger with Comcast: Public comments were due Monday on the possible $30 billion marriage of these companies. Just in time, a coalition of media companies, unions and nonprofits is urging the Federal Communications Commission to block the merger of Comcast and NBC Universal. The coalition, made up of organizations including media giant Bloomberg, the Writers Guild of America, West and advocacy groups like Free Press and Media Access Project, wrote to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski on Monday voicing their opposition to the proposed merger of Comcast and NBC Universal.

Intel may settle with FTC: The Federal Trade Commission's anti-trust case against chip giant Google may be winding down, the WSJ reports. Terms have not been disclosed, but Intel would likely have to modify its practices. The settlement would prevent an appearance before an FTC administrative law judge in September that could have forced disclosure of company secrets, including its customers relationships with HP, Dell, IBM and Acer. “The company has been grappling for several years with antitrust proceedings in Europe, Japan and South Korea as well as suits by the FTC and the New York.” 

SCHEDULED

…2:30 p.m. The Senate Commerce subcommittee on competitiveness holds a hearing on "Innovation in America: Opportunities and Obstacles." Russell Senate Office Building, Room 253.

QUESTIONED

…What can’t Google do? That’s the raison d’etre for startups hoping to fill the gaps in the search giant’s services. One hopeful, Quora, allows people to pose and answer questions. (WSJ)

NUMBER PUNCH

100... Dollar value of a fine San Francisco may begin imposing on retailers if they do not display a value for how much radiation their mobile phones emit. A vote on the law is expected today. (FT)

FOR THE WATERCOOLER

FINGERPRINTS: Pro-consumer activist group Free Press is known for railing against well-financed advocacy by big telecommunications companies. But in some instances, if it can’t beat them, the organization may see logic in joining them: the group signed a letter as part of its campaign against Comcast’s merger with NBC Universal. The letter’s properties show that it was authored by Arik Ben Zvi, a managing director at Glover Park Group, one of the city’s largest lobbying shops. Glover Park Group represents Verizon.

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