A University of Colorado Law School clinic petitioned the FCC to launch a rulemaking aimed at developing a “fact-based, transparent, and timely adjudication process for spectrum interference disputes.” Under the Samuelson-Glushko Technology Law & Policy Clinic proposal, a private party would be permitted to file a spectrum interference complaint against another private party directly with the FCC Office of Administrative Law Judges.

The clinic proposed that the FCC set deadlines for resolving complaints and “make resources available as and where needed such as providing support staff, hiring or loaning additional ALJs and a spectrum advisor, or engaging experts and policy advisors to ensure the adjudication process is fact-based and timely.” University of Washington Research Fellow Pierre de Vries also signed the petition. “Under the Commission’s existing rules, an operator that brings a claim asserting that another operator is causing harmful interference cannot be certain whether, when, or how its claim will be resolved,” the petition said.

“Operators caught up in unresolved spectrum disputes are thereby unable to make full economic use of their spectrum and may ultimately suffer economic losses.” Spectrum licenses are “limited and valuable resource,” the petition said. Commission practices “do not guarantee a fact-based, transparent, and timely process to resolve these disputes,” it said. “The Commission is struggling to fulfill its responsibilities and may not have enough resources to devote to these disputes, which means that spectrum rights are not always used in the best interests of the public.” The FCC posted the petition Monday.