Bonum Certa Men Certa

Patent Lawyers Writing Patent Law for Their Own Enrichment Rather Than for Innovation

Anathema, antithetical to the very concept/purpose of patents

A payment



Summary: We have become detached from the original goals and come to the point where patent offices aren't necessarily run by people qualified for the job of advancing science and technology; they, unlike judges, only seem to care about how many patents get granted, irrespective of their quality/merit

THE conundrum which lawmakers sometimes face depends on who pays (or bribes) them. We recently wrote about Orrin Hatch, sponsored the most by the pharmaceutical industry, trying to make pharmaceutical patents immune/exempted from Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) inter partes reviews (IPRs). The USPTO is itself run by a lot of lawyers, not just scientists; look who has been appointed its Director.



There has always been this danger that nontechnical people (like Battistelli and Campinos) would doom patent offices, making them little more than litigation pipelines, preparing the patents for lawsuits, even frivolous ones.

"There has always been this danger that nontechnical people (like Battistelli and Campinos) would doom patent offices, making them little more than litigation pipelines, preparing the patents for lawsuits, even frivolous ones.""The UK will also be excluded from the EU’s unitary patent framework," says a British magazine this week, perpetuating the false belief that something constructed by lawyers for personal gain is actually worthwhile for all of us. But more importantly, however, there is no such framework. The Unified Patent Court is dead, irrespective of Brexit. It never existed and it doesn't seem as though it ever will.

The EPO has said virtually nothing about the UPC for over a month now. Moreover, it's not desirable to Britain or any other country. Only to patent lawyers and trolls. These 'unitary' patents are of no real value for SMEs, for instance, and more often than not companies that aren't even European want these.

Here's the relevant part:

33. The UK will depart the EU’s intellectual property regime, with EU trademarks ceasing to have British application. The UK will also be excluded from the EU’s unitary patent framework.


Which doesn't even exist?

Over in the US, Watchtroll constantly complains. It moans, even on Monday, about anything at all which reduces patent scope and improves the quality of patents (based on obviousness in this case). Such is the nature of the litigation 'industry'. It always wants more and more patents -- even low-quality ones -- to saturate the system and hammer on the dockets (of courts).

Gene Quinn is again lobbying the PTO, trying to tell it what the rules should be. He said "the rule the MPEP should be revised to contain is this: “The prior art reference (or references when combined) must teach all the claim limitations. Only in the most extraordinary of situations where the missing claim limitation is ‘unusually simple and the technology particularly straightforward’ is it appropriate for common sense to be relied upon to supply a missing claim limitation.”"

Dennis Crouch said that "[t]he USPTO has quietly proposed adding new annual bar dues ($240 – $410) for patent practitioners as well a continuing legal education (CLE) requirement. The proposal is buried in the Table of Proposed Fees that will serve as the basis for an upcoming September 6, 2018 PPAC meeting on fees."

These are indoctrination programs for patent maximalists ("practitioners"). They're people who look to make money out of patents without actually creating anything, i.e. they're not practitioners per se. Joseph Herndon wrote about the fee increases over at Patent Docs:

On August 8, 2018, Director Iancu issued a letter to the Patent Public Advisory Committee notifying of proposed fee increases at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and institution of new annual fee for active patent practitioners.

The Director stated that the fee increases are needed to ensure commitment to fiscal responsibility, financial prudence, and operational efficiency.

This is a patent fee proposal open for comment at this stage, and the Director stated that it is anticipated that the fee adjustments resulting from this effort will not be implemented until the January 2021 timeframe. Generally, there are across the board fee increases, and the USPTO stated that given the nearly three-year gap between the implementation of the last fee adjustments and the anticipated effective date of this fee setting effort, a five percent increase to fees is similar to fees rising by 1.6 percent annually.


At the end of last year two scholars, Michael Frakes and Melissa Wasserman, explained why the patent office lost touch with reality. If wasn't for SCOTUS and the Federal Circuit issuing judgments that reduce confidence in granted patents, the patent office would still be awarding loads of nonsensical patents. In Europe the courts have come under an unprecedented attack; the patent office waged a war on judges and made it harder to reach justice for judges might dare point out the decline in the quality of patents.

Recent Techrights' Posts

GNU/Linux up to 5% in Ireland, Not Counting Chromebooks
statCounter is an Irish
The War on Free Software Reporters - Part III - Doxing and LARPing
LARPing is an issue I've had to deal with for nearly 20 years
The Media Finally Admits (on a Regular Basis) That LLMs Suck
They could not replace medical doctors, teachers, lawyers etc.
 
In the Month of May 2024 the OSI's Blog Was Almost 100% Microsoft Lobbying, Microsoft Staff, Microsoft Proprietary Software, and Microsoft Events
Entryism complete. RIP, OSI.
An Important Goal Has Been Accomplished Already
Stubborn activists need to insist on a future where computer users actually control the computers they own
Gemini Links 02/06/2024: Delayed Disappointment
Links for the day
statCounter: GNU/Linux on More Than 1 in 5 Desktops/Laptops
Desktop Operating System Market Share Norway
Reminder: The First CEO of IBM (Owner of Red Hat) Was "Convicted on Extortion" (According to Edwin Black, Author of "IBM and the Holocaust")
Red Hat is not a liberal company
GNU/Linux Market Share in Turkey Now Exceeds 10%, According to StatCounter
StatCounter (or statCounter) shows considerable increases
GNU/Linux in Germany: The Seven Percent
The historical data shows that it wasn't always like this
Slovenia: Windows Becomes Minority Market Share This Month
It finally happened. Android is now measured as bigger than Windows.
statCounter: Bing Has Lost Market Share Since the Chatbot Hype, in Europe Yandex Nearly Exceeds Bing Now
Bing also had many layoffs (not that the media bothered covering that); we must debunk Microsoft's baseless claims and deliberate lies/hype
Microsoft Windows Falls Below 10% in Africa, Down to About 20% in Asia
The future isn't Windows
Taiwan Can Defend Its Autonomy Better by Avoiding Microsoft (Back Doors)
Maybe it's just a coincidence that GNU/Linux "took off" when Hong Kong lost its perceived independence from China
The War on Free Software Reporters - Part IV - Impersonation and Menacing Behaviour, Defamation Under One's Own Name
Such serial defamation (that went on for a very long time) is coordinated and relentless
Links 02/06/2024: Workers' Strikes and a Warming World
Links for the day
Microsoft Falls to All-Time Low of 25% in Operating Systems
If Android is counted, Windows is in trouble as it's down to all-time low of 25%
Steam Survey: GNU/Linux Up, But Canonical's Ubuntu Declining
big increases for GNU/Linux, Arch Linux gaining at Ubuntu's expense
Guardian Digital, Inc (linuxsecurity.com) Leveraging Microsoft Chatbots to SPAM for Microsoft (Googlebombing "Linux")?
Welcome to the Web in 2024. Search for "Linux" news, get Windows garbage.
Smallest Number of New Debian Developers in More Than 2 Years
Maybe Debian should recognise there's a problem instead of trying to censor - at humongous expense - those who speak about the problem
Slashdot's "Linux" Section is Reposting Press Releases for Red Hat
Is this being paid for?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, June 01, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, June 01, 2024
Links 01/06/2024: Microsoft Chaffbot Broken Out of Control
Links for the day
Why We're Taking Things Up a Notch
Expect about 20 articles a day this year
Sites That Cover WSL Are Helping Microsoft's Attack on GNU/Linux
Calling out the typical culprits
Plans for June
We'll try to publish Daily Links every time we have enough of these
Links 01/06/2024: Ukraine Updates, MongoDB Collapses
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/06/2024: MNT Pocket Reform, Gemini and Content Length
Links for the day
Links 01/06/2024: WeblogPoMo2024, Pentagon’s Increasing Reliance on (i.e. Bailouts to) Microsoft
Links for the day
Twitter is (in Many Ways) Already Dead
Put an 'X' on it
Posts About Free Software, BSD, and GNU/Linux
Focus shifts have occasionally been discussed here over the years
After Softpedia Pushed Out Its Linux News Editor - and Effectively Killed the Linux Section - it Killed the Whole News Section (Altogether)
So they've killed Linux coverage, then their whole "news" section died
Their Goal is Control, Not Security (and Their Staff Advocates Fake Security or Pricey Gimmicks That Disempower the Users)
Those companies just want control, or simply domination over users (and their computers)
[Meme] The Lowest Standards of Security
No need for any qualifications
IRC Proceedings: Friday, May 31, 2024
IRC logs for Friday, May 31, 2024
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
Cybersecurity is a structural not behavioural problem.
Reprinted with permission from Cyber|Show
Free Software is the Future, Open Source is Just Openwashing (Proprietary With a False Marketing Twist)
Also see postopen.org
Society Has Been Destabilised by Social Control Networks
Is it time to get rid of them, if not by sanctions/bans then simply by popular boycotts?
Gemini Turns 5 This Month
As long as Geminispace exists and is accessed by enough people, Gemini Protocol will continue to matter
Links 01/06/2024: More Crackdowns in Hong Kong, Street Named After Navalny
Links for the day
The War on Free Software Reporters - Part II - Antisocial Mobs
how various GNU/Linux bloggers got "canceled" over the years
Microsoft's Share of Physical Web Servers Fell From 9.14% to 9.04% in One Month
What's interesting to us is how Microsoft continues moving down in everything measured
Links 31/05/2024: Escalations in Ukraine and Russia, National Reporter's Shield Law in US
Links for the day
Links 31/05/2024: Generating and Using Identifiers, Why Unicode
Links for the day
A 3-Year Campaign to Coerce/Intimidate Us Into Censorship: In Summary
Some high-profile examples of defamation include Linus Torvalds, Richard Stallman...
[Meme] Never "Missing Out" in FOSS Conferences
The sexists who objectify women and bully women are going to FOSS events in pursuit of sex, according to themselves
Racism, Ageism, and Ableism at IBM/Red Hat and Kyndryl
IBM's Kyndryl is now accused of "racial, age, disability discrimination"
The War on Free Software Reporters - Part I - Why Techrights Cannot be Censored (and Won't be Censored)
Microsoft remains by far the biggest culprit
In Spite of Boot-locking (Trying to Make It Hard If Not Impossible to Install BSDs and GNU/Linux on New PCs) Microsoft's Grip is Rapidly Slipping
Escaping the Microsoft prison
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, May 30, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, May 30, 2024
Microsoft's Problem in Puerto Rico
Notice how much Windows has fallen
Gemini Links 31/05/2024: MNT Pocket Reform and Benben v0.5.0
Links for the day
"I once preached peaceful coexistence with Windows. You may laugh at my expense -- I deserve it." -Be's CEO Jean-Louis Gassée
Execution of Red Hat: But I helped promote Azure and .NET
In Many Countries Vista 11's Market Share Goes Down, Not Up (Even Microsoft-Funded Mainstream Media Admits This)
More people are moving to GNU/Linux