02.05.11

Bill Gates Promotes Patent Monopolies

Posted in Bill Gates, Intellectual Monopoly, Microsoft, Patents at 11:56 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Microsoft’s co-founder carries on abusing the system by fostering even more monopolies and lobbying governments/schools so that people follow his own selfish instructions

For a couple of years now we’ve been showing that the Gates Foundation is one of the world’s biggest shills for patents, which are of course a tool for keeping the poor poorer and making the rich even richer. As a quick recap of some posts covering this subject, consider the following:

All that lobbying from Gates is doing enormous damage not just to the United States. Informed people like Glyn Moody criticise him for it. Soon enough (apparently days from now) Gates will add some more minions for lobbying congresspeople regarding patents (maybe software patents) because in Twitter, the highly-informed Jamie Love wrote: “Next week the Gates Foundation will hire a top IPR lobbyist from Microsoft, to work for the Foundation.”

It could not come at a better time now that Microsoft is trying to make patent systems more hostile towards its competition [1, 2] amid the Patent Reform Act of 2011 [1, 2, 3]. Lobbyists are, by definition, distorting the minds of politicians and our IRC regular, “hazzy”, wrote to his congressman some days ago and received this response:

Dear Mr. Bell:

Thank you for contacting my office regarding software patent litigation.

I find the trend towards litigation over software property rights to be very alarming. I understand the toll that this takes on digital entrepreneurship and growth. It has been estimated that the cost of litigating these issues exceeds $11 billion dollars.

There is also a need to ensure that companies, and especially foreign companies, do not rob others of the fruits of their technological ingenuity. The promise of monetary reward and recognition is often what drives many software developers to apply their minds to the technical devices that help make our society prosperous. I believe incentives matter, and I do not plan to enforce an open-source system that tends to remove incentives from our marketplace. I sincerely hope that a reasonable solution can be found to solve this dilemma, and I will be monitoring any related legislation that comes before Congress.

I appreciate the opportunity to hear your concerns.

Sincerely,

Bill Huizenga
Member of Congress

Mr. Huizenga must have been greased up by some lobbyists who told lies on behalf of corporations that employ them to do so. Bill Gates has been one of the super-lobbyists for several years now and to quote CIO.com: “Did you know that there are more than 34,750 registered lobbyists in Washington, D.C., for just 435 representatives and 100 senators? That’s 64 lobbyists for each congressperson.”

Bill Huizenga could have been subjected to the army of lobbyists from Microsoft, the Gates Foundation, or the firm of Bill Gates' dad (Bill). Those Bills can affect patent bills and we’ll catch up with Gates news some time in a couple of months (we last caught up in January) to cover this more properly with a lot of links. It is blind trust in authorities and the corporate press that leads people to disappointment and without delving deeper into such issues, it will be hard to understand why society becomes increasingly hostile towards people (see TSA for example) and increasingly friendly towards corporations (which now demand privacy rights, as though they are people with feelings). In a new piece from OpenSource.com, Rebecca Fernandez raises a point that Techrights routinely raises. Critical thinking is a skill that “our students need… and resources for teaching it,” but guess who’s controlling schools now? That’s right, it's Mr. Gates who bought this system.

Our education system, in all its forms, does a poor job of fostering critical thinking. This is a real problem, because we humans are inclined to embrace ideologies rather than information. There’s nothing more troublesome to society than warring ideologies—and there’s simply no way to find middle ground with anyone who can’t question theirs.

Fernandez says that the US education system “does a poor job of fostering critical thinking,” but this is a feature to those who control this system. A gullible population is more docile and passive.

If people do not respond to the plutocrats’ attack on society, then the PR industry will decide for people how to think and how to feel. In addition to PR, the plutocrat Bill Gates is already buying a lot of press outlets (TV, newspapers, blogs, and so on). He is killing the watchdog journalists. Those whom they used to protect will suffer. They will have their dignity robbed and still worship the same people who robbed them. It all began with lobbyists who were met with apathy and FTAs that relied on secrecy (c.f. ACTA). What we need more of is projects like Wikileaks for this reason precisely. █

Share this post: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

Permalink Mail Send this to a friend

If you liked this post, consider subscribing to the RSS feed or join us now at the IRC channels.

Pages that cross-reference this one

What Else is New

Links 21/10/2017: Purism Against ME, Pop!_OS Ready

Links for the day
US Patents Appeal Board Attacked by the Patent 'Industry', Defended by Federal Courts, and Dodged by Patent Trolls

PTAB, the branch or the 'court' responsible for eliminating bad patents, is coming under attacks from those who rely on poor patent quality and receives praises from everyone else, as usual
In the United States, the Patent 'Industry' is a Dying Breed and China Adopts This Destructive Force

The decaying patent microcosm, or the pipeline of low-quality patents and frivolous lawsuits these entail, loses its grip on the US; China, much to the astonishment of people who actually create things, is attempting to attract that ruinous microcosm (which preys on real, producing companies)
Microsoft and Nokia's Patent Trolls by Proxy: First Conversant, Now Provenance Asset Group Holdings LLC

Microsoft's shell game with patents (passing Android-hostile patents to trolls) carries on and publishers funded by these trolls offer the details, albeit vaguely and with obvious spin
Anonymous Professionals Speak of Benoît Battistelli's Destruction of the EPO, But Why Does the Media Turn a Blind Eye?

Everyone in the circles of EPO staff and EPO stakeholders knows that dysfunction has become the norm; European media, however, remains suspiciously silent about what otherwise would be a major European scandal (bigger than FIFA or Dieselgate)
The Darker Past of the Next President of the EPO - Part III: More Details About Caixa Geral de Depósitos, Former Employer of Campinos

The side of Campinos which he prefers to conceal, or rather his association with a rather notorious Portuguese bank
UPC Looks Like More of a Distant Dream (or Nightmare) as Germany Adds Another Two Months' Delay

The likelihood that the UPC will be altogether scuttled is growing as delays keep piling up and more complaints are being filed by public interest groups (as opposed to Team UPC, which hoped to shove the UPCA down everyone's throats behind closed doors)
Patent Trolls Roundup: BlackBerry, Dominion Harbor, IPNav, IP Bridge

A quick review of recent news regarding patent trolls or entities which resemble (and sometimes feed) these
Battistelli's Destruction of the EPO is Bad for Everyone, Even Patent Attorneys

The collapse of the European patent system, owing primarily to Battistelli's totalitarian style and deemphasis on patent quality, means that "the war is lost," as one professional puts it
Links 19/10/2017: Mesa 17.2.3, New Ubuntu Release, Samsung Flirts With GNU/Linux Desktops

Links for the day
Some of the USPTO's Most Ridiculous Patents Are Scrutinised by “Above the Law” While Dennis Crouch Attempts to Tarnish Alice

Controversies over patent scope and level of novelty required for a patent; as usual, public interest groups try to restrict patent scope, whereas those who make money out of abundance of patents attempt to remove every barrier
Microsoft's Software Patents Aggression in Court (Corel Again)

Microsoft's tendency to not only abuse the competition but also to destroy it with patent lawsuits as seen in Corel's case
The Spanish Supreme Court Rejects the EPO's “Problem and Solution Approach” While Quality of European Patents Nosedives

European Patents (EPs) aren't what they used to be and their credibility is being further eroded and even detected as such
Europe is Being Robbed by Team Battistelli and the UPC/PPH Would Make Things Worse

The European Patent Office (EPO) has put litigation at the forefront, having implicitly decided to no longer bother with proper patent examination and instead issue lots of patents for judges and lawyers to argue about (at great expense to the public)
Team UPC Continues to Promote Illusion of UPC Progress Where There's None

The core members of Team UPC in the UK spread obvious falsehoods in the media, probably in an effort to attract 'business' (consultation regarding something that does not exist)
António Campinos: A True EPO Reformer or More of the Same?

More unfortunate reminders that Campinos and Battistelli don't quite diverge on the big issues, they're just more than two decades apart in age (but the same nationality)
Juve Has Confirmed That António Campinos is French

The relationship between Campinos and Battistelli has a nationality aspect to it, not even taking into account the interpersonal connection which goes a long way back
The Darker Past of the Next President of the EPO - Part II: António Campinos at Banco Caixa Geral de Depósitos

A look at the largely-hidden banking career of the next President of the EPO and the career of the person who competed with him for this position
SUEPO to the Media, Regarding Campinos: “No Comment, It’s Too Dangerous”

António Campinos, who is Benoît Battistelli's chosen successor at the EPO, as covered by German media earlier this month
Staff Union of the EPO (SUEPO) Willing to Work With Campinos But Foresees Difficulties

New message from SUEPO regarding Battistelli's successor of choice (Campinos)
Links 18/10/2017: GTK+ 3.92, Microsoft Bug Doors Leaked

Links for the day
The Darker Past of the Next President of the EPO - Part I: Introduction

Some new details about Mr. Campinos, who is Battistelli’s successor at the EPO
Confessions of EPO Insiders Reveal That European Patents (EPs) Have Lost Their Legitimacy/Value Due to Battistelli's Policies

A much-discussed topic at the EPO is now the ever-declining quality of granted patents, which make or break patent offices because quality justifies high costs (searches, applications, renewals and so on)
Patent Firms From the United States Try Hard to Push the Unitary Patent (UPC), Which Would Foment Litigation Wars in Europe

The UPC push seems to be coming from firms which not only fail to represent public interests but are not even European
In the Age of Alice and PTAB There is No Reason to Pursue Software Patents in the United States (Not Anymore)

The appeal board in the US (PTAB) combined with a key decision of the Supreme Court may mean that even at a very low cost software patents can be invalidated upon demand (petition) and, failing that, the courts will invalidate these
IAM is Wrong, the Narrative Isn't Changing, Except in the Battistelli-Funded (at EPO's Expense) Financial Times

The desperate attempts to change the narrative in the press culminate in nothing more than yet another misleading article from Rana Foroohar and some rants from Watchtroll
The Federal Circuit Continues Squashing Software Patents

Under the leadership of Sharon Prost the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) continues its war on software patents, making it very hard to remember the last time it tolerated any
SUEPO Representatives Like Elizabeth Hardon Vindicated as Battistelli's Detrimental Effect on Patent Quality is Widely Confirmed

Feedback regarding the awful refusal to acknowledge patent quality crisis at the EPO as well as the appointment of a President so close to Battistelli (who most likely assures continuation of his policies)
Links 17/10/2017: KDE Frameworks 5.39.0, Safe Browsing in Epiphany

Links for the day
Judge Bryson Rules Against Allergan After It Used Native American Tribes to Dodge Scrutiny of Patents (IPRs); Senator Hatch Does Not Understand IPRs

Having attempted to dodge inter partes reviews (IPRs) by latching onto sovereign immunity, Allergan loses a key case and Senator Hatch is meanwhile attempting to water down IPRs albeit at the same time bemoaning patent trolls (which IPRs help neutralise)