CPTN all over again

Summary: Microsoft's patent collectors (trolls) are to have a feast with Nokia patents while Intellectual Ventures, Microsoft's largest patent proxy, continues to attack companies including Motorola

THE world's biggest patent troll, Intellectual Ventures, recently received yet more subsidies from Microsoft. Microsoft may think we're all idiots, but it's easy to see who runs this troll (former Microsoft manager and Bill Gates' close friend and partner), how the troll attacks practicing companies through thousands of proxies (literally thousands), who subsidises it (Microsoft and Bill Gates, who is working closely with this troll), and who the litigation targets are (the troll has collected more money from Microsoft and it will never target Microsoft, which is a spiritual ally). This is why we often refer to this troll, one among several Microsoft-associated trolls, as Microsoft's and Bill Gates' patent troll. It is no exaggeration and not a misnomer. We have watched this troll closely for about 7 years now.

According to this report, "Intellectual Ventures (IV) is the world's biggest patent-licensing company and boasts of having collected tens of thousands of patents since it was founded in 2000. It's raised about $6 billion from investors over the years, and to recoup that money, it started filing lawsuits over patents a few years ago. In 2013, it launched a new salvo, filing 13 lawsuits against major US banks, including Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, and Capital One.

"The Capital One case ended last Wednesday, when a Virginia federal judge threw out the two IV patents that remained in the case. It's the first IV patent case seen through to a judgment, and it ended in a total loss for the patent-holding giant: both patents were invalidated, one on multiple grounds. (An IV case against Motorola went to a jury, but it ended in a mistrial, and no new trial has been scheduled.)"

Notice the role of Motorola there. It is possible that this troll can even pressure Motorola into a patent deal with Microsoft (appeasement by peer). It is not improbable.

On goes the article from a patent trolls expert: "The case was just weeks away from a jury trial, but US District Judge Anthony Trenga didn't let it get that far. In an opinion published Wednesday, Trenga found that IV's patents were simply abstract ideas: "nothing more than the mere manipulation or reorganization of data," he wrote. "At most, the patents describe a more efficient system or method for performing tasks than could be done without a computer, i.e. monitoring expenditures according to preset limits (the '137 Patent) or determining what would appeal to a particular user from a particular website (the '382 Patent.)""

So this one patent troll lost this time around, but Microsoft (and Bill Gates) has other patent trolls with whom to attack Microsoft competitors and potential sources of income (through patent shakedown).

We recently and habitually wrote about how Microsoft was destroying Nokia while leaving the patents outside for attacks on Linux/Android from proxies such as MOSAID. Well, based on this report, the plot is now a "success" (Nokia destroyed, mission accomplished by Elop the mole), customer data held by Nokia (Europe) will be passed to NSA PRISM (through Microsoft, which has just issued disgusting PR/reassurances on the topic) and "grand old name of Nokia will be dropped from the company's title as soon as the Microsoft takeover is rubber stamped this month, according to a letter sent by the new owners to suppliers."

It's a real shame that European regulators don't quite grasp the fact that not Nokia will become the patent troll; Microsoft ensures that Nokia patents get sent to non-practising proxies (several of them already) which work to eliminate low-cost phones, especially if they run Android/Linux. ⬆