Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Patent Microcosm is Already Sucking up to Donald Trump in an Effort to Enrich Itself at Everyone's Expense

Patent maximalists have been spreading this meme for quite a few weeks if not months

Make Patents Great Again



Summary: Four new examples of patent maximalists embracing/adopting the pseudo-populist slogan to advance their goals of increasing litigation (which they profit from) and undermining PTAB (which made patents great in the quality sense)

IT IS OFTEN said that politicians flip sides (defect) or flush down their principles when a better opportunity arises. That is why many GOP politicians suddenly apologise and sidle with Trump, hoping to salvage/scrape some powerful position/s in his cabinet. The Republican Party as a whole has been like that; the same goes for the business world and even fellow oligarchs like Bill Gates. Suddenly they want to be friends with Trump, as they hope to get something from (or through) him.



"Suddenly they want to be friends with Trump, as they hope to get something from (or through) him."This post is not political, however, and it isn't intended to fall for the "left" [sic] versus "right" false dichotomy. This post is about the patent microcosm, which is a surrogate for a profession, not a political party (separate and partly overlapping dimensions). The patent microcosm has been "China"-baiting like Trump (even if he himself relies on China) and it pretends to stand for one thing while doing the opposite. For instance, it insists it's interested in "innovation" -- however one defines it -- and in practice it crushes innovation.

"Make Patents Great Again" is a disturbing term (motto/slogan) we have been coming across for a while. We have already given examples where the patent microcosm spreads this term. Even a seemingly 'leftist' site like Patently-O does this right now (in the headline even!). What it speaks about is filling the swamp, so to speak, by appointing an utterly corrupt and disgraced judge, Mr. Rader (we wrote about his scandals many times in the past). To quote Patently-O: "Scott Graham of The National Law Journal reports that Chief Judge Rader is in the mix to be the next USPTO Director. Rader wrote hundreds of patent opinions during his 15 years on the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, including four as Chief Judge. Prior to joining the judiciary, Rader spent eight years as counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights. He is a recipient of the Jefferson Medal for exceptional contributions to the field of intellectual property law. In a fairly minor scandal, Judge Rader resigned from the bench in 2014."

"This whole "great again" meme/motto has become somewhat of a plague this year."It wasn't minor at all. It was a serious scandal.

The above screenshot (this rather disturbing photo of a hat where "great" means "litigation") comes from an IAM tweet. As Benjamin Henrion said in his response, "make software patents great again -> they were never great."

Even if they were, that would go back to the days when patents were few and of high quality. Right now they are anything but great because many of them are bogus, low quality, etc. We're all in favour of patents being great; but what we mean by "great" is "high quality", hence fewer (and thus more potent).

This whole "great again" meme/motto has become somewhat of a plague this year. For self gain again, as in "How Trump Can Make Intellectual Property Great Again" (new headline), "James Edwards [...] consultant on intellectual property and health policy," writes:

On the path to making America great again, President-elect Donald Trump will have a tremendous opportunity to reverse the steady slide away from a property rights-oriented American patent system.

There are good reasons to believe a Trump administration will readily grasp this critical problem and work to revitalize the American patent regime.

First, someone like Trump who has succeeded so well on the world’s biggest stages in real estate development will readily understand the fundamental need for sound, secure, enforceable property rights. After all, you face huge risks and problems developing real estate if you haven’t first secured the rights to that property.


More lobbying of Trump? And again for patent maximalism? Under the guise of litigation being "great"? We expect a lot more of that in the coming months. The motto-isation of their agenda is a sick, selfish plot.

Peter Harter and Gene Quinn (Watchtroll) sort of support Trump in their desperate effort to revive software patents, having just published "Will Patent Courts Be Great Again?"

"More litigation (again) and a patent gold rush (again) isn't what will make America (US) great. It's actually one of the reason it's not great and it's why many small businesses perish."Now they say "Patent Courts"... because what they want is not great patents (good quality) but a lot of litigation. And they profit from litigation...

"Hopefully it won’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the PTAB is a controversial venue choice," Watchtroll writes. No, it's only controversial in the eyes of the patent microcosm, which simply hates PTAB because it does what's right. They are concluding with "Courts can make patents great again in America. And if not they will at least be as active as they have been in the past 10 years in terms of shaping the patent dialogue."

More litigation (again) and a patent gold rush (again) isn't what will make America (US) great. It's actually one of the reason it's not great and it's why many small businesses perish.

PTAB itself is working against bad patents and thus protecting small businesses. That's what usually happens upon petitioning, which is affordable (unlike court cases that push start-ups towards bankruptcy). Recently we wrote about 8 wireless patents that got invalidated thanks to Section 101 and Dennis Crouch from Patently-O has a new article about Wi-Fi One v. Broadcom. It's about PTAB. To quote: "The PTAB rejected Wi-Fi’s argument and call for discovery on the issue — holding that the “privy” requirement could only be met if Broadcom had the right to control the District Court litigation."

"PTAB itself is working against bad patents and thus protecting small businesses."Crouch also wrote about "Separation of Powers Restoration Act" and noted that "[f]or the [US]PTO, the change would open the door to challenge the PTO’s implementation of its PTAB Trial procedures as well as examination procedures, examination requirements, etc since any “rule” created by the PTO can be challenged with de novo review as well as any questions of law (even where the PTO has authority to make those determinations and was previously given deference)."

This kind of "separation of powers" is what the EPO was supposed to have (until President Battistelli attacked the equivalent of PTAB). Imagine a President Trump doing the same to PTAB in the US...

Recent Techrights' Posts

Comparing U.E.F.I. to B.I.O.S. (Bloat and Insecurity to K.I.S.S.)
By Sami Tikkanen
New 'Slides' From Stallman Support (stallmansupport.org) Site
"In celebration of RMS's birthday, we've been playing a bit. We extracted some quotes from the various articles, comments, letters, writings, etc. and put them in the form of a slideshow in the home page."
Thailand: GNU/Linux Up to 6% of Desktops/Laptops, According to statCounter
Desktop Operating System Market Share Thailand
António Campinos is Still 'The Fucking President' (in His Own Words) After a Fake 'Election' in 2022 (He Bribed All the Voters to Keep His Seat)
António Campinos and the Administrative Council, whose delegates he clearly bribed with EPO budget in exchange for votes
Adrian von Bidder, homeworking & Debian unexplained deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Sainsbury’s Epic Downtime Seems to be Microsoft's Fault and Might Even Constitute a Data Breach (Legal Liability)
one of Britain's largest groceries (and beyond) chains
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE analogous to identity fraud
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
 
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 18, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, March 18, 2024
Suicide Cluster Cover-up tactics & Debian exposed
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 19/03/2024: A Society That Lost Focus and Abandoning Social Control Media
Links for the day
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE: Plagiarism & Child labour in YH4F
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Linux Foundation Boasting About Being Connected to Bill Gates
Examples of boasting about the association
Alexandre Oliva's Article on Monstering Cults
"I'm told an earlier draft version of this post got published elsewhere. Please consider this IMHO improved version instead."
[Meme] 'Russian' Elections in Munich (Bavaria, Germany)
fake elections
Sainsbury's to Techrights: Yes, Our Web Site Broke Down, But We Cannot Say Which Part or Why
Windows TCO?
Plagiarism: Axel Beckert (ETH Zurich) & Debian Developer list hacking
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 18/03/2024: Putin Cements Power
Links for the day
Flashback 2003: Debian has always had a toxic culture
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
[Meme] You Know You're Winning the Argument When...
EPO management starts cursing at everybody (which is what's happening)
Catspaw With Attitude
The posts "they" complain about merely point out the facts about this harassment and doxing
'Clown Computing' Businesses Are Waning and the Same Will Happen to 'G.A.I.' Businesses (the 'Hey Hi' Fame)
decrease in "HEY HI" (AI) hype
Free Software Needs Watchdogs, Too
Gentle lapdogs prevent self-regulation and transparency
Gemini Links 18/03/2024: LLM Inference and Can We Survive Technology?
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 17, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, March 17, 2024
Links 17/03/2024: Microsoft Windows Shoves Ads Into Third-Party Software, More Countries Explore TikTok Ban
Links for the day
Molly Russell suicide & Debian Frans Pop, Lucy Wayland, social media deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Our Plans for Spring
Later this year we turn 18 and a few months from now our IRC community turns 16
Open Invention Network (OIN) Fails to Explain If Linux is Safe From Microsoft's Software Patent Royalties (Charges)
Keith Bergelt has not replied to queries on this very important matter
RedHat.com, Brought to You by Microsoft Staff
This is totally normal, right?
USPTO Corruption: People Who Don't Use Microsoft Will Be Penalised ~$400 for Each Patent Filing
Not joking!
The Hobbyists of Mozilla, Where the CEO is a Bigger Liability Than All Liabilities Combined
the hobbyist in chief earns much more than colleagues, to say the least; the number quadrupled in a matter of years
Jim Zemlin Says Linux Foundation Should Combat Fraud Together With the Gates Foundation. Maybe They Should Start With Jim's Wife.
There's a class action lawsuit for securities fraud
Not About Linux at All!
nobody bothers with the site anymore; it's marketing, and now even Linux
Links 17/03/2024: Abuses Against Human Rights, Tesla Settlement (and Crash)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 16, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, March 16, 2024
Under Taliban, GNU/Linux Share Nearly Doubled in Afghanistan, Windows Sank From About 90% to 68.5%
Suffice to say, we're not meaning to imply Taliban is "good"
Debian aggression: woman asked about her profession
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 17/03/2024: Winter Can't Hurt Us Anymore and Playstation Plus
Links for the day