Bonum Certa Men Certa

A Fight Over Patent Quality in the United States

The court system versus a self-justifying patent 'industry', which tries to guard and expand its power by broadening patent scope ad infinitum

"But each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs -- balance between the private and the public economy, balance between cost and hoped for advantage -- balance between the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable; balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the individual; balance between actions of the moment and the national welfare of the future. Good judgment seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration. "

--Dwight D. Eisenhower



Summary: The latest developments in the United States, which is now attempting to undo the damage caused by overpatenting -- a trap which the EPO and SIPO are currently being lured into

FOLLOWING the SCOTUS ruling on Alice -- a ruling which was embraced by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) after corrupt people like Randall Rader had left (he is still trying to return to positions of power) -- software patents have been invalidated centre, right and left. It's actually pretty major news, typically celebrated by the patent microcosm, when a software patent is upheld by a high court as valid. Whatever the USPTO grants, it doesn't matter much until the patent is actually put up to the test at a court of law. More often than not we find out that the USPTO granted patents in error (worryingly enough a trend which will grow in Europe now that patents are flying off the EPO's shelves, including software patents that are by principle invalid).



"More often than not we find out that the USPTO granted patents in error (worryingly enough a trend which will grow in Europe now that patents are flying off the EPO's shelves, including software patents that are by principle invalid)."The US patent system became notorious for granting patents on all sorts of things provided it says "over the Internet", "on a computer", and more recently "on a phone". We saw one such example in yesterday's 'news', namely "Patent for smartphone connectable scanner published in USA" (it's about exactly what it sounds like, nothing novel here). One of the most notorious patent trolls in the US was going systematically after every conceivable business that could cough up money and used a scanner (we wrote about that many times before). It's something akin to business methods if not software patents.

It is in light of this that the arrival of PTAB is very much welcomed and needed. According to this new article, a "Versata Patent [is] Targeted By Ford Ineligible For CBM Review" by PTAB:

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board declined Wednesday to institute an America Invents Act covered business method review of a Versata Development Group Inc. software patent that was challenged by Ford Motor Co., finding the patent was not eligible for the review program.

The AIA states that the CBM program — which allows the PTAB to review patents on grounds not available in inter partes reviews, including that it is directed to an abstract idea — is designed for patents that are related to financial products...


Another new PTAB article from the a trolls-friendly publisher (IAM) bemoans these reviews and sobs for a firm that produces nothing at all. To quote:

According to Lex Machina, during the period between 17th January and 17th February, IP Bridge was on the receiving end of 18 IPRs filed by GlobalFoundries, 4 filed by Xilinx and one each from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and ARM.

The Xilinx petitions came on the same day that the US chip company made a complaint for declaratory judgment of patent non-infringement covering 12 patents. The San Jose-based company also challenged the validity of four of those patents. IP Bridge had earlier sued Xilinx in the Eastern District of Texas over two separate rights, neither of which is being challenged at the PTAB.


We wrote about this quite recently, after IAM had published another sob story for the aggressor.

It certainly looks as though PTAB is gradually becoming a force for good, whose workload is also increasing. It deserves expansion, i.e. more staff (the same goes for the EPO's appeal boards). People like Dennis Crouch try to slow PTAB down and yesterday he wrote about the term "technical", which itself is somewhat of an abstract term. He looked closely at Clarilogic v FormFree Holdings. He said: "The principle that patent prosecutors are following today is in the headline: Get Technical or Get Denied."

"It certainly looks as though PTAB is gradually becoming a force for good, whose workload is also increasing."MIP, another patent maximalist, wrote about a case against the US government and Elbit (covered here over the weekend). This was not the usual case outcome, so they like to bring attention to it (drawing attention to the 20% or so of cases that are ruled in favour of the patent microcosm).

What we ought to note here is that none of this is new; people who are in the business of patents just want more and more of them. They'll never have "enough".

"The patenting of living organisms remains controversial, despite decades of debate. Sirena Rubinoff provides a guide to the arguments," MIP wrote in a separate news article.

"The problem boils down to granting of patents based on greedy people's guidelines -- those who quantify the "success" of a granting authority (patent office) by the number of patents granted rather than the quality of patents granted (which is a much harder thing to objectively measure)."These patents are outrageous and unacceptable; it isn't patent-eligible in most places. Even the EPO was forced, at least temporarily, to stop doing it (after it had repeatedly failed to comply with directives).

Such patents are not just abstract but pertaining to naturally-recurring (reproducible in nature) things. How long will it take for people to recognise that sites like IAM or MIP describe as a victim anyone whose supposed patents are not respected by courts? The problem boils down to granting of patents based on greedy people's guidelines -- those who quantify the "success" of a granting authority (patent office) by the number of patents granted rather than the quality of patents granted (which is a much harder thing to objectively measure).

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
 
People Don't Just Kill Themselves (Same for Other Animals)
And recent reports about Boeing whistleblower John Barnett
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
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE analogous to identity fraud
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
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