04.06.17
Gemini version available ♊︎IBM, IPO, AIPLA, ABA and Other Lobbying/Front Groups of the Patent Microcosm Are Trying to Change US Law for Software Patents
Source: David Kappos interview with Intellectual Property Magazine (2010), modified by us
Summary: The ruthless attempts to run over companies that create software and don’t have ~50,000 patents (including software patents) definitely carry on, and this serves to show just how crooked the process of legislation has become, complete with lobbyists, think tanks, and subversive agents of monopoly
EARLIER this year we took note of IBM establishing a sort of "task force" (their word) with IPO, in which IBM took leadership with clearly malicious intent like resurgence of software patents. It was hardly even made secret, they just didn’t advertise this to geeks who are ‘supposed’ to think that IBM is a ‘friend’. It’s an enemy now. For what it’s worth, participating in it were the other ‘usual suspects’.
“Rewriting [Section] 101 in an echo chamber called IPO,” Benjamin Henrion noted yesterday (after we had spotted this too), there was activity in which “no developer involved, only large companies again…”
“It was hardly even made secret, they just didn’t advertise this to geeks who are ‘supposed’ to think that IBM is a ‘friend’.”Watch who’s in there: IBM’s Manny Schecter, David Kappos (worked for IBM and still paid by IBM, with a USPTO period in between and no ‘cool-off’ time), and even Bob Stoll!
MIP wrote about it: “The cover story assesses the chances of a change to the test for patentable subject matter under Section 101 in the US. Calls for changing 101 are increasing. In January, for example, a proposed amendment from the Intellectual Property Owners Association provided one concrete way to do it. We spoke to patent practitioners including IBM’s Manny Schecter, Cravath’s c and Drinker Biddle’s Bob Stoll to assess what impact 101 is having now and what should change.”
“All they care about is money and if they get to shape the law, guess whose money they will pocket or at whose expense they will enrich themselves…”So here they are. A bunch of self-serving, greedy, manipulative lobbyists trying to rewrite the law for personal gain. Where is the outrage? In another post, this one behind a paywall, it says that “The ABA has proposed an amendment to Section 101, which follows an IPO subject matter eligibility proposal in January. The president of AIPLA has told Managing IP his association’s board will likely approve a 101 proposal within the next six weeks”
Well, we must never ever let the American Bar Association (ABA) or AIPLA override or rewrite US patent law. It’s like letting oil companies and their lobbyists write up environmental regulations! All they care about is money and if they get to shape the law, guess whose money they will pocket or at whose expense they will enrich themselves… █
ᶃ Gemini Space
This post is also available in 
Content is available under CC-BY-SA