Bonum Certa Men Certa

'US Inventor' is an Extremist Group Created by Watchtroll (Not Inventors) to Troll the USPTO for Patent Maximalism

The true colours of the founder of that ridiculous (and minuscule) account, Mr. Morinville [1, 2]

Paul Morinville sickened



Summary: The face behind so-called 'US Inventor' (an anti-PTAB group) which enlists, apparently, a handful of people and does not actually represent American inventors

THERE is no lack of radicalism in patent circles, even if they try to disguise this as professionalism or even inventorship. With words like "ownership" and "property" (even "piracy") they seek to mislead the public, but it doesn't always work.

Dennis Crouch, a prominent part of the problem, has been bashing PTAB for quite some time. Days ago he even defended patent trolls from the EFF and earlier this week he wrote about USPTO statistics; it's anything but benign, but improvements have been made in recent years.

Worse things have come from Watchtroll, a site of patent extremists and very rarely some moderates. A couple of days ago, for example, Neel Chatterjee said that a "Patent ‘gold rush’ [is] to blame for patent sharks, patent trolls," noting quite correctly the correlation to software patents. "The roots of the modern patent troll boom," he said, "can be traced to a similar expansion in the definition of patentable subject matter sparked by the Federal Circuit’s 1998 State St. Bank & Trust Co. v. Signature Fin. Grp., Inc. decision eliminating the so-called “business method exception” for software that produced a “useful, concrete, and tangible result.” In the 10 years following the Federal Circuit’s 1998 decision, the number of granted software patents expanded from approximately 30,000 per year to over 100,000 per year."

Much of Watchtroll, however, has been a cesspool of patent propaganda. Some of the most aggressive actors out there, including the site's founder, keep bashing PTAB and pushing hard for software patents almost every day/week. Some of their most extreme pieces come from Morinville, who sounds like a rabid Trump supporter (recall his constant online bullying of Michelle Lee) and has been begging for attention recently because he organised a ridiculous 'event' which turned out to be a massive failure. Funnily enough, it seems like he organised it in Facebook, in order to protest Facebook. The head of 'IP' [sic] at Google, incidentally, has just quit to join Facebook.

We expected the event to receive no media attention, as it received barely any attention online (or presence). We mentioned it briefly the other day, but only very briefly. When a radical group of patent extremists from Watchtroll (and cohorts) get together about a dozen people we don't deem it noteworthy and definitely not newsworthy. We were wrong, however, as a couple of sites got trolled (or tricked) into writing articles about it.

Basicallly, ones who are hypocritical to the extreme (for reasons noted here last week) must have pressed on the media. WIPR really fell for it and played along (via). Here is the relevant part:

Paul Morinville, founder of US Inventor, said: “The PTAB, a rogue administrative tribunal, is neutering or invalidating over 92% of challenged patents.”

He added that it takes millions of dollars to fight at the PTAB, so “very few inventors and start-ups can protect their patent rights”.

Morinville concluded that the board is a “disaster and must be eliminated”.


Yeah, patent quality is such “disaster and must be eliminated,” right, Paul?

So a so-called 'inventor' finally realised his patent is worthless (and was likely bogus all alone), then decided to burn it. Big deal. Like a child.

We were even more surprised to see this covered in bigger media last night (the headline again focused on the fiery publicity stunt that's akin to radical book-burning). The article also said:

President Donald Trump hasn’t nominated a replacement for former PTO Director Michelle K. Lee, who resigned in June.

Lee was popular among technology companies. However, patent owner and inventor groups criticized her for not reining in a PTAB they consider overly aggressive in invalidating patents.

Joseph Matal, a former congressional aide who played a leading role in drafting the AIA, was appointed June 7 as PTO acting director.


It doesn't look like an unauthorised protest by a few people who burn paper will have any impact on Matal and his colleagues. If anything, it serves to show what sorts of people are behind the anti-PTAB rhetoric. As we put it earlier this year, "Michelle Lee, USPTO Director, Should Recognise That the Patent Microcosm is Her Enemy Which Hates Her"...

Recent Techrights' Posts

EPO Workers Point Out that the EPO is Destroying the Planet Under the Guise of "Hey Hi" (It Also Grants Many Invalid Patents Illegally
On 12 March and 16 June 2025, staff representation met with the administration in the Local Occupational Health, Safety and Ergonomics Committee (LOHSEC) in Munich
How the European Union (EU) Fell Out of Love With Free/Libre Software
Lots of bribery
Certificate Authority Let's Encrypt Has Almost Gone Down to Zero, Nearly Totally Extinct in Geminispace, the Few Capsules Still Using It Are Spam/Dead/Stagnant
This represents another decrease for Let's Encrypt; the last decrease was last week
Trying to Silence Techrights Was a Huge Mistake
Peter Thiel attacked a publisher for asserting, correctly, that he was gay. Now everyone knows it.
 
Gemini Links 08/09/2025: Socialist Computer Museum and GAFAM/ByteDance/TikTok-Dominated Net
Links for the day
Links 08/09/2025: Tim Crook Disappoints Apple Faithfuls and Zuckerberg Lies (Financial Fraud) for Cheeto King
Links for the day
Turn Off Microsoft's Restricted Boot ("Secure Boot")
We're still running a series on this issue
Social Control Media Sites Have Become Bot Farms (Not Limited to LLMs and Automation)
linkedin.com was nothing but trouble and losses for Microsoft
Deep in Debt With the Magnitude of Losses Quickly Growing, Microsoft "Open" "Hey Hi" Now Uses Broadcom for Vapourware, Pretending It'll Do OK Next Year
At some stage it'll collapse
You Can Tell Microsoft is in Trouble When Its Own Fans and Staff Blast it
"Microsoft sinks billions into chasing artificial intelligence fads to hype up its share price."
Multiple Undersea Cable Cuts and We're Still OK
Microsoft customers experience problems
Lawyers Who Think They Are Online Assassins Don't Deserve a Licence to Operate
they've become a laughing stock in their "sector"
Microsoft Windows Fell to 3.9% "Market Share" in Bahamas
Based on statCounter
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, September 07, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, September 07, 2025
Gemini Links 07/09/2025: Scanner, Slop, and Chadobear
Links for the day
The UEFI 9/11 is 3 Days Away
Nobody denies that bad things will happen
Google Versus Journalism
Google played a big role in the demise of news sites
Gemini Links 07/09/2025: Advertising, Decentralized Archival, and Outsourcing to Bezos
Links for the day
Not Much Left in News Cycles
To be very clear, this does not describe "Linux" anything; it's true in just about every facet of news, except the paid-for fake "journalism" about "hey hi" (sites getting paid explicitly to maintain or rekindle hype)
Throwing Away "Old" Computers (Mozilla and Other Climate Deniers)
Mozilla is not leftist
The UEFI 9/11 - Part VIII - Denial of Service and Selling Us WSL (Windows) Instead of "Risky" (Prone by Breakage by Microsoft) GNU/Linux
Restricted Boot (so-called 'SecureBoot') does not improve security. It is nothing but trouble. It's meant to trouble non-Windows users. In dual-boot setups, SecureBoot is a recipe for disaster because Microsoft keeps erasing or tampering with the boot sector, to paraphrase an associate
Slop is Extremely Rare in Geminispace, Slop Images Are Unheard Of (Despite Images Being Supported)
As long as Geminispace grows in terms of domains it's safe to predict the protocol will still be used in 2029 and hence Geminispace will turn 10
Links 07/09/2025: Robodebt Class Action, Fines, and Copyright Settlement
Links for the day
Links 07/09/2025: Yle Impersonated in Social Control Media, Boat-Attacking Orcas, Midjourney Sued Again
Links for the day
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, Linux Journal, and the Serial Slopper
Google won't tackle the issue because Google participates not only in relaying slop but also in generating lots of it
Links 07/09/2025: Google Fines in EU and "Your Internet Access Is at Risk"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/09/2025: Little Brother and Corporate Theatre
Links for the day
Links 07/09/2025: More Harms of Slop and Anthropic's Nightmare Scenario (Huge Legal Liabilities for Slop)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, September 06, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, September 06, 2025
Microsoft Sites Now Talking About September's Mass Layoffs at Microsoft
It's noteworthy that even Microsoft's MSN now covers the latest revelations about mass layoffs
Gemini Links 06/09/2025: SpellBinding Moving and "The Cloud" Ridiculed
Links for the day
Slopwatch: On "the Apology Industry", Chatbots (Punchbag for Customers), and Fake Articles About "Linux"
"news reporting priorities changed"
Links 06/09/2025: "Covid Incidence on the Rise" and Many Attacks on the Press Worldwide
Links for the day
The Register Bill
The Register MS - putting the "MS" in your centre of the universe
Analogies for "Memory Safety" in Rust
Don't worry, it's Rust! It can do anything!
Nobody Denies That SecureBoot Will Cause Problems After September 11
Not even Microsoft
Gemini Links 06/09/2025: Infinite Scrolling and Posting from Emacs
Links for the day
Links 06/09/2025: GitHub Meltdown Over Slop, "U.S. Jury Says Google Should Pay $425 Million in Privacy Lawsuit"
Links for the day
Despite Its Severe Financial Problems Gnome Foundation Inc Paid Rosanna Yuen Over 100,000 Dollars Last Year
maybe relocation should be considered
The "Left" and the Right"
It poisons everything
Mozilla and Rust Are Not Leftists
they're part of the mass consumerism machine
Disposable to Microsoft
There is an extensive set of people who got used by Microsoft, only to be thrown away a month later or a year later or a decade later
The UEFI 9/11 - Part VII - This Coming Week Many PCs Will Refuse to Boot "Linux" (Because of Microsoft's Expired Certificate)
The real solution is, disable "secure boot" or "SecureBoot" while it's still possible. [...] Just like submarine patents, a lot of this problem was "hibernating" for a while
The Thing Nobody in Red Hat Wants to Talk About Openly
There is a real sentiment or worry among Red Hatters, Europeans and Americans in particulars (because of higher salary expectations)
Slopwatch: Small Parade of Fake News About "Linux" and Scams Borrowing the Name (or Word) "Linux"
In practice, LLMs are a risk
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, September 05, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, September 05, 2025