Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Software Patents/Litigation Industry is Dying in the United States and China Takes This Heavy Burden

Who wants predatory law firms to steer policy anyway?

UPC impact



Summary: A bogus litigation 'industry' which merely destroys the software (i.e. real) industry is being scuttled by the Supreme Court; China foolishly enough takes this 'crown', essentially creating its own 'Eastern District of Texas' in Beijing

TECHRIGHTS typically focuses on the USPTO in the weekends. As we noted yesterday afternoon (Sunday), the USPTO bubble continues to grow like it's a race towards zero patent quality. Sure, the courts say "No!" to such patents, but once granted it's expensive to prove that these patents are invalid (especially barring petitions to PTAB).



This USPTO bubble worries us. It's like examiners aren't paying attention to what their Supreme Court keeps saying. They're granting patents on almost everything, even software. Their managers try to tell us that a higher number of patents means more innovation, but everyone with a clue knows that it's a lie. Yesterday, Patently-O showed the design patents bubble -- a bubble which may very soon burst because of the Supreme Court. On the same day an Apple fan site bragged about such patents, but there's no innovation there , it's just a sort of 'insurance' for when Apple is a patent predator with no actual products.

What also worries us are reports like this one from this morning. Nigeria seems to think that it needs lots of patents because “[m]ost of the technology transfer agreements handled by NOTAP are mainly on software licensing with a huge sum of money being paid to the foreign software owners in order to encourage local software development."

Well, software patents are not valid and many of these deals are to do with copyrights, not patents. It doesn't look the writer is familiar enough with this topic.

In other news, this Watchtroll rant from yesterday was rather revealing. It certainly sounds as though patent parasites are going out of business and moan about it. After Alice and other such decisions they no longer see demand for litigation. To quote:

Today, I no longer receive these calls. There could be a few reasons why. One certainly could be that my practice has evolved over the years to concentrate more on contentious matters. I’ve spent less time on the front lines of patent prosecution as a result.

But I suspect the main reason is that inventors are giving up an expectation that patent protection is even worthwhile. And I get it. If I were to get a call these days, I could no longer paint a rosy picture for would-be patentees.


Good. I hope these people go out of business very fast. All they do is cause agony to many people and small companies. Patent lawsuits (or threats thereof) aren't productive, yet this is the kind of thing Watchtroll keeps lobbying for.

This morning we also saw this self-promotional 'article' (if that can be called an article at all) about patent parasites who are trying to leverage software patents for personal gain, at the expense of actual developers. "The Halcyon strategy," it says, "is really based around small niche plays like software patents. It's a David-vs.-Goliath type of story. It nicely aligns with our view of helping the little guy to fight the big software providers."

What they mean to say is, they'll take money from poor people to initiate pointless litigation which would likely go nowhere because of Alice. But what do they care...? They get paid even if the cases are lost. It's important to remind people not to be misled by these opportunistic law firms; software patents are neither worth the time nor justify the expense. Save the money for something else like research and development.

As noted the other day (Sunday), the EFF finally takes on so-called "AI" patents. They're just software patents disguised as "AI". These patents must be rejected, not granted at all. It turns out that the patents-savvy reporters have begun reporting on this:

Each month, the patent lawyers at the Electronic Frontier Foundation shine a spotlight on one particular patent they believe is a drag on innovation. This month, they're looking at one of the fastest-growing sectors of technology: machine learning and artificial intelligence.

EFF lawyer Daniel Nazer has picked out an artificial intelligence patent belonging to Hampton Creek, a San Francisco food-tech company that markets products under the brand name "just." US Patent No. 9,760,834 describes what the company calls its "machine-learning enabled discovery platform" and ways of discovering new ingredients.


Let's face it. The US is no longer a place for software patents. Even if such patents get granted (which happens a lot, especially when assessed by the USPTO) they are very unlikely to endure scrutiny at PTAB and/or the courts. China, however, is another matter. As we argued yesterday, China is now granting lots of terrible patents and also advertises friendliness towards plaintiffs (same as in the Eastern District of Texas). IAM has in fact just published this overview in which there's the following section about software and business methods:

To what extent can inventions covering software or computer-implemented inventions be patented?

Software, computer programs and program instructions per se are categorised as ‘rules and methods for metal activities’ and are not patentable subject matter. Nevertheless, inventions that are implemented wholly or partially through software can be patentable if they involve a technical character.

The conventional method for drafting a product claim relating to a computer program is to present a claim defining more than one functional component, each of which corresponds to a step in a computer-implemented method. This approach may be unfavourable when it comes to litigation, due to the difficulty in identifying counterparts of the software components in the relevant product.

In April 2017 the revised Guidelines for Patent Examination came into effect and the means for drafting software-related or computer-implemented claims have since become relaxed. According to the revised guidelines, computer-readable media carrying program instructions – which were previously excluded from patent protection – have become patent eligible. In addition, claims seeking to protect an apparatus comprising a memory in which computer-executable instructions are stored and a processor configured to perform actions on execution of the instructions are now acceptable.

To what extent can inventions covering business methods be patented?

Inventions covering business methods are not excluded from patent protection, provided that they involve a technical character. If a claim relating to a business model contains not only business rules and methods, but also a technical feature, it will be eligible for patent protection. However, business methods implemented with general computer and internet technology and with no improvement in terms of technical aspects may still be rejected – usually on the grounds of lack of inventiveness, rather than patent-ineligibility.


When the patent microcosm moans about "China!" (it's happening more and more this year) it basically means to say that the litigation and trolling 'business' moves there. Good riddance. Nobody needs that yoke in his/her own country. It's just self-harming and self-defeating.

With the UPC, Battistelli hopes to create his own Eastern District of Texas-like network of courts, with one based in Paris. He doesn't care if that completely dooms the EPO and the European economy. Battistelli certainly acts like a stooge of the litigation 'industry' and he surrounds himself by cronies who are not scientists and are barely qualified for their job. Many of them are French.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Slopwatch: A Cause for Hope, the Hype is Dying
For about a month we showed that becoming a slopfarm - for several weeks - resulted in utter failure and ruin for BetaNews
The EFF Sided With the Team That Strangles Women and Tells Women to Kill Themselves
They say that apathy and inaction are a form of a "stance"
Exemplary List of Things That Are Not Artificial Intelligence or Even Intelligence
The "age of AI" or "era of AI" or "AI revolution" mostly boils down to rebranding, just like "the cloud"
GitHub Copilot Can Cause the Bankruptcy of GitHub to Come Sooner and GitHub to be Shut Down Just Like Skype
Some publicly available information suggests that even for each paid subscriber for plagiarism (LLM 'coding') GitHub Copilot still loses more money than it makes
 
EPO Staff Committee on Harassment in the Workplace
slides
Adding the Voice of Writers to UK SLAPP Reform
The journey to repair antiquated (monarchy era) laws will likely be long
EPO Takes More Money From Staff for Speculation (Pensions), Actuarial Study Explains the Impact
"The key change in this year’s Actuarial Study, due to cascading the new “risk appetite” from the financial study, is a significant increase of the total pension contribution rate of 5.7 percentage points, up to a total of 37.8%. This is driven by an unprecedented decrease in the discount rate of 105 bps down to 2.2%."
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 11, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 11, 2025
Microsoft - Like IBM - Does the "Relocation" Tricks (Start Over Elsewhere, Then Get Sacked by Microsoft)
It is a "low blow" or a "dick move"
After the Free Software Foundation's Campaign to Raise Money Let's See Campaigns to Finish Off Microsoft (Vista 11, GitHub etc.)
Microsoft is in effect collapsing
Your Publications Have No Major Impact Unless or Until You "Get Some Heat"
we're on the right track
Links 11/07/2025: Censorship Worsening, 3D Printing Success Stories, UK and France Unite Around Nukes
Links for the day
Gemini Links 11/07/2025: Zorin OS and Scriptonite Updates
Links for the day
Links 11/07/2025: Hardware, Russia, and China
Links for the day
Links 11/07/2025: Intel Collapsing and Microsoft Resorts to Bribery to Push Slop Via Obligatory Education
Links for the day
"Nat [Friedman] and [the Serial Strangler From Microsoft] Were Always Exceptionally Close," Says Former Housemate and Colleague
Now Alex (hiding behind another name when that suits him) not only attacks women but also people who merely report what he did to women
New Letter From the European Patent Office Explains How the Office Plots to Grant Many Illegal Patents, a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of 'Growth'
Open letter to Mr Rowan (VP1) and Mr Aledo Lopez (COO)
Abuse of Process
5RB is employing people who help violent men
What Microsoft's Nat Friedman and Microsoft Lunduke Have in Common
"Get in da car; No time to explain, loser"
Microsoft and IBM Don't Have Much of a Future (They Mostly Pretend at This Point)
IBM and Microsoft are in some ways alike but in many ways different
It's Not Just Twitter (or X.com) That's Dying, Microsoft's Equivalent is Dying Also
Unable to find a business model
Wayland is Bad for the Planet
If you use Wayland, it'll take you longer to accomplish tasks and you will consume more energy (or battery life)
Legitimising Those Who Sabotage You
Microsoft is a very malicious company
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 10, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, July 10, 2025
On Microsoft Layoffs
we might be looking at about 60,000 Microsoft layoffs since 2023
EPO Management Already Breaks Its Own Promise (Lie) on "Bringing Teams Together"
This gut-punching move happened just 2 days ago
Gemini Links 11/07/2025: Occupation of 2025 and "Old Man Yells At Soundcloud"
Links for the day
Our Lawsuits Against the 'Cancel Mob' (Ringleaders) Helped Reduce Anti-Free Software Online Abuse
That's not to say that lawsuits are the best way to handle terrible people. But that can help.
Tomorrow is the Last Day of the Fund-Raising Campaign of the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
They will probably extend the date, as usual
Fixing Patents in Europe, Little by Little (by Transparency and Reporting of Suppressed Facts)
Tomorrow and throughout the weekend we shall focus some more on the EPO
The Two Lies Microsoft is Telling in "the News" This Week (to Distract From Layoffs and Decreased Interest in Slop/Chaff)
Microsoft is run by liars and frauds who SLAPP critics
Tux Machines Already Destroyed SLAPPs
Attacks on the mere publication of GNU/Linux news won't be tolerated
PCLinuxOS is Available for Download Again
PCLinuxOS is important to us also because its founder, back then the partner of Susan, helped create Tux Machines more than 21 years ago
Links 10/07/2025: Microsoft E-mail 'Services' Collapse Again, "Yet Another Strava Privacy Leak"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 10/07/2025: Automating Git Repo Updates and Small Web 'Zine'
Links for the day
GNU/Linux Leftovers
mostly Linux stuff
Audiocasts/Shows: Going Linux, FLOSS Weekly, and RHEL Clones
3 new picks
We Are Already Fighting - With Considerable Success - SLAPPs in the UK
we intend to tell the full story
Bullies With Pens and Papers (or Apple Macs With Templates)
Not all barristers are evil, but there are perhaps "rotten apples"
Slopwatch: webpronews.com, linuxsecurity.com, linuxjournal.com
a pile of trash disguised as 'articles'
Links 10/07/2025: Linda Yaccarino Divorces MElonazi Site, Wildfires Hit Syria
Links for the day
The History and the Policy of the EPO's Stance on Breastfeeding (Corporate Monopolies Versus Babies' Health)
"The Case for Introducing a Breastfeeding Policy at the EPO"
Gemini Links 10/07/2025: Inventing Chords and "Nightmare Boss"
Links for the day
Igor Ljubuncic Once Again Shows That for Technical Reasons Wayland Still Sucks, Performs Considerably Worse Than What Existed for Decades
That is aside from compatibility factors and other crucial factors
Links 10/07/2025: "Apple Vs The Law" and Twitter Became Full Nazi Bar
Links for the day
Unable to Find Anyone to Work as Their Media Lawyer, Brett Wilson LLP Will Continue Losing Female Staff
What sort of sick person would wish to join Brett Wilson LLP to carry this baton?
Microsoft-Sponsored Propaganda Site Has Removed False 'Hit Piece' About Dr. Stallman (With Fake and Misrepresented Imagery) But Only After 4 Years
So they only removed that page some time around 2025, i.e. about 4 years after it had been published
Always Check Your Inputs
Garbage in, garbage out. Or wrong assumptions, wrong corollary.
Dan Neidle Said That Tax Evasion Facilitator Mr Zahawi (Working to Silence Bloggers Through Brett Wilson LLP) Targeted Not Only Him (But The Others Kept Quiet)
"Mr Neidle said after repelling Mr Zahawi he was contacted by bloggers and tweeters who had received similar threats. They deleted their work “and in most cases never commented publicly on anything again”."
SLAPP Funding Transparency Urgently Needed in the UK and Elsewhere (in Practice, Not Just in Theory)
Writing about crime - including Microsoft crime - is not a crime
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 09, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, July 09, 2025
Elodie Bergot Still Doing Illegal Things at the EPO, Based on the Local Staff Committee Munich
They keep taking away from the staff while compelling the staff to do illegal things