Bonum Certa Men Certa

Patently-O is Still Trying to Derail Patent Reform in the United States

Trolly-O Patently-O



Summary: A look at the past week's posts from Patently-O reveals a blog whose tone shifts strongly against patent sanity and instead leans towards the patent 'industry'

A LOT of people regard Patently-O as/to be the "best" patent blog and many also consider it to be objective and balanced. We dispute that in view/light of recent posts from Patently-O, which were not only hostile towards PTAB (especially over the past half a year) but also friendly to patent trolls and apathetic at best towards USPTO patent quality. Using scholarly/academic veneer, Patently-O serves to reinforce patent extremism in the same way that some right-wing "news" sites embolden or reinforce white supremacy. The same cannot be said about other academics, who are mostly pro-patent reform (we've named many over the years).



"Using scholarly/academic veneer, Patently-O serves to reinforce patent extremism in the same way that some right-wing "news" sites embolden or reinforce white supremacy."The main writer at Patently-O is Dennis Crouch, who regularly attends events of the patent microcosm. According to him, Trump and his swamp might soon be defunding USPTO to have it run like a business rather than a service. We have not seen this suggestion anywhere else, so maybe it's an expression of a wish rather than a reality. Do we need another 'Battistelli' at the USPTO? To quote Crouch:

And, an interesting feature of the 2018 Republican House Proposed Budget is shrink the Department of Commerce – currently “rife with waste, abuse, and duplication,” and “Establish the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as an independent agency.”


It is already independent enough as it is. Decoupling it would make things even worse. Crouch already contributed -- along with Watchtroll and IAM -- to driving Michelle Lee out. Does he want to exacerbate things even further? Probably. Yesterday he even advertised IAM.

The more dysfunctional things get, the lower patent quality will get and thus more lawsuits -- something which these people profit from. From chaos comes order? No, to them, from chaos comes income/funding. It's rather appalling.

"The more dysfunctional things get, the lower patent quality will get and thus more lawsuits -- something which these people profit from."The patent 'industry' likes to pretend that Alice is ambiguous (or not sufficiently clear) because these people simply refuse to accept reality. No software patents are tolerated by high courts anymore and Dennis Crouch is nowadays participating in immature caricatures that bash Alice. Where it says "patent industry" it actually alludes not to a real industry but a predator/parasite which sends legal threats. Actually, Alice helped a great deal and brought benefits to the real industry. Why don't they get it? Why can't they just move on? They have been trying to take a Supreme Court's decision down for nearly four years now.

According to another new post, Dennis Crouch would even side with patent trolls if he perceived it as an opportunity to help software patents. To quote:

A new amicus brief supports RPost petition for writ of certiorari – arguing that lack-of-eligibility is not a proper defense to patentability. The brief has an interesting quote from P.J. Federico (co-author of the 1952 Patent Act) suggesting (by omission) that eligibility is not a litigation defense.


Is this encouraged as another anti-Alice 'trick'?

Either way, Patently-O seems to be getting less and less objective by the week. We have been following the blog for years and can tell the difference.

The other day it wrote about "Lost Profits", which is a loaded term which presumes entitlement to profit. This is how rich people typically think and Dennis Crouch, a rich person himself, put it like this:



Lost Profits: Like definiteness, lost profit award also requires “reasonable certainty.” In the lost profit context, the rule is applied in a more-standard approach. Namely, reasonable certainty is traditionally thought of as a standard of evidentiary proof needed for factual conclusions. This makes sense in the fact-heavy damages context but not so much in the indefiniteness arena that is very often seen as wholly a question of law.

Here, the appellate court held that lost profits due to the infringement were not proven because the district court did not consider whether a non-infringing alternative would have been an acceptable/available substitute to the patentee’s product. A new trial is necessary now to calculate the reasonable royalty damages that will presumably be less than the $2 million lost profit verdict overturned on appeal.


Last but not least (from the past week), Crouch spotted something in the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) which cites a case from 70 years ago. To quote: "At the point of Novelty: An interesting bit of the opinion harkens back to the Supreme Court’s 1946 Halliburton decision – holding that functional claim language is particularly problematic when done at the point of novelty. Here, the court does not cite Halliburton but does note that the “asserted advance over the prior art” is the particular layered arrangement of the device, not “the choices of materials to perform each of the required catalytic processes.” Rather, those materials were expected to be ones already well known in the industry.

"Here, of course, the Federal Circuit is not suggesting that Halliburton is good law, but the court does implicitly conclude that there are important distinctions in the indefiniteness analysis when considering terms directed to well-known versus novel features."

"It's possible to be courteous and hold terrible views at the same time; these things aren't contradictory."The Federal Circuit (CAFC) is very different nowadays. We've commended the new chief judge, who is preceded by at least two patent maximalists who left a legacy of mischief if not corruption (Rader). They supported patent trolls, software patents, and much worse. The Supreme Court is nowadays overturning many of these decisions.

We certainly hope that the Supreme Court will set the law (de facto/caselaw) instead of the old CAFC, which was good for nobody except the patent microcosm and people like Crouch.

Truth be told, the legal 'industry' is imploding in the US as far as patents go. There's less demand for it. That's how it should be. Expect blogs like Patently-O to moan and bemoan the status quo. Crouch may do this politely and professionally, but his views will still be rubbish. It's possible to be courteous and hold terrible views at the same time; these things aren't contradictory.

Recent Techrights' Posts

With 9 Mentions of Azure In Its Latest Blog Post, Canonical is Again Promoting Microsoft and Intel Vendor Lock-in, Surveillance, Back Doors, Considerable Power Waste, and Defects That Cannot be Fixed
Microsoft did not even have to buy Canonical (for Canonical to act like it happened)
Links 28/03/2024: GAFAM Replacing Full-Time Workers With Interns Now
Links for the day
Consent & Debian's illegitimate constitution
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
The Time Our Server Host Died in a Car Accident
If Debian has internal problems, then they need to be illuminated and then tackled, at the very least in order to ensure we do not end up with "Deadian"
China's New 'IT' Rules Are a Massive Headache for Microsoft
On the issue of China we're neutral except when it comes to human rights issues
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 27, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 27, 2024
WeMakeFedora.org: harassment decision, victory for volunteers and Fedora Foundations
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 27/03/2024: Terrorism Grows in Africa, Unemployment in Finland Rose Sharply in a Year, Chinese Aggression Escalates
Links for the day
Links 27/03/2024: Ericsson and Tencent Layoffs
Links for the day
Amid Online Reports of XBox Sales Collapsing, Mass Layoffs in More Teams, and Windows Making Things Worse (Admission of Losses, Rumours About XBox Canceled as a Hardware Unit)...
Windows has loads of issues, also as a gaming platform
Links 27/03/2024: BBC Resorts to CG Cruft, Akamai Blocking Blunders in Piracy Shield
Links for the day
Android Approaches 90% of the Operating Systems Market in Chad (Windows Down From 99.5% 15 Years Ago to Just 2.5% Right Now)
Windows is down to about 2% on the Web-connected client side as measured by statCounter
Sainsbury's: Let Them Eat Yoghurts (and Microsoft Downtimes When They Need Proper Food)
a social control media 'scandal' this week
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 26, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
Windows/Client at Microsoft Falling Sharply (Well Over 10% Decline Every Quarter), So For His Next Trick the Ponzi in Chief Merges Units, Spices Everything Up With "AI"
Hiding the steep decline of Windows/Client at Microsoft?
Free technology in housing and construction
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
We Need Open Standards With Free Software Implementations, Not "Interoperability" Alone
Sadly we're confronting misguided managers and a bunch of clowns trying to herd us all - sometimes without consent - into "clown computing"
Microsoft's Collapse in the Web Server Space Continued This Month
Microsoft is the "2%", just like Windows in some countries
Links 26/03/2024: Inflation Problems, Strikes in Finland
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/03/2024: Losing Children, Carbon Tax Discussed
Links for the day
Mark Shuttleworth resigns from Debian: volunteer suicide and Albania questions unanswered, mass resignations continue
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 26/03/2024: 6,000 Layoffs at Dell, Microsoft “XBox is in Real Trouble as a Hardware Manufacturer”
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/03/2024: Microsofters Still Trying to 'Extend' Gemini Protocol
Links for the day
Look What IBM's Red Hat is Turning CentOS Into
For 17 years our site ran on CentOS. Thankfully we're done with that...
The Julian Paul Assange Verdict: The High Court Has Granted Assange Leave to Appeal Extradition to the United States, Decision Adjourned to May 20th Pending Assurances
The decision is out
The Microsoft and Apple Antitrust Issues Have Some But Not Many Commonalities
gist of the comparison to Microsoft
ZDNet, Sponsored by Microsoft for Paid-for Propaganda (in 'Article' Clothing), Has Added Pop-Up or Overlay to All Pages, Saying "813 Partners Will Store and Access Information on Your Device"
Avoiding ZDNet may become imperative given what it has turned into
Julian Assange Verdict 3 Hours Away
Their decision is due to be published at 1030 GMT
People Who Cover Suicide Aren't Suicidal
Assange didn't just "deteriorate". This deterioration was involuntary and very much imposed upon him.
Overworking Kills
The body usually (but not always) knows best
Former Red Hat Chief (CEO), Who Decided to Leave the Company Earlier This Month, Talks About "Cloud Company Red Hat" to CNBC
shows a lack of foresight and dependence on buzzwords
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 25, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, March 25, 2024
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
Discord Does Not Make Money, It's Spying on People and Selling Data/Control (38% is Allegedly Controlled by the Communist Party of China)
a considerable share exists
In At Least Two Nations Windows is Now Measured at 2% "Market Share" (Microsoft Really Does Not Want People to Notice That)
Ignore the mindless "AI"-washing
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) Still Has Hundreds of Thousands of Simultaneously-Online Unique Users
The scale of IRC