Bonum Certa Men Certa

In Keith Raniere v Microsoft Both Sides Are Evil But for Different Reasons

Cult leader and patent troll

Keith Raniere



Summary: Billing for patent lawyers reveals an abusive strategy from Microsoft, which responded to abusive patent litigation (something which Microsoft too has done for well over a decade)

THE patent policy at the USPTO is crucial in ensuring patent justice; not everyone can afford a court battle, so a patent grant alone can cause plenty of injustice in the form of extortion rackets (extrajudicial).



"This is about software patents."Raniere (known for a "a multi-level marketing cult") is in some headlines again. Mr. Nazer (EFF) said some months ago that the "self-declared genius behind the group, Keith Raniere, is also a patent troll," citing an old article of ours (Raniere has been mentioned on other occasions since then). Dennis Crouch decided to write about it just before the weekend, revealing the likely bogus costs Microsoft claims to have paid/incurred. To quote Crouch:

Here, those costs add up — $450,000 in attorney fees for the defendants win at the ultra-preliminary stage for lack-of-standing. Let me note – this is ridiculous $450k to win on standing grounds. OMG! Note – the bill submitted was greater, but the Judge reduced it by 20%.

[...]

I would hope that defendants could win that case for less than $450,000.


This is about software patents. As WIPR put it, "Raniere had claimed that the companies had infringed his software patents, US numbers 6,373,936; 6,819,752; 7,215,752; 7,391,856; and 7,844,041."

Why did the USPTO grant such patents in the first place. But no matter how ugly and abusive Raniere may be, Microsoft is no innocent party either because Microsoft probably made that number up to cushion its greedy/corrupt patent lawyers. No way they should ever charge this much for so little!

As WIPR put it, "AT&T and Microsoft [claimed and got] nearly $450,000 of attorneys’ fees," but it barely got anywhere at all. To quote:

Keith Raniere, the leader of a self-help group in the US, has been told he must pay telecoms company AT&T and Microsoft nearly $450,000 of attorneys’ fees and costs in a patent dispute.

Yesterday, April 18, a unanimous three-judge panel at US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court’s decision to dismiss the case in 2016 and grant the attorneys’ fees as a sanction for Raniere’s conduct.

[...]

According to the Federal Circuit, Raniere had argued that his conduct was not “sufficiently egregious” to justify imposition of sanctions under the district court’s powers, but this was rejected by the Texas court.

The district court awarded $300,295 to AT&T and $143,719 to Microsoft in attorneys’ fees and costs.

Raniere appealed against the district court’s fee award, but the Federal Circuit concluded that the district court hadn’t erred in finding AT&T and Microsoft to be the prevailing parties and that it didn’t abuse its discretion in awarding attorneys’ fees and costs.


There are several lessons here: first, software patents should not be granted; second, companies like Microsoft make up numbers to enrich themselves or lawyers; third, it's not hard to see why patent law firms lobby so hard for bad patents (e.g. against PTAB) and for software patents (e.g. against Section 101).

Patent maximalism is a disease. It's being introduced by patent trolls and lawyers who assume that their existence is necessary for society and lie to themselves about promoting/protecting innovation.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Disinformation and Marketing Spam From and For OIN (GAFAM's and IBM's Weapon Against Free Software Activists and Reformists Against Software Patents)
All in all, this anniversary is just a PR stunt with revisionism
Google Spreading Misinformation and Lies
Google is in the propaganda business
New Video Report About Microsoft Cancelling Multi-Billion Dollar Projects
direct link to the video
Microsoft is Already Laying Off Lots of Contractors
cost-cutting at Microsoft takes a new "edge"
 
Links 29/04/2025: Microsoft Infosys Layoffs, 'Popcorn Lung' With Vapers, Hong Kong Banning Possession of e-cigarettes in Public
Links for the day
Gemini Links 29/04/2025: Hey-Hi (AI) Isn't Your Friend/Lover, Mastodon is a Mess, and Mandelbrot Programming
Links for the day
Just Sending More and More Threats Does Not Change the Fact We Got Abused for Many Years and Women Got Strangled
Wanting a "gag order" - or sometimes injunctions - by sending many threats
Links 29/04/2025: Water Scarcity, LLM Slop Backfiring Again in Legal Documents
Links for the day
statCounter: GNU/Linux Adoption Surging in Switzerland, Windows at All-time Low
What happened?
Gemini Links 28/04/2025: Free Speech and Perfectionism in Design
Links for the day
What Fake News Looks Like (IBM)
IBM told a lie. The media then just blindly repeated this lie.
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, April 28, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, April 28, 2025
China is Already Culling GAFAM (Not Just Microsoft Windows)
OS monoculture or "OS hegemony" may be coming to an end
The "Telephone Operating System in the Vatican" is 95 Years Old, Vatican Moved to GNU/Linux
Maybe Microsoft is down to zero already
If Tesla Shares (and Alleged Value) Fell 55% (From $489 to $222) in a Few Months Maybe It's Not Worth Anything At All (It's Just Gambling)
Tesla swasticars have turned from a "status symbol" into a "public embarrassment" and cause for casual humiliation
Coming Soon: Microsoft Fake Results, Mass Layoffs, and Silence About All the People Microsoft Pressured to "Quit" (So That They Don't Get Counted as Layoffs)
there will be more mass layoffs
Chromebooks' Adoption in Sweden No Longer Depends on Schools
School breaks are when classrooms are shut
No, IBM is Not Investing $150 Billion in the US and It Doesn't Even Have That Kind of Money
Here we go again... media as a vehicle of lobbying and misinformation
Leak: The EPO's General Consultative Committee (GCC) Does Not Consult Staff on Crucial Matters and Bypasses the Administrative Council (AC) to Do Illegal Things
violations against the EPO's very staff
New Leaks Coming Soon, We Maintain 100% Record of Successful Resistance to Censorship
We won't be told what we can and cannot say (especially when it's true)
Central African Republic (CAR): Vista 11 is Only ~0.2% Market Share
99.8% to go!
BSD and GNU/Linux Replaced Microsoft in Secure Servers, All Microsoft Has Left is LLM Slop for Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD)
the FUD machine never rests
Gemini Links 28/04/2025: A Simple Task Tracking and Auto-Prioritization Tool and Other Programs
Links for the day
Links 28/04/2025: Canada's Election, Pakistan-India Conflict
Links for the day
Speed of GNU/Linux
The media seldom speaks of the dangers of "proprietary software"
Glue Inside Your Pizza (or Why People Will Get Fed Up With Slop)
People are given "answers" from non-intelligence word dumpsters
Proprietary Windows Versus "Linux" News (Trying to Keep People on Windows, Never Exploring GNU/Linux)
Good editors know better how to recognise threats and not give them lip service
Ensuring That Every Computer User Anywhere in the World Can Take Control of All His or Her Computers
We must fight the people who attack general-purpose computing, in particular those who push this agenda very aggressively inside Linux
Links 28/04/2025: Cyberattacks Happening, Chatbots Disappointing, and "Free Speech Under Fire"
Links for the day
Phone Adoption Very Low in Vatican, Windows Usage Fell Nonetheless
Even in places where people still use desktops/laptops most of the time (and have access to these) Windows is gradually losing ground
GNU/Linux 9% in Cuba, Vista 11 Waning, Android Dominant
Microsoft has pretty much lost Cuba
Gemini Links 28/04/2025: Autism and Structural Navigation
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, April 27, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, April 27, 2025
What Happened to the Open Source Initiative (OSI) Elections: The Purge, the Cover-up, and the Witch-hunts
OSI has gone "full Microsoft"
In 24 Countries Observed by statCounter Vista 11 is Still Less Than a Quarter of Windows Users Despite All Other Versions Being 'Expired'
They ought to move to GNU/Linux
Links 27/04/2025: Pope Goodbyes, "Politics of Fear", Slop Redux and More Google Shutdowns (Google Debt Had Grown This Year)
Links for the day
Links 27/04/2025: Serenity Dialectics, Hockey Jersey Ethics, and More
Links for the day
Links 27/04/2025: Death of Nest Thermostats, Death of Metaverse
Links for the day
Links 27/04/2025: Projects Workflow and Discovering Technology
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, April 26, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, April 26, 2025