With 23,907 blog posts so far, soon to cross the 24k mark, we carry on going

Summary: From our focus on Microsoft back in 2006 we have moved on to EPO affairs and we'll soon turn 12

TECHRIGHTS was born as a response to Microsoft's patent aggression back in 2006. That was way before EPO scandals and way before patent reforms at the USPTO (AIA), not to mention Bilski, Alice, TC Heartland and Oil States at SCOTUS.

Having written two articles about Microsoft's patent aggression yesterday (last night [1, 2]), we certainly hope that readers don't fall for PR campaigns like "Microsoft loves Linux", the "new Microsoft" and so on.

"Monday evening," said Soren Spicknall from Microsoft, "come to @MSFTChicago [Microsoft "Building Decentralized Tech Tools for Democracy"] to hear from @DemocracyEarth" (citing this page). He exchanged some messages with me after I had challenged him on Microsoft's very negative record with democracy. I told him that Microsoft is good at crime, not democracy. I also cited Microsoft's ruthless assault on Free software in voting machines, which is well documented. All he could then do is pretend that it has nothing to do with him (the "not my department!" defense).

"Thankfully, there are several good sites out there which challenge the status quo."Here we are in 2018. I try hard not to cover Microsoft as much as I used to (it's tempting, but the company is becoming irrelevant) and instead I focus on the EPO, leaving much of these US affairs (Microsoft included) mostly aside until weekends. It's easier to catch up in weekends and cover less urgent matters 'in bulk', so to speak.

Thankfully, there are are good sites out there which challenge the status quo. Aside from Patent Progress (CCIA) and Unified Patents there's also the Docket Navigator with its selective reports on cases of interest. Among the latest:

Sub Zero Franchising, Inc. v Frank Nye Consulting LLC, d/b/a The Arctic Scoop et al

The court granted defendants' motion for more than $360,000 in sanctions under Rule 11 and 28 U.S.C. ۤ 1927 against plaintiff's counsel because plaintiff's standing allegations and pre-suit investigation were unreasonable.

BASF Corporation v Johnson Matthey Inc.

The court denied plaintiff's motion to strike defendant's expert report from a law professor, but allowed plaintiff to file an early Daubert motion.

Resh, Inc. v Skimlite Manufacturing Inc. et al

The court granted defendants' motion to dismiss plaintiff's claim for a declaration of patent infringement for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

We have decided that in the coming week if not weeks we're going to focus on new EPO scandals, particularly with emphasis on the "inventor of the year" nonsense and Battistelli's abusive affairs in France. There's a lot more to be dug out there and with Battistelli's immunity having less than 2 months 'on the clock' we certainly hope that he will be held accountable for his abuses. ⬆