Bonum Certa Men Certa

iPEL (Innovative Patents, Ethical Licensing) is Just Another Patent Trolls' Scam/Ploy Disguised as 'Ethical'



iPEL, PFE and the "ethical" or "SME" slant -- similar tricks, same timing

iPEL
Keep saying "ethical" and maybe some gullible people will eventually believe it



Summary: Two PR stunts, one in Europe and another in the US, try to paint notorious patent trolls (nowadays subjected to a hostile litigation terrain) as "good for small businesses"; but nothing could be further from the truth because small businesses suffer from trolls the most

THE PATENT TROLLS are down for the count, but it's not a knockout just yet. They keep coming up with all sorts of tricks and workarounds. They also try to better disguise themselves using shells and proxies (Intellectual Ventures, for instance, has many thousands of these). Some of these trolls can no longer drag their victims to Texas. Yesterday Docket Navigator took note of TC Heartland in the courts, potentially helping the defendant dodge litigation in patent trolls-centric districts. In Princeton Digital Image Corporation v Ubisoft Entertainment SA, according to the Docket Report, "[t]he magistrate judge recommended denying defendant's motion to dismiss or transfer for improper venue and rejected defendant's argument that it did not waive its objection to venue because the objection was not available until the court dismissed another defendant."

"It turns out that, having fed the world's largest troll (Intellectual Ventures), this Korean company is now feeding some of Canada's very worst patent trolls."So no luck this time. But it's too early to tell the eventuality. Meanwhile, Jacob Schindler from IAM (the trolls' lobby) spoke of MagnaChip Semiconductor. It turns out that, having fed the world's largest troll (Intellectual Ventures), this Korean company is now feeding some of Canada's very worst patent trolls. IAM seems happy about it, as one might expect. IAM is funded by these trolls. Literally. WiLAN, which we last mentioned earlier this year (several times in fact) is the latest recipient for "trolling mode" (what IAM euphemistically calls "monetisation mode"). To quote:

WiLAN announced yesterday that it has acquired a patent portfolio totaling over 85 assets from Seoul-based MagnaChip Semiconductor. The transaction is part of WiLAN’s partnership programme. The deal marks the latest in a steady stream of acquisitions by the Canadian licensing company, and a comeback NPE deal for the Korea firm, which sold patents to Intellectual Ventures in 2009. The USPTO records a transaction from MagnaChip to Carthage Silicon Innovations LLC four days ago. The full assignment documents aren’t yet available, but there are nine listed US assets so far


This troll is Canadian and the so-called inventors Korean. Does that help dodge decisions such as TC Heartland? Is there a precedent for that?

"The trolls know that their public image is deservedly bad, so they've initiated some PR campaigns rather than change their behaviour."Either way, there are some patent trolls which Watchtroll is helping to paint as "ethical" this week, accompanying the highly misleading press release. We already responded to that, but Josh Landau (CCIA) did further research and rebutted as follows some time yesterday:

Non-practicing entities (NPEs) are generally companies with only one asset—their patents. So why would an NPE give away licenses to the only things it can generate value from? If it seems too good to be true, that’s because it might be.

Act Now For A Free Patent License!

iPEL (Innovative Patents, Ethical Licensing) is a new NPE, formed by self-described “patent monetizer” Brian Yates (formerly of IP Prognosis and hundreds of shell companies—more on that below) and Rasheed McWilliams (a litigator). It’s offering licenses to its portfolio until the end of the year, and those licenses are free to companies with less than $5 million in annual revenue.

Free stuff isn’t always good, and the details of the licenses suggest why they might not be all that good for the licensees.


Well, read on; like a true "CCIA agent" -- for lack of a better term -- Landau comes at the right time/moment and sheds light on this kind of scam/sham, which resembles Patent Factory Europe (PFE), also announced in Europe about a week ago (in 'partnership' with IAM). The notion of "ethical" trolls is about as sane as "ethical" oil spills. Don't fall for it. The trolls know that their public image is deservedly bad, so they've initiated some PR campaigns rather than change their behaviour.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft's "Linux" Foundation Pays Writers to Publish Propaganda and Then LLM Slop Sites (Slopfarms) Repeat the Propaganda, Using Microsoft LLMs
consider the latest LLM slop
Alleged Layoffs at IBM Consulting in Australia
IBM loses many government contracts these days
The Rumours Were Likely True: Sixth Wave of Microsoft Mass Layoffs in 2025 (Days After "50" Anniversary and About 5,000 Layoffs)
5 hours ago, by Ashley Stewart
 
Gemini Links 10/04/2025: "Secret of Happiness" and Overthinking POSSE
Links for the day
Links 10/04/2025: NNCPNET Email Network, RSS Readers, and IRS as 'Immigration Enforcer'
Links for the day
IBM Layoffs in Markham (Canada) Apparently Still Happening
"Still going on... Got laid off today. TEL Canada, Band 9, 19 years with IBM."
Links 10/04/2025: Fentanylware (TikTok) Perils and Internet Shutdown
Links for the day
Once You Slop You Can't Stop and If You're a Serial Slopper Nobody Will Believe You Really Wrote an Article (Even If You Did)
It's a lot like, "if you're a serial liar people won't believe you even when you say some truth" (or "once a cheater, always a cheater")
Pressing Against SLAPPs (From Americans Who Strangle Women While Microsoft Pays Their Salaries) is a High Priority for Us
We also need to ensure that greedy firms/people that facilitate the SLAPPs get "disbarred" or "struck off"
Mozilla Firefox Already Down to 1% in Brazil
Don't people crave the surveillance and the slop?
Links 10/04/2025: Hardware, Politics, and Internet
Links for the day
Gemini Links 10/04/2025: Creativity and Agitation, Life in the USA, CSS Naked Day 2025
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 09, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, April 09, 2025
Malware in Proprietary Software - Latest Additions
Original by Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Links 09/04/2025: More Trade Wars and Wars, Chinese Army Troops Found Fighting in Ukraine
Links for the day
Linux Clickbait by Slop
Give it up for Brian Fagioli, the Serial Slopper
IBM and MCC: Layoffs Coming Again to Metro Connect Company Limited (MCC) as Tariffs Bite and IBM's Shares Fall
Blacklists applicable to Chinese suppliers also mean that IBM can no longer cooperate with key partners in Asia
Microsoft's Entire Premise for Its Future Existence Goes Up in Flames
32 minutes ago
GNU/Linux on a High in Colombia
Stereotypes much?
Go Static
Please don't Go(lang) or JavaScript or PHP or...
Techrights Be Like...
K.I.S.S.
Gemini Links 09/04/2025: Autism, Cybersecurity, and LLMs Attacking Services Online
Links for the day
GNU/Linux Would be Measured at Over 5% Globally (by statCounter) Had the Data in India Not Been Changed
GNU/Linux grew a lot in many countries and has expanded since then
Keeping Track of Microsoft Layoffs in 2025
So here's a quick roundup of 2025
The Sixth Anniversary of the Lightweight Alternative to the Web (Gemini Protocol)
Now 11 short of 3,000 active capsules. 65 short of 4,500 total.
Links 09/04/2025: Quartz Fires All Writers (Shutdown, LLM Slop or Slopfarm Instead), "Bitcoin Is Crashing Hard"
Links for the day
People Are Sick of LLM Slop. Offer Them Alternatives.
We never used LLM slop for anything and we never will
Web Surveyor statCounter Sees Apple's macOS Falling From 5.6% to 3.6% in Two Months, It Might Soon be Smaller Than GNU/Linux
Apple's "value" (faked, exaggerated) is back to "pandemic times"
UK House of Lords Recognises the SLAPP Issue in the UK and EFF Pursues "Bill (That) Could Put A Stop To Censorship By Lawsuit" in the US
"A House of Lords inquiry into how the news industry can survive into the future has accused the government of “failing to prioritise” action on strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs)."
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Privacy Fiasco in Detail: Seeking Class Action Against the OSI
"LETTER SEEKING CLASS ACTION REPRESENTATION"
The Value of Slop, by Alexandre Oliva
Original by Alexandre Oliva
Gemini Links 09/04/2025: Neocities, Tinylogs, and Inter-community Protocols
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, April 08, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, April 08, 2025
You Can Be an A--hole to Women (Even Strangle Women) as Long as You Work for Microsoft
Recalling the Mark Shuttleworth origin story
Canonical is a Proprietary Software Reseller With a 'Debian Base'
"Canonical Ubuntu" is just Debian with some proprietary things sold on top of it
statCounter Sees Microsoft Bing at Lowest Level Since Last Summer
Since 2023 Bing has repeatedly had layoffs
Nearly 5,000 Microsoft Layoffs Disclosed on Week of Microsoft 'Anniversary' (Media Noise), The HR Digest Says More Layoffs Coming
more "Microsoft layoffs on the horizon"
Windows "Market Share" Down to 1% in Sudan, Based on statCounter
Among those 1% who use Windows to access the Web fewer than 30% are on Vista 11
People Who Facilitate Truth Will Always Win at the End
"Just always stick to the truth"
Slopwatch: LinuxTechLab, linuxsecurity.com, "Cyber Security News" and More LLM Slopfarms
So the Web has this bunch of slopfarms pretending to "cover" GNU/Linux
Links 08/04/2025: More Mass Layoffs Expected at Microsoft (Gaming), Fentanylware (TikTok) Unsold
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/04/2025: "Shared Ownership" and Rant About Scrapers
Links for the day
Links 08/04/2025: Microsoft Shrinking, Oracle's Clown Computing Cracked
Links for the day
Walmart Vizio TVs Scream At Immigrants to Leave America
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Stolen Credit Card and LinkedIn. DHS Spies on Immigrant Social Media.
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
How Corporations Such as Microsoft Try to Crush Critics and Dissolve Activism
Stay focused
Wikipedia Can Lower Its Hosting Bill by Going More Static, Not Just by Caching, But It Would Not Solve Its Biggest Problems (Bribes and AstroTurfing)
For about 15 years we had a Wiki in this site
At 50, Microsoft Has Over 100 Billion Dollars in Debt and Less Than 25% "Market Share" (Windows)
statCounter basically sees less than a quarter of Web requests coming from Windows
linuxhint.com Died 12 Months Ago (After Adopting Image Slop)
Zombie sites
LLM Slop Will Eventually Stop Due to High Costs, Worse Training Sets (Polluted Models Ingesting Their Own Junk), and No Real Returns
This too shall pass
Urgent Need for SLAPP Litigation Transparency
Microsofters really want to shut us up
Courage is Contagious
I became a witness to acts of great courage from EPO examiners
On Shutdowns and 2,000 More Layoffs at Microsoft (10,000 Microsoft Staff May Have Already Been Laid Off in 2025)
Microsoft tries to hide and belittle mass layoffs; its data centre business also flounders, so it issues puff pieces about some anniversary over and over again
Gemini Links 08/04/2025: Gabbro 0.1.4 and Disillusioned With Social Control Media
Links for the day
Microsoft Windows in Jordan: From 99% Down to 10%
This is becoming more "normal"
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Privacy Fiasco in Detail: A "Deep Dive" Into the Complaint at the California Privacy Protection Agency
There are many facets to it and it may be the first complaint of several
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, April 07, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, April 07, 2025