Bonum Certa Men Certa

Superficially Artificial or Artificially Superficial Patents on 'AI' Are Fake Patents

They won't hold water (would be rendered invalid if challenged in courts)

Atlantic ocean



Summary: Patent offices on both sides of the Atlantic are using hype waves to facilitate patenting of software that courts would almost certainly deem unpatentable

THE "AI" hype made a big comeback about a year ago. Suddenly a lot of things got called "AI" -- even things that weren't called that before!



The EPO and USPTO were quick to exploit this hype and actively promote it in conjunction with patents, even software patents in Europe and in the post-Alice/US 35 U.S.C. €§ 101 U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. How come? Well, all they care about is the number of patents. Quality does not seem to matter and rules can be disregarded if the applicant name-drops something like "AI". We wrote dozens of articles about it.

"EPO software patent party continues," Benjamin Henrion (FFII) wrote in relation to a puff piece that the EPO keeps linking to (it's from Watchtroll). "We need help countering this," I responded, seeing that not enough groups and people point out this lunacy. The article at hand speaks of "ICT inventions". "ICT" is one of the sneaky terms the EPO uses for software patents and here is what it said: "EPO Chief Operating Officer Mobility & Mechatronics: The challenge of ICT inventions in mobility patent applications is that we have to be able to deal with mixed technology & have our examiners trained to handle them."

Well, "examiners trained to handle them" as in forced to accept these or risk losing their jobs. "AI" is also one of the sneaky terms that the EPO uses for such patents and Friday was no exception. The EPO wrote: "The main challenge for patent offices from AI will be its rapid growth across a range of technical fields. More on how the EPO is well prepared to face this challenge here..."

It's pretty remarkable how often the EPO promoted software patents since António Campinos had started his term. He is absolutely fine with it.

Over in the US, patent maximalists (mostly the large law firms) still try 'puling a Berkheimer' (and Aatrix) to lie about software patents having legal 'teeth'. Here's the latest example of it that we found earlier today:

One of the hottest and most controversial topics in patent law in recent years has been the question of patentable subject matter: Exactly what innovations can be patented?


In the area of software almost nothing -- a subject we'll explore in greater depth (citing new court cases) later this weekend. A very recent post by Charles Bieneman ("Overcome Alice by Talking up Technical Benefits") shows how they try to come up with workarounds (around US 35 U.S.C. €§ 101). From Bieneman's concluding words: "Anything you can put in your specification about how claimed subject matter makes hardware bigger, better, faster, or stronger may be very helpful supporting a patent-eligibility argument."

So it's the classic trick of trying to make code sound physical -- the oldest trick at the EPO.

"Are Database Systems Patentable?" That's Law.com coverage to this effect after a recent high-profile case (finding database patents invalid). Beyond the headline we just have a patent maximalist dancing around the question to which to short answer is "No!" (and these lawyers know it).

This brings us back to the "AI" metaphor or buzz. Watch how, in this new press release [1, 2], Iveda is disguising abstract patents (which are bunk) using buzzwords like "AI". We are going to see lots more of that in months if not years to come. Sometimes they can't possibly make claims about the code pertaining to hardware (physical), so instead they speak of mere concepts like "AI" -- a concept that can cleverly be spun to refer to just about any computer program.

Recent Techrights' Posts

The Week to Come
Planning ahead
LLM Slop Has Only Been a Boon for Misinformation Online
The very same companies that were supposed to maintain quality (again, not limited to Google with PageRank) are now actively participating in generating and spreading slop
When They Tell You It's Free, Does That Mean No Charges (If So, Who's Paying and Why)?
there's "no free lunch"
Pushers of systemd Rewrite History (Richard Stallman Said UNIX "Was Portable and Seemed Fairly Clean")
Unlike systemd
 
Gemini Links 28/07/2025: Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray and Running pkgsrc in a FreeBSD Jail
Links for the day
Microsoft Turns News Sites Into Spamfarms
Is the site The Register MS the next IDG?
The Register MS/The Register US
On Saturday I contacted them for a comment (before issuing criticism)
Hacking revelations at Vatican Jubilee of Digital Missionaries
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 27, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 27, 2025
We're Going to Focus Less on the Molotov Cocktail-Throwing Microsofters and More on Patents
We can get back to focusing on what we wanted to focus on all along
Just Trying to Keep Web Sites Honest (Journalistic Integrity)
the latest articles in LinuxIac are real
Links 27/07/2025: Political Affairs, Data Breaches, Attacks on Freedom of the Press
Links for the day
Gemini Links 27/07/2025: Hot in Japan and Terminal Escape Codes
Links for the day
Links 27/07/2025: More Microsoft Layoffs Coming, Science and Hardware News
Links for the day
Links 27/07/2025: FSF Hackathon and "Hulk Hogan Was a Very Bad Man"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 27/07/2025: DAW Mixer Chains and Simple Software
Links for the day
The Register MS is Inventing or Giving Air Time to New Conspiracy Theories so as to Distort the Narrative As High-Profile Agencies Fall Prey to Microsoft Holes
But the problem is holes, i.e. Microsoft making bad products; the problem is Microsoft
Most Editors at The Register Are American, Including the Editor in Chief, a Decade-Long Microsoft Stenographer (Writing Prose to Sell Microsoft)
It's not easy to tell where the site is based (we tried) because it's hiding behind ClownFlare and CrimeFlare hasn't been well lately
"New Techrights" Soon Turns 2 (A Few Days Before the FSF Turns 40)
We have a lot more to say about LLM bots
When Silence Says So Much
Garrett, a 'secure' boot pusher, will need to defend himself in the UK High Court
The Register in Trouble
There is not much that can be done at this point
Trajectory of The Register: From News Site/s Into "B2B"... and Into Microsoft Salespeople
Something isn't right at The Register
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 26, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 26, 2025
Misinformation in Social Control Media
Social control media passes around all sorts of tropes
Slopwatch: Fake Linux 'Articles' and Slopfarms With "Linux" in Their Names/Domains
throwing bots at "Linux" to make some fake articles
Links 26/07/2025: Amazon Shutdown in China, Russian Economy Slows
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/07/2025: History of Time (1988) and Gemini Games
Links for the day
Links 26/07/2025: 50 Percent Tariffs in Amazon, Dying Intel Offloads Network and Edge Group (NEX)
Links for the day
Doing My Share to Tackle Online Slop and SPAM
Trying my best to 'fix' the Web
Blaming Programming Languages for Users' and Developers' Bad Practices
That's like blaming cars for drivers who crash into things
Slopwatch: Fakes, FUD, Duplicates, and Charlatans Galore
The Web as we once know it is collapsing. Some opportunists try to replace it with low-quality slop.
The Register UK Seems to Have Become American and Management is Changing (Microsofter as Editor in Chief)
The Register 'UK' is now controlled by the Directions on Microsoft guy
Many People Still Read Techrights Because It Says the Truth, Produces Evidence, and Does Not Self-Censor
Unlike so many other sites
The Register is Desperate for Money, According to The Register
I decided to check how they're doing as a business
Microsoft Finally Finds a Use Case for Slop?
Create low-quality chaff to shift the media's attention?
Microsoft Windows Lost 400 Million Users in a Few Years, Why Does The Register Double Down on Windows With New US Editor?
days ago they hired a new US editor
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 25, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 25, 2025
For Libel Reform One Must First Bring (or Raise) Awareness to the Issues and Their Magnitude
I myself know, from personal experience
Links 26/07/2025: Rationed Meals in the US and TikTok Repels Investments (Too Toxic)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/07/2025: "Bloody Google" and New People in Geminispace
Links for the day
Response to Solderpunk (Father of Gemini Protocol) About the Gemini Community
Solderpunk responds to non-sequitur
HTML and the Web Used to be Something a Child Could Learn, "Modern" Web is a Puzzle of Frameworks, Bloat, and Worse
When the Web was more like Gemini Protocol