Bonum Certa Men Certa

Where the USPTO Stands on the Subject of Abstract Software Patents

The Office hands out fool's gold

Some gold



Summary: Not much is changing as we approach Easter and software patents are still fool's gold in the United States, no matter if they get granted or not

THIS is a very quick update regarding the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The gist of it all? Well, nothing is changing, certainly not at the courts. We have been watching closely all sorts of case outcomes; all have them bar few have reached the predictable kind of outcome.

Watch out as patent maximalists aren't telling the whole story. They habitually ignore or hide everything which doesn't fit their agenda.

Robert Schaffer and Joseph Robinson over at Watchtroll have nitpicked or cherry-picked a Federal Circuit (CAFC) case regarding the patent troll PersonalWeb 'Technologies' because it is a rarity; it is a high court's reversal after a Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) after a successful inter partes review (IPR). We also noticed (yesterday) that patent maximalists hope to compel SCOTUS to reconsider a case that resembles Alice (basis of 35 U.S.C. €§ 101) while cherry-picking a CAFC case similar to Mayo. We said we'd not cover pertinent American patent cases, so for the time being we're just observing and adding those to our daily links. It is very much possible if not highly likely that nothing at all will change; the US government was simply asked to comment about a pending appeal and there's no guarantee SCOTUS will go ahead; even if it does, this might simply serve to double down on Alice, even further strengthening the precedent.

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