Bonum Certa Men Certa

This Week's US Senate Hearings on Patents Are a Farce, Just as Expected

Surrounded by wolves and hyenas. Watch David Kappos at the side.

Alex Moss, EFF



Summary: With few exceptions like the EFF (that's Alex Moss above), Senate hears testimonies from stacked panels (full of lobbyists and think tanks), set up for the sole purpose of misleading Senate and helping them buy a law

The US Senate hearings that patent maximalists allude to are subjective beyond belief; it is pretty astounding just to what degree billionaires and their lawyers can infiltrate politics and even subvert the legal process (i.e. change courts' outcomes). They keep trying to virtually buy laws, in effect convincing already-bribed politicians while presenting them with a parade of lobbyists.

"Here is Mossoff’s employer flaunting a law firms-bribed politician in a Watchtroll forum. It's all connected."At the back of our mind we can already envision those who say, "it was always this way!" or "that's just typical politics!" But that does not mean there's no point highlighting the issue, pointing out what's going on.

So-called 'hearings' (whose hearings? Well, it's full of think tanks, Koch-funded 'scholars', lobbyists like Kappos and so on) are just about finished by now (or this week). Benjamin Henrion wrote: "Senate swpat hearing; when you invite only the patent community, no software developer invited "most of whom are arguing in favor of statutory reform that would tighten-up the law of eligibility." https://patentlyo.com/patent/2019/06/hearings-continue-before.html … [...] Senate hearing 3rd part next Tuesday: IBM; Qualcomm, Nokia, Interdigital = 4 patent trolls, no space for freedom of programming https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/meetings/the-state-of-patent-eligibility-in-america-part-iii …"

That's like the European Patent Office (EPO) only minding the views/interests of those with loads of patents, as we noted last month. The above hearing is also consistent with other such hearings, which we criticised for the same reasons.

"EFF staff attorney @alexhmoss is explaining to the Senate IP Subcommittee on IP why the proposed reform to Section 101 of the Patent Act would be a disaster for software developers, small businesses, and the public," the EFF tweeted this week with a photo (we've mentioned this EFF role earlier this week). It's part of a long series of chained/clustered tweets about 35 U.S.C. ۤ 101/Alice.

Where are programmers? None invited to this hearing? Patent maximalists (not examiners) from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) are there.

Speaking of the EPO's narrow-minded view, why has there been no President there with a scientific background for over a decade now? Battistelli has no qualifications other than background in a notorious sociopaths factory, ENA. He didn't even work in the area of patents until his mid-fifties. He thinks that patent office "success" means as many patents as possible, including illegal European software patents. Yesterday Henrion posted a photo of European protests and said: "Software Patents back in the US, time to reprint the yellow tshirts..."

They're not back. Some people are attempting to bring them back.

It is worth noting, as per Henrion and a Red Hat employee (former activist against software patents), that Koch-funded liars dedicated to the domain of patents block their critics [1, 2]; some of them apparently reported me to Twitter (misreporting) in an effort to silence me after I had merely mentioned them. It's not just Mossoff by the way; there are several of them in these hearings who are Koch funded.

Another critic noted that the CCIA "tweeted regarding the accuracy of his [Mossoff's] work earlier this week..."

Here is what was said by the CCIA about Mossoff [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]: "I see that @AdamMossoff of @cpipgmu has been added to the witness list for the first 101 hearing. Given that, I figured I’d resurface a couple older threads, explaining the fundamentally flawed nature of the data he worked with, flaws he has neither acknowledged nor corrected. https://twitter.com/PatentJosh/status/1007729695293673472 … [...] More @AdamMossoff failures. the ‘200 application overcame its 101 rejection and was later abandoned. Under Mossoff’s logic, this abandonment was caused by 101. Yeah, I don’t get it either. https://twitter.com/PatentJosh/status/1007322592267685889 … [...] Here’s an example of @AdamMossoff bad data: 14/118458 received a 101 rejection—but not an Alice/Mayo-type patentable subject matter rejection. That’s because it’s a cold fusion patent. Cold fusion and perpetual motion are basically the only kinds of usefulness rejection we see. https://twitter.com/PatentJosh/status/1007392368516108288 … [...] Some more @AdamMossoff greatest hits. Reviewing 100 applications from his dataset (which was supposed to contain applications that were abandoned due to 101), I found that *11%* had never received a 101 PSM rejection. https://twitter.com/PatentJosh/status/1007471451673382912 … [...] If the last thing you want to do is kill software, this bill is the worst way to achieve your goals. [...] While we are moving towards majority of enforcement by innovator companies, majority of patent suits is still NPE-based." (NPE means patent troll)

Here is Mossoff’s employer flaunting a law firms-bribed politician in a Watchtroll forum. It's all connected.

Lobbying for Watchtroll



Mossoff is part of a network of Koch-funded lies. Billionaire oil tycoons are buying US laws and 'sponsoring' supposed 'intellectuals'. The EPO advertises a similar kind of program almost every day in Twitter.

A Dunch business wrote about António Campinos:

Wasn't that the same guy who loudly campaigned before the Administrative Council a year ago that he was going to reduce litigation? Well, the truth is, the opposite seems to be true!


We've meanwhile noticed that James Nurton (now at Watchtroll) is the latest to do a Christian Archambeau puff piece; he used to do Battistelli puff pieces and now he does the same for the EUIPO (the EPO and EUIPO have been almost inseparable lately).

Recent Techrights' Posts

France: Apple and Microsoft Down, GNU/Linux Up to New Record Levels
How will tariffs against France impact things in the coming months?
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Privacy Fiasco in Detail: What Was Reported to the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA)
We hope to finish this whole lot within a week, then move on to election, lobbying etc.
Techrights Will Spend the Next Few Years Writing a Lot About Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs)
It's a growing problem
The State of EPO Staff's Health in Rijswijk or The Hague
We're going to cover the EPO some more later in the month
NVIDIA Corp Lost 36% of Its "Value" Since Cheeto Inauguration, But "Gen Hey Hi" (GenAI) is Totally Not a Bubble
Selling loads of unneeded hardware based on hysterical hype; like selling shovels during a Gold Rush
 
Taking a Moral Stand Against Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) and the Worst Offenders/Facilitators
Any other stance would sidle with moral depravity or moral hazard
Links 06/04/2025: Many New Acts of Repression and Elements of Financial Depression
Links for the day
In Qatar GNU/Linux Rose From Under 1% to Over 4% in Two Years (or Over 5% If Counting ChromeOS)
It's a big improvement compared to what we saw last year
LLM Scrapers Are a Nuisance, But They're Also a Reminder It's Time to Make Your Site Static
Perhaps the best protection is the ability to endure surges
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, April 05, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, April 05, 2025
Links 06/04/2025: Attacks on Education, Fake Patents, and Fake (Illegal) Patent Courts
Links for the day
Links 05/04/2025: Tariffs Backfiring, YouTuber Arrested, X/Twitter Set to be Fined
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/04/2025: Offline is For Everyone, Copyright Colonialism, and More
Links for the day
Links 05/04/2025: TikTok Unsold (Still), Royal Society is Dead
Links for the day
GNU/Linux Growing in East Asia, Windows by Default No More?
GNU/Linux is now on the shelf
Slopwatch: Anti-Linux 'Articles' From Linux-Hostile LLMs
It is almost always negative things and nobody can be held responsible for it except the charlatans prompting the LLMs
Links 05/04/2025: Fentanylware (TikTok) "Sale Looks Highly Imminent" (US), Stock Market Drowning in Panic
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/04/2025: Moving Plants, No to Smartwatches, RAID Hygiene
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, April 04, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, April 04, 2025
Techrights Has Dealt With More Potent SLAPPs Than Violent Microsofters Begging to Hide What They Did to Women
I became accustomed to SLAPPs
Links 04/04/2025: Fury in South Korea, Flight MH370 Remains Mystery
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/04/2025: Anger and Raspberry Pi CM4
Links for the day
Links 04/04/2025: LLM Slop Bubble Bursting and Korea Music Copyright Association Bans Slop 'Music'
Links for the day
Traf-O-Data, the Company That Jeffrey Epstein's BFF (Bill Gates) (Co)Founded 53 Years and Went Out of Business Due to Heavy Losses
Who will die first, Bill or Microsoft?
Why Microsoft's Shares Sank Almost 20% in Recent Months (the Bubble is Imploding)
verified press reports from the past 24 hours
A Note on SimilarWeb
Or why SimilarWeb is meaningless for more than 99% of the sites on the Web
GNU/Linux Rises to Almost 5% in Algeria While Windows Sinks to All-Time Low
GNU/Linux grew tenfold
Where to Get More Gags
A valued reader recommended that to us
Links 04/04/2025: Tech Stock (Inc. GAFAM) Fall, Google Pretends to Do End-to-End Encrypted Emails (With Google in Control)
Links for the day
IBM Said to be Shutting Down Offices or Sites in the United States
the press can no longer avoid admitting that IBM moves many jobs to India
To Participate in Fedora Diversity You Must Use Proprietary Software
Not for the first time either
LLM Slop as Attack Vector on the Reputation of Linux
The attacks on Linux have escalated to information warfare
Yandex About to Be Three Times Bigger Than Microsoft (Bing) in Asia
That's about 60% of the world's population
Gemini Links 04/04/2025: Decoupling Updates, Elaho as Gemini Client
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 03, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, April 03, 2025