Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft-Captured USPTO Doubles the Fines for Patent Applicants That Don't Use Microsoft

microsoft-uspto

Summary: The latest from the USPTO, based on a communication from yesterday afternoon, may serve to suggest the blowback is growing and applicants aren't happy to be forced to use Microsoft's OOXML (or face severe penalties)

A reader who is a GNU/Linux user has alerted us that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is still working to impose Microsoft's monopoly and proprietary formats by means of penalising those who don't 'play ball'. We've long written about this injustice, to put it mildly (more like overt corruption considering what likely led to it; akin to the EPO outsourcing everything to Microsoft, which isn't even a European company).

Here's a message sent by the USPTO yesterday (less than a day ago):

USPTO to delay the effective date of the non-DOCX filing fee

From: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Reply-To: subscriptioncenter@subscriptions.uspto.gov Fri, Nov 19, 2021 at 1:42 PM

Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page.

Patent Alert



USPTO to delay the effective date of the non-DOCX filing fee

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued a final rule that delays until January 1, 2023, the effective date of the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.16(u) for any nonprovisional utility patent application filed under 35 U.S.C. 111, including any continuing application, that is not filed in DOCX format. Prior to this final rule, the fee was set to take effect on January 1, 2022. The delay will enable the USPTO to undertake enhanced testing of its information technology systems as more users file in DOCX, and it also will give applicants more time to adjust to filing patent applications in DOCX format.

You can find the full text of the final rule in the Federal Register and on the USPTO’s Patent Related Notices webpage.


We've included a screenshot at the top.

To put all this in context, our reader explains: "I just got an e-mail from the USPTO saying that they were going to delay the $400 penalty for using pdfs instead of DOCX. I recently discovered from Techrights that the USPTO's DOCX plot includes forcing application files to pay a $400 penalty for using pdfs. First, it was the $200 penalty - the "Electronic Filing Incentive" - to force paper filers to file electronically, which would be with pdfs. Now, the plot is a $400 penalty for using pdf."

This reader has meanwhile complained [PDF] about David Kappos, who is alleged to be connected to this mess (Microsoft and IBM controlled the USPTO at the time; Kappos lobbies for both now).

"One of the perks that they gave Kappos for corrupting the USPTO," the reader explains, "is a teaching position at the prestigious Columbia Law School, and I decided to write to the dean, so on 11/11/21 I sent her e-mails - I had sent a paper letter a few days earlier - telling her about Kappos, and suggesting that she could help getting him disbarred, or at least she could fire him. inviting her to help me get Kappos disbarred, or at least fire him."

He told her about Microsoft and DOCX: "Paper is the thin end of the wedge. I suppose you might not care about somebody who puts a patent application on paper. But, what about a pdf? Do you use pdfs? Would you be surprised that, with their success in penalizing patent application filers for using paper, the Kappos-corrupted USPTO is now planning to penalize patent application filers for using pdfs? See the accompanying “The problem with the USPTO’s proposed non-DOCX penalty.” [See https://blog.oppedahl.com/?p=4623 , and much more here https://blog.oppedahl.com/?p=7101] Having penalized patent application filers for using the ubiquitous paper to force them to use Microsoft Windows, now the plot is to penalize patent application filers for using the ubiquitous pdfs to force them to use Microsoft’s proprietary DOCX software. And, do you think they will stop there? Why should they, now that Kappos has corrupted the USPTO for them? Will they develop a proprietary Microsoft keyboard that must be used, because there are newly-developed symbols or codes that they come up with and that must be used?"

It's very plausible that other people have complained, hence the delay. They kick the can down the road for a little while longer. Maybe the next USPTO Director (there's none at the moment; it is a 'placeholder' ad interim) will reverse this awful decision, seeing that Microsoft is floundering anyway. It's truly insane to do such a thing in 2021!

"I would like to think that she got angry and contacted Kappos and Kappos contacted the USPTO," the reader notes. "I KNOW that didn't happen, but you never know: if the right person makes a certain phone call, things can happen. Again, I know that didn't happen, but it's good to see DOCX is being delayed."

Usually it's a sign of problems, like the US military delaying the implementation of HoloLens (a truly ridiculous rollout of a product from a company whose entire staff Microsoft sacked!). It was all along just a sort of bailout (or grifting), in effect President Biden misusing "defence" budget to prop up Microsoft, the password-stealing company, in the same way Trump had done that with JEDI. Trump passed billion of dollars to Microsoft and to Bill Gates in a number of other ways, as we noted here before. They're misusing taxpayers' money (or growing national debt) to feed grifters and crooks.

Recent Techrights' Posts

When the Microsoft Aggressors Rely on Several Law Firms ('Attack Dogs', 'Guns for Hire'), Not Just One, Lawyering Up Against Techrights (Acting on Behalf of Americans Against UK Publishers)
From serving customers at some restaurant he has moved on to bullying people with demand letters
Polygamy, from Catholic Synod on Synodality to Social Control Media & Debian CyberPolygamy
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Only a Third of or 1 in 3 Web-Connected Devices is a Desktop or Laptop, According to statCounter
we can expect Android to widen its lead
 
statCounter Estimates Only 1 in 300 Iranians Would Use Microsoft for Search
Iranians don't quite trust Microsoft
Gemini Links 24/06/2025: ftpd on FreeBSD and Online Small Web Magazine
Links for the day
Google News Does Great Harm by Promoting Slopfarms as Legitimate News Sites
Slopfarms are sites which are 100% LLM slop
Links 24/06/2025: Trouble at "Open" "AI" and ‘Siarhei is Free’
Links for the day
Gemini Links 24/06/2025: Stimulants and Subscription Costs for DRM
Links for the day
Links 24/06/2025: OpenAI [sic] May Soon Die (Too Much Debt) and Social Control Media Accused of Being Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda Amplifier
Links for the day
Nirbheek Chauhan in Planet GNOME Explains Why Wayland Pushers Are Losing
"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play."
The Days Are Getting Shorter, the First Half of 2025 is Almost Over
We're gratified to see significant increase in traffic and also positive feedback on the work we do
Turning GNU/Linux Into a Political Football
X (not the site) is Free software
X Server Still Works for Many People
A lot of people will grow suspicious of Wayland boosters/pushers if they persist and insist on using these tactics
Exactly a Week Ago "BetaNews Staff" Said "Betanews Is Growing Alongside You". Since Then Every Article (All by "Camila Nogueira") Has Been LLM Slop.
BetaNews is basically a slopfarm
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 23, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, June 23, 2025
The "Tarzan Effect" in Compilers and Software
What happens when you forcibly make things 'work', either by hacks or by disregarding warnings (like those that compilers tend to issue)?
Gemini Links 23/06/2025: Mass Tourism, Hair Love, and Google Gemini as a Googlebomb
Links for the day
Law Firm Burgess Mee Does Not Fully Deny Participating in Abusive Litigation for Serial Strangler From Microsoft
I am not unfamiliar with these tactics
The Modus Operandi of Wayland Pushers: Make It Political
do what I say or you're a nazi...
Links 23/06/2025: RFE/RL Contributor Vladyslav Yesypenko Released, Recording Industry Cutbacks
Links for the day
Brett Wilson LLP Solicitors (M): Over 99.9% of Our E-mail is Self-Marketing, We Send You 3.5MB E-mails for Less Than 1KB of Text
Why would tech people entrust legal matters to such people?
Peter Moon's (Computerworld) Interview With Richard Stallman
Stallman: If you want freedom don't follow Linus Torvalds
At What Point Does Outsourcing Constitute Malpractice?
Brett Wilson LLP's new staff page is misleading
United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sailing to GNU/Linux, According to statCounter
countries in that region will quickly learn the price of neglecting digital sovereignty
From Do Your Own Research to Do Your Own Search
The Web is full of garbage; search engines amplify this garbage
More People Moving to Geminispace?
at age 6+ Gemini Protocol seems to have gained some maturity and it seems like more people use it
Permutation in LLMs Does, Inevitably, Change Meanings and Therefore LLMs Cannot Properly Rephrase or Summarise Texts
LLMs lack actual grasp or comprehension of what they spew out
Links 23/06/2025: Many Security Breaches, Population Declines
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/06/2025: "America at the Crossroads" and OpenWRT Surgery
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, June 22, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, June 22, 2025
Pure Dove
Different means different, and sometimes those who "deviate" from "the norm" have a point
Censorship is a Sign of Weakness Which Invites More Censorship Attempts
revolutionaries don't succumb to pressure from bullies
Why It's Unlikely That LLM Slop Will Dominate the Web in the Long Run
Slopfarms will eventually perish (they have no actual value) and "survivors" on the Web will be sites that never depended on search engines and social control media
GNU/Linux in Argentina Now Measured Near 5%
Like in central Europe, they must be seeing an increasingly hostile US
BetaNews is Fake News, Composed by LLM Slop
nothing in BetaNews is written by humans anymore
Links 22/06/2025: Giving Up on Smartphones and 'Jaws' at 50
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/06/2025: Furniture Construction and Bubble for Comments
Links for the day
Links 22/06/2025: Windows TCO Tales and YouTube Getting More Hostile to Users
Links for the day
The FSF Board and FSF Beard
So the FSF's Board has grown
Law Firms Facing the Consequences for Patently Abusive Litigation on Behalf of Microsoft Employees Who Got Arrested for Strangulation and Had Done Even Worse Things
Having spent 1.5 years bullying me with patronising letters on behalf of Microsofters, last week they got served a massive bill and, in effect, lost the Hearing
New Report From the EPO's Staff Representatives in The Hague (LSCTH) Reveals Many Unsolved Issues
Local Staff Committee The Hague (LSCTH) wrote to staff just before the weekend
LLMs Breaking Everything
Computing and the Net became a playground for scammers and "bros", like people who "invented" fake currencies and also try to tell us that LLMs spewing out things will have some real value
Links 22/06/2025: More Slop Lawsuits (Copyrights) and "America’s Oligarch Problem"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/06/2025: Gigantic Toolchest and Annoying Bots
Links for the day