Does IBM Keep Patent Trolls on Their Toes by Overwhelming the USPTO?

Dr. Roy Schestowitz

2008-01-04 05:53:10 UTC
Modified: 2008-01-04 05:53:10 UTC

Overburdening: whose fault is it?

Acacia was last mentioned only half a day ago. It has been been keeping very, very busy.

A subsidiary of Acacia Research Corp. and Sprint Nextel Corp. have settled a lawsuit alleging that Sprint Nextel had infringed on patents for technology used to display mobile vehicle information on maps.

Patent trolls like Acacia aside, patents in general appear to have grown too prolific. It is a matter of quantity nowadays, never mind the quality of so-called 'inventions' like the "JPEG on a Web page". IBM is adding to that big pile. It is making the patent maze even more complex.

Patently busy: IBM filing 10 patents/day in technology

A recent article in Spectrum, the online magazine of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), rated companies in nine categories (Aerospace and Defense, Computer Peripherals and Storage, Computer Systems and Software, Electronics, Medical Equipment, Semiconductor Equipment Manufacturing, Semiconductor Manufacturing, Telecom Equipment, and Telecom Services) by the number and strength of patents that they received over the last year for which there was complete data, 2006.

It is worth asking ourselves how much those 10 patents/day actually contribute to science and technology. Patents have their share of harms because they prevent good products from being built without serious complications. IBM, how about helping the establishment of a reform rather than fighting fire with fire? ⬆

Related article:

When Patents Threaten Science

Patents should not be used to protect laws of nature, products of nature, or mathematical formulas.

Loss of Technical Merit(ocracy): "buzzword diplomas"
World Wide Web: Only Criminals Would Want Real Security and Vouch for Themselves When They Use Encryption: In "modern" browsers, the podlock icon probably does not mean what users might think it means
[Meme] OSI Digging Its Very Own Grave (With Microsoft): The very latest blog post from OSI is a hoot
Geminispace is More Trustworthy (and Private) Than the World Wide Web: Unlike the Web, Geminispace does not route the lion's share of traffic through a collective of spying companies
LinuxSecurity (Guardian Digital, Inc) Sloppy With Its 'Linux' Slop: This kind of stuff is killing the World Wide Web and ruins human knowledge
[Meme] Chin-dropping and Jaw-dropping (Considerable Drop in Patent Validity and Quality): This drop is very much intentional
Gemini Links 10/10/2024: Untruth, SSH, Gopher, and More: Links for the day
Geminispace Beyond 4,100 Capsules: 4,000 was less than 8 weeks ago
Links 10/10/2024: TikTok's Legal Problems, WeblogPoMo Challenges: Links for the day
[Meme] European Patent Convention and Vienna Convention Became Only Fictions (Laws and Constitutions Are Now Works of Fiction in Europe): A political crisis and blunder
Almost a Thousand EPO Staff Protesting to EPO Member States That the Office Illegally Grants Software Patents and Other Invalid European Patents: "The outcome confirms that the concerns about the EPO’s ability to grant legally sound patents remain"
Junk Science: science is being compromised for business purposes
[Meme] Dismantling .io (Stick a Fork, the Hype is Done): NVIDIA is an excellent new example of hype driving up fictional "value"
UNIX is 55 This Year, It is 6 Years Older Than Microsoft: It should be noted that the surviving co-creator of UNIX, Ken Thompson, 'moved' to GNU/Linux (Debian) in recent years
This Year, for the First Time Since August 2019 (Bill Gates MIT Scandal, Jeffrey Epstein Bribes), libreplanet-discuss Was Inactive an Entire Month: The MIT injustice remains and recent "libreplanet" events were held in a venue that's not MIT and far less prestigious than MIT (the "Wentworth" imitation)
[Meme] Different Ending for Jurassic Park: UNIX in old movies
Evolution of Hype: Passing fads and rebranding
Groklaw Will Hopefully Come Back: Sites should be able to run for decades with hardly any human role/interaction, but that's not where we are...
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 09, 2024: IRC logs for Wednesday, October 09, 2024
Gemini Links 09/10/2024: YouTube Woes, Post-Truth Slop: Links for the day
Nothing Will Be Secure and Robust to Failure Until Microsoft Windows is Eradicated and/or Disconnected From the Internet: Every system has limited capacity, Windows botnets push things to their limits
GNU/Linux Took Off at the BSDs' Expense (Amid Telecom Lawsuit) and the Rivalry Persists Because Microsoft is Negligible in the Server Space: UNIX or POSIX is the future
Links 09/10/2024: Samsung's Fall, Tensions Growing Near China: Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2024: Retroware and gmlgcd 2.0: Links for the day
Links 09/10/2024: Microsoft's Surface Duo 2 Officially Dead, X/Twitter Shutdown in Brazil, and "OpenAI Is A Bad Business": Links for the day
Technology: rights or responsibilities? - Part III: By Dr. Andy Farnell
[Meme] Bill Gates With a Side of "Linux": Linux Foundation is trolling us with Bill Gates
Once Again Linux Foundation Makes It Clear It's Being 'Absorbed' by Bill Gates: Linux Foundation devotes about 2% of its budget to Linux
Links 08/10/2024: Australian Fines for Twitter (X), Fake Patent Courts Still Not Scuttled: Links for the day
World Wide Slop: If it quacks like a duck...
IBM is a Boys' Club: If IBM collapsed, the Red Hat engineers who work on GNU and Linux would simply work elsewhere (on the same projects)
The Miserable State of GAFAM: Looking for government handouts
Microsoft is Acting Like a Company That's Running Out of Money (But Still Pretends to be Wealthy in Order to Attract or Retain Shareholders): Azure has had mass layoffs every year since 2020, yet Microsoft keeps telling shareholders that "clown computing" is growing
Dr. Andy Farnell's Article on Societal Disorganised Attachment and the Role of Social Control Media: The article is quite long and typos were still being fixed as recently as last night
Smear Alert: Linus Torvalds Asking for Better Commit Messages Makes Linus a (Grammar) Nazi: Maybe the "mainstream media" is looking for clickbait or maybe it's actively looking to make a scandal - a phony controversy with which to make the job of coordinating Linux unpleasant
Gemini Links 09/10/2024: Climate Doom and Clagrange: Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 08, 2024: IRC logs for Tuesday, October 08, 2024
Dr. Andy Farnell's Article on Why Passwords Still Rock: "Seven for a secret never to be told"
[Meme] Driver Issues: Where do you want to drive today?
The Problem Isn't That New Cars Use Electricity But That They Use Too Many Bits of Electronics: "...and proprietary software wrapped in proprietary APIs and protocols all without a modicum of compartmentalisation," an associate adds
We're Turning 18 in 30 Days: 30 days from now the site turns 18
GNOME Foundation Says It's Nearly Broke (Again), It's Getting Rid of More People (Only Women Get the Boot), and It Will Improve Communications and Transparency Even Though It Secretly Ousts People From the GNOME Foundation Board (for Secret Reasons): It only talks about this months later (under strict gag orders, only public shaming of a person)
Gemini Links 08/10/2024: Guilt by Association, Workers vs Owners: Links for the day
Links 08/10/2024: War Updates, Samsung's Layoffs, and Gemini: Links for the day
Another Dose of Fake 'Articles' About Linux: Don't give visibility to the nonsense of Microsoft
Links 08/10/2024: Microsoft Deleting Office Documents Instead of Saving Them, "Threads Still Sucks": Links for the day
gemini.techrights.org and techrights.org (Same Server, Not the Same Protocol): We're reminding readers that everything in this site is fully accessible via gemini.techrights.org in Gemini Protocol
X Has Axed Itself. This is Great News and Further Affirmation of Everything We've Said About Social Control Media.: Don't waste any more time on social control media
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, October 07, 2024: IRC logs for Monday, October 07, 2024
Gemini Links 08/10/2024: Contingency Begets Complexity, Playing With Bezier Curves: Links for the day

Does IBM Keep Patent Trolls on Their Toes by Overwhelming the USPTO?

Patently busy: IBM filing 10 patents/day in technology

Recent Techrights' Posts