Bonum Certa Men Certa

Software Patents Roundup: EPO, USPTO and Acacia

EPO



Let us begin this with the EPO (or Europe), whose shaky state has increasingly become grounds for concern. To give you an idea of the EPO's view of those who protest against software patents, read this.

European patent chief paves the way for change



[...]

She is dismissive of some of the criticism leveled at the patent system and specifically at the EPO from parts of the open-source and free software movements.

"There's a high degree of emotion, but a low degree of light," she said, referring to both sides in the intense lobbying when the European Union was debating a proposed law on software patentability that was scrapped in 2005.


There is more information about the EC's potentially tactless moves with regards to standards and software patents.

The European Commission is organizing next week in Brussels a conference on "European ICT standardisation policy at a crossroads: A new direction for global success". Among the papers in discussion for this conference, one paper suggests to allow RAND standards as general policy. The European Commission seems to listen to the big industry who contributed to the discussion paper. RAND standards (such as h264 or MPEG2) are a way to exclude FLOSS developers, because they require royalty payments that developers cannot afford.


Just recall the flak they were getting some months ago [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11] after implicitly excluding Samba in a settlement with Microsoft.

The worrisome Community Patent is back in the scene again, which isn't encouraging news.

Europe's relations with China in respect of IP rights, the perspectives of introducing the Community Patent and the question of a central European court for patents were discussed during a visit by a high-level German-French delegation to the EPO today.


USPTO



Over in the United States, the Bush administration continues to discuss the issues, but based on the wording in CNET, this isn't too hopeful.

The administration's key concern is a section that it argues waters down the ability of judges to award damages in patent suits as they see fit, potentially depriving patent holders of the right to obtain the compensation they deserve. Right now, the Senate bill doesn't give judges or juries enough discretion in deciding how much to award, Dudas said. That's been arguably the biggest sticking point all along among supporters and opponents of the bill.


The reexamination process which the EFF has been relying on is apparently at jeopardy because an explicit request is made to for the US Senate defend it.

EFF's Patent Busting Project is one of a number of public-interest projects that use the reexamination process to defend the public against the most dubious patents. Four of our five petitions for reexamination have been granted, and EFF expects the last will be after the PTO has had an opportunity to review it (it was filed last week). One of the first reexamination requests submitted by EFF has already resulted in the PTO revoking the patent.


Illustrating the severity of the problem, here is another trivial patents that uses sophisticated language to describe interactive/customised wallpaper/menus. Needless to say, none of his is new or ingenious.

A new BlackBerry Patent application entitled System and Method for Adaptive Theming Of A Mobile Device describes ways that a BlackBerry wireless carrier or third-party theme screen developer could configure, or reconfigure, a subscriber’s BlackBerry theme remotely.


Acaciasoft on the Attack



Our good 'buddy' Acacia, which is also a Microsoft buddy [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10], appears to be relentlessly continuing its crusade.

Acacia Research Corporation today announced that its subsidiary, Mobile Traffic Systems Corporation (MTS), has settled patent litigation against Cobra Electronics Corporation that was pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. With this settlement MTS has entered into a license agreement with Cobra Electronics.


The likes of Ray Niro [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Meet J. Carl Cooper, a Patent Troll (Plus Other Patent News)] must be bursting with laughter at the sight of a broken system that is coughing out cash at the direction of those who are heartless enough to abuse it. These are also the people who haven't made a single invention in their lives. They sue for a living.

Recent Techrights' Posts

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
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: 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
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
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
The Calling
Persist and persevere, justice will come your way
So Far Every BetaNews 'Article' is LLM Slop, So BetaNews is Officially Just a Slopfarm
They just don't seem to value what they have
IBM Rumour: Mass Layoffs (RAs) Lists Being Made for Consulting, With Effect in July 2025
Bogus companies with no viable products and no world-leading (in their field) staff are doomed to perish
Links 21/06/2025: Data Breach With 16 Billion Passwords, Dutch Government Recommends Children Under 15 Stay off TikTok and Instagram
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/06/2025: Notes about Typst (and LaTeX) and Opos
Links for the day
Microsoft's Competition Tactics: Sabotage GNU/Linux Installs, Block Chrome
Edge is dying
1989: Free Software as "Open" Software (OSI Didn't Coin "Open Source", It Also Predates Linux)
"One man's fight for Free software"
The Microsoft OOXML Modus Operandi: Throw 1,000 Pages of Other People's Work for a Judge to Read Ahead of a One-Hour Meeting
No time to discuss this - that's the point
Formalities Officers (FOs) at the EPO Are in Trouble, Reveals Internal Report
We already know, based on an HR pattern we saw at IBM and elsewhere, that reallocating roles can be prerequisite for dismissal and those who do so expect many to resign anyway
The Web is Slop and FUD, Let's Go to Gemini Protocol
Lupa sees self-signed capsules at 92.4%
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, June 20, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, June 20, 2025
Links 21/06/2025: Phone Bans for Concerts, Tensions in Taiwan Strait
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/06/2025: Spoilers, Public Yggdrasil Node, Changes to AuraGem Search
Links for the day
"Six years of Gemini!"
From gemini://geminiprotocol.net
Gemini Links 20/06/2025: Summer Updates and Hardware Failures
Links for the day
Links 20/06/2025: Google Shareholder Sues Google and Google Sued for Defamatory Slop ('Hey Hi') Word Salads ('Summaries')
Links for the day
Linux Journal Might Have Become the Latest Slopfarm Targeting "Linux", the Trends Are Concerning for Dying News Sites
They tarnish the Web with junk and then die
On "Learning to Code"
quality may suffer, plus things get bloated
Quick Points Regarding This Week's Court Hearing
it paves the way for us to squash all the SLAPPs from Microsofters
Common Mistake: Believing Social Control Media Will Document Your Writings/Thoughts and Search Engines Like Google Will Help You Find These
Many news sites wrongly assumed that posting directly to Twitter would be acceptable
The Manchester Bees and This Hot Summer
We have had a fantastic week so far this week
Gemini Protocol Enters Its Seventh Year, Growth Has Accelerated!
Maybe in June 20 2026 there will be over 3,500 active capsules?
Mastodon and the Fediverse Have an Issue: Liability for Content (Even in Other Instances) and Costs
self-hosting is the only logical path forward
Why Microsoft and Its 'Hey Hi' (Slop) Frenzy Fail While Sinking in Deep, Growing Debt
Right now, like Twitter around the time it was sold to MElon, "open" "hey hi" is a big pile of debt with a lot to pay for that debt (interest payments)
Europe is Leaving Microsoft, the Press Coverage Isn't Sufficiently Helpful
The news is generally positive, but the press coverage leaves so much to be desired
Slopwatch: Linuxsecurity, BetaNews, and Linux Journal
slippery slope
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 19, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, June 19, 2025
Gemini Links 20/06/2025: Gemini Protocol Turns 6!
Links for the day