Bonum Certa Men Certa

When Microsoft and IBM Met Intellectual Protectionism

"There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge." —Bertrand Russell



Lou Gerstner



Summary: How Microsoft tries to replicate IBM's patent hoard (but for offensive purposes) while the USPTO continues assisting

Microsoft and IBM are poster children to a system which thrives in fostering giants and crushing everyone else. The USPTO, for example, enables former superpowers like IBM (and then Microsoft) to maintain monopolies without offering a lot in terms of value (advancement, innovation, competitive prices). Google, for example of contrast, is too young for 'patent welfare', so unlike Microsoft and IBM it does question the unjust patent system. "The Troll In The Basement" is the title of this silly new article which says things like: "Falling prey to patent trolls (firms that use the nebulous world of software patents) is commonplace for even big names.



"One of the methods of combating the trolls is to turn into a patent mill. IBM and Microsoft are issued several dozen patents ever so often just to combat legal battles waged by patent trolls."

"The USPTO, for example, enables former superpowers like IBM (and then Microsoft) to maintain monopolies without offering a lot in terms of value (advancement, innovation, competitive prices)."That's utter BS (pardon the language). Microsoft uses these patents offensively and cannot use them back against patent trolls as they have no products that can potentially infringe anything. It makes the argument total BS, but this type of BS gets repeated so many times by patent lawyers and the monopolies which they represent. Let us remember that the USPTO is guarded and headed by an IBM veteran (pro-patents person) and just like in the Gates Foundation, Big Pharma bigwigs run things and ensure that monopolies are protected by the USPTO. Mike Masnick reports "Revolving Door Between Gov't And Industry Continues: Pharma Lawyer Goes To USPTO As Gov't Financial Regulator Goes To Wall St."

The level of regulatory capture between the government and industry is really quite sickening these days. There's a revolving door where government officials go work for industry and vice versa, with plenty of back-scratching in both directions. Two separate stories crossed my desk at about the same time, highlighting this in both directions. First up, it's really no surprise that one of the pharma industry's favorite lawyers has just become deputy director of the US Patent Office. Of course, the pharma industry is one of the more aggressive ones when it comes to expanding the power of patents, and abusing them to block innovation in healthcare. Now they have another person on the inside to help.


This is just so typical. Those who run the USPTO are exactly the same people who arrive from companies which are USPTO beneficiaries. The fox guards the hen house, declaring poultry to be a national dietary priority.

The whole situation with regards to intellectual monopolies is truly concerning and it is going further out of control, harming both small contenders and free software. Dr. Glyn Moody has just submitted lengthy feedback to the UK independent review of so-called 'IP' (also inclusive of copyrights, which are related to it). From the summary:

The possibility that non-commercial sharing of digital content actually promotes growth, as reflected in the healthy increase of content sales in recent years, rather than damaging sales as frequently claimed by the content industries in their partial and one-sided reports, is a central issue here. If this dynamic is at work, it would dramatically affect views on whether non-commercial file-sharing should be permitted or not, and have major implications for the implementation of the Digital Economy Act. This suggests that large-scale and fully independent research into this area should be an urgent priority before further decisions and actions are taken.

If such research confirms the preliminary results reported above, one of the best ways of supporting growth and innovation in the UK would then obviously be to allow the free non-commercial sharing of digital content.


Patents and copyrights are both monopolies and to some degree they are exclusionary (although modernising the law can mitigate the issue). People need to decide whether they want to live in a world with supposedly benevolent monopolies or in a world with a lot of competition and many contenders. It is clear what the USPTO's role is.

'“Other than Bill Gates, I don’t know of any high tech CEO that sits down to review the company’s IP portfolio" —Marshall Phelps (the man who built patent walls for IBM and then for Microsoft)

Recent Techrights' Posts

What's Very Vexing to GAFAM, EPO and Others Is That It's Incredibly Hard to Censor Us (and Nobody Ever Successfully Did That Before)
resist, do not capitulate
Receiving SLAPPs and Collecting Them Like Trophies (the SLAPPs Always Fail)
People who file lawsuits bring even more attention to themselves (or to embarrassing statements about them)
Year of GNU/Linux on the Laptop?
It's not happening only in Lenovo
What People Must Understand About the Open Source Initiative (OSI)
some facts about the Open Source Initiative (OSI)
More Copyright Lawsuits Against LLM Slop Providers and Suppliers of LLM Slopfarms Would Benefit Society
It's not just bad for the Web and for society; it's also legally dangerous
 
Links 27/04/2025: Death of Nest Thermostats, Death of Metaverse
Links for the day
Links 27/04/2025: Projects Workflow and Discovering Technology
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, April 26, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, April 26, 2025
Microsoft Isn't on the Map in USSR
To them, it's either Google or Yandex
In Central America Windows Became a Small Force
These are countries where Windows used to have well over 95% of the "market"
Site May be Even Faster Now
It basically takes less than a tenth of a second to serve the page
Many of the Scandals Are Interconnected (Overlapping People and Corporations)
We're only getting started
Links 26/04/2025: General Assassinated in the Town of Balashikha, US Promoting Seafloor Mining
Links for the day
Links 26/04/2025: Facebook Layoffs Again, Remembering What's Real, and Say No to Mass Surveillance
Links for the day
Links 26/04/2025: NOAA Budget Cuts and "Dog Days Ahead"
Links for the day
In defence of JD Vance, death of Pope Francis
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Three Years in Prison for Disney Employee’s ‘Menu Hacking’: The Economic Fallout of Digital Menus
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, April 25, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, April 25, 2025
Links 25/04/2025: Slop Fatigue and Patent Judges Flocking to Fake, Unconstitutional and Illegal Kangaroo Court (UPC, Captured 'Justice')
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/04/2025: Night Manager and Devuan in Hosting
Links for the day
Approaching 10,000 Articles/Pages Since Going Static
Trying to silence or derail the site was always a dumb strategy
Windows Falls to New Lows in Nicaragua, Now Below a Quarter (It Used to be Almost 100%)
Another all-time low for Windows
Microsoft is Shedding Off Loads of Staff and That Can be Dangerous Too
Working for Microsoft is a choice; nobody forces you to do it
Richard Stallman and the Unix Philosophy
When asked about systemd people must remember that RMS speaks as an active Board member of the FSF and also the founder of the FSF
The Cost (to Linux) of LLM Slop
Slop 'artists' like Fagioli are far from harmless
Links 25/04/2025: Ubisoft Spyware, Hegseth Fails at Tech on Every Level
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/04/2025: Food Forest Update and Facebook Destroying the Net
Links for the day
Get Rid of Back Doors, Don't Obsess Over Bounties and Other Corporate PR Stunts (or Needless Reboot Rituals)
Security as a term has mostly lost its meaning due to repeated misuse for many years
Serial Sloppers Are Killing the Web (They Probably Don't Care, Either)
Slop is a disease on the Web
Streaming Apps Are “Investor Fraud” That Kills the Planet
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Things Get Increasingly Nasty at Microsoft Ahead of the Fake Results and May's Mass Layoffs Wave
They try to get people to 'resign' so that they won't count as layoffs and the company's 'wellbeing' will seem better
IBM's Debt Ballooned by 8.5 Billion Dollars in Just 3 Months!
Hallmark of a company in a state of disarray, trying to spend its way out of trouble
Big Trouble in GNOME
even GNOME people admit the CoC went wrong
Slopping the Trough: Disney Plus Loses Billions and the Decline of Physical Media in America
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 24, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, April 24, 2025