Microsoft and IBM Still Lobby for Software Patents in the US

Dr. Roy Schestowitz

2014-01-06 16:55:31 UTC
Modified: 2014-01-06 16:55:31 UTC

[This article was written in February 2013 and was accidentally never published]

Bulbs

Summary: IBM -- not just Microsoft -- part of the problem known as software patenting

THIS morning we chastised IBM for its OIN strategy; but IBM plays a role in actively promoting software patents, and not just in the US (IBM promoted software patents in Europe and New Zealand for example). The other day we found this report:

Software patents, facing new scrutiny in the U.S., drive innovation and protect huge investments by developers, representatives of software companies said during a Capitol Hill briefing.

Here is a key part which says: "The U.S. patent system isn't perfect, but lawmakers and judges shouldn't solve current controversies by eliminating software patents altogether, executives with Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, Covia Labs and Procter & Gamble said during a briefing Thursday before congressional staffers in Washington, D.C."

The Hill has published "Microsoft, IBM executives defend software patents", which means that they go against Obama's apparent will.

Executives for IBM and Microsoft defended the value of software patents on Thursday, saying they are key to protecting their companies' competitive edge and innovation.

"We think software patents or patents that are implemented in software are important and valuable, and necessary to protect the investments that we make in research and development and to preserve our competitive advantage," Neil Abrams, vice president and assistant general counsel at IBM, told The Hill following a Thursday briefing hosted by BSA |The Software Alliance and National Association of Manufacturers on Capitol Hill about patents. "We think it's important for the American economy."

IBM is not helping the FOSS community or even Linux by doing what it does here. IBM was also a funder of the BSA until a few years back. Meanwhile in Seattle (Microsoft's back yard), Motorola/Google is needing to defend itself from Microsoft's software patents. Groklaw has details on that:

Matt Rizzolo at The Essential Patent Blog reports that there's a new order [PDF] from Judge James L. Robart in the Microsoft v. Motorola litigation in Seattle.

For Microsoft it's predictable to assault FOSS with patents, but why does IBM continue to do this massive disservice to the FOSS community? ⬆

Invitation to General Assembly After 1,200 EPO Workers Participated in the Demonstration 3 Days Ago: "the strike of 19 March was also very well followed."
SLAPP Censorship - Part 17 Out of 200: A Long Track Record of Online Abuse, Then Choosing a Low-Cost Law Firm to Muzzle People Who Have Illuminated This Abuse for Over a Decade: Censorship by targeting ISPs and webhosts isn't unprecedented
Symptom of Publishers Dying: They Move to Adopt Slop. Symptom of Software Companies Dying: They Move to Adopt Slop ('Vibe').: It'll always fail. It's hype. It's a bubble.
Under IBM, Red Hat Replaces Code With LLM Slop, Fedora is Slopware: Not even hiding it, those things are in plain sight
Links 21/03/2026: Metastablecoin Fragmentation and Crescent Moon: Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/03/2026: Historic Ada Docs; The Lurking LLM on the SmolNet: Links for the day
HSBC the Latest Failed Bank Using Slop as Excuse for Its Financial Failure: "HSBC is planning on cutting as many as 20,000 jobs in the near future as the company allies with AI revolution."
A/Prof Susan G Kleinmann, Enkelena Haxhija & Debian-private risk to MIT: Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, March 20, 2026: IRC logs for Friday, March 20, 2026
Plagiarism in "Linux" Clothing (LLM Slop in linuxiac.com, LinuxTeck.com, and linuxsecurity.com): The net effect of those slopfarms is very negative
Links 20/03/2026: Facebook Weaponised Politically, Openwashing by LF and NVIDIA, Encyclopedia Britannica Sues Microsoft Proxy for Plagiarism: Links for the day
The EPO's Local Staff Committee Munich (LSCMN) Explains to the Administrative Council (AC) How Bad Things Have Become at Europe's Second-Largest Institution, Biggest Patent Office, and Corruption/Cocaine Hub (Jobs Sold to Friends): We'll say a bit more tomorrow
IBM's Red Hat Diversity: Only 3 Women (Out of 11 Leaders): For comparison's sake, the FSF is about 50% female
Gemini Links 20/03/2026: Depictions of Culture and The Social Smolnet: Links for the day
SimilarWeb Was Never a Reliable Yardstick for Traffic: 5RB may need some "house-cleaning"
Strangulation, suffocation, Jonathan Carter & Debian toxic culture confirmed: Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Reports or Hearsay Suggest Ogilvy Broke Up With IBM and Insiders Report Mass Layoffs in "Infrastructure" (Might Impact Red Hat Entrants): hearsay in Social Control Media
Scheduled Server Maintenance Tomorrow Night: Starting 9PM
None of the Above (NotA) & Debian snubbing Sruthi Chandran: Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 20/03/2026: Cryptography Pioneers Win Turing Award and BMG Sues Anthropic for Copyright Infringement: Links for the day
Even Uganda Understands That Journalists Never Belong in Prison: "Ugandan authorities must respect the spirit of this ruling and abandon any measures that seek to jail Ugandans for the free flow of ideas."
Inaction Helps Your Enemies: Without freedom, there's nothing else left
Windows Down From 99% to ~50% in Republic of Seychelles (République des Seychelles): Windows fell by a lot
"systemd is essentially a corporate IBM/Redhat project and corporations of course will comply": Microsoft and IBM care about users' freedom like Cheeto Lump cares about the US Constitution
Confluent Insiders: IBM Laid Over Over 800 at Confluent, Not Just 800: For the record, the layoffs at Confluent won't be over. After the bluewashing there will be "IBM RAs" impacting Confluent folks, aside from PIPs
The Layoffs at IBM Carry on (Shades of Enron): Is IBM another Enron?
"IBM boss Arvind Krishna... financial package valued at $38 million in calendar 2025 - equivalent to the average collective pay of 765 Big Blue workers.": continues to ruin the company to enrich himself while pretending he has a strategy
Gemini Links 20/03/2026: Digital Identity Bifurcation and a "Return to Gemini": Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 19, 2026: IRC logs for Thursday, March 19, 2026
SLAPP Censorship - Part 16 Out of 200: Detailing the Actors and Explaining Techrights' Own Internet Relay Chat (IRC) Network: For those who have not followed our story
Microsoft "hiding behind bigger news of war, Epstein, other companies' layoffs": They know what's coming, they just don't know when
Joerg Jaspert (Debian Account Manager/DAM) personally approved Raphael Hertzog's wife Sophie Brun: Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Letter 'A' prohibited by Code of Conduct extremism: Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Spoiler: Diversity & Debian means different things to different people: Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Admits Failures and Criticism of Inaction on SLAPPs: many if not all solicitors and solicitor firms in the UK are in effect unregulated
Archiving or Preserving Pages About IBM Layoffs: Layoffs at IBM and the media does not talk about these
ABC, the American National Broadcaster, "Now Publishes Slop": If the "big media" absorbs slop, it'll no longer be trusted and therefore not read/watched by the public
Links 19/03/2026: Culling Deepfakes of Artists’ Music and "Age Verification Isn’t the Answer": Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/03/2026: "Aktion GPT-4" and "Kill All Descendants": Links for the day
"AI" 15 Times in Short 'Article' From The Register MS. And The Register MS Got Paid to Publish It.: gets paid to do this
People Who Decided to Boycott Novell Over Its Microsoft Alliance Should Also Boycott Canonical: As an associate put it, "selling out further, due to Microsoft moles inside Canonical"
Links 19/03/2026: "AI Glasses" as Euphemism for Mass Surveillance and ABC (US) Has Begun Publishing Slop as 'News': Links for the day
The European Patent Office, Europe's Second-Largest Institution, is on Strike Today: Lots more to come
What People Impacted by the Bluewashing Layoffs at IBM Confluent Say (While the Media Says Nothing at All, in Effect Burying the News): Worse yet, the mainstream media spreads lies about it right now
IBM Has Turned Red Hat and Fedora Into Slop: This is IBM policy
IBM is Being Robbed, Companies and Jobs Are Destroyed: Companies taken over by IBM will be exploited and destroyed to keep a bubble inflated for a little while longer
In Confluent Layoffs, IBM Vapourises a Quarter of Its Workforce (IBM Buys Something That It Destroys Already): In the past, such things were typically referred to as "media blackout"; now it's just "the norm".
IBM Effect at Confluent: Mass Layoffs and IBM's Business Conduct Guidelines (BCGs) Said to be Violated: For Confluent employees who survived the layoffs there will be "culture chock"
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 18, 2026: IRC logs for Wednesday, March 18, 2026
Links 19/03/2026: LLM Fatigue (It Doesn't Work as Advertised), "Small Web Feeds": Links for the day

Microsoft and IBM Still Lobby for Software Patents in the US

Recent Techrights' Posts