Bonum Certa Men Certa

Strategy of Litigation With Patents Has Collapsed Since SCOTUS Ruling in Alice v. CLS Bank

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." ~Upton Sinclair

Two monkeys



Summary: The latest figures from Lex Machina show a massive decrease (-18%) in patent litigation last month; lawyers look for ways to spin the data in their favour

Patent lawyers with their monkey business can lie all they want, but the matter of fact is -- and the numbers speak for themselves -- patent lawyers would be better off rewriting their resume/curriculum vitae (not the history of software patents and of Alice v. CLS Bank) and seek another type of job. The parasites are on their way out and their business is decreasing, making this space more crowded and more competitive. It will be getting hard to get away with a patent on [action] "over the Internet" or [action] "using a computer" because guidelines are being revised and junior patent examiners will grow into them, applying a stricter test of validity before endorsing something; a lot of applications will be thrown in the bin very quickly. The same goes for judges, who will phase in a better set of standards, potentially scaring everyone who wields patents in the courtroom (and can therefore have them altogether invalidated).



"It will be getting hard to get away with a patent on [action] "over the Internet" or [action] "using a computer" because guidelines are being revised and junior patent examiners will grow into them, applying a stricter test of validity before endorsing something; a lot of applications will be thrown in the bin very quickly."Lex Machina was mentioned here years ago and Lex Machina continues to do a good job tracking patent litigation from a sceptical eye. The latest Lex Machina report says that "2014 has ended, though perhaps not yet for many court clerks who will continue entering paperwork from their backlog for another week or so, if history is a guide. These numbers are therefore preliminary and can be expected to rise slightly as the backlog is processed.

"441 new patent cases were filed in December, rising 32% from November 2014’s total of 335. These filings brought the total for 2014 to 5,010 new cases, an 18% decrease from the 6,083 new cases filed in 2013."

In other words, placing some emphasis on the latter figure, for the second month in a row (if not for longer than this), post-Alice v. CLS Bank we see a very statistically-significant decrease in patent litigation. Steph from IP Troll Tracker said that even the pro-patents folks, "Dennis Crouch over at Patently-O and I AM reported the same thing, citing Lex’s numbers because why not? A 40% reduction in patent filings sounds all nice-like."

Steph adds: "As I pointed out on Twitter, it’s not so much the number of suits that’s problematic, it’s who sues who and what it costs to defend. If there were only three patent troll lawsuits in a single year, but those lawsuits shut down three companies, if those three lawsuits cost hundreds of people their jobs because company owners were forced to deflect funds to lawyers (the only true winners in any litigation), would we be better or worse off?"

Well, all in all, given the size of the sample set (hundreds), it is safe to assert that the decrease is real. One could argue about the exact number and the way litigation is counted, but the statistically-significant figures are enough to support the conclusion and they apply the same definition to 2013 and 2014 litigations. The figures were assembled by a group that is academic (subjected to scrutiny from peers), not a bunch of software patents boosters or opponents. They profit from good research, not from selling an agenda of themselves (or a client).

Matt Levy, a lawyer who likes to focus on patent trolls, decided to spin it the other way, trying to (mis)use the aforementioned study not to compare year-to-year trends (as should be done), but month-to-month over consecutive months that are inherently different (December has holidays). He said: "According to Lex Machina’s data, there were 441 patent litigation filings in December 2014. The previous month, there were 335. That’s an increase of 32%!"

Complete misinterpretation of what was shown. That's like comparing the sales of Christmas trees in November to the sales of Christmas trees in December. But nice try, Mr. Levy.

Recent Techrights' Posts

How We Process Screenshots of Slop to Suitably Tag Them as Slop
everything is a single command
 
Gemini Links 11/08/2025: Upgrading Debian Bookworm and Better Quality PDFs From Gemini Pages
Links for the day
Currys PCWorld Lied a Decade Ago, 10 Years Later It Still Effectively Voids Your Warranty for Installing GNU/Linux Despite It Being Increasingly Mainstream
Microsoft gatekeepers
Team GNOME Has Libeled Me for Nearly 20 Years
we are not dealing with sane people
Experience With Airlines in 'Web Sites' and in 'Apps'
In a lot of ways, Stallman Was Right about what JavaScript would turn out to be
Open Does Not Mean Free
wiser to ask if some program is freedom-respecting
The Register MS Takes Money From Companies Banned by the Biden and Trump Administrations (National Security Risk)
today's sponsor
Sabotaging GNU/Linux PCs (and Users) is Not a 'Joke'
maybe cruelty is the very objective
Links 11/08/2025: Data Breaches, Politics, and Climate
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 10, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, August 10, 2025
Gemini Links 11/08/2025: Tea Caffeine Hot and Super ZZ Zero
Links for the day
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, Brian Fagioli, and Other Serial Sloppers
Maybe Microsoft wants to dub this "Web5"
Gemini Links 10/08/2025: Residents Management Company, Automation, and Politics
Links for the day
Links 10/08/2025: AOL Ending Dial-up
Links for the day
Seductive Mirage or Allure of Complex, Proprietary Coffee Machines (or Similar White Elephants)
Software is a lot like those things
Links 10/08/2025: Webrings, “AI Sunglasses” and “AI Eyeglasses”, US Administration Intensifies Attacks on Science and Research
Links for the day
Sometimes Newer is Worse
We generally need to reject this dumb notion that "old" means bad
The Code Used to Make Techrights Fits on a Seventh of a Floppy Disk (or 100KB When Compressed)
For the sake of comparison I've just downloaded the latest version of WordPress. The ZIP file is 27.2MB in size, or ~27,200KB.
What They Tell Young Programmers
Coding in 2025
Simpler is Better When Simple is Enough
Over-complicating things to "sell" new versions is so 1990s
Links 10/08/2025: From Social Control Media to Prison, New Examples of Windows TCO
Links for the day
Sloppy Reporting About Slop, or How The Register MS Lowers Its Standards
Maybe the management isn't even aware of this
IBM's Strategy: Cull 'Expensive' Workers, Replace Them With Cheaper Ones
So far we saw not even one rebuttal or challenge to the claim of Red Hat layoffs scheduled for tomorrow
If You Attack Somebody Too Much You Legitimise and Strengthen That Somebody
at the end those attacks add up to a "martyr" status
The Man Who Helped Microsoft Kill Linux is Trying to Delay Our Lawsuits Against Him
By conservative estimates, and based on court documents submitted by them, they're prepared to spend over a million dollars on lawyers, fighting against me and my wife
Gemini Links 10/08/2025: Gen Con 2025 and Framework Laptop
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, August 09, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, August 09, 2025
The Register MS (Microsoft) or The Register AI (Slop)?
What a slopfest!
Is Red Hat About to Give the Boot to GNOME People Who Helped Microsoft 'Secure' (Monopolised) Boot?
It was always a dumb idea to play along with Microsoft's hardware mischief
Sales of Windows on PCs (Windows Licences) Go Down
Microsoft has a big problem in its hands
The Hype That Microsoft and The Register MS (Among Others) Promote Helps Stage DDoS Attacks on Free Software Sites
Microsoft is, to put it bluntly, pure evil
The Goal of Coopetition Assumes You're Friends
it will never work with Microsoft
Links 09/08/2025: Putin Allegedly to Visit Alaska (Which He Deems Part of Russia), Mike Tyson Sued for Copyright Infringement
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, LinuxSecurity, and Google News With Its Slopfarms of Choice
SEO spam, made with LLMs
Follow the Money: The Register MS Gets Paid to Promote "Hey Hi" Ponzi Scheme/Hype, Some Fake 'Articles' Might Be Composed by LLMs Already
paid to promote slop
Gemini Links 09/08/2025: Rethinking Aliases and Posting on Gopher vs. the Web
Links for the day
Links 09/08/2025: Apollo 13 Astronaut Jim Lovell Dies, Slop Future Bleak
Links for the day
After Shutting Down Studios, Divisions, Applications (e.g. Skype) Microsoft is Also Shutting Down 'Apps'
Cuts all around as layoffs persist this month, Microsoft tries to get many people to resign, and debt skyrockets
Most of Geminispace Can Probably Fit on a CD-ROM or a DVD (the Textual Part)
If one excludes very large capsules and ones that contain non-textual contenty
Eventually UEFI 'Secure Boot' Will be Dropped (Users Will Demand Its Removal and Boycott Its Pushers)
we expect OEMs will just listen to users
The Register MS: We Know Slop is a Bubble and Mindless Hype, But We Get Paid to Participate
Call out the culprits
Hate Mail From Anonymous Cowards
if this persists, we'll need to escalate
There Are Probably Over a Million Pages in Geminispace
there are two many limitations which merit a mention when it comes to assessing magnitude
Informal Open Letter to the Lawyer of the Microsofters (on Who's Funding the SLAPPs Against Techrights)
Whenever I ask about the funding they try to change the subject and act all aggressive
Microsoft Lunduke is Just Provoking People for Provocation's Sake
Be forewarned and remember where this guy came from: Microsoft
Besieged by Plagiarists Who Play With LLMs and Image Fusions
We really need to exercise or use our collective voice to oppose Serial Sloppers
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, August 08, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, August 08, 2025
Gemini Links 09/08/2025: Water Painting and Political Violence
Links for the day