Bonum Certa Men Certa

Patents Roundup: Patent Trolls Groomed by IAM, Reform Strives to Tackle Trolls, NewEgg and LOTNet Explore Alternate Solutions

The debate about patent trolls keeps the debate about software patents rather elusive

A keyboard



Summary: A look at recent news involving or implicating patent trolls in the United States

IAM Shows Love for Patent Trolls



The EPO's media friend/ally, IAM (which has a 'magazine' and now events too), was paid by MOSAID (renamed Conversant after all the negative press), which is essentially a Microsoft-Nokia patent troll. IAM wasn't selective enough and it tactlessly associates itself with notorious actors. It's now relaying the views of someone who came from there, along with the views of people who now work for trolls of other companies like Ericsson. As IAM put it: "On the opening panel of the day, four NPE CEOs – Jim Skippen of WiLAN, Anthony Hayes of Spherix, Network1’s Corey Horowitz and Alexander Poltorak of General Patent Corporation – discussed how they were coping in the current climate. Skippen who was at Mossaid (now Conversant) before taking over as WiLAN’s head in 2006, is arguably as well placed as anyone to assess what has been a profound shift in the operating environment."



They didn't even spell MOSAID correctly (it's referred to as "Mossaid"). This event from IAM is just about patent trolls (referred to by euphemisms); it should also cover big extortion firms like Microsoft (which have their in-house 'PAEs', like "Microsoft Licensing").

Tackle Trolls by So-called 'Reform'



Some continue to miss the point by saying things like "#Patent trolls relentlessly extort US small biz and must be stopped at all levels, including @TradeGov: http://bit.ly/1pyMbJR #FixPatents"

They should focus on software patents, not just actors that are small (patent trolls are assumed to be small). The accompanying press release from CTA talks not about the giants, though it rightly lays some of the blame on the ITC for facilitating their embargoes (or threats of embargoes, for leverage purposes).

The following statement is attributed to Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, Consumer Technology Association (CTA)™, formerly Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)€®, regarding the reintroduction of The Trade Protection Not Troll Protection Act by Reps. Tony Cardenas (D-CA) and Blake Farenthold (R-TX):

"Patent trolls will go to any length to extort American small businesses. Not only are they exploiting our court system but they are also abusing the International Trade Commission (ITC) - clogging the system with frivolous patent infringement claims. If Congress wants to give small- and medium-sized businesses a fighting chance against trolls, it must require that patent trolls who file an ITC suit demonstrate they license their patents to companies who make actual products. Otherwise, patent trolls will continue to drain $1.5 billion a week from the economy and waste the time of the ITC, similar to what they have done with our court system.


The thing about large corporations that use patents against their competition, it’s them who lobby most to change the law to suit their agenda. Rightly or wrongly, Watchdog dot org has just stated that "Patent law changes could stack the deck for big business". Here is the relevant portion:

Intellectual property law changes pursued in the name of fighting “patent trolls” could make it easier for large companies to steamroll small inventors.

Separation Design Group, a research lab with eight employees in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, worries that’s exactly what will happen if reforms supported by President Barack Obama and tech giants like Google are implemented.

“People are saying litigation stifles big business. In our case, it’s pretty much the opposite,” SDGroup CEO Doug Galbraith told Watchdog.org. “If people are talking about tightening up the rules about how you litigate those situations, what’s the alternative for a company like ours?”


NewEgg's Good Fight Against Patent Trolls



"The solution to patent trolling is to be aggressive," wrote Julian this week. "Never, ever settle with a patent troll." NewEgg has followed this mantra for a number of years now [1, 2, 3, 4] and this new article shows that NewEgg follows the tradition. "Newegg will donate more than $10,000," says a trolls expert about money "it has made from selling anti-patent-troll T-shirts to Jordan Gwyther, who owns Larping.org, a hub for the live action role-play (LARP) community. Gwyther was sued last year by Global Archery. Global Archery founder John Jackson said he's ticked off that Gwyther has tried to sell foam arrows to the camps, churches, and resorts that make up the bulk of Jackson's customers."

The LARPing story was covered here several times before [1, 2, 3] and this new article from TechDirt also provides some context as follows: "What entirely too many of these patent trolls rely on in order to get monetary settlements is the size of their targets. If a business is small enough, say a tiny site used primarily by roleplaying enthusiasts, that site may not have the resources necessary to fend off a legal claim from a patent troll. Instead, that business will typically accept whatever settlement demands the troll has requested."

This is a sort of 'protection money' and there is a blackmail/extortion dimension to it, which makes Microsoft almost indistinguishable from patent trolls.

LOTNet as Anti-Troll Mechanism?



"LOTNet was launched," said IAM this week, "in January 2014, with the aim of countering so-called ‘troll’ behaviour by gradually restricting the supply of patents to PAEs. LOTNet defines a PAE as any “entity and its affiliates” which derive “more than half of their total revenue… from patent assertion in a 12-month period, or if it has a plan approved by senior management to do so”. [...] A month later, Lenovo acquired over 3,800 mobile device-related patent families from NEC. It has also obtained a number of patents from IBM over the years, at least some of which can presumably be accounted for by its 2014 acquisition of the US company’s server business. In the same year, Lenovo was assigned around 2,000 patents as part of its $2.9 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility from fellow LOTNet member Google."

The article is really about Lenovo, which bought some business from IBM, now a patent aggressor that goes after much smaller rivals.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Our Three Lawsuits Against Microsofters Are About to Become a Lot More Relevant to GNU/Linux
The Master will easily understand why Garrett has been attacking me since 2012
They Don't Tell Us that 'Digitalisation' (Now Sold as "Hey Hi") Just Means Customers Become Unpaid Staff and Are Made Accountable
People are being conditioned to associate technology with something undesirable, at times even unbearable
 
New and Old
On Ageism in Tech
Slop Is Not Intelligence and It Does Not Enhance Productivity
Like voice dictation, which cannot tell the difference between "sheet" and "shit"
EPO Crimes Are Spreading to the British Court System
Society is now paying the price for failing to tackle crimes at the EPO
It's Time to Dump SharePoint and Here's What to Use Instead
Nextcloud, ownCloud, Bookstack, MediaWiki, and MediaGoblin
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 22, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 22, 2025
Brett Wilson LLP Has Gone Silent
Sometimes silence says more than nothing at all
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, Planet Ubuntu, and LinuxTechLab
some slopfarms show no remorse and they don't value their reputation at all
Links 23/07/2025: Book Bans, Storms, and Kangaroo Court for Patents Commits More Unlawful Acts of Overreach
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/07/2025: Thinkpad and Pinephone
Links for the day
Links 22/07/2025: "Blog Restart" and Microsoft Clobbered by “ToolShell"
Links for the day
Global Warming and Global GAFAM Energy-Wasting
Burn more money (borrowed, loans), then hope the waste will somehow translate into profit?
No Compliance With the European Patent Convention (EPC) at the European Patent Office (EPO)
It's about preventing competition against this autocracy
Blue-Collar Trolls vs White-Collar Trolls
Examples of white-collar trolls
Apple Vision Pro Failed So Badly That Its Sales Are About 2,000 Times Smaller Than iPhone Sales
What's left for Apple to offer other than hype?
To Millions of People "Year of the Linux Desktop" Was Some Time in the 1990s (Bootable GNU/Linux as a Complete Operating System is Over 33 in Age)
In some sense, "year of the Linux desktop" was 33 years ago
Make No Assumptions (or Demands) About the Screen Resolution Used by Other People
There are usability aspects, aside from accessibility aspects
Why Wayland (and XWayland) Won't Solve the Key Problem It Proclaims to be Tackling (the Same Is True for Rust)
The problem isn't Wayland per se but the false promises and efforts to force everybody to move to it whilst insulting or demonising everyone who won't play along
Diplomatic Immunity Should Not Exist for Anybody
The EPO in its current form gradually 'normalises' the end of European democracy
Brett Wilson LLP Stopped Sending Me Papers When I Showed It had Sent Me Over 5 Kilograms of Legal Papers
A week ago we lodged our third lawsuit
Microsoft Mass Layoffs and Shutdowns Became the New Normal at Microsoft
Microsoft mass layoffs became a topic of everyday media coverage since May
Amazon Web Services (AWS) Has Layoffs and Microsoft Gaming/Entertainment Division Has an Uncertain Future
it's good to see all those horrible things crashing and burning
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 21, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 21, 2025
FSF "Raised Almost $139,000 During This Summer Campaign"
"Thank you for making a stand against dystopia!"
Gemini Links 22/07/2025: VPS Exploited and Fear of View
Links for the day
LLM Bots vs Techrights
Slows things down a bit
New Publication Sheds Lights on Abuse of Workers at the European Patent Office (EPO)
Put in simple terms, they're killing the Office, harming remaining staff, try to hire rubber-stampers
Links 21/07/2025: Hardware, Health, and Imperialism
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/07/2025: "When Buying Isn't Owning" and "CMS Special Edition"
Links for the day
Links 21/07/2025: Indie Web and Toxic Politics
Links for the day
[Meme] Microsoft Lawyers Throwing Stones in Glass Houses
threatened me with bankruptcy
Google "AI Overview" is Not AI and Not Overview
do not be misled; what Google does isn't smart, it's just ripping off the sites it already crawled for as long as 27 years
Making the Case to Dump Microsoft and GAFAM for National and Digital Sovereignty
"Sovereignty is difficult"
The Tactics of the Opposition (Microsoft Lunduke): Associate With K00ks, Throw in Vaccines to Muddy the Water
Who stands to gain from this?
Europe's Second-Largest Institution (EPO) and Largest Patent Monopoly Office Needs More Transparency, Not Less Transparency
In the EPO, what good are elections when one candidate literally bribes all the voters?
How Not to Report News About Microsoft
This pattern of misreporting is so widespread that it's hard to believe it's not intentional
Computer Science is Under Attack, They Want Everyone to be a Consumer
If people can no longer acquire Computer Science education and real Computer Science experience, they will not know how to control their own digital destiny or emancipate the very same universities that now control the syllabus and instead of teaching Computer Science encourage the outsourcing of systems
The Best Tools Are the Simplest Tools
There's a hidden message here about the merits of sticking with X
Ofcom Online Safety Group Speaks of Protecting Women Online, Will Brett Wilson LLP Ever Listen?
They've essentially became like the Taliban's "burka police"
Social Control Media Relies on Advertisers, So It'll Always Be Hostile Towards Free Software
Sales, sales, sales
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 20, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 20, 2025
Fragmentation of Data
Life is too short to "hoard" data
In Defence of "Spinning Rust"
Just because something is "old" (or older) doesn't mean it ought to become extinct
Using Free Software to Prepare Legal Documents
LibreOffice is openly complaining about OOXML as an obstacle
Tech and Technology Are Not the Same Anymore
"Are you into tech, Sir?"
Our Articles About SLAPPs Receive Recognition and Interest
This week we shall continue writing about the 3 lawsuits we filed