Bonum Certa Men Certa

Director Lee's USPTO Managed to Drain the Swamp Filled by David Kappos and His Colleagues, But Trump Will Likely Dismiss Her Soon

Progress can be halted and regression soon follow for oligarchy's sake

David Kappos as lobbyist
Source: David Kappos interview with Intellectual Property Magazine (2010), modified by us



Summary: Just as the USPTO begins to get its act together and limit patent scope based on reasonably liberal SCOTUS Justices there are many reports suggesting that the Director of the USPTO will be driven out, courtesy of the Trump presidency that will also perturb SCTOUS

THE USPTO has a longstanding patent quality problem, albeit with Alice and few other top-level decisions (Mayo for instance) things are improving somewhat.



The other day we found Jaguar Land Rover pursuing patents on facial recognition, which basically means software patents. I have peer-reviewed papers for international journals about this subject; no doubt this is about software patents -- possibly a thing that UK-IPO would reject outright. Here is what Britain's worst paper wrote about it:

Motorists could soon unlock the doors of their car simply by walking up to it and taking a selfie.

Jaguar Land Rover is developing technology that uses facial recognition and gait analysis to detect when owners of its vehicles approach, to open the doors for them.

Details have been revealed in a recently published patent application by Jaguar Land Rover, but it is unclear when the technology might become available.


Nothing innovative here and also it's about software. Shouldn't the post-Alice guidelines* at the USPTO disqualify this? How about this other new patent application? It's one which TechDirt introduced the other day with the headline "Sony Wants To Patent A System For Scoring Journalists' 'Veracity'," noting that it's too obvious for a patent. To quote directly: "Like anyone wouldn't have come up with such a system if there wasn't patent protections?"

"Nothing innovative here and also it's about software."Let's face it, David Kappos has made more of a farce out of this system, having worked for IBM, a big proponent of software patents. Is the leadership of the USPTO 'on loan' (to large corporations)? Kappos now works as a software patents lobbyist and IBM is one of his clients. It disgraces the whole patent office on ethical grounds and nobody seems to mind.

Looking at some scholarly figures from Patently-O (published this past week, probably for some paper of his), it seems evident that Kappos did a lot of damage to patent quality. As Patently-O put it: "You’ll note the discontinuous nature of the average-PTA chart. The break-point in early 2010 shows the impact of the Federal Circuit’s Wyeth decision holding that the PTO had been under-calculating the adjustment."

That's also the Kappos impact. Here is another new graph. This graph, in our assessment, may simply mean that patent law firms broaden their applications' "template" (notably with citations) in order to patent some more junk and make it seem credible, well-researched. To quote: "The number of references cited per patent continues to rise, albeit more slowly in recent years. For patents issued in 2016, the average patent includes more than 50 cited references. In my view – this is great, although it would certainly help if the examiner was given some clue as to why the reference is deemed relevant or what portion of the reference is relevant. (If an examiner has a question, they can ask the applicant). A not-surprising facet of the growth in references-cited is that almost all of the growth is in applicant-cited. Compared with 10 years ago, applicants cite 26 more references per patent (on average) while examiners cite only 1.5 more per patent. As you might also note from the difference between median and average – the citation distribution is highly skewed. Example: If we take the top-5% of patents from 2016 (those with the most references cited) – they include 35% of all of the cited references. My experience with this skew is that patent applicants considered more valuable by their owners are more likely to submit more prior art references."

"Let's face it, David Kappos has made more of a farce out of this system, having worked for IBM, a big proponent of software patents."There is another new graph at Patently-O and the way we interpret it is quite simple: Quality of patents at the USPTO (or complexity of patents) is declining. Patent examiners don't seem to mind. The more, the merrier.

One last post from Patently-O alludes to Donald Trump and notes that the majority of patents in the US are not even from the US. The part about ITC (where the I should stand for US, not "international") says: "In an email, Prof. Mark Lemley suggests that we should look for “a rise in the importance of the ITC as we focus on blocking imports.” The ITC’s primary goal is to protect U.S. industries against unfair international trade. Lemley writes: “One interesting question is whether Trump will move the ITC’s jurisdiction back to its roots by insisting on a real domestic industry requirement.” Additional ITC movement could push-back against U.S. patents that are owned by foreign nations or unduly subsidized by a foreign nation."

"He'll turn the USPTO into a Great Swamp Again."We criticised the ITC many times. It's just an apparatus of US protectionism, so the I in the acronym is not suitable, like the W in WTO. Another article about Trump's impact, this time from MIP, says: "A panel on the US election at the IP Dealmakers Forum speculated that the Trump administration may take a long time to appoint a USPTO director and the Republican leadership that worked on patent bills in the previous Congress will again push for reform" (we already noted that USPTO Director Lee may be on her way out).

We expect Trump to make the US patent system even worse, as corporate interests tend to be prioritised over people, based on his recent appointments. He'll turn the USPTO into a Great Swamp Again. As for SCOTUS, expect more Conservative Justices there (not just a Scalia replacement), complete with preference for large corporations like Trump's. __________ * According to this new placement in IAM, the "USPTO seeks public comment regarding subject-matter eligibility" (covered here before). To quote: "On October 17 2016 the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced that two roundtables will be held in the coming months to discuss patentable subject matter eligibility under 35 USC €§ 101. The roundtables have been set up to facilitate public comment and discussion regarding the USPTO’s current guidance on subject-matter eligibility as well as case law arising from interpretation of the requirements under 35 USC €§ 101."

Recent Techrights' Posts

Serial Sloppers Are Killing the Web (They Probably Don't Care, Either)
Slop is a disease on the Web
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
New Article Explains How the GPL Came About and WordPress Having Copyleft Obligations
Having been involved in the WordPress development community since almost the beginning, I know why it chose the GPL and how it restricts abuse by Automattic
Dr Richard Stallman (RMS) Gives Talk in Oxford University in 4 Hours
If you live nearby, go there (it's free as in gratis)
 
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
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
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
Links 24/04/2025: GAFAM Problems and No Peace (or Ceasefire) in Sight
Links for the day
Slopfarms on the Web Almost Always Generate Anti-Linux FUD When They Produce "Linux" Output
Welcome to the dying Web
Richard Stallman's Oxford Talk Has Just Ended, Here Are Some Photos
he might hop over to another European country
Gemini Links 24/04/2025: Birthday and Good Work of Academia in Esotericism
Links for the day
Links 24/04/2025: EU fines Apple and Facebook, Another Microsoft GitHub Security Blunder
Links for the day
IBM Gained Almost 6 Billion Dollars in "Goodwill" Value in Just 3 Months, According to IBM
Congrats to the management!
In Belarus, Yandex is Now Measured as 50 Times More 'Popular' (by Usage) Than Microsoft
Yandex continues to gain, whereas Bing cannot even register at 1%. Last month it was registered or measured at a measly 0.65%.
IBM Cannot Lie to Shareholders Anymore
"I would not be surprised if we see a layoff every quarter this year."
Using a Law Firm's Licence to Exercise Politics Through Frivolous SLAPPs and Nastygrams (to Silence People, Remove Pages, Demand Fake or Forced 'Apologies')
Things must be getting really bad when lawyers act for raving antisemites
We're Working to Make Full-Site Search Available
This site has over 1,000 'wiki' pages, many thousands of documents, several thousands of videos, and about 50,000 blog posts or articles. We need to make them easier to find/navigate.
Links 24/04/2025: IBM Loses Many Contracts, Intel to Lay Off Over 20% (Not Counting Those Who Leave 'Voluntarily')
Links for the day
Richard Stallman Can Explain to Oxford Artificial Intelligence Society Why LLM Slop is Not Artificial Intelligence and Why It Hurts Society
another 'crop' of LLM slop that damages GNU/Linux and facts
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 23, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, April 23, 2025
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Promoting Microsoft and Proprietary Software Using Microsoft Operatives
Because nothing says "Open Source" like GPL violations facilitated by Microsoft
Another Site Bites the Dust: "Open Source For You" Becoming a Slopfarm (LLM Slop)
What a shame. Another dead site.
Links 23/04/2025: Crackdowns on Dissent, Palin Loses Libel Retrial Against New York Times
Links for the day
Links 23/04/2025: Hard Times and Digital Amnesia
Links for the day
The GNU/Linux Site Formerly Known as "linoxide.com" is Back... as an LLM Slopfarm!
Better for linoxide.com to go offline than to do this
Richard Stallman to Speak in Oxford University Exactly a Day From Now
outsourced to GAFAM
Links 23/04/2025: "Hiding Corruption" and "The Cost of Defunding Harvard"
Links for the day
Microsoft 'Studies' Again? Leon Musolff is Writing Papers With Microsoft.
Even if one can see/find a link to "the study" (in the Bezos-controlled publication), most people won't look any further and just take everything at face value.
Towards GNU World Domination
The FSF led by Geoffrey S. Knauth with his friend Richard Stallman in the FSF's Board [...] Let's encourage people to adopt GNU/Linux. There has never been a better time.
statCounter Helps Visualise Just How Deep in Trouble Microsoft is (Especially in Africa)
Microsoft sabotaged efforts to connect Africans and equip them with GNU/Linux laptops
The Register is Using Linux-Hostile Clickbait in Articles of Linux Proponents
Don't be a "whore" to advertisers, team El Reg
Microsoft Windows in Cyprus Lacking a Future
Most people access the Web there from mobile
Matrix Has a Severe Problem With Illegal Images
If Matrix cannot get the CP problem under control, many projects and people will dump Matrix
Never Try to Justify Strangulation of Women (Not in the US and Not in the UK)
Joint post by Mrs. Rianne Schestowitz and Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Links 23/04/2025: Tesla Profits Plunge 71%, Intel Ready to Lay Off 20% of Staff, Microsoft and IBM Layoffs
Links for the day
Microsoft's Most Profound Issue is That People Moved to 'Mobile' and "App Stores" (Microsoft's Presence There is Negligible)
Expect a wild ride for Microsoft this year
Google News is Amplifying FUD and Lies About Linux (and OpenSSH/SSH) by Promoting Slopfarms With Machine-Generated FUD and Slop Images
Google should know better
Gemini Links 23/04/2025: Librarians, Anubis, and Refactoring a Gemini Capsule
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, April 22, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, April 22, 2025