Watchtroll & Friends is the "Alt Right" of the patent world

Summary: The Director of the USPTO is now under attack by the patent maximalists, who are proponents of software patents, patent trolls, and everything that is wrong in a patent system

Watchtroll and the ilk are getting very nasty today, almost ad hominem as usual. This latest article serves to reinforce what we wrote some days ago. Seeing some of the comments online (in social media and on the article, e.g. " Lee MUST GO!") is enough to make one queasy about the unprofessionalism. Why does Google News even syndicate such personal attacks as though these are news articles? Never mind the promotion of 'conspiracy theories' about Google therein (we covered this last week).

Jeff John Roberts, a decent author covering the area of patents (a journalist for Fortune), has just published "What Trump Means for the U.S. Patent System" and as we noted this morning, so far no harm was done in this domain, as Lee seems to have secured her place. Watchtroll is just trying to shame and pressure Trump into annihilating all the progress made. They would also rather see Lee out of her job. How unprofessional; and IBM's patent chief actually feeds these clowns...?

Unlike the EPO, the USPTO is tightening patent scope and doing what it takes to suppress trolling. 99% (or more) of the public would be happy about it, but trolls and their facilitators fight back. They fight ugly and they play dirty.

Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear LLP, i.e. patent maximalists and part of the patent microcosm, decided to write today that the "Federal Circuit Invalidates Ameranth's Menu Software Patents as Unpatentable Abstract Ideas," i.e. more of the same. To quote:

Federal Circuit Invalidates Ameranth's Menu Software Patents as Unpatentable Abstract Ideas

The Federal Circuit's recent decision in Apple, Inc. v. Ameranth, Inc. highlights the potential impact of including a discussion in the specification that characterized features as conventional, routine, generic, or known in the field without further discussion of an innovation that goes beyond these features. Employing the two-step analytical framework of Mayo/Alice to evaluate subject matter eligibility under 35 U.S.C. ۤ 101, the Federal Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part Patent Trial and Appeal Board ("Board") determinations in Covered Business Method ("CBM") reviews regarding the patentability of U.S. Patent Nos. 6,384,850 ("'850 patent"), 6,871,325 ("'325 patent"), and 6,982,733 ("'733 patent").

AIA combined with Alice is the mixture which eliminates many more such patents and Patently-O has this new article (published earlier today) which speaks of a post-grant-review -- a concept which is not so different from PTAB IPRs:

As with so many US patent lawsuits, the case involves a parallel AIA-trial. Since the patent at issue here is a post-AIA patent, the challenger was able to file for post-grant-review (PGR).

Patently-O has another new article, this one about patent exhaustion, and it says: "One of the topics discussed was the doctrine of patent exhaustion – also known as the first sale doctrine. The doctrine was central to Bowman v. Monsanto Co., 133 S.Ct. 1761 (2013) and is also central to the case now pending before the Supreme Court, Impression Products, Inc. v. Lexmark International, Inc., Supreme Court Docket No. 15-1189 (2017)."

Patently-O, to its credit, was never as crude and unprofessional as Watchtroll. We don't even follow Watchtroll, but it creeps in through Google News.

If Watchtroll was ever to become an unofficial face of the patent microcosm, it would have a devastating effect on the interests of patent lawyers, attorneys, etc. In a sense, Watchtroll has become the patent microcosm's worst enemy. No dignity, no professionalism. These people even attack judges whose decisions they don't agree with. ⬆