Bonum Certa Men Certa

Patent Trolling Allegedly Runs in the Blood (or Interests) of the Trump Family, in Spite of the USPTO's and Courts' Growing Hostility Towards Patent Trolls

Fear that Obama era nominees and appointees will need to be 'replaced' to better suit the interests of Trump's family business rather than common sense

Macrosolve headlines
Macrosolve is back and this time it's connected to President Trump



Summary: Revisiting the appalling, dirty Turf War over USPTO leadership and what Macrosolve's (patent troll) business connections to Donald Trump's son, namely $45,000 and 5,000,000 shares, might mean to Donald Trump's patent policy

THE USPTO remains unchanged at the very top. Michelle Lee is staying, in spite of the storm of attacks on her character and policies (and perceived/conjured conflicts of interest).



"Michelle Lee is staying, in spite of the storm of attacks on her character and policies (and perceived/conjured conflicts of interest)."TechDirt, which previously (correctly) blamed many of these attacks on Watchtroll, wrote some hours ago that "General Franco Is Still Dead And Michelle Lee Is Still Director Of The US Patent Office". He gave some background as follows: "Last month, we wrote about the truly bizarre situation in which no one in the federal government seemed willing to say who was in charge of the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). You see, there had been widespread reports right before the inauguration that the current director, Michelle Lee (who's been really, really good at the job) was being kept on in that role. But, for some reason, the Commerce Department's website listed the role as vacant. And there were a series of other confusing and conflicting signs. But the most bizarre part was that the USPTO and the Commerce Department simply refused to say who was in charge. Which is... weird."

There is a Turf War going on and sites like IAM play a role in it. It's lobbying. They are hoping to 'implant' a trolls proponent at the top of the Office (remember that IAM is paid by trolls), not to mention a proponent of software patents (like IAM). It's someone who brought nothing but disgrace to the US courts system. He's the kind of person corrupt enough even for Donald Trump to install at the top, but it didn't happen. Maybe it wasn't meant to be, or maybe the Turf War was lost by the vicious lobbyists, who included Watchtroll (lobbying disguised as a news site).

"Maybe it wasn't meant to be, or maybe the Turf War was lost by the vicious lobbyists, who included Watchtroll (lobbying disguised as a news site)."We wish to remind readers of Obama's AIA (Leahy-Smith America Invents Act America), which contributed a lot to improvement in patent quality, including the introduction of PTAB (similar to the appeal boards at the EPO, where these are being crushed by Battistelli).

"Although the AIA includes statutory protections," Dennis Crouch wrote yesterday, "the all-republican majority allows for rapid changes..."

Remember that Crouch is hoping to slow down PTAB and thus decrease patent quality again (hence making his occupation as an academic more relevant). The Deputy Director of the USPTO has in fact just been unveiled and watch Dennis Crouch rushing to tell Lee what to do. From yesterday's post about Tony Scardin, courtesy of Crouch: "Tony Scardino, Chief Financial Officer of the agency is now also the Acting Deputy Director of the USPTO (as recently revealed by the USPTO FOIA Response). It is a bit of an oddity as to how Scardino jumped to the head of the line in almost violation of the USPTO rules of succession that provides for CFO to take an acting head leadership role only if there is no Commissioner for Patents, Commissioner of Trademarks, or Administrator for Policy and External Affairs. However, the rules of succession do not provide in particularity as to who becomes Acting Deputy Director when the Deputy leaves but the Director is still in place. Thus, I would suggest that Dir. Lee is within her authority to select a qualifying person to fill that role. (It may also be that the PTO has a non-public succession plan.)"

"...Trump has said virtually nothing about patents, both prior to and after his election. It's an enigma."Is Crouch too trying to participate in that sort of 'coup' against USPTO leadership? In order to install the corrupt equivalent of Battistelli at the EPO? We sure hope that we merely misunderstand Crouch's intentions here.

Why is all that relevant anyway? Well, Trump has said virtually nothing about patents, both prior to and after his election. It's an enigma. But Joe Mullin's new article (mentioned by Henrion today) says that Trump now have an interest in patent trolls. His son is in this business. To quote Mullin: "Before President Donald Trump took the oath of office in January, he handed off management of the Trump Organization's business interests to his two eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump. The family-owned company has been in various lines of business over the years—most famously, there are hotels, casinos, and golf resorts, some owned and others licensed. Ties, steaks, and a controversial seminar business have also borne the Trump name. [...] MacroSolve's actions soon made it part of a longstanding debate in the tech industry over "patent trolls," companies that do little or no business other than filing patent lawsuits. But MacroSolve management never accepted the idea that the company was a "troll," and it said so in interviews. [...] Whatever you call it, MacroSolve's brand of patent enforcement had initial success—its lawsuits earned the company close to $5 million. When the litigation campaign eventually collapsed in 2014, MacroSolve was absorbed by a defense contractor called Drone Aviation Holding Corporation. That organization has its own close ties to the Trump presidency, and there's no telling whether, or if, Drone Aviation will try to enforce old MacroSolve patents or its own patents."

This was also covered here by Cory Doctorow. It was found via Professor James Bessen, who is an expert in this sort of thing and it says:

Oklahoma's Anyware Mobile Solutions was founded in 1997 to make PDA software, but after its sales collapsed, it changed its name to Macrosolve and devoted itself to suing people for violating a farcical patent that they said covered filling in questionnaires using an app.

Starting in 2011, Macrosolve became a prolific patent troll, suing 59 companies in dozens of lawsuits, filing in the notorious, patent-troll-friendly East Texas court system. It made its first million bucks in a few months. As a PR move it Macrosolve then hired Donald Trump Jr to be the company's spokestroll, paying him $45,000 and 5,000,000 shares for two years' worth of PR consulting.


Macrosolve was mentioned here 3 years ago. It was in relation to Newegg, which fought back against software patent trolling from Macrosolve. Now that the troll is connected to Donald Trump's son there is danger that it will pull strings in favour of both patent trolls and software patents, but we shall see.

Recent Techrights' Posts

The Two Lies Microsoft is Telling in "the News" This Week (to Distract From Layoffs and Decreased Interest in Slop/Chaff)
Microsoft is run by liars and frauds who SLAPP critics
Tux Machines Already Destroyed SLAPPs
Attacks on the mere publication of GNU/Linux news won't be tolerated
Always Check Your Inputs
Garbage in, garbage out. Or wrong assumptions, wrong corollary.
 
Our Lawsuits Against the 'Cancel Mob' (Ringleaders) Helped Reduce Anti-Free Software Online Abuse
That's not to say that lawsuits are the best way to handle terrible people. But that can help.
Tomorrow is the Last Day of the Fund-Raising Campaign of the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
They will probably extend the date, as usual
Fixing Patents in Europe, Little by Little (by Transparency and Reporting of Suppressed Facts)
Tomorrow and throughout the weekend we shall focus some more on the EPO
PCLinuxOS is Available for Download Again
PCLinuxOS is important to us also because its founder, back then the partner of Susan, helped create Tux Machines more than 21 years ago
Links 10/07/2025: Microsoft E-mail 'Services' Collapse Again, "Yet Another Strava Privacy Leak"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 10/07/2025: Automating Git Repo Updates and Small Web 'Zine'
Links for the day
GNU/Linux Leftovers
mostly Linux stuff
Audiocasts/Shows: Going Linux, FLOSS Weekly, and RHEL Clones
3 new picks
We Are Already Fighting - With Considerable Success - SLAPPs in the UK
we intend to tell the full story
Bullies With Pens and Papers (or Apple Macs With Templates)
Not all barristers are evil, but there are perhaps "rotten apples"
Slopwatch: webpronews.com, linuxsecurity.com, linuxjournal.com
a pile of trash disguised as 'articles'
Links 10/07/2025: Linda Yaccarino Divorces MElonazi Site, Wildfires Hit Syria
Links for the day
The History and the Policy of the EPO's Stance on Breastfeeding (Corporate Monopolies Versus Babies' Health)
"The Case for Introducing a Breastfeeding Policy at the EPO"
Gemini Links 10/07/2025: Inventing Chords and "Nightmare Boss"
Links for the day
Igor Ljubuncic Once Again Shows That for Technical Reasons Wayland Still Sucks, Performs Considerably Worse Than What Existed for Decades
That is aside from compatibility factors and other crucial factors
Links 10/07/2025: "Apple Vs The Law" and Twitter Became Full Nazi Bar
Links for the day
Unable to Find Anyone to Work as Their Media Lawyer, Brett Wilson LLP Will Continue Losing Female Staff
What sort of sick person would wish to join Brett Wilson LLP to carry this baton?
Microsoft-Sponsored Propaganda Site Has Removed False 'Hit Piece' About Dr. Stallman (With Fake and Misrepresented Imagery) But Only After 4 Years
So they only removed that page some time around 2025, i.e. about 4 years after it had been published
Dan Neidle Said That Tax Evasion Facilitator Mr Zahawi (Working to Silence Bloggers Through Brett Wilson LLP) Targeted Not Only Him (But The Others Kept Quiet)
"Mr Neidle said after repelling Mr Zahawi he was contacted by bloggers and tweeters who had received similar threats. They deleted their work “and in most cases never commented publicly on anything again”."
SLAPP Funding Transparency Urgently Needed in the UK and Elsewhere (in Practice, Not Just in Theory)
Writing about crime - including Microsoft crime - is not a crime
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 09, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, July 09, 2025
Elodie Bergot Still Doing Illegal Things at the EPO, Based on the Local Staff Committee Munich
They keep taking away from the staff while compelling the staff to do illegal things
Gemini Links 09/07/2025: Extreme Testing and Golang Documentation in Geminispace
Links for the day
Vice President of the European Patent Office (EPO) Complains That Techrights Gives Visibility to Legal and Technical Issues at the EPO
"Follow-up on enquiries relating to Dir. 1218 and 1001"
Slopwatch: linuxsecurity.com and Various Slopfarms That Lie About "Linux" and Are Promoted by Google News
Google does not seem interested in tackling this problem
Links 09/07/2025: War Updates and Microsoft Moving to India to Cut Costs
Links for the day
GNU/Linux Was Always a 'Movement' of Inclusion of Tolerance
Even the licences themselves remove access barriers
Links 09/07/2025: "Subprime AI Crisis" and "OpenAI May Be in Major Trouble Financially"
Links for the day
Huge Piles of Legal Papers ('Paper DDoS') Do Not Impress Judges and Regulators
they just make judges and regulators even more suspicious of the eagerness to resort to 'paper DDoS'
Brett Wilson LLP Sent Over 5 Kilograms (or Over 12 Pounds) of Legal Papers! Because Writing About Microsoft Abuses is 'Illegal'.
How do you guys sleep at night? On a big pile of Microsoft money?
Extremism as a Weapon Against GNU/Linux (Microsoft Lunduke)
He ought to know the Halloween Documents. Wasn't he a Microsoft employee when these came out?
Lunduke Isn't Even Hiding His Anti-Linux Agenda (From "Linux Sucks" to "Linux is Pedophiles")
just trying to make a lot of trouble
Some People Use Computers to Get Actual Work Done
Tolerance and inclusion must extend to acceptance that some people don't agree with you, might never agree with you, and imposing what allegedly works for you on them is unreasonable
Example of "Old" Things That Still Work
The notion that something being "old" implies it must be discarded is typically advanced by those looking to sell more of something
Some Scheduled Maintenance Later Today
Typically the most vulnerable service during short interruptions is IRC
Computers Are Just a Tool
People don't get married because they love weddings, folks don't join the army because they love war, and most drivers don't drive to work because they love cars
Apple Way Past Its Prime
Apple deserves a decline
The FSF's SysOps Team Recovered From Serious Hardware Issue Within Hours
About half a day ago I noticed that all/most GNU/FSF sites were not reachable and thus reached out to a contact for any details
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 08, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 08, 2025
Slopwatch: Turning Bugs Into FUD About "Linux", Getting Basic Facts Wrong
all the screenshots are of fake articles; we don't want to link to any
Technical Reasons, Not Politics: With Wayland "it feels a lot like Linux from 20-25 years ago, which is horrendously frustrating, because it feels like we wasted one or two decades of progress and stability"
Lately, quite a few benchmarks were published to show Wayland compares poorly compared to what we had
PCLinuxOS Recovering From Fire
It looks like a nightmare scenario, where even backups onsite get destroyed
Links 09/07/2025: More Heatwaves, Officials Culled in Russia
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/07/2025: XScreensaver and Resurrection
Links for the day
Links 08/07/2025: "Cyberattack Deals Blow to Russian Firmware" and "Cash Remains King"
Links for the day
FSF40 T-shirt message
by Alex Oliva
Gemini Links 08/07/2025: Creativity, Gotify with NUT Server, and Sudo Bugs
Links for the day
More on "Lunduke is Actually Sending His Audience to Attack People"
"pepe the frogs"
Links 08/07/2025: Sabotage of Networking Infrastructure, Microsoft XBox Game Pass Deemed “Unsustainable”
Links for the day
Dalai Lama Succession as Evidence That Determined, Motivated People Can Reach Their Nineties
And we need to quit talking about their death all the time
Many Lawyers (for Microsoft) and 1,316 Pages to Pick on a Litigant in Person Who Exposed Serious Microsoft Abuses
Answers must be given
Gemini Links 08/07/2025: Ancillary Justice and Small Web July
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 07, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 07, 2025