Bonum Certa Men Certa

Alice Decision and PTAB Are Both Constantly Under Attack From the Patent Microcosm and Its Lobbyists

Patent practitioners in the US are frogs in hot (if not boiling) water

A frog



Summary: A Supreme Court (SCOTUS) decision against software patents, combined with a chopping block of software patents (whose efficiency is still increasing), is causing trolls and their facilitators (like patent law firms) to resort to dirty tricks and attempt to reshape the system to better suit them, averting irrelevancy

IMAGINE being a patent law firm in the US right now. It's tough. Litigation figures have sunk, software patents are harder to get, and even if one gets them the courts will typically throw these away. This means that not many people even pursue such patents anymore. We constantly hear new stories about patent trolls that close shop and occasionally about legal firms which are centered around patents closing shop or being absorbed (i.e. their staff finding some new employer).



"We constantly hear new stories about patent trolls that close shop and occasionally about legal firms which are centered around patents closing shop or being absorbed (i.e. their staff finding some new employer)."Things aren't going to improve for this occupation, which is nothing but a tax on everything (including so-called 'innovation'). Understandably, the people associated with this pseudo 'industry' are fighting back and we need to watch what they are up to as they habitually attempt nefarious things, including an appalling witch-hunt against the head of the US patent office (Director Lee).

We don't really know when SCOTUS is expected to deliver a determination on Impression v Lexmark (there is no deadline or expected date, but estimates can be made by those intimately familiar with such pertinent cases). What we do know, however, is that the case may have ramifications for software, too. As one site put it the other day, in the words of a legal firm that cited Alice as an example:

The Supreme Court noted several times that Impression was seeking a significant expansion of the existing scope of the exhaustion doctrine. Justice Kennedy asked Pincus why the exhaustion doctrine had not been codified in the 1952 patent statute and whether the failure to codify the doctrine suggested that the court should be "cautious" in "extending" the doctrine's reach. Justice Alito noted that the "Federal Circuit's rule on this is 25 years old" and Justice Sotomayor observed that Impression's position on the question of foreign sales raised "serious issues" and "negative consequences". Pincus acknowledged that Impression's position could have such consequences, but observed that the Supreme Court has disrupted the settled expectations of patentees before to "get…the law right", citing the Alice decision as an example.


Yesterday, in spite of the holiday, Watchtroll advocated getting rid of Alice again, by calling software patents "Computer Related Inventions" and trying to work around Alice. His allies (e.g. IBM's patent chief and that ilk of patent bullies) recently tried again to undermine PTAB, having lobbied endlessly for negative action. Days ago IBM's patent chief wrote that it's "[g]reat that #USPTO will review and consider reform of PTAB #patent proceedings, bad that it took 5 years to happen..."

"They just want to crush Alice, crush PTAB which enforces it efficiently, and basically bring back software patents, which made America Not Great but a hub of patent trolls."As we noted here the other day, it seems like an effort to appease the software patents lobbyists -- something to which other patent radicals are now contributing. "Speakers discussed PTAB issues of interest," Manging IP wrote the other day, "and other hot topics at Managing IP’s US Patent Forums, includ[ed] estoppel, a reawakening of APA issues at the Federal Circuit, the upcoming en banc rehearing of Wifi One v Broadcom, stay success rates, best strategies for using experts before the Board, and life sciences’ better survival rate in final written decisions"

All of the above is intended to shape PTAB to better suit the patent microcosm rather than the real industry and the public. The USPTO ought not surrender to them. They just want to crush Alice, crush PTAB which enforces it efficiently, and basically bring back software patents, which made America Not Great but a hub of patent trolls.

Recent Techrights' Posts

The 'Culture Wars' in Free Software Have Gone Out of Control
Social control media amplifies such utterly infantile discourse
10 Out of 10: RMS Attracts Massive Audience in Göteborg, Sweden (All Seats Occupied, Some People Standing)
a 55-second clip of his talk
The Lawsuit by Clients of Brett Wilson LLP Against Brett Wilson LLP is Officially On, It is Progressing, The 'Experts' Pick Outside Law Firms (RPC and Mills & Reeve) to Spare Them From Litigants in Person
So it is probably quite potent
Slopwatch: Plagiarism and "Linux" Articles by Bots
Sites that do this won't survive; many of them rely on slop services (suppliers) that will cease to exist after the bubble bursts
 
Geminispace is Very Large
The word continues to spread and the number of participants grows
Teaser: To Compensate for the Fact Our Clients Are Terrible Human Beings Who Strangle Women (While on Microsoft's Payroll) and We Get Paid by Mystery Parties We Bombard You and Your Wife With Almost 10 Kilograms of Legal Papers
If you can't win an argument, then drown the other side with papers?
Another Wave of Microsoft Layoffs, This Time During National Day Holiday
This time it's China again
Staying Happy in Times of Crackdowns on Civil Society
Optimism in this sort of "new reality" or "new normal" seems like something for the irrational person
"Nobel" Exploited Posthumously for "AI" Hype, Now They Do the Same With "Quantum"
ere have been many jokes about "Nobel" for peace (often granted to pro-war people) and a fake one for "Economics" (establishment propaganda)
Distinguished Lecture by Richard Stallman This Coming Monday in Rome
After "Free software, Crucial for Freedom in a Digital World"
Links 10/10/2025: Putin Admits Russia Downed Azerbaijan Airlines Jet, More New Heat Records
Links for the day
Noteworthy Claim That IBM is Firing a Lot of Lawyers This Week (RAs in the Legal Department)
A lot of what they do is patent 'trolling' or lawyering up against their own staff (e.g. HR disputes)
Links 10/10/2025: US Judge Bars Attacks by ICE On Journalists and Protesters; “We Took The Freedom of Speech Away” Says the President
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Serial Sloppers, Google News Gifting Slopfarms, and Fake News/Plagiarism About "Linux"
Google itself is a slop pusher these days
Qualcomm, the New Owner of Arduino, Blasted for Its Software Patents Tax on 'Smartphones'
A lot of Qualcomm's patents are on software. We wrote about this in prior years.
XBox Layoffs Rumours, Downtime, and Criticism From XBox Co-Founder
"everyone is ditching the xbox."
Links 10/10/2025: Honoring The Legacy Of Robert Murray-Smith, Many Articles on the Hey Hi (AI) Bubble
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: October Gothic and Reading Middle Earth Role Playing; C and Ada
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 09, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 09, 2025
Links 09/10/2025: Farewell to Jane Goodall, California Bans Algorithmic Price-Fixing
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Lost Wages and a Saga Of Continuing To Use Palm PDAs
Links for the day
Richard Stallman's Talk in Helsinki is Done. Tomorrow Göteborg.
There are scarce details in Finnish about Dr. Stallman's talk
New XBox Leaks Probably Serve to Confirm XBox's Collapse (Many More Layoffs)
It's very much consistent with what many other sites have reported lately
The Slop Song
The train wreck marches on
LLM Slop/Advanced Plagiarism Flooding the Zone With Capital That Does Not Exist
Many publishers out there still participate in this bubble instead of calling it what it is
Links 09/10/2025: Sacked Microsoft Workers Make "Sackbird", IBM Taps CockroachDB for PostgreSQL
Links for the day
"Happy Hacking Day" Richard Stallman Talk This Afternoon (From 14:00 to 16:00) at Haaga-Helia University in Pasila
Richard Stallman in Helsinki, Finland
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 08, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 08, 2025
Links 09/10/2025: Impact of Microsoft Layoffs, More Data Breaches
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Autumn Blues and C IRC Bot
Links for the day
Slopwatch Appreciated by Real Authors of GNU/Linux Articles
We do try to keep on top of those things
Upgraded R.R.R.R.R.R. Today
The Web of 2025 is full of garbage, not limited to slopfarms
Freedom From Proprietary Prisons
Forking always an option
IBM's Watson Died in 1956, Now Watson Dies Again
IBM is becoming just a reseller of GAFAM and other stuff
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, UbuntuPIT, and Google News
We've also just noticed more slop from UbuntuPIT
Microsoft Says That Constant Mass Layoffs Are Success, the Media Isn't Buying This Microsoft Narrative Anymore
If people in the media feel an obligation to repeat whatever lies Microsoft tells, what point will there be to the media?
Links 08/10/2025: "Mali Puts Free Speech on Trial" And Apple Enforces Dictatorship
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: ‘Death to Spotify’ and Law to Ban Loud Commercials on Streaming (Dis)Services
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: Real Innovation and Nina.chat is Dead
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: Y2K38 Bug is a Vulnerability, Chat Control in Europe a Threat
Links for the day
Microsoft Windows is No Longer an Operating System, It's Surveillance Project
Why is this even legal to preload on PCs outside the US?
How and Why Once-Legitimate Sites Turn Into Slopfarms
Many sites will go offline and many social control networks will shut down once they realise or even openly admit they spend money and time gardening a bunch of bots and slop
UbuntuPIT Became a Slopfarm and Gnoppix Tarnishes Its Own Brand With Slop
It fits all the characteristics of mildly-edited (if at all) slop
Slopwatch: Linux Journal and Other Slopfarms
GAFAM needs to go the way of the dodo
Gemini Links 08/10/2025: "Seek Seek Revolution" and Gradient Backgrounds
Links for the day
Qualcomm Arduino Takes Aim at Raspberry Pi
Qualcomm is a Microsoft partner
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 07, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, October 07, 2025
Stagnation of the Economy and What Free Software Can (or Could) Do For It
If your economic model is based on a pyramid of lies, it won't last very long
Social Control Media is Sinking
it would rightly seem like the era of centralised "social" sites (they're not social, they're about controlling the users) is ending, not overnight but gradually