Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Bizarre World of US Patents and Ongoing Pursuit/Granting of Software Patents in Spite of Section 101

Summary: A survey of recent patents that are either far too trivial, pertain purely to software, promote surveillance, or are pursued purely for vanity (when a court is likely to deem these invalid anyway)

THE US patent office is still granting all sorts of bizarre patents (low quality/certainty levels), sometimes to be facing challenge/refutation/overturning by courts, PTAB, oppositions etc. Patent examination is not a simple task, but the more safeguards exist, the more likely patents are to be upheld and successfully enforced at the end (when plenty of money is invested in litigation/negotiation). A legitimate patent would be granted in the interest of the public on novel ideas that are also not trivial and can be demonstrated physically (e.g. with a prototype). There aren't many such patents, certainly not millions. Some of the most notorious patents were granted on mere concepts or tasks which can be carried out using pen and paper (or in one's mind alone).

"Some of the most notorious patents were granted on mere concepts or tasks which can be carried out using pen and paper (or in one's mind alone)."Over the summer we've taken note of news about patents we wish to comment on, for we believe that these demonstrate a problem with quality control and/or perception of patents in the US.

Symantec



It's no secret that Symantec is still pursuing software patents. This latest example is said to "Protect Torrent Users Against Malware", which means that it's a software patent on security. Generally speaking, Symantec does not have a track record as a patent bully; in fact, it sometimes fights back against patent trolls, notably in Intellectual Ventures LLC v Symantec Corp (fairly recent case, decided by a high court).

"What chance does this patent have when properly scrutinised like in Intellectual Ventures LLC v Symantec Corp?"What isn't clear here, however, is the USPTO's decision to continue granting software patents after Alice. What chance does this patent have when properly scrutinised like in Intellectual Ventures LLC v Symantec Corp? Is such a patent necessary in the first place? Can it be challenged at PTAB with an IPR?

Apple



Apple's patents are often a source of amusement because the company rides a wave of hype, powered both by fans and by paid marketing. Look at this new patent. Can one say "trivial"? Like... ridiculously trivial? Can one not see that this is a software patent (thus invalid/not patent-eligible) that is not novel, either?

"Can one not see that this is a software patent (thus invalid/not patent-eligible) that is not novel, either?"The truth of the matter is, Apple continues pursuing very trivial patents and examiners in the US don't seem to mind. We have heard similar stories from inside the EPO (regarding applications from Apple). Here is another one: see the first article about it [1, 2] (cross-posted) and some followup from the mainstream media. This is not an invention but a trivial software patent (Alice would definitely swat it) that probably merits a yawn. There have been British derivatives of these reports with "999" rather than "911" [1, 2]. It wouldn't even make the news if it didn't involve the brand name "Apple". The patent in a nutshell? "Apple has patented a process that would allow users to secretly call 911 using only their fingerprint.

"In a patent published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday, the tech giant outlined a feature that would allow users to call emergency services “when a conventional method may not be practical.”"

"Do they get a monopoly on this because they were first to file?!"It's just about as trivial as it sounds. Do they get a monopoly on this because they were first to file?!

Microsoft



Speaking of Apple and the likes of them, watch Microsoft trying to grab patents on things it did not even 'invent'. "You will soon be able to track laptops in case of theft, Microsoft patent reveals," according to this report, which rightly then adds that it's something users "already have on... Android smartphones."

"Are they going to use "hands" as the equivalent of "device" to pretend that it doesn't simply boil down to computer vision and is thus pure software?"So can Microsoft now go bullying Android OEMs? Even if it did not invent this? And it boils down to spying? More spying on people using cameras was covered in this article titled "Patents show Apple & Microsoft Racing to bring Hand Gesturing Systems to Computers, Home Appliances & more" (footage going upstream for them to conduct surveillance with).

Are they going to use "hands" as the equivalent of "device" to pretend that it doesn't simply boil down to computer vision and is thus pure software?

Google



Speaking of privacy-hostile patents, "Google Patents Extracting Facts from the Web" (or data-mining).

"This is pure software, or machine learning. It oughtn't merit a patent."I already wrote a proposal and did this 12 years ago (akin to prior art), but it doesn't seem to bother large companies like Google, which simply want to stockpile lots of low-quality patents. "When Google crawls the Web," says the article, "it collects information about content on the pages it finds as well as links on pages. How much does it collect information about facts on the Web?"

This is pure software, or machine learning. It oughtn't merit a patent.

Cisco



Some large corporations are more aggressive than others and Cisco is one of those companies that often get sued by patent trolls. But Cisco is itself rather aggressive too and we previously wrote about how Cisco continued to (mis)use patents for embargoes on Arista products [1, 2, 3, 4]. There was recently a successful suspension of imports. As one report put it:

Cisco Systems has won a significant victory in its legal battle with Arista Networks, since its smaller rival agreed to suspend imports of some of its network switching products. However, it’s unclear how long that suspension will remain in place.

The International Trade Commission (ITC) in May ruled that Arista’s Ethernet switches violated two of six Cisco patents and ordered that the company stop shipping those products into the United States. However, the regulatory board allowed a 60-day “Presidential review period” during which Arista could continue importing the switches.



IAM wrote about a different Cisco case. Being a mouthpiece for patent trolls in the US and elsewhere, IAM was calling for "balance in patent debates in the US" (by balance it meant the opposite of balance, for only balance that IAM understands is the bank balance of Joff Wild and cohorts). Here is what IAM said in relation to a Cisco case:

In the US the patent troll narrative has become one of the dominant forces in how IP owners, lawyers and legislators talk about and view the patent system. It is a narrative that has been extraordinarily successful and while there have been and continue to be abuses of the system by some entities looking to extract nuisance settlements with poor quality or overly broad patents, there is also another side to this debate.


Terms such as "IP owners" (above) are meaningless because "IP" is not a patent but a nebulous, vague concept and patents are assigned/granted, not "owned".

Now that Blockchains are being polluted by patent thickets [1, 2] see what IAM is publishing about such patents. As if innovation does not matter as much as a gold rush for patents.

Patent Hype



It's quite a problem when companies apply for patents merely to use them as some kind of trophy or a badge of honour, even when there's virtually no use to them. Being granted a software patent, for example, is not "innovation" but protectionism by restricting others' right to write algorithms; yet watch this press release from June [1, 2] and this article which claimed "three patents to show for its four decades in existence."

"It's quite a problem when companies apply for patents merely to use them as some kind of trophy or a badge of honour, even when there's virtually no use to them."Well, patents and innovation are not the same thing, so less than one patent per decade is fine. They need to reject the myth of patents as surrogate for value or innovation.

Watch what Lifeline claimed last month [1, 2]. To quote: "The principals of Lifeline and the engineers at NTU filed for and received software patents on the technology."

"Software patents were granted by USPTO examiners, but we are pretty certain that PTAB and/or courts would disagree with the grant, citing Section 101."So they're invalid. Software patents no longer have much (or any) value.

Here is another press release from that time [1, 2], calling someone "the inventor and multiple patents holder of software-defined networks..."

Software again.

How about this one? Software patents were granted by USPTO examiners, but we are pretty certain that PTAB and/or courts would disagree with the grant, citing Section 101.

"If all you have to show is a US patent in a paid press release, then maybe you have nothing else to show (or do)."Here is another press release that's purely about patents [1, 2]. This one has a photo too. How cheesy! We have decided to reproduce it below:

TELoIP patent



If all you have to show is a US patent in a paid press release, then maybe you have nothing else to show (or do). TELoIP actually paid to publish this!

Recent Techrights' Posts

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
Layoffs and Shutdowns at IBM, Not Just Microsoft
Same as Microsoft
With Workers Back From a Holiday Weekend, Microsoft Layoffs Carry on, More Waves to Come
Now it's Monday and people are bad to work, even some journalists
You Need Not Wave a Rainbow Flag This Month to Basically Oppose Arseholes Looking to Disrupt and Divide the Community
Don't fall for it
What Miguel de Icaza and Microsoft Lunduke Have in Common
Similar aims, different methods
The 'Corporate Neckbeard' is Not the "Good Guy"
Works for IBM
 
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
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
The FSF's (Free Software Foundation, Inc.) 2025 Summer Fundraiser Already Past Halfway Line
This is where GNU/Linux actually started
Mozilla Had No Good Reason to Outsource Firefox Development to Microsoft
What does Mozilla plan to do when GitHub shuts down?
Mozilla Firefox Did Not Die, It Got Killed
To me it'll always look like Mozilla got killed by its sponsors, especially Google, which had a conflict of interest as a sponsor
Dan Neidle, Whom Brett Wilson LLP SLAPPed (on Behalf of Corrupt Rich Tax Evaders), Still Fighting the Good Fight
Neidle fights for the poor people
Wayland Should Start by Dumping Its Very Ugly Logo
Wayland wins the "ugliest logo" award every year
Stop Focusing on Hair Colours, Focus on Corporate Agenda
If someone commits a crime, it does not matter if his or her hair was mostly white or there was no hair or a wig or whatever
Links 07/07/2025: Science, Conflicts, and a Fictional K-pop Group
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/07/2025: Being a Luddite and Announcement of Gotify
Links for the day
Links 07/07/2025: XBox Effectively 'Dead', DMCA Subpoena Versus Registrar
Links for the day
The Nasty Smear (and Stereotype) of "Neckbeard" or "Greybeard" is Ageism
This is the sort of stuff they might try to volley at critics of Wayland
Why Many of Us Use X Server and Will Continue to Use It For Many Years to Come
Don't make this about politics
Microsoft's Nat Friedman Became Unemployed the Same Time the SLAPPs Against Techrights Started Coming From His Friends (Weeks After We Had Exposed Scandals About Him and the Serial Strangler, His Best Friend, Who Got Arrested a Few Days Later)
Nat Friedman is not "Investor, entrepreneur"
Brett Wilson LLP Uses Threats to Demand Changes to Pages or Removal of Pages Without Even Revealing Which Staff Member Does That (Sometimes People From Another Firm!)
This has been in the public for years
Dan Neidle Said "It Really Then Became a Job of Tormenting" Lawyers Like Brett Wilson LLP (Who Threatened Him for Exposing Crimes, Just Like They Threatened My Wife a Few Months Later)
he and his wife decided to take on the evil people and their evil lawyers
Large Language Models (LLMs) Externalise Their Cost to the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
"The forty-sixth Free Software Bulletin is now available online!"
Weeding Out Extremism in Our Community
To me it seems like Microsoft Lunduke is rapidly becoming like a "hate preacher" who operates online, breeding an extremist ideology or trying to soften its image
Censorship Versus Fact-Checking and Quality Control
It's not censorship but a matter of quality control
Reinforcing the Allegations Some More, Bryan Lunduke Digs His Own Grave
In his latest episodes he merely repeats his own lies, which I debunked using evidence right from his own mouth
Global Warming and Free Software as a Force of Mitigation
we'll need to think about Software Freedom, not just brands like "Linux"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 06, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 06, 2025
Gemini Links 07/07/2025: BaseLibre Numerical System and TUI Rant
Links for the day
[Video] "Copyleft Isn't a Bug."
"Copyleft isn’t a bug. It’s a feature. GNU GPL forced the world to treat code like a public good."
Being in Social Control Media Means Exposing Oneself to Heckling
Richard Stallman does not (either himself or directly) post to any social control media
Links 06/07/2025: Airlines Perils, Scams, and Breaches
Links for the day
Two Risks to Companies: The Microsoft Culture and the Microsoft Tools
Novell was killed by a form of "social engineering" by Microsoft
It's Hard to Trust People Who Worked - Not Only Those Who Still Work - at Microsoft
Bryan Lunduke is just what people would call an "arsehole of a person"
For the Second Time, Bryan Lunduke From Microsoft is Siccing Racist Trolls and Vandals at Me
You're only reinforcing the point we made yesterday
Links 06/07/2025: End to End Encryption at Risk, Reuters Twitter ("X") Account Withheld in India
Links for the day
Gemini Links 06/07/2025: Tinylog and Certification Rotation
Links for the day
Links 06/07/2025: Climate Change and "The Right to Criticise"
Links for the day
PCLinuxOS Sites Coming Back, Gradually
let's just be patient
Social Control Media, Even If Based on Free Software, Still Has Many Problems
a distraction from what actually mattered and still matters
IBM is Not Your Master
IBM makes friends with people who exclude the majority of the population: women
Help Fund the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
If you have some dollars to spare, go support the FSF
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 05, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 05, 2025
A Short History of Attacks on Techrights (and Boycott Novell Before That)
good opportunity to tell again the story of several (not all) attempts to silence us
The Mainstream Media Took 4 Days to Realise Microsoft Shut Down Its Operations in Pakistan and Fired Everybody
We estimate that Microsoft has had about 29,000 layoffs since January
Leadership in Free Software
Don't let IBM lead. It's a terrible flag bearer.