Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board Squashes Many Software Patents (Abstract) and €§101 Seems Safe From Lobbying by the Patent Microcosm

Red displaySummary: The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), together with the Alice-inspired €§101, is an efficient eliminator of bogus patents on software and there is no end to that in sight

THE WORD "PTAB" has become a trigger warning to patent lawyers. It's so often that once PTAB is invoked (through "IPR/s") that a patent/s will end up invalidated. Not everything which gets granted by the USPTO has merit and trolls often rely on patents not being challenged (at all) inside courts.



The reality of the matter is, shallow/bogus patents are destroying practicing companies in the US. The main victims are small companies that we may never hear about (even in the media). They're quietly destroyed by a bunch of malicious trolls (serial litigators who prey on the weak).

"The reality of the matter is, shallow/bogus patents are destroying practicing companies in the US."Curiously enough, yesterday there was this article about serial litigators . It spoke about "infringement of Prism’s patents generally covering network security systems that provide for secure transactions on unsecured systems" (i.e. software patents). The one reprieve that most small companies can afford is PTAB. It gets the job done without having to spend much money and the courts (e.g. CAFC) typically swiftly and effortlessly agree with PTAB upon appeal (if any is filed).

Things aren't all rosy though; as we noted recently, a relatively small company that's being bullied by Cisco had an embargo against it (because of patents which were deemed invalid). We wondered why the ITC cannot obey the law and respect PTAB's decisions. Yesterday we found this update on the case:

The U.S. International Trade Commission has declined to rescind remedial orders blocking importation of products found to infringe two patents that were recently found invalid by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.


This is pretty serious because they are acting as though PTAB has no legal authority. Moreover, they persist with a radical measure like an embargo. What ever happened to due process?

"This is pretty serious because they are acting as though PTAB has no legal authority. Moreover, they persist with a radical measure like an embargo. What ever happened to due process?"It's time to recognise if not accept that parts of the system may be in the pockets of large corporations, which means that legal processes can magically be bypassed. Yesterday, as this tweet put it, IBM (patent aggressor) lost another patent at PTAB, which apparently cited Alice. The tweet said: "IBM now 0 for ∞ in PTAB cases, loses another! 101 case: https://e-foia.uspto.gov/Foia/RetrievePdf?system=BPAI&flNm=fd2015006311-08-15-2017-1 … reserving computer resources is now "abstract idea" too..."

IBM's friends at Watchtroll have also published an article about "€§101 Rejection" ("Abstract Idea") on the very same day. They're part of that malicious effort to derail PTAB and change €§101. They are doing this alongside PTAB foes like Patently-O, which incidentally, just days ago, ended up picking one of the ~20% of cases (not even a software patent) where a PTAB decision is overturned by CAFC.

To quote Patently-O:

In a split opinion, the Federal Circuit rejected the PTAB’s IPR validity judgment favoring the patentee Whirlpool — holding instead that the challenged claims are invalid as anticipated. Patent No. 7,581,688; IPR No. IPR2014-00877. Judge Dyk penned the opinion joined by Chief Judge Prost. Judge Newman wrote in dissent.

The underlying claimed invention is an automatically pulsed blender cycle. The basic idea is to occasionally go through a “deceleration phase” that slows the cutter blade down to a reduced “predetermined settling speed” before accelerating the blade back to the normal operating speed. The claims require that the settling speed be “indicative of the items in the container having settled around the cutter assembly.”


Why does Patently-O not cover all those other cases where CAFC endorses PTAB's decisions? Bias by omission?

"€§101 is largely supported by the technology sector and is widely opposed only by law firms that are trying to tax this sector."What PTAB makes clear is that it matters not whether the USPTO will grant some patents on software but whether courts will accept them (they almost certainly won't).

Recently, the USPTO issued a report on €§101 and it was dominated by the patent microcosm. Here is what one law firm says about this report this week:

On July 24, 2017, the USPTO issued a 48-page report on Patent Eligible Subject Matter. The report summarizes key court decisions interpreting and applying 35 USC €§ 101, international views on eligible subject matter, and public comments and recommendations for addressing recent changes in this foundational issue of U.S. patent jurisprudence. While some have criticized the USPTO Patent Eligible Subject Matter report for failing to take a position on the issues or suggest any solutions, others have commended the concise summary of where things stand today.


It's hard to believe that anything will change for the worse; €§101 is largely supported by the technology sector and is widely opposed only by law firms that are trying to tax this sector. It certainly looks like even politicians now understand this.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Representing and Speaking for Animals
If I ever choose to take this matter to tribunal with animals-centric NGOs on my side, it'll get some press coverage for sure
Slopwatch: Fake Articles About "Linux", Slop Images in VentureBeat, Linux Foundation Spam Made With LLM Slop and Slop Images
The only relief or upside - if any exists - is that the pace of slop was down a bit this week
Richard Stallman (RMS) Talk in Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress Will be Remote
This past week RMS received lots of accolades online
Links 28/08/2025: Chatbots Distorting/Fabricating History and Also Driving Suicide
Links for the day
 
Links 29/08/2025: Arti 1.5.0, War on Public Health (CDC), and Slop 'Bros' Made to Pay for Their Mass Plagiarism
Links for the day
No, 4Chan is Not Fighting for You by Lawyering Up Against Ofcom (UK)
Don't mistake proto-fascists for people who "fight for you". They don't.
Downlplaying the Impact of "UEFI 9/11" is a Losing Strategy
we won't publish much whilst on holiday
In Many Places in the World Vista 11 "Market Share" is Going Down, Not Up
In some countries Windows is already down to third place or lower
More Microsoft-Connected Layoffs, at Least Third Time This Month! (Also Another Death on Campus)
Microsoft as a "gaming" company is where studios, projects, games, and even developers come to die
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 28, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, August 28, 2025
Gemini Links 29/08/2025: Poems, Games, and Java 25 Performance
Links for the day
Links 28/08/2025: Greenland 'Interferences' by US and Skinnerboxes to Get Banned in Korean Schools
Links for the day
The Register MS (Run by Microsoft Operatives): Free Software is Putin, Hence Evil and Dangerous
The current editor in chief is an American Microsofter, the previous one went to work for Google (US)
Gemini Links 28/08/2025: Back in Japan and Why "Hacker News" Sucks
Links for the day
A Much-Needed Wake-up Call to Users of Wordpress.com, Blogspot, Substack and All Those Other Outsourced (and Centralised) Platforms
There are several lessons in there
The UEFI 9/11 - Part II - Campaign of Censorship and Defamation Against Critics
In dictatorships, humour serves an important role. It's tragic.
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Resists Software Freedom, Even by Attacking Its Own
The OSI is compromised
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 27, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, August 27, 2025
Slopwatch: linuxsecurity.com, Slopfarms in Google News, and More
Some readers of ours end up sending us links that are from slopfarms, not realising those are slopfarms
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Katrina Memories and Google Versus Software Freedom
Links for the day
Links 27/08/2025: Police Against Media Freedom in the UK, Energy-Hungry Countries Targeted by China
Links for the day
Microsoft Windows Fell to All-Time Lows in Egypt This Summer, Vista 11 Adoption Decreases While GNU/Linux Increases
Vista 11 is going down rather than up
Links 27/08/2025: Microsoft Demoralises Staff With Slop Demands, Leaving Mastodon Explained
Links for the day
12 Hours Ago The Register MS Published a Fake (Paid-for) Article, But This One for a Change Did Not Promote a Ponzi Scheme
There are also Free software alternatives, but they don't pay The Register MS for "synthetic" so-called 'journalism'
More People Need to Call Out and Put a Stop to Serial Sloppers
Unless slopfarms are stopped, people will read and share Microsoft propaganda made by chatbots
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Headphones and Tartarus
Links for the day
Morale at Microsoft is Terrible (Proprietary Plagiarism Machines Have No Future, LLM Slop is a Bubble)
The slop sceptics/critics are going to have lots of "told you so" moments
GNOME "governance issues, staff reduction, etc." amidst Albanian whistleblowing and women trafficking
Notice the connection to Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) and GNOME
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 26, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, August 26, 2025