Bonum Certa Men Certa

CCIA Chastises ITC for Allowing Embargo Based on Invalid Patents of Cisco

SquirrelSummary: Weaseling its way into embargo of the competition, Cisco relies on patents which are already deemed invalid

THE very act of granting a patent can lead to much devastation and pain. Examiners at the USPTO hopefully recognise this.



"We need to get rid of the notion that patents are a surrogate for innovation, especially when patent scope (e.g. leniency) can vary over time."For those who are still deluded enough to believe that the more patents get granted the greater innovation will be, see this report from earlier this summer. We need to get rid of the notion that patents are a surrogate for innovation, especially when patent scope (e.g. leniency) can vary over time.

Cisco is not an innovator; not as much as it's a monopolist or a near-monopoly in some areas. Days ago, one of Cisco's few competitors bought a company [1, 2]. To quote one of the reports: "He also spent seven year working at Cisco and apparently holds more than 10 patents for his work at both Cisco and at Juniper."

"Cisco is not an innovator; not as much as it's a monopolist or a near-monopoly in some areas."They are using patents to merely cement or protect their place in the market. It's protectionism. What is the value of these patents? Are these patents really indicative of innovation?

Well, judging by some of Cisco's ongoing legal cases, at least some of Cisco's patents are bogus. As covered here before, Cisco had been preying on its competitors using patents for a number of years and recently got an injunction enforced even though the patent at hand was deemed invalid by PTAB. "Now The ITC Is Banning Products Over Invalid Patents," CCIA exclaimed at the end of last month, framing the situation like this:

The International Trade Commission (ITC) is supposed to protect U.S. industries from unfair foreign competition. They’re supposed to consider the interests of the U.S. public. But recently, it seems more like the ITC is interested in the ITC’s own power, not the interests of U.S. industry or the public.

Setting aside problems with their procedures that would be solved by adopting the Trade Protection, Not Troll Protection bill proposed by Reps. Cardeñas and Farenthold, the ITC is now banning products—based on patents that the USPTO has declared invalid.

[...]

This is just one more example of a recent ITC trend of ignoring the public interest and failing to protect U.S. industries.

A few weeks ago, the ITC decided to investigate Apple based on Qualcomm’s complaints. They did this even though Qualcomm’s complaint was part of a clear strategy to maintain their baseband processor monopoly, an issue briefed to the Commission by numerous third parties (including in my own comments filed at the ITC.) Instituting Qualcomm’s request harms the public interest, a direct contradiction of the ITC’s mission.

And now the ITC is going to exclude importation of products designed and sold by Arista Networks (headquartered in Santa Clara, California), because they don’t want to recognize the PTAB’s authority to determine that a patent should be withdrawn from issue. They’re going to bar the import of a U.S. company’s products because they don’t want to wait to see if the PTO’s decision will be upheld on appeal, even though most PTO decisions are.

What’s the point in telling the ITC to consider the interests of U.S. industry and the U.S. public if they aren’t going to bother doing so?


Well, in relation to that last line, we wrote many articles to show that ITC serves large US corporations at the expense of everyone else.

"Mr. Levy appears to have left (or gone inactive); the 'new' guy is a lot more focused on important areas and his articles in Patent Progress are worth paying attention to."We are happy to see some of the latest articles from CCIA. Mr. Levy appears to have left (or gone inactive); the 'new' guy is a lot more focused on important areas and his articles in Patent Progress are worth paying attention to.

Recent Techrights' Posts

[Video] Dr. Richard Stallman at Technické Univerzitě v Liberci
New/via libre-liberec.cz
Security is Desirable, But Not When the Term Security is Misused to Imply Centralisation of "Trust" (Whose?)
'Security' is not an excuse for vendor lock-in
 
10 Days Ago Richard Stallman Gave a Long Interview in French (linuxfr.org)
English translation
Science, Not Fast Food/Junk Food
The commercial exploitation of users won't stop until users exercise full control over their software or - more broadly - their computing (including data)
The Free Software Foundation, Which Has Appointed a 43-Year-Old President, is Looking to Add Another Board Member (or Treasurer)
expect the FSF to add more people
Richard Stallman Confirms Next Week's Talk at Technical University of Munich, We Urge EPO Staff to Attend
That's probably late enough for EPO staff to attend after work
Gemini Links 18/10/2025: Notifications and Geminaut
Links for the day
Many Red Hat People Are Leaving, But It'll Be Framed Publicly as Leaving IBM
Similarly, IBM layoffs (or "RAs" as they're called) include Red Hat layoffs
Expect More Waves of Microsoft Layoffs This Month (at Least Two Rounds Confirmed Already)
From what we can gather, assuming the recent rumours about XBox are true, there will be at least 3 waves of Microsoft layoffs this month alone
Security Issues in Cisco and Jenkins Passed Off as "Linux" Problems
Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD) tactics
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, October 17, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, October 17, 2025
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, Linux Journal (Slashdot Media), UbuntuPIT, and Google News (Noise)
egregious plagiarism
Links 17/10/2025: Better Answers Sought After Air Crashes, "China Fans Patriotic Sentiment as Trade War With U.S. Heats Up"
Links for the day
Links 17/10/2025: Fentanylware (CheeTok) Causing Problems, Japanese Government Blasts Slop
Links for the day
The Linux Foundation Seems to Have Turned Linux.com Not Only Into a Spamfarm But Also LLM Slopfarm
it's polluting the Web, even important domains like Linux.com, with spam and LLM slop
Links 17/10/2025: UK’s Largest Breach Penalty and Windows TCO Examples
Links for the day
Go Watch Video About Librephone, Get Microsoft Ads
Very ethical company...
Campaign of Defamation Against the People Who Built NixOS (and Are Now Pushed Out From Their Own Project)
We've already grown familiar with - and resistant to - such tactics
Links 17/10/2025: Nestlé Crisis, Canada Post Versus 'Gig Economy' [sic] and Vista 11 Breaks Itself
Links for the day
Tux Machines Has Helped Separate Opinions/Analysis From News
In September 2023 we decided to split things apart and not repeat links in both sites
Tux Machines Has Improved Navigation of GNU/Linux and BSD News
Some more 'wiring' work
What a World Would Look Like If Everyone Used Free Software Only
Freedom is what matters, not "Open".
The Media Helps Microsoft, Amazon and Others (GAFAM and Beyond) Lie About Mass Layoffs Amid Valuation Bubble
The media, instead of saying that there's an "AI bubble" crashing the economy might instead choose the narrative of "jobs replaced by AI"
Bad Tempered? You Might Have Just Given Away That You're Losing the Argument
Brett Wilson LLP is fully aware that it is being investigated
Richard Stallman (RMS) is a Target of Defamation Campaigns Because of His Views on Software (But Politics Are the Excuse for Defaming Him)
Here in this site we try to refrain from politics, except in Daily Links
End of Vista 10 and Rise of GNU/Linux as Client Side Operating System
It seems certain GNU/Linux will grow in popularity over time
Taking Stock of a Week's Worth of EPO Leaks
We remain committed to exposing EPO corruption as long as it keeps happening
Mathieu Parreaux claims FINMA knew since day one
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Calumny, Libel, Joerg Jaspert & debian-private untouchable cyberbullies
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 16, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 16, 2025
Techrights Turns 19 in 3 Weeks
coverage of suppressed topics and protecting all sources/whistleblowers
International E-Waste Day Same Day as End of Vista 10
message from Akira Urushibata
The EPO's Central Staff Committee Presents Evidence That Staff Compensation Lowered While the Office Increases Income by Illegally Granting Invalid Patents
These people become millionaires by doing illegal things
Second or Third Wave of Microsoft Mass Layoffs in October 2025, This Time Portugal
Those are just the ones we know about, there may be several more
'Help Net Security' (helpnetsecurity.com) May Have Become a Slopfarm as Well
Zeljka Zorz, Editor-in-Chief at Help Net Security, was reported to us
Gemini Links 17/10/2025: Rant About Network Solutions, Strange Anomaly on Lagrange
Links for the day
EPO Staff Representation Lacks Social Dialogue With Relevant Management, Controversial and Sometimes Illegal Policies Implemented Without Necessary Input
"In this open letter, the CSC requests that the President submits an agenda item in the next available General Consultative Committee (GCC) meeting on setting up regular meetings between the CSC and the higher management of DG1."
Links 16/10/2025: Political Leftovers and Gemini Protocol Links
Links for the day
Lies Need to be Corrected
the Court never invited us
Slopwatch: Guardian Digital (linuxsecurity.com), Slashdot, Google News, and More
Maybe one day, once the bubble pops completely, Google News will just outright delist all slopfarms
Lufthansa Modern Slavery, Joerg Jaspert (ganneff) & Debian NSB Softwareentwicklung charade
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 16/10/2025: US Starting More Trade Wars With China, CIA War on Venezuela
Links for the day
SUSE Blog is Still LLM Slop, Marketing Manager at SUSE Cannot Write
Would you buy from a company or seek support from a company that cannot even write (or fakes writing)?
Pretend You're Not Dead: Microsoft Spent Almost Two Decades Rebranding Things as "Cloud, Then "AI", Now "XBox" and "Quantum"
"AI" bubble pops, Microsoft harping about "quantum" already
IBM Allegedly Found New Tricks for Silent Layoffs: LPI, Then MIS (Not PIP)
Remember that "Red Hat layoffs" won't be reported after the bluewashing
Links 16/10/2025: Red Lines and Feeding of Microsoft Trolls
Links for the day
MIT as a Propaganda Mill of GAFAM, Paid by GAFAM
"the news" today
Links 16/10/2025: Lies Euphemised as ‘Dueling Versions of Reality’ and Microsoft "Open" "Hey Hi" Resorts to Porn as No Business Model Was Found
Links for the day
The Local Staff Committee Munich (Representation of the EPO's Staff) Explains When Cluster of Pregnancies May Result in Reduced Pay
"...even one week of part-time working is sufficient to reduce the salary you perceive during the entirety of your maternity leave."
Another Black Eye for 'Secure Boot', Microsoft Media Tries to Blame "Linux"
It enables Microsoft to remotely control computers, even computers that don't run Windows and never had any Microsoft software installed
Slopwatch: UbuntuPIT, linuxsecurity.com, and Various Slopfarms in Google News Attacking "Linux"
A new survey of the Web said that the majority of the Web is now slop (that's being said in the news this week)
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 15, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 15, 2025
Links 16/10/2025: Increased Use of Social Control Media Surveillance in US, French Rage Over Pensions
Links for the day