Bonum Certa Men Certa

Oil States Decision is Approaching and So Does Strategic Smearing of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB)

Recent: Where Opposition to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB, AIA) Has Come From Over the Past Week If Not Year

United for Patent Reform letter



Summary: With the Oil States decision expected some time in the coming weeks (or few months), the anti-PTAB lobby gets a little louder again and there are responses to it, such as the letter above

THE value of software patents is being diminished if not outright decimated by Alice. This is a good thing. The USPTO has become more selective, PTAB ensures that examiners do their job properly, and courts mostly agree with PTAB when they affirm rejections of abstract patents.



"So rather than call it "STRONGER Patents Act" why not just call it "ABOLISH PTAB Act"?"The patent trolls' lobby isn't happy; it's still trying to offer tips for dodging PTAB, it selectively covers a reversal of PTAB decisions, which is the exception rather than the norm ("The Court reversed a PTAB decision invalidating Power Integrations’ U.S. Patent No. 6,249,786 (“the patent”) as anticipated because the Board’s decision was based on an unreasonably broad claim construction.") and Steve Brachmann from Watchtroll is promoting an anti-PTAB bill only hours after the site had cherry-picked a reversal of a PTAB decision. Brachmann says, by his own admission: "Most of the STRONGER Patents Act deals with both inter partes review (IPR) and post-grant review (PGR) proceedings used to challenge patent validity at the PTAB."

"The patent trolls' lobby does not really think it'll ever pass (it said this repeatedly), but these people still try."So rather than call it "STRONGER Patents Act" why not just call it "ABOLISH PTAB Act"? Because PTAB is widely supported by just about everyone except law firms and patent trolls (along with a few pharmaceutical giants)? The words "STRONGER Patents" are just pure marketing and in reality the bill strives to weaken patent, i.e. reduce patent quality. We wrote about that several times last year.

The patent trolls' lobby does not really think it'll ever pass (it said this repeatedly), but these people still try. At best, what they might accomplish here is a sort of publicity stunt just in time for Oil States. Richard Lloyd from the patent trolls' lobby (IAM) is the latest to push this anti-PTAB bill ("STRONGER Patents Act") and he wrote the following yesterday:

Patent legislation was firmly back on the agenda last week with the introduction of a version of the STRONGER Patents Act in the House of Representatives and a bill introduced in the Senate to extend the USPTO’s fee-setting authority. The House version of the STRONGER Act is largely the same as the bill introduced in the Senate last year and which has been championed most actively by Senator Coons and supported by the bio and pharma communities and advocacy groups such as the Qualcomm-backed Innovation Alliance.


We wrote about who was behind this bill exactly one week ago and it's clear that just about every technology firm is firmly against it. United for Patent Reform, representing so many companies that it took 3 pages just to list them, said: "The STRONGER Patents Act would damage American innovation and undermine vital congressional reforms that American businesses have relied on to fight patent trolls. Read our letter to Rep Steve Stivers and Rep Bill Foster..."

It's a PDF, so we made a screenshot of it.

"There are actually some people in the patent microcosm who are delusional enough to repeatedly and publicly suggest that patents and patents alone (they mean AIA) is the cause for the decline of the US; they often use "China!" as a dog-whistle.""The STRONGER Patents Act will only distract Congress from the real problems facing the U.S. patent system and plaguing the American economy," Benjamin Henrion quoted from it.

There are actually some people in the patent microcosm who are delusional enough to repeatedly and publicly suggest that patents and patents alone (they mean AIA) is the cause for the decline of the US; they often use "China!" as a dog-whistle.

Recent Techrights' Posts

IBM Red Hat on "era of cloud computing", pushing "hey hi" (AI) hype in Microsoft Azure
LLM slop might actually be more benign than Microsoft promotion
Corruption and Rule-Breaking Prevail at the European Patent Office (EPO), Europe's Second-Largest Institution
The law does not really exist at the EPO; it can be perceived as merely a "recommendation"
404 Media Says "Workers at NASA Told to Drop Everything to Scrub Mentions of Indigenous People, Women from Its Websites" But There's Also Accessibility in the Firing Line
In the case of abandoning accessibility, everyone stands to be hurt and proprietary software can be brought in to replace standards
Just Because People on Top of the Microsoft Pyramid Made a Lot of Money Doesn't Mean Microsoft is Wealthy
The bigger they are the harder they fall
 
Ubuntu Desktop Director of Engineering Has Only One Blog Post. It Promotes Microsoft Windows.
Remember that even 15 years ago (more or less, maybe 16 years ago) Canonical appointed a a 'former' Microsoft manager (Spencer) to lead Ubuntu on the desktop
statCounter: More Countries Where Windows is Around 1% "Market Share" (People Have Moved to Android/Linux)
in some nations Windows is already 1% or less
When BetaNews Writes Real Articles About "Linux" They Promote Windows
The Web is in a bad state. We need to at least try to correct this.
Gemini Links 06/02/2025: Cynicism and "Real Magic on the C64"
Links for the day
Links 06/02/2025: New Sanctions, Layoffs, and Executive Orders
Links for the day
Distros and Desktop Environments, Devices
GNU/Linux focused
New Rumours of IBM Layoffs in 2025, IBM Consulting Still Struggles, Based on Management
"Hey hi" (AI) has been a common excuse for business failure
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, February 05, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, February 05, 2025
Links 05/02/2025: Kessler Syndrome and News Online
Links for the day
statCounter: Monaco Now 7% GNU/Linux ("Proper")
GNU/Linux, not counting Chromebooks, is on the rise
Many Parts of Google Lose Money
It's quite apparent that many parts of Google - even some that rely on ad revenue or push ads - aren't profiting
European Internet Forum (EIF) is Dominated by American Corporations and Microsoft Lobbyists, Staff Take the Lead
Should the officials over here or the European Parliament pay attention to these people?
Links 05/02/2025: Connection without Connectivity and Unionised Grocery Workers
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/02/2025: Learning, Madman Ruling a Mad Country, Back in Geminispace
Links for the day
statCounter Shows "WIntel" Chasing a Dying Market
Microsoft acts as if it's running out of money
Free Software Foundation, Inc. (FSF) Still Raising Money, Richard Stallman Contributes
total exceeding $430k
A Lot of Stuff About "Linux" in Google News is LLM Slop, Fake 'Articles'
It seems to be getting worse
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, February 04, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, February 04, 2025
'Official' Debian Sites That Sell Proprietary and Surveillance
"Azure API throttling strikes back"
statCounter: Only 1 in ~40 Web Users in Ireland Uses Microsoft Browser, One in Six Uses Windows
When/if Windows market share goes down, so will Edge
Links 04/02/2025: Social Control Media Bans and US Fighting Its Allies, Not Russia
Links for the day
Links 04/02/2025: Birth of a Calf, FOSDEM, and More
Links for the day
Anti-Linux FUD Sites cybersecuritynews.com and gbhackers.com Turn Out to be LLM Slop, Even Plagiarism That Spreads Lies
Beware false headlines and fake text from cybersecuritynews.com and gbhackers.com
BetaNews Began Removing LLM Slop About "Linux", But More of It Keeps Coming From Guardian Digital, Inc (at linuxsecurity.com)
the other Serial Slopper, Guardian Digital, Inc
Mollamby, Suicide Cluster, not trademark, the real reasons for Debian legal expenses, evidence
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 04/02/2025: Mass Layoffs at Salesforce, Economic Pressures, Trade Wars
Links for the day
The Latest Microsoft Layoffs Are a Wake-up Call: The Company is Running Low on Money
in most areas it is not even profitable
[Video] Richard Stallman Auctioning a GNU (Gnu) at Surathkal, India
clip is only a minute-long
Software Freedom Month at NITK Surathkal and Yesterday's Talk by Richard Stallman
the message being spread by the person who started it all
Richard Stallman Has Another Talk in India Tomorrow, at Least Fourth India Talk in Recent Days
In the past month he has given at least half a dozen talks
statCounter: GNU/Linux and ChromeOS Now Measured at 2.78% in Japan (It Used to be Less Than 0.5%)
really 'took off' half a decade ago
GNU/Linux Reaches All-Time High in the United States, Based on statCounter
Windows is the loser; GNU/Linux grows at its expense
LLM Hype (Chatbots Hyped and Wrongly Characterised as "Artificial Intelligence") Cause Net Inflation
Net as in Internet, not limited to the Web
It Looks Like BetaNews' Managing Editor Wayne Williams is Taking Over From Fagioli After Repeat Pattern of LLM Slop (State-of-the-Art Plagiarism) About "Linux"
The most plausible explanation is, Fagioli got caught or his conduct could no longer be ignored
statCounter Reckons Less Than 10% in Mexico Still Use Windows to Access to Web and GNU/Linux Surges to All-Time High (Plus, Microsoft's Latest Debt Crisis)
Looking at Mexico in isolation
From India to Italy: Richard Stallman's Next Talk is Next Week in Torino
Announced less than a day ago
Corporate Media is Intentionally Lying for Microsoft, There's Now a Hiring Freeze, No Replacements for Workers Laid Off in Two Mass Layoffs Last Month
Maybe the media - at least some of it - actually deserves doom. If it covers up for the powerful to muzzle and gaslight the oppressed, then what sort of media is that anyway?
Gemini Links 04/02/2025: Tolkien and New Job
Links for the day
Covering EPO Scandals in an Age of Mass Censorship (and Europe Being Afraid to Introspect, for It Might "Help Putin")
It was all along expected that "external enemies" would be invoked to suppress discussion about EPO crimes
Facebook Finally Admits That It Censored Linux and Banned People for Mentioning It; statCounter Shows Rapid Growth for GNU/Linux in Southeast Asia
So GAFAM is losing its power
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, February 03, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, February 03, 2025