Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Anti-PTAB Brigade is Willing to Embrace Radical Elements Just to Get Its Way

The lobby against the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) continues to compare judges to murderers and invokes Trump motto/slogans for resurgence of trolls

Make Patents Great Again



Summary: The toxic language, the bogus narratives and the venom against PTAB is getting increasingly unbearable and untenable, especially because it seems like the USPTO's leadership, the Supreme Court and just about every corner of the Establishment stands behind PTAB and guards it

THE triumph of PTAB, necessarily improving patent quality at the USPTO, is undeniable. The anti-PTAB brigade, which resorted to even sending me threatening letters, isn't getting its way. It tried all sorts of things to sabotage PTAB (threatening words, smears, legal action, price hikes, misuse of tribal immunity, lobbying and so on). But PTAB continues to break new records. Demand for PTAB is growing.

"How would IAM like it if we called it "mass murderer"? Or "Nazis"?"IAM 'magazine', part of the anti-PTAB brigade (for obvious reasons), carries on with the usual. Adam Houldsworth published this blog post yesterday -- a post with a loaded headline that says "PTAB not such a death squad" ("not such"?). So the patent trolls' lobby perpetuates the insulting narrative that compares patent judges to a firing line/squad because they cull out wrongly-granted patents. How much longer need we explain why this analogy is offensive? How would IAM like it if we called it "mass murderer"? Or "Nazis"?

Here's what Houldsworth wrote:

A new US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) study has provided an improved insight into the outcomes of administrative validity challenges made against Orange Book-listed pharmaceutical patents at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). Among the report’s key findings is that, while petitions against FDA-approved drug patent rights have enjoyed similarly high institution rates to petitions against other kinds of patents, Orange Book rights have a far greater survival rate than others when challenges reach a final written decision.


Notice that they also use words like "survival"; the anti-PTAB brigade almost invariantly uses words like "kill" and "survive" to describe PTAB's actions. So when a patent aggressor or troll has a patent challenged it is "under attack" or merely "survives" the "kill"; the victim or the defendant is thereon portrayed as an "attacker" looking to "kill" patents. Narrative reversals like these are very common in war terminology/lexicons.

Incidentally, days ago IAM also published an article titled "Can Andrei Iancu make patents great again?" and by "great again" they mean ending PTAB or helping patent aggressors. What's so great about that? The patent extremist Richard Lloyd (the most overzealous of the IAM bunch) fails to understand that IAM, by saying/reciting the "great again" motto, basically associates itself with fascists.

"Narrative reversals like these are very common in war terminology/lexicons."Iancu would be wise not to associate with IAM in any way, but this summer he'll give a talk in an event set up by IAM.

Speaking of false narratives (regarding PTAB), watch what IP Watch published yesterday. Here's what's outside the paywall (many of these Web sites, including IAM, broaden their paywalls these days):

The United States Supreme Court is likely to affirm the constitutionality of US Patent and Trademark Office inter partes reviews when it rules in the closely watched matter of Oil States Energy Services, LLC v. Greene’s Energy Group LLC, according to Michael Best & Friedrich intellectual property attorney Marshall Schmitt. The end result of the decision, however, is hard to predict, he said.


If you only ask the patent microcosm for its opinion on Oil States, it will call the expected slam-dunk for PTAB IPRs “Highly Uncertain”. That's nonsense however. Expect the Justices to support IPRs, maybe even unanimously.

"It's not like we're dealing with rational people here but with extremists drunk on power."Judging by what an anti-PTAB site wrote yesterday, it looks like Iancu will defend PTAB, which is good news and a relief (if true). To quote the relevant bits:

The PTAB Bar Association has a committee called “PTAB Appeals” that scheduled a meeting on April 5, 2018 to discuss various topics with sitting judges at the PTAB. This meeting was set up in part because of interest in Chief Judge Ruschke to meet with practitioners to discuss ex parte appeals. Ex parte appeals is the less-discussed and less-focused on aspect of what PTAB does. The two-hour meeting was at the USPTO in Alexandria, VA and covered a lot of ground including Section 101.

At this meeting, Chief Judge Ruschke was optimistic about newly appointed director Andrew Iancu. According to Ruschke, Iancu has stressed that the USPTO has to do a better job of applying Section 101 in a more consistent, straightforward manner. And Iancu sees the corpus of decisions coming out of the PTAB as an important clue to this.


Defending PTAB from patent extremists won't be easy. I'm already receiving threats for merely reporting on this. It reminds me of the numerous threats the EPO sent me for merely reporting its abuses. It's not like we're dealing with rational people here but with extremists drunk on power.

Recent Techrights' Posts

On the Internet, Nobody Knows Microsoft and Windows Are Becoming Niche Players Until Data is Shown Correctly, Not Microsoft-Sponsored Articles in Microsoft Publishers
Microsoft controls a lot of publishers and thus it controls information
All That's Left of MSNBC (Microsoft-NBC) is Microsoft NOW
When plutocrats and large corporations (even deep in debt) buy all the communication channels
Accessibility Isn't Overrated
Making things simpler typically means better accessibility
 
IBM Operatives Inside The Register MS and More Shady Money to Follow
The Register MS bites every banknote it can sink its teeth into
Slopwatch: Serial Sloppers and Slopfarms in Google News (e.g. Linux Journal and WebProNews)
Google plays an active role (if not deliberately then through utter neglect and carelessness) in plagiarism
Links 20/08/2025: Mass Surveillance Framed as "Artificial Intelligence" (All Old Things Reworded to Misframe Old Computer Issues), Europe Resists Capitulation to US(SR)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 20/08/2025: Trips and Permacomputing
Links for the day
Links 20/08/2025: Oracle Layoffs in India, "AI" Scammers/Profiteers Admit It's a "Bubble", Softbank-Saudi (Oil) Control Tech Companies
Links for the day
Social Control Networks Give You False Metrics to 'Addict' You To Them
Leaving social control media may seem hard, but the same is true for any other addiction
A Lot of What Happened in Twitter Was Bots, Botfarms, and Troll Farms. It's Even Worse Now (Under X.com) and People Are Noticing.
Last month we said the same was happening in YouTube
Microsoft May Have Become - at Least Partially - Like a Boiler Room Scam
Giving imaginary salaries using imaginary tokens based on imaginary value (with restrictions on conversion to cash)
In Vietnam, Microsoft's Search Engine "Market Share" Fell to Almost 0%, CocCoc More Than 5 Times Bigger
Why are people still investing in this company?
The Register MS, Paid to Promote "AI" Hype, Does "Sez" (Says) Pieces
every bubble-funded "news" site tries to make it a story about "AI"
Many Companies Are Run by Liars Who Ride Other People's Money
Or steal it
Before CoreAI There Was Builder.ai
GitHub isn't about "AI" (just a bunch of lies and storytelling for shareholders' patience)
Microsoft Windows in Croatia at New Lows
We've been keeping track of this trend for a while
Using the Best Tool/s for the Job: RSS Feeds and RSS Readers
Use RSS feeds. Reject those "modern" Web things
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 19, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, August 19, 2025
Gemini Links 20/08/2025: Neovim, XML, and Alhena 5.2.9
Links for the day
The Register's Slopfest
Remember when The Register UK (yes, UK) had better standards?
Latest Version of Windows (Vista 11) is a Failure 4 Years After Its Fake 'Leak'
Vista 11 became more scarce this month
Improving Our Archives
Our old archives are still accessed a lot. Making them better is well worth the investment.
Things One Learns as a Litigant in Person at the UK High Court
Don't fear the official manuals
Slopwatch: Lots of Fake Articles From Fake "Linux" Sites and About "Linux"
Google says it's committed to "AI" (it means slop, not AI); that seems like an excuse to dodge accountability
Links 19/08/2025: "Eavesdropping on Phone Conversations Through Vibrations" and Air Canada in Chaos
Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/08/2025: Niche Spaces and "AI Pasta Sauce"
Links for the day
Links 19/08/2025: "NASA Is Giving Up on Climate Change Science" and "Earth's Continents Are Drying Out at an Unprecedented Rate"
Links for the day
Microsoft said “GitHub and its leadership team will continue its mission as part of Microsoft’s CoreAI organisation.” But it's just an empty shell created earlier this year.
In short, it's not too clear what Microsoft has just done except dumping GitHub - i.e. mostly a Web site that loses a ton of money (it always lost money) - into some mysterious new bucket
Phil Wyett evidence & Debian Zizian plagiarism, modern slavery tendencies
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
IBM Layoffs in MCC, or Marketing, Communications and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
IBM and Microsoft inflate their share price by circular financing
In Many Countries People Move Away From Vista 11
Vista 11 has been available for download for 4 years already, but adoption has been poor
Desktops/Laptops Fall to All-Time Lows in the UK, So Why Does British Media Quote a Famous Criminal on "End of the Smartphone Era"?
mobile usage (for Web access) has never been higher, based on an Irish surveyor, statCounter
The Groklaw Web Site Has Been Hijacked by Scammers
Groklaw.net isn't a safe site to access at this time
The Register MS gets Lazy, Uses Slop
Unlike 3-D renderings or "Classic" CG, slop images aren't quite original and definitely not fair use
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, August 18, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, August 18, 2025
Online Safety Act Does Not Tackle the Worst (and Biggest) Culprits
if our governments are serious about tackling online harms, then they need to look closely at GAFAM and social control media giants
Chat Control (1 and 2) in the European Union Sends the Wrong Message
This is an EU law
Slopwatch: Google News and Serial Sloppers (Fake Articles About "Linux")
Calling out the culprits
Gemini Links 19/08/2025: Digital Legacy and Chat Control
Links for the day
English Law Misused by Americans and Irishmen Against Brits is Unfair
There's always a way to improve existing laws
Overly Maximalist, Expensive, Localised Patent Law is Dooming Western Companies, Argue 3-D Printing Champions
We've long warned (over 7 years already!) that China's approach to patents will impress WIPO by gaming the totals but will doom the West
Links 18/08/2025: "Microsoft Store" Gets Increasingly Hostile, "Cracking Abandonware DRM"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 18/08/2025: Summer "Gone" and Web Reposts in Gemini
Links for the day
Microsoft's Windows in Gabon: Still Moving Down
What is this Unknown? Who knows...
Links 18/08/2025: LLM Reputation Damaged, Australia Catches Google Foul Play
Links for the day
Geeks Like GNU/Linux
The technical community seems to be consolidating and rallying around GNU/Linux
GNU/Linux is 486 in Ireland
4.86% that is
End of Reliable Media
it makes the world a worse place, it renders the Web a misinformation machine
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 17, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, August 17, 2025
GitHub Won't Last Much Longer
Many things at Microsoft are going to go the way of the Skype (or "dodo"). GitHub will be among those.
We've Never Used Large Language Model (LLM)
we just never used an LLM
"Secure Boot" is a Security Problem, Not a Solution
These people don't try to improve security but to undermine security
Gemini Links 18/08/2025: Retro and Endless Escape from the WWW
Links for the day