Bonum Certa Men Certa

David Barcelou May or May Not be a Patent Troll, But He is Certainly a SLAPPing Bully and Watchtroll is Fine With It

"People disagree with me. I just ignore them." ~Linus Torvalds

Summary: Like a thin-skinned person/entity (which many in the patent microcosm are), David Barcelou and Automated Transactions (“ATL”) SLAPP their critics and surprisingly enough it's Watchtroll, who has been threatened by WIPO, coming to the bully's rescue (double standards)

THE USPTO's decades of poor patent grants are a liability. It's a toxic legacy which empowered patent trolls. As Daniel Nazer (EFF) put it about an hour ago: "Examiners spend an average of ~18 hours per app, roughly half on prior art. It's no great insult to patent examiners that litigators with huge budgets and expert help find better art. Of course they do."

The CCIA recently wrote something similar.

"The EFF's Daniel Nazer (in his capacity as EFF staff) revealed that Automated Transactions (“ATL”) is also a SLAPPing troll, not just a patent troll, like those who send us threats by post."Daniel Nazer isn't really the subject of this issue, but he happens to be the main carrier of a message. It's actually about David Barcelou. The EFF's Daniel Nazer (in his capacity as EFF staff) revealed that Automated Transactions (“ATL”) is also a SLAPPing troll, not just a patent troll, like those who send us threats by post. Calling patent trolls what they are is perfectly lawful, especially in the US, but being the bullies that they are, they don't care about the law; they attempt to twist everything and they just try to cause damage to their victims (of legal harassment). Posted about a day ago at the EFF's Web site: [via]

A New Hampshire state court has dismissed a defamation suit filed by a patent owner unhappy that it had been called a “patent troll.” The court ruled [PDF] that the phrase “patent troll” and other rhetorical characterizations are not the type of factual statements that can be the basis of a defamation claim. While this is a fairly routine application of defamation law and the First Amendment, it is an important reminder that patent assertion entities – or “trolls” – are not shielded from criticism. Regardless of your view about the patent system, this is a victory for freedom of expression.

The case began back in December 2016 when patent assertion entity Automated Transactions, LLC (“ATL”) and inventor David Barcelou filed a complaint [PDF] in New Hampshire Superior Court against 13 defendants, including banking associations, banks, law firms, lawyers, and a publisher. ATL and Barcelou claimed that all of the defendants criticized ATL’s litigation in a way that was defamatory.


This started a sort of 'chain letter' between troll apologists (like Watchtroll) and Nazer, who wrote: "This defamation case received breathless coverage from @ipwatchdog that didn't even mention the glaring First Amendment issues raised by the complaint. [...] I thought this was pretty striking because IP Watchdog has itself been the recipient of some bullying defamation threats - I figured the publication might cover defamation with at least an awareness of the free speech issues at stake. [...] Do you think it was an oversight for a legal blog to write about that complaint without even mentioning the First Amendment?"

That's rather interesting and people took note of it; and on it goes: "Weird that the Court just dismissed the Complaint on First Amendment grounds then. The judge must not understand the First Amendment as well as you do. [...] That's right, Gene. Just as I'm sure your statement that the 1A doesn't protect falsity was made after deep consideration of the nuances US v Alvarez - why would I dare challenge such a scholar of the First Amendment? [...] They're equivalent in the important sense that the 1A rightly protects both (I even liked your Gurry post, not that that's relevant, I read it before it got taken down). Here's the opinion by the way. A very routine application of 1A and defamation law..."

"If it's actually a "watchdog", then we know whose..."Well, patent maximalists typically protect patent trolls irrespective of anything, including the Rule of Law. Watchtroll is much of the same, which is why we call it that (for nearly a decade now). We rarely make up names for sites unless they're really bad. Watchtroll is probably the only in this category because let's face it, who is it a watchdog for if not trolls?

If it's actually a "watchdog", then we know whose...

Watchtroll then responded by insinuating that Nazer works for billionaires (the one Watchtroll habitually insults). He said: "Surprise! Surprise! @danielnazer Staff Attorney and Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents, called me out on Twitter, but now is afraid to a real live debate. I've challenged him multiple times, willing to debate on his turf too. Funny how folks like him only talk big."

"Maybe we can ship Watchtroll 200 years back into the past where he can handwash his clothes and talk about how Web pages (as in Standard Generalized Markup Language) are "computer programs"."Watchtroll does not debate; I attempted to debate him, but he blocked me and ran away after he had lost the debate. A few hours ago Watchtroll (Gene Quinn) wrote about this and then proceeded to inane "MAGA"-type nonsense, under the headline "America Needs an Eighteenth-Century Patent System".

Yes, he actually typed that into the headline! Maybe we can ship Watchtroll 200 years back into the past where he can handwash his clothes and talk about how Web pages (as in Standard Generalized Markup Language) are "computer programs". He actually said this repeatedly. He's a clueless bully who just throws a fit when losing an argument. He's nontechnical. Debating him on technical matters is like debating Creationists about science.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Advocacy of Software Freedom Changed, LUGs Became Less Relevant
The way we see it, support groups like LUGs sort of outlived their usefulness when it became easier to install GNU/Linux
For the Second Time in a Few Weeks Microsoft Lunduke Makes False Accusations Against Senior Red Hat Staff to Incite a Despicable 'Troll Army'
Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims or says can be trusted
Compromised by NVIDIA Proprietary Library
Meanwhile in Boston there are "[r]oundtable talk with FSF volunteers (both in-person and online)"
How Software Patents Were Viewed or Their General Status Changed Over Time
A rough summary
 
Watch the FSF Party Live (via Livestream)
It's in WebM format, which is widely supported by now
When Microsoft "Integrates" Something With "AI" It Means It's Losing Money and Is Generally Hopeless
how did Bing fare after 36 months of LLM slop being hyped up as "replacement" for search?
Most Certificates Don't Improve Security, They Mostly Increase Downtime (for No Good Reason)
The 'Gemini sites' (capsules) are a growing force
The statCounter Site Has Data Integrity Problems
Maybe we'll get back to statCounter when its data becomes more "stable" again
10 Ways to Combat Software Patents
software patents are loathed also by proprietary software developers
"Just a Little Bit of Meat..."
Free software "absolutism" is not a radical stance, more so if the only "radical" belief the user possesses is that he or she must be in control of his or her software, and by extension his or her computer
Red Hat is Ignoring the Free Software Community, It's a "Fortune 1000" Vendor
Red Hat's blog also participates a lot in promoting of Wall Street's latest pump-and-dump "AI" scheme
Free Software Foundation Party Has Begun
We shall be focusing a lot on software patents today
Former Head of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Lina Khan Knows Whatever Microsoft Touches Will Die
Just like Skype (as recently as months ago) [...] When Microsoft grabs things, or when it buys things, it almost never ends well
Slopwatch: Fake Articles About LibreOffice in Austria and Wine 10.16
very short
Links 04/10/2025: "attempted Coup" Noted in Facebook, Russia Kills Journalists via Drones
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/10/2025: Anesthesia and Baudpunk
Links for the day
Links 04/10/2025: "Privacy Harm Is Harm", Criticism Outlawed in US
Links for the day
Garmin Uses Linux for Some of the Garmin Products, Now It's Sued by Strava Using Software Patents
Software patents should never have been granted in the first place
Richard Stallman Will Give a Talk in Sweden in 6 Days
Dr. Stallman, despite his battle with cancer is still alive and mentally sharp
FSF Turns 40
We'll be focusing on patent-related topics this weekend
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, October 03, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, October 03, 2025
Gemini Links 04/10/2025: Distro Hopping and "Part Time"
Links for the day
We Are Turning 19 in One Month, FSF Turns 40 in 3 Hours (CET)
For our anniversary next month we still have no concrete plans
Patent Docs (or PatentDocs) Learned the Wrong Lessons From the Death of TypePad
Had they gone ahead with an SSG, they'd become a lot more future-proof
USPTO Patent Bubble Already Imploding, After Decades of Artificial Inflation, Entire Offices Close for Good
we can deduce that financial pressures (lack of "demand" for monopolies) play a role
TikTok is Not Harmless (Being CheeTok in the US Will Advance Orange Agenda)
Social control media isn't "fun and games"; it's a digital weapon that lets hostile groups or nations infiltrate others, then turn them against themselves
Andy Farnell and Helen Plews Explain What "Modern" Tech Does to Old People
Imposing terrible tech "religion" on people is not helping them
Tomorrow the Free Software Foundation (FSF) Turns 40 and Its Web Site is Still Slow Due to DDoS by LLM Slop Bots
For an advocacy group, uptime is important (for its message to remain accessible)
Slopwatch: Google News as a Firehose of LLM Slop About "Linux"
Google News is really bad
Datamation, Where I Used to Publish Articles, Appears to Have Been Sold to TechnologyAdvice Only to Become a Slopfarm
I'd prefer to not associate with that site anymore
Links 03/10/2025: "NPR’s Economics Lessons Come With Neoliberal Spin" and Canada Post at Risk
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/10/2025: Panic Attacks and Food Adulteration
Links for the day
Links 03/10/2025: Lawyers Caught Using LLM Slop Explain Why They Did It, LibreSSL 4.1.1 and 4.0.1 Released
Links for the day
FSF Board Grew 50% Since Last Year, Has New President, Turns 40 in Two Days
It's a good move for the FSF and - by extension - for software freedom
Links 03/10/2025: Conflicts, Death of TypePad, and TikTok/CheeTok Gives a Boost to Far Right Groups in Europe
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 02, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 02, 2025
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, Google News, and LinuxSecurity
They carry on polluting the Web with fake articles
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: Kubernetes With FreeBSD and robots.txt
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: 'Open' 'AI' Resorting to Gimmicks and Fake Funding, Europe’s ‘Drone Wall’ Discussed
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: Brave Passes 100M Users Milestone, Kodak Selling Its Own Film Again
Links for the day
Michael “Monty” Widenius: It Started in 1983 With Richard Stallman (RMS)
The other co-founder of MySQL is a bit notorious for confronting RMS rather viciously
su lisa && rm -rf /home/ibm/power
Novell was ruined by another person from IBM, Ronald Hovsepian
A Record Demand at Microsoft: Demand to Cancel
What we're witnessing is a very ungraceful destruction of XBox
Microsoft is Losing Europe
Hence all the "support" and "discount" offers that are limited to Europe
The Free Software Foundation Starts Fund-raising for 40th Anniversary
New pop-up 2-3 days ahead of the 40th anniversary event
Systemd Breaks Networking in Debian and Microsoft Staff Rushes to Make Face-Saving Excuses in LWN
Microsoft's bluca is already there in the comments, his Microsoft money pays for LWN to let him leave comments early
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 01, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 01, 2025
What the End of XBox Will Look Like: a Fiery Crash
XBox is the next Skype. It won't last much longer. Expect many more layoffs.
Richard Stallman is Going to Finland to Give a Talk Next Thursday
A day later he speaks in Sweden
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: SMTP Pipelining and End of ROOPHLOCH 2025
Links for the day