Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Patent Extremists Resort to Trump-Styled China-Baiting in an Effort to Destroy US Patent Policy

Fear of the dragon can lead to irrational reactions

Chinese dragon



Summary: The patent microcosm, in its non-ending pursuit of patent maximalism, uses China's truly misguided patent policy to alarm US lawmakers (based on false assumptions and deliberate misinformation)

EARLIER today we explained that Chinese patent law is nowadays a mess because of software patents. Patent trolls are surging in China and many patents are of highly questionable legitimacy (few of them or a minuscule proportion of them get 'exported' to other countries). China has come to account for the lion's share of patents counted by WIPO, which could not care less about patent quality (it just wishes to see the number of monopolies rising and rising). Earlier today we saw this article (re)titled "Chinese Universities are patenting everyones research from AI journals" (it had a title totally unconnected to China beforehand). Suffice to say, such patents would be invalid based on prior art; they're plagiarism. Never mind the fact that AI is software and thus invalid in the form of patents (almost everywhere except China).



"Sadly, we continue to see the "China!" phobia being used to steer or at least attempt to steer US patent policy."Over at Watchtroll, a couple of days ago Anthony de Andrade and Venkatesh Viswanath wrote about pursuing patents in BRICS ("C" for China) economies. Among BRICS China is the only one that's in IP5. The IP5 Offices are the European Patent Office (EPO), Japan Patent Office (JPO), Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China (SIPO), and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). A lot of companies come from these countries (or continents in the EPO's case, albeit EPO goes beyond Europe and beyond the EU). Take for example Apple from the US and Samsung from Korea. We'll write about their legal disputes in a later article.

Sadly, we continue to see the "China!" phobia being used to steer or at least attempt to steer US patent policy. Iancu, being rather clueless in the fields of science, is totally (maybe willfully) falling for it, repeating all the same propaganda we habitually see in sites like Watchtroll.

4 days ago Watchtroll himself (Gene Quinn) published "Navigating the Patent Landscape in China" (full of nonsense!) in which he said:

While the United States continues to struggle with what is patent eligible, and just yesterday USPTO Director Andrei Iancu told the House Judiciary Committee during an Oversight Hearing that in many technology areas what is patent eligible is unclear, and is depressing innovation, the Chinese are taking a different path. In April 2017, China provided revised guidelines relating to the patentability of both software and business methods.


How is that a good thing?

"It often seems like fear of China helps the 'patent nuts' (along the same lines of 'gun nuts') guide patent policy, almost in the same way that fear of Russia helps the war-mongers and hawks guide foreign policy in the US."And why is Iancu falling for this propaganda, including the latest from the Chamber of Commerce?

It often seems like fear of China helps the 'patent nuts' (along the same lines of 'gun nuts') guide patent policy, almost in the same way that fear of Russia helps the war-mongers and hawks guide foreign policy in the US.

Looking at the patent trolls' lobby, IAM, a few days ago it published a sponsored 'article' from Sofia Willquist (AWA AB, Sweden), which says that JPO "invalidation rate has dropped from around 45% to around 20% (ie, once a patent is granted it seems difficult to invalidate it)."

That may simply mean that examination itself improved. Here's what Willquist wrote with additional context:

As for appeals, the success rate is astoundingly high, at around 80%. Further, the invalidation rate has dropped from around 45% to around 20% (ie, once a patent is granted it seems difficult to invalidate it).

This is believed to be a deliberate strategy by the Japanese authorities to attract more companies to conduct business in Japan. With strong competition against other Asian markets, such as China and South Korea, Japan is showing a more lenient attitude towards patent applicants and the inventions they want to protect. According to Japanese patent attorneys, the main difference is in the approach to the assessment of inventive step, which makes it easier for applicants to argue in favour of their inventions.


This actually contradicts what we have been reading elsewhere because Japanese courts have become tougher and even software patents appear to have lost their footing in Japan. Might there be more to these statistics? The raw data is likely in Nippon/Japanese (日本語), so it would be hard to independently verify claims.

"This is about German patent law, which risks being overridden by the farce that's the UPC (a Trojan horse for software patents). Thankfully, however, the UPC looks like it's dead for good. The Germany constitution stands in its way."Meanwhile, over here in Europe we carry on battling software patents, which the EPO under Battistelli tries to make 'normal' using buzzwords like 4IR. Three days ago a German case was recalled, noting that the "FCJ [had] held that when assessing inventive step the claim should be interpreted so that the disclosed embodiments are taken into account."

This is about German patent law, which risks being overridden by the farce that's the UPC (a Trojan horse for software patents). Thankfully, however, the UPC looks like it's dead for good. The Germany constitution stands in its way.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Hiring for Tech Roles Based on Perceived Loyalty is No Better Than Hiring to Meet Diversity Quotas
What we're seeing right now is a national security disaster and it is almost purely about technology
S.E.O. SPAM by Serial Sloppers With L.L.M. Garbage is Hurting Linux
We continue to run Slopwatch
IBM Says That Half of Its "Assets" is Basically Pure Fiction ("Goodwill")
It times get tough, IBM can sell "Goodwill" at the local pawn shop and pay back the lenders, right?
 
Links 01/02/2025: Chinese and American Censorship, Cloud-[sic]Native Targeted by Software Patents
Links for the day
Links 01/02/2025: Belated Happy New Year 2025 and Gabbro 0.1.2
Links for the day
Links 01/02/2025: Administrative Chaos and Aviation Disasters Persist
Links for the day
Arrested: Albanian Outreachy whistleblowers, Sonny Piers GNOME & Debian connections
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 1/2/2025: LLM Hype Revisited, Linuxwashing by Oumi
Links for the day
Growing Evidence That the Patent Industry Has Become a Major Scam
Seeing that the patent "industry" has turned to serious crimes (sometimes to cover up corruption) and seeing that the net negative is clearer for all to see, people who argue for abolition of all patents will have a field day
Planet Ubuntu Overrun by LLM Slop? Faizul "Piju" 9M2PJU Seems to be Publishing Fake Articles About "Linux"...
Maybe it is "assisted" by LLM slop, but slop is slop and it introduces many problems
Gemini Links 01/02/2025: LLMs, Analog Computer, and BorgBackup
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, January 31, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, January 31, 2025
Links 31/01/2025: Mass Layoffs at Amazon and Microsoft, Sweden Again Fails to Protect Critics of Violence
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Fake Articles About "Linux" and More (Latest Roundup Featuring BetaNews, Janus Atienza, and Brittany Day From Guardian Digital, Inc)
LLM slop season
Microsoft Staff Explains How Microsoft Swindled Employees and Avoided Paying Out Severance Pay (Microsoft Hasn't Much Money Left in the Bank)
This is a classic way to avoid paying workers
"Not one of us" by Dr. Andy Farnell
Elon Musk has brought embarrassment to nerds and technologists
Gemini Links 31/01/2025: "Bulletin Buble" and "Why Blog?"
Links for the day
Static Site Generators (SSGs) Pay Off: Vastly Faster Sites, Much Smaller Hosting Bills
success story for SSGs
Of Note: Linux Foundation Has Already Let Linux.com Rot for About 4 Months (No Activity)
there's no campaign aside from marketing spam there
Techrights Should be Even Faster Now
We're now better off
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, January 30, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, January 30, 2025
Richard Stallman (RMS) Gave 3 Talks in India in Less Than a Week
In India this month we've not seen a single negative comment about RMS
Indian Data Biases statCounter For or Against "Linux"
In statCounter, the GNU/Linux increases and decreases are deeply tied to what it does with data collected in India
The Corporate Media Pretends That Facebook ("Meta") Has Performed Well, But Its Debt Doubles Every 2 Years Despite Mass Layoffs
That same media also helps parrot misleading financial claims
Microsoft's Debt Surged by More Than 6,000,000,000 Dollars in Just 3 Months
numbers released hours ago
The Sheer Irony of Microsoft Proxy Accusing Others of 'Stealing'
Wherever DeepSick's data came from, Microsoft (or its proxy) is in no position to issue criticism.
The Difference a Decade (and GAFAM Money) Makes
Credibility cannot be purchased
[Meme] The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has Critics Because Its Message is Effective
Applying to others the same standards one is willing to violate?
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Raised $422,000 (Another $22k in the Two Weeks After Campaign Ended), Proving That Truth and Justice Tend to Find a Way
10,000+ dollars a week even without campaigning for more funds
Faking Revenue Increase by Buying Your Own Products and Services (Through Scams and Scammers Like Scam Altman)
Is this what society deserves? Media that instead of exposing corruption has chosen to participate in it and profit from it?
Microsoft Mass Layoffs Without Severance Pay Reported Hours After Microsoft Reported Weak Numbers and Microsoft Stock Fell
Microsoft has a bloodbath this month
Links 30/01/2025: Fentanylware (TikTok) Causes Deaths, FBI Seizes Domains
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/01/2025: Action vs Inaction, Gopherholes, and More
Links for the day
Another Slew of Fake Articles About 'Linux' and 'Security' From Brittany Day at linuxsecurity.com (Spamfarm/Slopfarm)
linuxsecurity.com is basically a pariah and parasite. It lessens the incentive to write real articles about "Linux" by generating fake ones to outrank the originals.
Links 30/01/2025: Microsoft Wants Convicted Felon to Give Fentanylware (TikTok) to It (After Making a Phonecall Asking for That in 2019), "Moving Away From Google's Ecosystem"
Links for the day
Jack M. Germain (LinuxInsider) Seems to Have Turned to LLM Slop, Graphics Slop, and B2B SPAM
LinuxInsider is barely active anymore
Links 30/01/2025: Amazon Layoffs and DeepSeek Panic
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/01/2025: Chaos Reigns, E-mail, Searching
Links for the day
IBM: Many Thousands of Layoffs in 2025
If 2025 is expected to be the same, then perhaps about 20,000 IBM workers will no longer be there
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, January 29, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, January 29, 2025