Bonum Certa Men Certa

ITC is Serving Patent Trolls Now

Going under the bridge

Under the bridge



Summary: The US International Trade Commission (ITC) was supposed to guard American firms from knockoffs and the likes of that; but now it's being misused as a tool of extortion for firms that produce nothing at all

THE ITC is problematic; now the bullies, instead of saying "pay us 'protection' money or we'll sue you and cost you in legal bills (so you lose either way)," are threatening to have your products literally embargoed. Earlier this year and again a few weeks ago we cited the new example of Hytera. It doesn't seem like justice is the goal here; blackmail and financial strangulations are being encouraged (before the facts are even known and legal proceedings are concluded). It's what we call a "shoot first, ask questions later" approach, which should be considered totally unacceptable in a society that values due process.



Here's the latest on the Hytera case, as covered just before the weekend by WIPR:

Hytera received good news this week when the US International Trade Commission (ITC) agreed to review in-part a final initial determination that had gone in favour of Motorola Solutions, amid a global war between the two companies.

In July, the ITC upheld allegations of patent infringement against radio manufacturer Hytera in an initial determination.

Motorola had initially accused Hytera of infringing seven US patents which cover two-way radio equipment systems and related software. It later withdrew three of the patents asserted against Hytera.

[...]

Tom Wineland, vice president of Hytera Communications America (West), said: “We are particularly pleased at the forecast scope of the review, which includes the ITC’s reviewing why Motorola would have asserted patents as infringed that Hytera had previously licensed from Motorola on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms.”

In July, Motorola secured a victory over Hytera in Germany as the Regional Court of Mannheim granted an injunction against the radio company.


Hytera is being fought against using injunctions. It's tempting for the ITC to take the side of the US giant (almost an order of magnitude greater than Hytera). To make matters worse, based on this new post from CCIA's Patent Progress, the ITC is now serving patent trolls rather than actual firms in the US:

After the Supreme Court’s TC Heartland decision made it harder to file suit in the notoriously NPE-friendly Eastern District of Texas, Patent Progress predicted that NPEs might try to shift venues to the ITC. This appears to be an example of exactly that. While SIPCO claims not to be an NPE, their website focuses on their patent licensing business; the ‘products and consulting services’ they claim to offer are not described in detail (unlike their patent list and licensing structure.)

The ITC is a desirable venue both because it can grant an exclusion order (effectively an injunction against any products manufactured outside of the U.S.) and because the ITC has a highly compressed case schedule, making ITC trials expensive for defendants. The combination of these two factors means that an ITC case carries more expense and more risk for defendants—making them more likely to want to settle.


Patent Progress correctly notes that the ITC is now being emasculated for purposes of blackmail; no such thing should be allowed to happen before or until the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) through inter partes reviews (IPRs), in addition to the district courts and the Federal Circuit (potentially higher), get to have their say on the underlying patents and the claims (as applied -- if applicable at all -- in infringement allegations). We have already seen the ITC arrogantly ignoring the PTAB's decisions to void underlying patents (a case of Cisco against a relatively small rival). As if PTAB does not exist...

Recent Techrights' Posts

Google Spreading Misinformation and Lies
Google is in the propaganda business
New Video Report About Microsoft Cancelling Multi-Billion Dollar Projects
direct link to the video
Microsoft is Already Laying Off Lots of Contractors
cost-cutting at Microsoft takes a new "edge"
Coming Soon: Microsoft Fake Results, Mass Layoffs, and Silence About All the People Microsoft Pressured to "Quit" (So That They Don't Get Counted as Layoffs)
there will be more mass layoffs
 
Just Sending More and More Threats Does Not Change the Fact We Got Abused for Many Years and Women Got Strangled
Wanting a "gag order" - or sometimes injunctions - by sending many threats
Links 29/04/2025: Water Scarcity, LLM Slop Backfiring Again in Legal Documents
Links for the day
statCounter: GNU/Linux Adoption Surging in Switzerland, Windows at All-time Low
What happened?
Gemini Links 28/04/2025: Free Speech and Perfectionism in Design
Links for the day
What Fake News Looks Like (IBM)
IBM told a lie. The media then just blindly repeated this lie.
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, April 28, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, April 28, 2025
China is Already Culling GAFAM (Not Just Microsoft Windows)
OS monoculture or "OS hegemony" may be coming to an end
The "Telephone Operating System in the Vatican" is 95 Years Old, Vatican Moved to GNU/Linux
Maybe Microsoft is down to zero already
If Tesla Shares (and Alleged Value) Fell 55% (From $489 to $222) in a Few Months Maybe It's Not Worth Anything At All (It's Just Gambling)
Tesla swasticars have turned from a "status symbol" into a "public embarrassment" and cause for casual humiliation
Chromebooks' Adoption in Sweden No Longer Depends on Schools
School breaks are when classrooms are shut
No, IBM is Not Investing $150 Billion in the US and It Doesn't Even Have That Kind of Money
Here we go again... media as a vehicle of lobbying and misinformation
Leak: The EPO's General Consultative Committee (GCC) Does Not Consult Staff on Crucial Matters and Bypasses the Administrative Council (AC) to Do Illegal Things
violations against the EPO's very staff
New Leaks Coming Soon, We Maintain 100% Record of Successful Resistance to Censorship
We won't be told what we can and cannot say (especially when it's true)
Central African Republic (CAR): Vista 11 is Only ~0.2% Market Share
99.8% to go!
BSD and GNU/Linux Replaced Microsoft in Secure Servers, All Microsoft Has Left is LLM Slop for Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD)
the FUD machine never rests
Gemini Links 28/04/2025: A Simple Task Tracking and Auto-Prioritization Tool and Other Programs
Links for the day
Links 28/04/2025: Canada's Election, Pakistan-India Conflict
Links for the day
Speed of GNU/Linux
The media seldom speaks of the dangers of "proprietary software"
Glue Inside Your Pizza (or Why People Will Get Fed Up With Slop)
People are given "answers" from non-intelligence word dumpsters
Proprietary Windows Versus "Linux" News (Trying to Keep People on Windows, Never Exploring GNU/Linux)
Good editors know better how to recognise threats and not give them lip service
Ensuring That Every Computer User Anywhere in the World Can Take Control of All His or Her Computers
We must fight the people who attack general-purpose computing, in particular those who push this agenda very aggressively inside Linux
Links 28/04/2025: Cyberattacks Happening, Chatbots Disappointing, and "Free Speech Under Fire"
Links for the day
Phone Adoption Very Low in Vatican, Windows Usage Fell Nonetheless
Even in places where people still use desktops/laptops most of the time (and have access to these) Windows is gradually losing ground
GNU/Linux 9% in Cuba, Vista 11 Waning, Android Dominant
Microsoft has pretty much lost Cuba
Gemini Links 28/04/2025: Autism and Structural Navigation
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, April 27, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, April 27, 2025
What Happened to the Open Source Initiative (OSI) Elections: The Purge, the Cover-up, and the Witch-hunts
OSI has gone "full Microsoft"
In 24 Countries Observed by statCounter Vista 11 is Still Less Than a Quarter of Windows Users Despite All Other Versions Being 'Expired'
They ought to move to GNU/Linux
Links 27/04/2025: Pope Goodbyes, "Politics of Fear", Slop Redux and More Google Shutdowns (Google Debt Had Grown This Year)
Links for the day
Links 27/04/2025: Serenity Dialectics, Hockey Jersey Ethics, and More
Links for the day
Links 27/04/2025: Death of Nest Thermostats, Death of Metaverse
Links for the day
Links 27/04/2025: Projects Workflow and Discovering Technology
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, April 26, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, April 26, 2025