Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Patent Trial and Appeals Board (PTAB) Continues to Lower the Number of Patent Lawsuits as More Allegations Get Tested at the Office Instead

Software patents and trolls among the biggest culprits

A digital dream



Summary: Efforts undertaken by Unified Patents are an example of patent justice being taken to PTAB for lower costs (legal expenses) and faster decisions, raising the bar for examiners at the US patent office; this has been effective at disarming patent trolls, too

THE USPTO and PTAB in particular improved things in the sense that fewer patent lawsuits need to be filed. This is bad news for patent law firms, which were never really needed in the first place (provided that technology firms can get along).



"That is good news and Robert Jain (Unified Patents) resumed his regular updates, starting with the patent troll Uniloc.""For Q1-Q3 2018," says a new report, "the volume of patent litigation at district court and the Patent Trials [sic] and Appeals Board (PTAB) is approximately 15% lower than the volume of new cases for the same period in 2017."

That is good news and Robert Jain (Unified Patents) resumed his regular updates, starting with the patent troll Uniloc. They have apparently found a way to invalidate its patent (6,661,203):

Unified is pleased to announce the PATROLL crowdsourcing contest winner, Ritesh Jain, who received a cash prize of $1000 for his prior art submission for U.S. Patent 6,661,203, owned by Uniloc Luxembourg, S.A., a well-known NPE. The '203 patent, directed towards a battery charging and discharging system optimized for high temperature environments, has been asserted against numerous companies in district court litigation. To help the industry fight bad patents, we have published the winning prior art below.

We would also like to thank the dozens of other high-quality submissions that were made on this patent. The ongoing contests are open to anyone, and include tens of thousands of dollars in rewards available for helping the industry to challenge NPE patents of questionable validity by finding and submitting prior art in the contests. Visit PATROLL today to learn more about how to participate.


People can get $2,500 by showing prior art and squashing a bogus patent of another patent troll, Landmark Technology, LLC. To quote:

On September 24, 2018, Unified added a $2,500 contest to PATROLL seeking prior art for US Patent No. 6289319 which has been asserted on multiple occasions by Landmark Technology, LLC (an NPE). The '319 patent, generally related to online transaction systems/methods, has been asserted in 65 district court cases (including 15 cases since March 2018). Landmark has been widely criticized for its practice of challenging small and medium-sized companies that lack the resources to defend suit in district court in order to obtain a quick settlement.


This generally improves patent quality in the Office, so why would anybody oppose it? Jason Rantanen and Saurabh Vishnubhakat (patent maximalists) recently wrote about PTAB, which patent maximalists generally loathe because it improves quality of patents. Unified Patents is no friend of theirs.

Moving on, Unified Patents then said that it was taking on the patent troll Jay Walker, successfully causing the troll to abandon the patent:

On September 13, 2018, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) granted Certified Measurement’s (a Walker Innovation subsidiary) request for adverse judgment and cancellation of all instituted claims in IPR2018-00548 filed by Unified. This request comes shortly after the PTAB’s decision to institute trial for U.S. Patent 8,549,310, directed to a "method and apparatus for secure measurement certification." The ‘310 patent has been asserted in multiple cases against such companies as Yokogawa America and Centerpoint Energy.


PTAB then axed the patents of another patent troll, General Access Solutions.

On September 25, 2018, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board issued a final written decision in Unified Patents Inc. v. General Access Solutions, Ltd., IPR2017-01178 invalidating all 20 claims of U.S. Patent 9,225,555 owned and asserted by General Access Solutions, a well-known NPE. The '555 Patent, which relates to IEEE 802.11 / Wi-Fi and other wireless communications between a base stations and mobile stations, has been asserted in four district court cases that terminated shortly before this decision.


Remember that this doesn't always work because "PTAB Upholds Kamatani Cloud Patent Challenged by Unified Patents," as Watchtrol put it on Friday. An inter partes review (IPR) is no guarantee of anything and Matthew Bultman (Law360) very recently wrote that "[t]he Patent Trial and Appeal Board on Wednesday upheld a Philips patent that relates to keypads on mobile devices..."

Another patent troll sees PTAB almost throwing away its patent (it's not final yet). As Unified Patents put it:

On September 26, 2018, Unified filed a petition for inter partes review (IPR) against U.S. Patent 6,232,539, owned and asserted by MOAEC Technologies, an NPE. The ’539 patent, directed to a music organizer and entertainment center, has been asserted against companies such as Spotify, SoundCloud, and Deezer.


PTAB is definitely preventing a lot of frivolous patent lawsuits or behind-the-scenes blackmail attempts. Unified Patents helps crowdfund IPRs. Let's hope that next year too there will be a decline in patent litigation and more patents will be scrutinised within the Office, making the process a lot cheaper than in courtrooms.

Recent Techrights' Posts

[Video] Richard Stallman's Talk in Sweden, Attended by Nearly 700 People, is Now Online
The Web page is in Swedish, but the talk is in English
 
Bad faith: can't change Debian Social Contract (DSC) without unanimous consent of every joint author
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Confirmed: Very Close Friend of Bill Gates and Microsoft's Biggest Patent Troll Nathan Myhrvold Flew the Lolita Express (a Gateway to Pedophilia), According to Bill Gates-Sponsored Seattle Times
There is no speculation or any "conspiracy theories" here;' those are verified facts
Gemini Links 25/10/2025: "The Highest Leader of The Global Civil Society Community", SSL Certificates Causing Bitrot
Links for the day
Links 25/10/2025: Target Layoffs and "Shutdown Sparks 85% Increase in US Government Cyberattacks"
Links for the day
"Big Data" Was a Big Lie
Remember "Big Data"? Remember "Data Scientists"...?
statCounter Has Been Broken for a Long Time
Considering the huge proportion of Web requests that come from LLM bots (more so this past year or two), statCounter may struggle to justify the operating costs
Techrights Anniversary Party on November 7th
Let us know if you need any accommodation-related arrangements
Trends That Must Alarm Microsoft and Mozilla
Expect Firefox to no longer be supported by various sites in the US
Why Microsoft Became the Layoffs Leader
The corporate media is projecting or signalling its own dishonesty when it tells us that Microsoft is a very "valuable" company while the data shows Microsoft is also a "market leader" in layoffs
Speaking for Ourselves and Letting the Facts Speak for Themselves
we've already published over 50,000 pages
For Second Time in a Day The Register MS Takes Money From Private Companies to Sell a Ponzi Scheme
Do not have empathy for those who have zero empathy towards you
IBM is Misleading IBM Shareholders
IBM is still all about vapourware and buzzwords
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, October 24, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, October 24, 2025
The Serial Slopper Starts Up - or Restarts - His Plagiarism Machine (LLMs)
Serial Sloppers like these don't belong in news sites. That's why he got sacked by BetaNews.
Links 24/10/2025: Esperanto Music History, Anxiety, and New Portals
Links for the day
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity.com, Linux Journal, and Pet Slopfarms of Google News
Why does Google News still advance these fake sites to the top of search results?
Links 24/10/2025: Inequality Grows, Billion-Dollar Scam Center Industry
Links for the day
Links 24/10/2025: "Independent Media in Cambodia is Collapsing" and Serious F5 Breach
Links for the day
Coping With the Site Going More Mainstream
Fame is no laughing matter
They Never 'Put Down' Corporations
There are "pests" that are traded in Wall Street
21 Pages in Less Than 7 Hours is No Joking Matter
We've become a lot more effective and efficient
Correct Information is a Valued Asset in the Age of Slopfarms and Public Relations (PR) or Spin
Publishing suppressed facts is never easy
The Register MS Continues to Bag Money to Promote a Ponzi Scheme, Even Money From China
Today in the front page
analytics.usa.gov: The Only Supported Version of Windows (This Past Week) is Only Used by About 13.9% of People in the US, the Home Base of Windows
Even Vista 7 is still used more
Rust is Very Secure
If only Rust itself is secure
Who Will be Held Accountable for Breaking Ubuntu by Imposing Rust on Otherwise-Functional Programs, in Effect Replacing GNU With Proprietary Microsoft (GitHub)?
they're practical people who merely point out that a bunch of buffoons not only ruin Ubuntu but also every future distro based on Ubuntu
Generation Chaff - Phase VIII: In Summary
Like "Science" with a capital "S", what we see here commercial interests usurping everything
Generation Chaff - Phase VII: Curtailing Alternative Media
There was always an obligation - a collective duty of sorts - to uphold independent journalism
Generation Chaff - Phase VI: Centralisation of Information (X, Cheetok/Fentanylware)
Would you trust information when controlled by such people?
Generation Chaff - Phase V: Censorship of Dissent (Painted as Harassment or Terrorism)
Censorship is all around us now
Generation Chaff - Phase IV: Apps Only Few Companies Decide On
Tools are being collectively confiscated, under the premise or false prospect of "security"
Generation Chaff - Phase III: Slop and Plagiarism
A lot of the current so-called 'economy' is built upon false valuations
Generation Chaff - Phase II: "Cloud", Blockchains and Other Hype
For those of us who turned down those propositions there was a struggle; we needed to justify not having skinnerboxes or "social" accounts in some site run by a private company
Generation Chaff - Phase I: Social Control Media
IRC predates the Web
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 23, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 23, 2025
More Clues Shed on Collapse of Microsoft XBox
XBox is basically circling down the drain as Microsoft implements 2-3 waves of layoffs each month
'Vibe Coding' Doesn't Work
In a lot of ways, so-called 'Vibe Coding' is already considered vapourware or a passing fad promoted in the media by managers who try to justify mass layoffs, especially ridding companies of "very expensive" software engineers
Links 24/10/2025: Microsoft's Killing of XBox Connected to Revenue/Profit Problems, "How Elon Musk Ruined Twitter"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 24/10/2025: 86,400 Seconds and "Society's Task"
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Google News and Slopfarms That Relay Nonsense From LLMs
Google News, which once prioritised or used to care about provenance and quality, is feeding slopfarms
Links 23/10/2025: More Health Concerns Over Dumb Chatbots (LLMs) and "Talking Cars" as Latest Buzz
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/10/2025: Daylight Savings Time and Duration Shorthand
Links for the day
Links 23/10/2025: LLM 'Hallucinations' (Defects) in Practical Code 'Generation', China Becomes More Economically and Technologically Independent
Links for the day
Why We Support Richard Stallman and You Probably Should Too
It's not about being "Richard Stallman fan", it is about maintaining the right to hold positions (on technology) like his
Linux Foundation Uses LLM Slop to Promote Microsoft in Linux.com (Again), Rendering It a Linux-Hostile Slopfarm
Openwashing with slop by "Linux.com Editorial Staff", which basically seems to be a bot
Some Large German Media Covers Richard Stallman's Talks in Germany Earlier This Week
LLM-based chatbots are just "bullshit generators" (as he has long called them)
Links 23/10/2025: Windows TCO Galore and "The Internet Is Going to Break Again"
Links for the day
Trouble in Red Hat/IBM and a Retreat to Ponzi Economics in Search of Wall Street Market Heist
Would you invest your life savings in this kind of crap?
Who Asked Software in the Public Interest (SPI) for a Refund? ($100,000, Resulting in Losses of $267,201 in 12 Months, Highest-Ever Losses)
The IRS does not reveal who or what's tied to this refund (or the cause/reason)
Social engineering attack: Debian voted to trick you on binary blobs
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Techrights Will Always Stand for Women's Rights
We even invest money - personal savings that it - in our principles
Certified Lawyers Should Know Better (Than to Intimidate Us With Man Who Drives on Motorcycle Through a Really Bad Storm Between Distant Cities, Then Collects Photos of Our Home)
Mentioning someone was in prison for bad things isn't a crime, it's a public service
The "AI" (Slop) Bubble is Already Imploding
"ChatGPT Usage Has Peaked and Is Now Declining, New Data Finds"
The So-called "Sexy" Buckets (AI, Quantum) Cannot Save IBM From Reality, Shares Tank
"No matter how much financial hocus-pocus they use to reclassify revenues to land in the "sexy" buckets (AI, Quantum), it still smells old and musty - just like this company."
Paul Krugman is Wrong About the Scope of Mass Layoffs in the United States
A few years ago society was accelerating its journey towards feudalism, boosted by COVID-19
Links 23/10/2025: Proprietary Blunders and CISA's Latest Disclosure of Holes
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/10/2025: Fast Past (F1), 99.9% Uptime
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 22, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 22, 2025