Bonum Certa Men Certa

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Under Andrei Iancu Subjected to an Assault on Patent Quality

Even scholarly journals are being 'infiltrated' by the litigation giants

Andrei Iancu



Summary: Donald Trump has let the litigation industry 'govern' itself at the USPTO; all it has accomplished so far is even greater divergence between USPTO determinations and those of actual courts (which means that the USPTO does not follow the law, there's a state of lawlessness)

THE USPTO isn't coping with demand for patent quality. Instead it's trying to cope with demand for patents; the more, the merrier?



Emulation patents by Sony have been mentioned a lot on Sunday [1, 2, 3] and Apple patent propaganda sites which treat every patent from Apple like it's the digital "second coming" celebrated a patent application on user interface navigation just a few hours ago. It sounds like another bunch of software patents ascribed to a "device". What gives? When will we see a patent office that prioritises public interest rather than massive corporations like Sony and Apple? Who does this office really serve? It obviously doesn't help that its new Director comes from the litigation 'industry'.

"It obviously doesn't help that its new Director comes from the litigation 'industry'."We don't suppose patent lawyers like Techrights and we're fine with that. We don't try to collectively or personally insult them, we just make our observations based on the premise that patents were created (came into existence centuries ago) for the purpose of science, not just the purpose of litigation. Some patent lawyers are honest people -- sometimes honest enough to the point of abandoning the occupation. Some people go the other way. Our general advice to patent lawyers, especially in the current climate, is get a real job, people, create something rather than "facilitate litigation" with threatening letters and legal attacks that are costly to both sides (those who actually create things). World Intellectual Property Review published the following some days ago:

Baltzer’s practice focuses on patent litigation in the fields of biotechnology, electronics, and data processing systems.


Many data processing systems are purely software-defined now, hence the underlying patents would be software patents. How about this from World Intellectual Property Review (same day more or less)? It's about a man who used to write software but nowadays attacks (or contrariwise defends) coders with/from patent litigation through his new employer. Who needs this nonsense? "He has more than two decades of experience in patent law," it says, "having spent 16 years at Seed IP and five years at Perkins Coie. Before practising law, he worked as a software engineer for six years."

So he moved from actually creating software to litigating over software. What a failure.

"So he moved from actually creating software to litigating over software. What a failure."Unfortunately, many people out there think that this is acceptable. They're being brainwashed. Here we have "Recent U.S. Court Decisions and Developments Affecting Licensing" by John Paul and D. Brian Kacedon. Patent maximalists from Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP are writing 'scholarly' papers by which to push their agenda, which is financial (lawsuits). So even journals, not just the media, get taken over by the litigation 'industry'. Over at Washington Law Review, which one might expect to target lawyers, another evidence of such a thing emerges. “Legislators and industry leaders claim that patent strength in the United States has declined,” they claim, but this is nonsense! Those ‘industry’ ‘leaders’ are law firms that want more lawsuits!

Guess who wrote this paper; it's law firms pushing 'scholarly' papers loaded with lies. It's Steven Udick (Skiermont Derby LLP) helped by Gregory Day (University of Georgia - C. Herman and Mary Virginia Terry College of Business). They suggest "Offshoring Patent Law" in their title! As in sending it to Iancu or law firms' interests? Letting the executive become legislator too? From the abstract:

Legislators and industry leaders claim that patent strength in the United States has declined, causing firms to innovate in foreign countries. However, scholarship has largely dismissed the theory that foreign patents have any effect on where firms invent, considering that patent law is bound by strict territorial limitations (as a result, one cannot strengthen their patent protection by innovating abroad). In essence, then, industry leaders are deeply divided from scholarship about whether innovative firms seek out jurisdictions offering stronger patent rights, affecting the rate of innovation.


This is just think tank-type propaganda disguised as academic paper. Check the authors' affiliation. Things have gotten so bad that these law firms not only dominate public/private forums but also the media (Web, TV etc.) and literature. Patent Docs has just advertised another 'think tank' of the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO), a front group that lobbies the above people for software patents. Patent Docs also mentioned this from the USPTO:

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will be offering the next webinar in its Patent Quality Chat webinar series from 12:00 to 1:00 pm (ET) on October 9, 2018.


A "Patent Quality Chat" (all capitalised) does not ensure quality; it's like Battistelli's "Working Party on Quality," which is a "Ministry of Truth"-type of façade.

Patent quality is something that the USPTO under its new Director does not care about; he actively tries to lower quality, seeing that the number of granted patents declined this year (not just the number of patent lawsuits). Guess by which yardstick lawyers measure their "performance", unlike judges?

Recent Techrights' Posts

Faking Productivity With Slop and Wasting Money on Faking 'Productivity': A Microsoft Story
If the quality of everything at Microsoft goes down
Wikipedia - Like Some Free Software Projects Infiltrated and Bribed - Bans Its Own Founder
Over the years we've named (not shamed) some projects and organisations that got corrupted by money and ended up banning their own founders
The “Aktion T4” at the European Patent Office (EPO) Saves Money for the President's Own Purse
Call for parents of children with special needs
SLAPP Censorship - Part 116 Out of 200: 5 Years of Multiparty Lawfare Against Techrights, Funded by Americans and Also by Third Parties (Including Microsoft Salaries)
The public and our government will be informed in full
After IBM's Shares Collapsed the CEO is Trying the "Quantum" Trick Again, Bolstered by a Demented Dictator in the White House
from what we can gather IBM's CEO is trying to get the US government to participate in the scam
 
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: London Calling...
EPO Vice-President in charge of the "Patent Granting Process" is likely to have been a pay-off for the support which the UK gave to Campinos in 2017
IBM Sends Workers 'Packing', Sometimes With the "Low Performer" Label That Imperils Their Future
To many people out there, IBM correlates with deceit
Links 24/06/2026: Four-Day Workweeks, GM Cut 1,000 Workers at Its EV Plant, 21,000+ Oracle Layoffs
Links for the day
A Step in the Right Direction (EU) in the Fight Against LLM Slop From GAFAM (US)
We've already mentioned this in Daily Links, but let's discuss this a little further
SLAPP Censorship - Part 117 Out of 200: Libel Tourism or Defamation Forum-Shopping in the United Kingdom Condemned by the European Union (EU)
Last week we reminded readers that the EU had criticised UK defamation law
Demonstration Next Week at the European Patent Office (EPO), Administrative Council Seen as Complicit
Corruption in Europe hurts all of us
IBM is Now Hinged on False Accounting and False Promises
This is the legacy of the current CEO
"PARTNER CONTENT" or 'Content Farms' That Promote Slop and Misinformation (The Register MS)
The Register MS represents a big part of the problem we all face
Turn Off the Slop, It's Wasting Energy and Destroying the Planet (the Only Planet We Have)
Right now we see lots of headlines about energy shortages and drained-up reserves
Lessons From Almost 30 Years of Site-Building Activities
We still strive to become faster and lighter
Do Not Outsource (the Seductive Mirage)
Abandoning so-called 'conventional wisdom'
Media Complicit in IBM Fraud Meant to Prop Up the Share Price Based on Lies, Fabrications
Even IBM insiders are fuming at this
In Some Countries, Windows Has Lost Its Monopoly
Windows fell to an all-time low globally this month
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 23, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, June 23, 2026
Gemini Links 24/06/2026: Motivation, PostScript Printer, and Why Hyperscalers and the Smolnet are Compatible
Links for the day
The Media's "Satya Says" Syndrome Distracts From Grim Reality
how insiders see Microsoft slop
Oracle's Collapse Has Nothing to do With Slop, It's About Its Debt Exploding by Almost 50% in Just 12 Months
How are people meant to trust the media?
Now... a Word From Our Sponsor
Powerade
Links 23/06/2026: Microsoft Studio Closures and Journalism Subjected to Further Cuts
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/06/2026: Gardens, Basketball, Blocking Hyperscaler, and New Commodore Phone
Links for the day
Links 23/06/2026: Apple Price Hikes and Technical Debt in Slop
Links for the day
Greece Ought to Curb the Threat of Social Control Media
its national discourse seems to be run by an American company called Facebook
State of the GNU/Linux Desktop (and Laptop)
The time to advocate GNU/Linux is now
The 'XBox Narrative' Distracts From Destructive Cuts Across the Whole of Microsoft
Microsoft is preparing to lay off a likely record-breaking number of people [...] this isn't just an XBox problem
SLAPP Censorship - Part 115 Out of 200: Spending the Next Decade Writing About SLAPPs and Trying to Fix the System
It's the same industry that got paid by corrupt EPO officials to try to cover up the corruption
Microsoft's Stock Fell Nearly $200, But the Real Problems Are Just About to Begin
if they dump slop, what will they tell shareholders?
The Cyber Show on Starmer and Software Freedom
The Cyber Show's Andy has just explained why our departing national leader wasn't all bad
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 22, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, June 22, 2026
Gemini Links 23/06/2026: Girlrotting, Homeworlds at BGA, Slop Ruins Sites
Links for the day
A Lifetime of Whistleblowing
Ellsberg did not have an easy life, but it was a rewarding life with a rich legacy focusing on justice
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: A Man With Many Missions...
Campinos – accompanied by Gilles Requena and Patrice Pellegrino
Links 22/06/2026: Ubisoft Co-founder Dies, Americans Have Turned Against Slop
Links for the day
Links 22/06/2026: "The Sycophancy Machine" and "Port 22 Open for 54 Days"
Links for the day
When People Who Make the Most Money Are the Best "Boot Lickers" (Sucking Up to Jeffrey Epstein's Circle and the Dictator)
Sucking up to rich people may pay off
The Aim is Not Fame
Reposted from schestowitz.com
"Internally Important, Externally Irrelevant": IBM in a Nutshell
Right now its debt spins out of control and its stock spirals down the drain
SLAPP Censorship - Part 114 Out of 200: Thousands of Long Articles to Come, Properly Covering the SLAPP Industry in the UK and Its Modus Operandi
"Stowell described SLAPPs as ‘a stain on our legal system’."
Finding a Way to Get Paid to Improve LibreJS
So now we have more people resurrecting LibreJS and improving it
Microsoft Can't Even Wait Until July, Shutdowns and Layoffs Already Happening
Mashable speak of "a grim picture for the state of Xbox."
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, June 21, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, June 21, 2026
Gemini Links 22/06/2026: Appreciating Simple Things, Perfect Summer Evening, IRIX, Vim and so
Links for the day