Bonum Certa Men Certa

Even IAM Admits That When It Comes to Patents It's Quality That Counts, Not Quantity

So why did it lie for Battistelli? (EPO PR firm paid IAM)

Battistelli and IAM



EPO and IAM



Summary: Low-quality patents meet empty stares from actual judges who assess these patents' merit (or lack thereof); what lies ahead is a bubble of patents imploding

JOURNALISM barely exists anymore. A lot of publications are like corporations-led think tanks whose agenda-setting is the product (or service). This is especially true in the area/domain of patents. IAM profited a lot from generation of lies for the European Patent Office (EPO) -- lies about quality of European Patents and lies that Battistelli kept citing all the time. But quality of these patents has collapsed; stakeholders talk about this cautiously (for fear of repelling present and future clients) and even the EPO's own examiners talk about it in secret (SUEPO talks about it), for fear of getting sacked after telling the truth.



Deep inside, IAM knows it is a lying operation/propaganda mill. It very well knows its business model and sources of revenue (we wrote about it before, it boils down to patent aggressors, trolls and law firms). "Patent quality, not quantity, is what really counts," says a headline this week; it's about FRAND/SEP (misnomers), but one can extrapolate from that. Quoting IAM:

In an article published by IAM in June 2017, Via Licensing president Joe Siino estimated that of the 160,000 plus declarations covering all ETSI standards, just over 2,000 were truly standards essential.


How many of these 2,000 aren't valid? Or wouldn't hold water if tested in court? What about those other 160,000? How many are abstract for instance? Today's EPO, more so under António Campinos, openly promotes software patents in Europe while calling them "CII", "4IR", "AI" etc. It's part of a global trend. Patent extremists from the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO), for example, will later this week promote software patents (not legitimate in the eyes of American courts) under the guise of "Artificial Intelligence" ("AI"). Even Microsoft's Jessica Meyers is in there:

The Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) will offer a one-hour webinar entitled "AI: Protecting Inventions in China, Europe and the U.S." on May 9, 2019 from 2:00 to 3:00 pm (ET). Jessica Meyers of Microsoft, Andreas Holzwarth-Rochford of Jones Day, and Roger Shang of Alibaba will address how to approach the challenge of obtaining Artificial Intelligence (AI) patent protection in three major jurisdictions, as well considering when the alternative of trade secret protection could be a better course to take, and consider various litigation scenarios, including the ongoing dispute in China between Zhizhen Network Technology and Apple that relates to Apple's Siri voice assistant app.


Notice the trend? Every piece of software is being framed as (or falsely marketed as) "AI" -- an issue that more and more people have become aware of.

Gene Quinn of Watchtroll meanwhile says (earlier this week) that "Alice Five Years Later: Hope Wanes as 101 Legislative Discussions Dominated by Big Tech" (that's part of the site's disregard for science and technology as opposed to the litigation 'industry').

Actually, it hasn't been 5 years. Quinn gets his facts wrong, as usual. SCOTUS Blog says judgment was issued July 21st (unanimous, 9-0), with Opinion dated June 19th, 2014. So we're more than a month away. Quinn keeps moaning about 35 U.S.C. €§ 101 because when you're a patent troll and/or work for one (like Quinn) 35 U.S.C. €§ 101 may be the end of your career. His Watchtroll career ended 4 months ago.

We should also note that the above blog post is the first time in days that an article at Watchtroll actually gets any comments (their blogs are stagnating and hope runs out). Back to the issue of quality, what we're going to see in the coming years is a set of courts knocking out bad patents to the point where fewer patent holders will even bother filing lawsuits. This, in turn, will discourage filers of patents as well. It's just a big bubble in a slow-motion explosion.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft's Windows is a Niche Operating System in Africa
African nations aren't a large contributor to Microsoft's income, but if many African nations move away from Windows, then the monopoly is at risk
Gemini Links 19/06/2025: Unix Primitivism, Zine Club, and Gemini Protocol Turns 6 at Midnight
Links for the day
 
Common Mistake: Believing Social Control Media Will Document Your Writings/Thoughts and Search Engines Like Google Will Help You Find These
Many news sites wrongly assumed that posting directly to Twitter would be acceptable
The Manchester Bees and This Hot Summer
We have had a fantastic week so far this week
Gemini Protocol Enters Its Seventh Year, Growth Has Accelerated!
Maybe in June 20 2026 there will be over 3,500 active capsules?
Mastodon and the Fediverse Have an Issue: Liability for Content (Even in Other Instances) and Costs
self-hosting is the only logical path forward
Why Microsoft and Its 'Hey Hi' (Slop) Frenzy Fail While Sinking in Deep, Growing Debt
Right now, like Twitter around the time it was sold to MElon, "open" "hey hi" is a big pile of debt with a lot to pay for that debt (interest payments)
Europe is Leaving Microsoft, the Press Coverage Isn't Sufficiently Helpful
The news is generally positive, but the press coverage leaves so much to be desired
Slopwatch: Linuxsecurity, BetaNews, and Linux Journal
slippery slope
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 19, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, June 19, 2025
Gemini Links 20/06/2025: Gemini Protocol Turns 6!
Links for the day
Links 19/06/2025: Ghostwriting Scam and Fentanylware (TikTok) Buying Time
Links for the day
Links 19/06/2025: WhatsApp Identified as Assassination 'Crosshairs', Patreon Now Rips Off People Even More
Links for the day
"Told You So": Another Very Large Wave of Microsoft Layoffs Now Confirmed in Mainstream Media
So we were right to believe the rumours, based on the credibility of prior such rumours
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, June 18, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, June 18, 2025
Gemini Links 18/06/2025: Magit and Farming
Links for the day
Slopwatch: BetaNews is Now a Slopfarm (Like Linuxsecurity) and Google News is Overwhelmed by Slopfarms
The Web is bad
Links 18/06/2025: SCOTUS Decision on Fentanylware (TikTok) Still Ignored, 4.5-Day Work Weeks
Links for the day
Links 17/06/2025: Windows TCO and G7 Rifts
Links for the day
The Right to Know and the Freedom to Report on Crime (at the Higher Echelons)
I'd like to do the same thing for the next 20 years
BetaNews Appears to Have Fired All Of Its Staff
Even serial sloppers
After the Web Becomes Slopped to Death
A lot of people are rightly fed up with the "modern" Web
Gemini Protocol Turns 6 on Friday
Active (online) Gemini capsules are estimated by Lupa at over 3,000
Like Most Social Control Media, Microsoft LinkedIn is Collapsing
One reason for Microsoft acquisitions is debt-loading, i.e. offloading and burying its debt
Microsoft is Losing Its Richest Clients
Unlike some very poor countries, Germany and the EU are a considerable source of income to Microsoft
Proprietary Means Not Secure
Proprietary software tends to rely on secrecy, not good design
Slop in 'AI' Clothing is a Passing Fad, We'll Get Past It (Like Blockchain Before That)
Many people cheat in exams using slop and there are professionals that try using slop as a "shortcut"
GNOME Does Not Campaign Against Microsoft, KDE Does
It's good to see that KDE is still active in promotion of Free software - a term that it uses
Slopwatch: BetaNews, Linuxsecurity, and Other Prolific Slopfarms
name and shame the sites that establish such proliferation of slop
Gemini Links 18/06/2025: Birch Lake and Loon Pond
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 17, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, June 17, 2025