Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Covert Corruption of Publishers That Cover Patent 'News'

The litigation 'industry' has rendered various outlets worthless, or nothing more than advertising tools for litigation profits

Dices on stocks



Summary: There's an ongoing trend that's suggestive of a sort of 'takeover' of particular media by litigation fanatics, who exploit the scholars' sites/magazines to do pure but subtle propaganda/marketing; this ought to be pointed out because it misleads the public and contributes to greater injustice

AS WE said earlier on, no publisher is perfect. Everyone has some vested interests, some being benign and some exceptionally malicious (we've given examples of both). The so-called 'Public Relations' giants or the 'industry' of deception is likely the worst, along with lobbyists and think tanks. We wrote about many of those over the years.



"We've already named some of the worst out there, including IAM, which does 'Public Relations' for some of the worst patent trolls out there."Publishers aren't always consistent as they can change hands, there can be takeovers, leadership swaps and so on. It's important to track their staff and their sponsors (if any) to better understand who or what they exist to serve. Are the readers (audience) the product to be brainwashed? Or people to be serviced with accurate information? We've already named some of the worst out there, including IAM, which does 'Public Relations' for some of the worst patent trolls out there. IAM is now owned by a large firm whose self-evident interests should make one shiver. These people aren't even remotely interested in science and progress.

Recently, Managing IP ceased to be a (pretense of) "news" site and now blatantly acts like a press release farm of litigation firms. Over the past few days we found no less than seven such examples [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7] -- the majority of 'articles'.

"Sometimes they even offer such fake 'awards' to judges and Justices -- people whom they hope to get something from, in return..."This eighth one reveals Managing IP taking money to publish for parasites operating across Germany, using patents to sue everyone, even on behalf of notorious patent trolls. Managing IP is nowadays doing lots of sponsored pieces presented as 'articles' (as does IAM), more so after redoing their site with a more stubborn paywall (except for this spam). In fact, the majority of actual articles (still most) is composed by law firms and it gets lose in a sea of self-promotional spam. We've also long complained about these charlatans adopting the IAM modus operandi, granting fake 'awards' to people (just marketing disguised as truly-earned badges). As Wikipedia puts it: "The legal directory was rebranded in 2013 as IP STARS, an annual guide that ranks the leading IP law firms and practitioners across the world. The guide is based on an annual research [sic] conducted by Managing IP's research analysts in Hong Kong, London and New York. Managing IP's inaugural awards ceremony (in 2006) was attended by more than 130 guests including the late Sir Hugh Laddie, who was presented with a lifetime achievement award..."

Sometimes they even offer such fake 'awards' to judges and Justices -- people whom they hope to get something from, in return...

"There's a bunch of dodgy firms out there that offer 'awards' in exchange for bribes -- or worse (contrariwise), unethical firms that rip off or blackmail firms with threats of publishing something negative about them (or removing that for a fee)."It's corrupt. It makes the legal process seem bad (a bad light).

There's a bunch of dodgy firms out there that offer 'awards' in exchange for bribes -- or worse (contrariwise), unethical firms that rip off or blackmail firms with threats of publishing something negative about them (or removing that for a fee). "IP STARS" sounds better than the original "World IP Contacts Handbook" (there's even a Twitter account for it), we've bemoaned it before (repeatedly), and it's suggestive of some kind of 'celebrity' status rather than a directory. It is perceived as authoritative and publicly bragged about.

The above hopefully shows how Managing IP publishes stuff funded by litigation euros, not by journalism as a motivator. Surely they're very well aware of it, but they don't wish to point this out openly or for someone to say it. We noticed the same in JUVE recently. Articles about "FRAND" and trolls are composed by law firms, not journalists.

"As usual, nowadays in IP Kat the signal is in the comments (what's left of them). These people do not value free speech and diversity of views."What about IP Kat, the 'Kat' who exposed a lot of EPO abuses under the pen name of 'Merpel' (multiple people by the way and we use scare quotes because of the ambiguity)? Well, the people have changed and 'Merpel' is nowadays a megaphone of patent extremists and patent trolls' boosters from 4iP Council (they have done lots of that lately). Days ago Marie Barani (UCL and 4iP Council) was surfaced under the pen name of 'Merpel', pushing the agenda of litigation, as usual. Conversant (MOSAID) and other 'proxies' were named. "Sisvel and Conversant are two NPE using patents originally filed by Nokia and holding SEP in the field of wireless communication," said the prominent comment at the bottom.

As usual, nowadays in IP Kat the signal is in the comments (what's left of them). These people do not value free speech and diversity of views. They delete my comments and yesterday Benjamin Henrion told me, "I think ["pretty sure"] some of my comments have been rejected..."

Here's one new comment about Sisvel (not rejected by the new 'Merpel'):

In another case Sisvel vs. Xiaomi, the former was not so successful. After being denied a PI by the Court of The Hague, the Court of Appeal has confirmed the denial. Case number court : C/09/573969/ KG ZA 19-462, Judgement of 17 march 2020.

The situation is certainly different, as for a start and contrary to the present defendants, Xiaomi defended itself, and apparently successfully.

The fact that Sisvel is a NPE as well as the notion of proportionality in the Enforcement Directive have apparently played a big role.

Sisvel and Conversant are two NPE using patents originally filed by Nokia and holding SEP in the field of wireless communication.


And here's another about IPCom, one of Europe's biggest patent trolls (if not the biggest):

Yes this decision has had a different outcome. I think besides the fact circumstances were different because Xiaomi defended itself, one important point is that Xiaomi provided for a security.

Another decision not in the Netherlands but about injunction and proportionality is the Court of Paris decision in the case IPCom versus Lenovo, Motorola, Modelabs and Digital River (distributors in France) dated 20th January 2020. The Court considered a temporary injunction until patent expiration date would be disproportionate because defendants would have to remove all their 3G products and the injunction would harm their reputation. Also IPCom did not exploit itself the patent on the market and did not justify the existence of other licenses to similarly situated companies.


why are IPCom even treated or perceived as legitimate? Well, check who runs the blog and who the employer/clients are. That in its own right quickly answers the question.

"There's an overlap between Phillips and the original 'Merpel'; one wonders how he feels about his creations being misused by litigation fanatics."For those who don't know, the blog was founded by Jeremy Phillips, who "read law at Cambridge University in the early 1970s, and went on doing a PhD at the University of Kent. He then taught law at Trinity College Dublin, Durham University, and Queen Mary University of London." So he was a legal scholar, not a lawyer. Nowadays almost the whole team at the blog is lawyers/litigators, not scholars (almost all of them left). And, believe it or not, he was also responsible for Managing Intellectual Property (also known as Managing IP or MIP), which is now publishing a pile of spam for law firms, as we noted above. To quote Wikipedia: "In 1990, he launched the Managing Intellectual Property magazine and sold it to Euromoney Publications in 1991. He also edited the magazines Patent World, Trademark World and Copyright World and cofounded the IPKat weblog. He also contributed to the Afro-IP blog and the Class 46 blog on European Trade Mark law. He was editor of the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (JIPLP), European Trade Mark Reports and European Copyright and Design Reports journals. He was also a council member of the Intellectual Property Institute."

There's an overlap between Phillips and the original 'Merpel'; one wonders how he feels about his creations being misused by litigation fanatics. Phillips is a kind person and not a trolls' apologist.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Links 16/08/2025: "Hey Hi (AI) Data Centers Are Driving Up Electricity Bills for Everyone" and the Case Against Booking.com
Links for the day
 
Links 16/08/2025: Loners and Vacation, Climate Issues
Links for the day
Links 16/08/2025: Chatbots Bad for Kids, Software Patents Apple Battle
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, August 15, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, August 15, 2025
Slopwatch: WebProNews and Google News Promoting Fake Articles About "Linux"
Google News is being flooded by these slopfarms, so when Linux news is being sought online (via Google News) many people will read bots that spew out FUD
Original European Patent Convention (EPC, 1973), Routinely Violated by the European Patent Office, Now in Geminispace
hundreds of thousands of European Patents must be immediately revoked
Gemini Links 16/08/2025: Politics and Alhena 5.2.8
Links for the day
Gemini Links 15/08/2025: Leasehold, Slop Bubble, and Xobaqu
Links for the day
Links 15/08/2025: Flight Attendant Strike, Floods, and Tropical Storms
Links for the day
Links 15/08/2025: German Government Falls Short on Free Software, Russians Breach EU Systems
Links for the day
Microsoft is Still Losing Cyprus
The market share goes down, so share prices go up
Microsoft Accenture is in Trouble
For one thing, its debt doubled in a matter of months
News Will Slow Down and Slop Will Contribute to the Slowdown
In recent years every time there was some holiday or major break the number people who "came back" shrank
Upgrading IRC Network of Techrights
a new version of the daemon we've used since 2021 was released very recently
X.Org is Still Not Dead
Oracle still developing it
"Register Debate Series" About Microsoft in the UK is Controlled by Microsoft (US)
The Register is run by Microsoft "Analysts", so the debate is doomed from the get-go
IBM is a Terrible Model for Red Hat
"Most likely caused by laying off too many people"
Microsoft Problems in Palestinian Territory and Israel
Microsoft stock (share price) goes up when market share goes down
Microsoft is getting ready to cause many employees to resign
Having already laid off many workers earlier this month, it now tries another approach
Slave is Not a Bad Word, We Need to Use It Sometimes
Who does such exclusion of words benefit? What sort of expression will be deemed impermissible and subjected to CoC enforcement?
National Day of Action
"This Friday, August 15th, there is an organized, petition-based, protest of Wells Fargo in major cities across the US," Richard Stallman wrote
Our Gemini Editions Now Contain 100,000+ GemText Pages
Our Gemini Editions aren't small, even if Gemini Protocol is still the 'underdog'
"Maybe the Problem is You"
they probably felt like they had no choice because they really needed this Microsoft money
The Relations Between the United States and Europe Deteriorate, Should Europe Continue to Rely on American Tech Giants?
The shallow notion that made-in-USA software is fairly safe for Europe to rely to is coming to a standstill
Techrights and Tux Machines Running as Usual During Vacations
No interruptions, maybe temporarily slowdowns
GNU OS, Powered by Hurd
Choice is good, as long as choices exist that respect the users' freedom
Gemini Links 15/08/2025: ADHD and "Random Weird Things"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 14, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, August 14, 2025
"Article 52. PATENTABLE INVENTIONS" in the European Patent Convention
Some time tomorrow we'll have a complete local copy of the EPC
Serial Slopper (SS) Still at It, Still Misusing Plagiarism Tools and Cheatware for Images and Text About "Linux"
All the slopfarms are a very big problem
Reddit Deletes Stuff, But Not for Being False or Misleading
Yet another one of those articles that speak of a man in his 50s as if he's terminally ill
Times of India and India.com Are Clickbait and LLM Slop
Google continues to reward bad actors
The More "Market Share" Microsoft Loses, The Higher the Shares Go
People joke about the same sort of thing in relation to IBM
To OIN, Software Patents Are Not a Problem
Had software patents ceased to exist, OIN too would cease to exist and its staff would be unemployed.
Microsoft's Bankruptcy in Russia is Only the Beginning
Due to politics it mostly makes sense that Windows is being phased out, also in part due to policy changes
Microsoft-Funded Publishers Lied to Us About Vista 10 and Now Advocate Us Owning Nothing
They want you to own nothing, but they also want you to buy a PC on which to become Microsoft's slave and they make it harder if not practically impossible to remove Windows
Articles Promoting and Celebrating Wayland Are LLM Slop
New example (100% slop)
European Patent Office (EPO) Reformation Project
It's a stain on the EU's reputation
The Register MS, Dominated by American Editors, Says UK Should be Run (Digitally) by Microsoft US
The Register MS is sponsored by American money, run by Americans, and its chief editor is a Microsofter from the US
Slopwatch: Google News and Other Slopfarms
Google News is rewarding sites that misuse LLMs and cheat the Web
Gemini Links 14/08/2025: Drought, Climate Experiments, and LLM Slop Considered Detrimental
Links for the day
Links 14/08/2025: Second-hand ThinkPad and Enhanced Surveillance on Chipsets from the United States
Links for the day
Moral Standards From the Masters of Linux
They get hung up on minor language issue and promote this crazy theory that racism will go away if only everyone spoke a little differently (no matter where he or she came from)
Links 14/08/2025: Data Brokers Hiding Opt-Out Pages From Google, "Fight Chat Control"
Links for the day
FSF Infrastructure Under Constant Attack
The disconnect (literally) has had an effect on credibility
Feels Like The Register MS is Trying to Diversify a Bit
If The Register MS goes back to being The Register US (or UK), that will be a nice improvement
Gemini Links 14/08/2025: Reading Journal and LLM Fatigue Revisited
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 13, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, August 13, 2025