Bonum Certa Men Certa

IBM, IPO, AIPLA, ABA and Other Lobbying/Front Groups of the Patent Microcosm Are Trying to Change US Law for Software Patents

David Kappos as lobbyist
Source: David Kappos interview with Intellectual Property Magazine (2010), modified by us



Summary: The ruthless attempts to run over companies that create software and don't have ~50,000 patents (including software patents) definitely carry on, and this serves to show just how crooked the process of legislation has become, complete with lobbyists, think tanks, and subversive agents of monopoly

EARLIER this year we took note of IBM establishing a sort of "task force" (their word) with IPO, in which IBM took leadership with clearly malicious intent like resurgence of software patents. It was hardly even made secret, they just didn't advertise this to geeks who are 'supposed' to think that IBM is a 'friend'. It's an enemy now. For what it's worth, participating in it were the other 'usual suspects'.



"Rewriting [Section] 101 in an echo chamber called IPO," Benjamin Henrion noted yesterday (after we had spotted this too), there was activity in which "no developer involved, only large companies again..."

"It was hardly even made secret, they just didn't advertise this to geeks who are 'supposed' to think that IBM is a 'friend'."Watch who's in there: IBM's Manny Schecter, David Kappos (worked for IBM and still paid by IBM, with a USPTO period in between and no 'cool-off' time), and even Bob Stoll!

MIP wrote about it: "The cover story assesses the chances of a change to the test for patentable subject matter under Section 101 in the US. Calls for changing 101 are increasing. In January, for example, a proposed amendment from the Intellectual Property Owners Association provided one concrete way to do it. We spoke to patent practitioners including IBM’s Manny Schecter, Cravath’s c and Drinker Biddle’s Bob Stoll to assess what impact 101 is having now and what should change."

"All they care about is money and if they get to shape the law, guess whose money they will pocket or at whose expense they will enrich themselves..."So here they are. A bunch of self-serving, greedy, manipulative lobbyists trying to rewrite the law for personal gain. Where is the outrage? In another post, this one behind a paywall, it says that "The ABA has proposed an amendment to Section 101, which follows an IPO subject matter eligibility proposal in January. The president of AIPLA has told Managing IP his association’s board will likely approve a 101 proposal within the next six weeks"

Well, we must never ever let the American Bar Association (ABA) or AIPLA override or rewrite US patent law. It's like letting oil companies and their lobbyists write up environmental regulations! All they care about is money and if they get to shape the law, guess whose money they will pocket or at whose expense they will enrich themselves...

Recent Techrights' Posts

Links 10/05/2025: Germany Considers Smartphone Ban in Schools, Right to Repair Bills
Links for the day
Blizzard/Microsoft Unions Grow Ahead of Mass Layoffs at Microsoft, Apparently Starting Next Week (as Many as 30,000 Workers Laid Off by Year's End)
Microsoft already fired about 5,000-6,000 workers this year by our estimates; that's not counting resignations compelled through pressure (i.e. pushed, did not jump) and contractors
 
You Need Not Be a Big Company to Defeat Microsoft If You Can Successfully Challenge Its Core "Ideas"
Maybe that's just a sign that the ideas of RMS have become too effective and thus "dangerous"
Gemini Links 11/05/2025: Yeeting Oligarch Tech, Offline Browsing
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, May 10, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, May 10, 2025
One is Simply Doomed to Fail When Working for Violent Men From Microsoft and Attacking Women as Well as People Who Merely Expose Crimes or Report Real Crimes
Imagine saying to people that you "practice law" or "exercise law"
The Tariffs Are Accelerating Microsoft's Decline in China
Judging by the way things are going, there will be considerable adoption of GNU/Linux in years to come, China being one major contributing factor.
Control Your Systems, Control All Your Data
what does it take for us to control our own systems and data?
Misplacing Blame for Security Problems, Sometimes With LLM Slop That Blames "Linux" for Microsoft's Failures
Broken telephones and stochastic parrots beget plenty of Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)
Links 10/05/2025: WW2 Revisionism, Further Tit-for-tat in India-Pakistan Conflict
Links for the day
Gemini Links 10/05/2025: Git Server and Great LLM DDoS of 2025
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, May 09, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, May 09, 2025
"Victory Day" - Part II: Abject Defeat to Hypocrites and Objectionable People Who Strangle Women Whilst on Microsoft's Payroll
Someone is going to have to pay for this; it won't be us
Rust Propaganda Now Amplified by Slopfarms Powered by Microsoft LLMs, Encouraging the Outsourcing of GNU/Linux Distros to Microsoft/GitHub/NSA (and a Shift Away From GPL/Copyleft)
Moving to Microsoft GitHub and adopting unfinished, untested code for highly critical bits
Links 09/05/2025: Inflation Rising and Rights to Protest Curtailed Some More
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/05/2025: Good and Evil, LLMs Made the Web Worse Yet Again
Links for the day
IBM is Rotting With "Zero Internal Jobs" and Many PIPs (Performance Improvement Plans) on the Way, Typically a Fast Track Towards Layoffs Without Severance
At risk of giving air(time) to tribal sentiments, the internal joke at IBM is that to IBM "AI" stands for "All Indian"
European Patent Office (EPO) Faked "Revenue Expansion" by Granting Loads of Invalid, Illegal Patents; Staff Still Wants to Know Where That Money Went
Only about 30% of the EPO's patents are for EU entities/people
The Gerstnerisation of Microsoft: Seventh Wave of Microsoft Layoffs (Over 20,000 to be Cut) Allegedly Going to Start Shortly, Probably Start of Next Week, Microsoft Spreads Chaff and Noise Before the Big Axes Fall
we might be looking at about 50,000 people that Microsoft gets rid of this year
Links 09/05/2025: TeleMessage Blunder, More Distractions From Impending Mass Layoffs at Microsoft
Links for the day
GNU (and the FSF) Still Changing the World
Today, in 2025, GNU powers almost everything
Military-Grade Anti-Linux Microsoft Propaganda Using Microsoft LLMs in Fake 'News' Sites (Slopfarms)
This is part of a pattern
Links 09/05/2025: Analog Computer and First time at FOSDEM
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, May 08, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, May 08, 2025