Bonum Certa Men Certa

Patent Trolls and Their Lobbyists Continue to Attack Academics Who Warn About Patent Trolls in Europe

Now they're ganging up against professors 'courageous' enough to talk facts

Silenced



Summary: In an effort to silence those who sound the alarm about patent trolls in Europe, the trolls and their lobbyists now try to embarrass anyone who merely talks about the problem

A RECENT scholarly study explained how the USPTO helped birth patent trolling in the US. There's another new study in Europe right now and patent trolls are very much afraid that this new study can impact policy in Europe. Trolls' legal representatives and paid media (like IAM) help the trolls discredit the study. They just cannot help themselves.



"Trolls' legal representatives and paid media (like IAM) help the trolls discredit the study."Professor James Bessen, who spent years of his academic career studying the effect of patent trolls in the US, wrote this simple, factual tweet: "Patent troll litigation rising in Europe" (linking to the study).

What happened next was pretty revealing.

Head of patent troll Dominion Harbor (David Pridham), who defames me and claims I fake my doctorate, responded just like Trump. "#fakenews" was all he said! How immature. Coming from a man who defames me also with talk about testicles and stuff like that. He's not a man, he's acting like a child. It's incredible that someone this infantile was put in charge of anything, let alone a massive patent troll with connections to Microsoft (through Intellectual Ventures, as we last noted a few days ago).

J Nicholas GrossAnother gross individual, who habitually writes for Dominion/Pridham, came up with this attack on Professor Bessen (Mr. Gross attacks various academics with defamatory statements while denying that they are professors).

"I do hear from people who get (patent) trolled in Europe."What a nice bunch, eh? "You're more likely to get a random trolled Tweet from James Bessen than a lawsuit in Europe," he wrote. Henrion responded, judging from his own experience: "So maybe iMatix was lucky then."

I do hear from people who get (patent) trolled in Europe. It's not a rare thing; it just doesn't receive sufficient press coverage, certainly not from IAM, which also responded to Bessen with this lie: "The reality is that an SME’s chances of being sued by an NPE in Europe is around 0.000005%. Overall, NPEs account for less than 5% of patent lawsuits filed in Europe."

"Now they attack professors who 'dare' mention the report/study."This is not true, but IAM is just linking to their staff's attacks on the report. They're reinforcing their status as spokespeople of patent trolls.

Just like in the US, many troll attacks (assertions) go undetected, but they're still there. They cause agony and 'protection' money is silently being paid. Firms like Bristows just cannot help attacking the report even a month later. Now they attack professors who 'dare' mention the report/study. They're like a pack of hyenas. Some of them issue veiled threats against me -- tactics which Bessen said he's familar with.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Techrights Will Contact German Media About the EPO's Substance Abuse
This scandal won't "go to waste"
Search @ Techrights: Almost There Now (Maybe an Anniversary Gift)
Just to be very clear, search would not be unprecedented at Techrights
The Rumour Was True, Mass Layoffs at IBM Today
How widespread the layoffs are (or how they're disguised, e.g. PIPs) is hard to assess
 
Links 04/11/2025: Conflicts, Politics, and IPv6 at Home
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/11/2025: Entering WiFi Passwords and Programming Rambles
Links for the day
Arch Linux Seems Like the New Debian
Arch users (btw!) are growing in relative and absolute share
Analytics From US Government Affirm a Trend: Microsoft's "Market Share" in Search is Falling
the data set is large
Holding Institutions Such as the EPO Accountable Through Public Information
Speaking truth to power is never easy
EPO Staff Losing Holidays, as Usual, as the Office Increases Profits by Illegally Granting Invalid Patents While Reducing Salaries
How much more can the staff endure and generally tolerate?
Free Software Does Not Always Speak for Itself, It Needs Advocates
Legal matters that relate to sharing of code will be discussed
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, November 03, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, November 03, 2025
The Register MS Continues Looking for Money in Promotion of the "AI" Ponzi Scheme
That The Register MS participates in this deceit rather than tackle/debunk it says a lot about The Register MS
IBM Layoffs in "Software", This Likely Impacts Red Hat as Well
Many people say "software" people are impacted
Escaping Proprietary Software, Not Just Escaping Microsoft
To take control of your life adopt GNU/Linux
A Lot of Fake News About Microsoft Headcount (Also: Microsoft's Debt Rose by About 24 Billion Dollars in Past 12 Months)
If you see some headline about Microsoft's CEO making claims about hirings, look away
Techrights Turns 19 in Three Days
It would be nice to meet for a chat
Akira Urushibata on How Grokipedia Fails to Work
The Grokipedia article gives the wrong character for the "Ko" on "Koan"
Links 03/11/2025: Data Breaches, Wars, and Digital Censorship
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/11/2025: Poetry, Old Androids and Small Shells
Links for the day
Links 03/11/2025: Internet Anniversary
Links for the day
Two Years of Uptime
Reboots are seldom involuntary
Richard Stallman is Giving Another Talk in Less Than a Fortnight
in two weeks' time (13 days from now)
Windows Falls Below 20% in the UK
Many people choose to leave Windows altogether
Microsoft's Search Business Falls to Lowest Point in 2 Years, Based on statCounter
what can Microsoft sell other than shares in Microsoft?
Evidence Regarding Layoffs at Red Hat
Seems like IBM layoffs
Microsoft: Our "Goodwill" Value Grew More Than Tenfold Since 2011
Hallmark of pseudo-economics
GNU/Linux as a Boarding Pass
being mostly analogue is still feasible
Links 03/11/2025: Lack of Trust in LLMs and Windows TCO at Jaguar
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/11/2025: Books in October and Change
Links for the day
Mozilla Firefox Won't Survive and Many Sites Don't Work With It (Compatibility Abandoned)
The Web has become monocultural
Debian is Non-Free
Devuan might be worth looking into
Slopwatch: Brian Fagioli and LinuxSecurity
This is a real problem and most certainly a big problem because when people try to find real information about security and GNU/Linux they instead read "word salads" made by bots
Four Reasons to Party With Us in Four Days, Celebrating the Four Freedoms
Today we expect to be back to a more-or-less regular publication pace
Links 03/11/2025: The "Smartphone Panopticon" and Belarus' Hybrid Attacks on EU Intensify
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, November 02, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, November 02, 2025
Microsoft's Debt Has Skyrocketed by More Than 15 Billion Dollars in 6 Months or 8.2 Billion Dollars in the Past 3 Months Alone
The corporate media intentionally disregards - or merely turns a blind eye to - such data
Rumour: IBM Layoffs in Canada Starting Tomorrow
"RA (IBM's term for layoffs) Coming to Canada this week (Nov 3rd)"
Debunking False/Misleading Statements Made or Told to the High Court
People who try to cheat the system by gaslighting judges will end up discrediting themselves
Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD) by LLM Slop
The Web has become such a sordid mess that this FUD made by bots is what Google News deems to be "the news"
This Month's Analytics Show Vista 11 Down, GNU/Linux Up
After pulling the plug on Vista 10 we see losses - not gains - for Vista 11
Almost Fully Caught Up
The EPO series will continue very soon, maybe tomorrow or on Tuesday
Links 02/11/2025: Another Halloween Bust and MAGA Regime Says Public Universities Should No Longer Hire 'Foreign' Employees
Links for the day
The Long-Coveted Milestone of 3,200 Active Gemini Capsules
Despite being away some days last week, about 50,000 Gemini requests were served each day, on average
Five More Days Till Techrights Party
We'll have many more batches of Daily Links as we catch up with a 'backlog' of news
Links 02/11/2025: More Nuclear Escalations and "Anti-Cybercrime Laws Are Being Weaponized to Repress Journalism"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 02/11/2025: "The Pragmatic Programmer", Perl New Features and Foostats
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, November 01, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, November 01, 2025