Bonum Certa Men Certa

iPEL (Innovative Patents, Ethical Licensing) is Just Another Patent Trolls' Scam/Ploy Disguised as 'Ethical'



iPEL, PFE and the "ethical" or "SME" slant -- similar tricks, same timing

iPEL
Keep saying "ethical" and maybe some gullible people will eventually believe it



Summary: Two PR stunts, one in Europe and another in the US, try to paint notorious patent trolls (nowadays subjected to a hostile litigation terrain) as "good for small businesses"; but nothing could be further from the truth because small businesses suffer from trolls the most

THE PATENT TROLLS are down for the count, but it's not a knockout just yet. They keep coming up with all sorts of tricks and workarounds. They also try to better disguise themselves using shells and proxies (Intellectual Ventures, for instance, has many thousands of these). Some of these trolls can no longer drag their victims to Texas. Yesterday Docket Navigator took note of TC Heartland in the courts, potentially helping the defendant dodge litigation in patent trolls-centric districts. In Princeton Digital Image Corporation v Ubisoft Entertainment SA, according to the Docket Report, "[t]he magistrate judge recommended denying defendant's motion to dismiss or transfer for improper venue and rejected defendant's argument that it did not waive its objection to venue because the objection was not available until the court dismissed another defendant."

"It turns out that, having fed the world's largest troll (Intellectual Ventures), this Korean company is now feeding some of Canada's very worst patent trolls."So no luck this time. But it's too early to tell the eventuality. Meanwhile, Jacob Schindler from IAM (the trolls' lobby) spoke of MagnaChip Semiconductor. It turns out that, having fed the world's largest troll (Intellectual Ventures), this Korean company is now feeding some of Canada's very worst patent trolls. IAM seems happy about it, as one might expect. IAM is funded by these trolls. Literally. WiLAN, which we last mentioned earlier this year (several times in fact) is the latest recipient for "trolling mode" (what IAM euphemistically calls "monetisation mode"). To quote:

WiLAN announced yesterday that it has acquired a patent portfolio totaling over 85 assets from Seoul-based MagnaChip Semiconductor. The transaction is part of WiLAN’s partnership programme. The deal marks the latest in a steady stream of acquisitions by the Canadian licensing company, and a comeback NPE deal for the Korea firm, which sold patents to Intellectual Ventures in 2009. The USPTO records a transaction from MagnaChip to Carthage Silicon Innovations LLC four days ago. The full assignment documents aren’t yet available, but there are nine listed US assets so far


This troll is Canadian and the so-called inventors Korean. Does that help dodge decisions such as TC Heartland? Is there a precedent for that?

"The trolls know that their public image is deservedly bad, so they've initiated some PR campaigns rather than change their behaviour."Either way, there are some patent trolls which Watchtroll is helping to paint as "ethical" this week, accompanying the highly misleading press release. We already responded to that, but Josh Landau (CCIA) did further research and rebutted as follows some time yesterday:

Non-practicing entities (NPEs) are generally companies with only one asset—their patents. So why would an NPE give away licenses to the only things it can generate value from? If it seems too good to be true, that’s because it might be.

Act Now For A Free Patent License!

iPEL (Innovative Patents, Ethical Licensing) is a new NPE, formed by self-described “patent monetizer” Brian Yates (formerly of IP Prognosis and hundreds of shell companies—more on that below) and Rasheed McWilliams (a litigator). It’s offering licenses to its portfolio until the end of the year, and those licenses are free to companies with less than $5 million in annual revenue.

Free stuff isn’t always good, and the details of the licenses suggest why they might not be all that good for the licensees.


Well, read on; like a true "CCIA agent" -- for lack of a better term -- Landau comes at the right time/moment and sheds light on this kind of scam/sham, which resembles Patent Factory Europe (PFE), also announced in Europe about a week ago (in 'partnership' with IAM). The notion of "ethical" trolls is about as sane as "ethical" oil spills. Don't fall for it. The trolls know that their public image is deservedly bad, so they've initiated some PR campaigns rather than change their behaviour.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Datamation, Where I Used to Publish Articles, Appears to Have Been Sold to TechnologyAdvice Only to Become a Slopfarm
I'd prefer to not associate with that site anymore
 
How Software Patents Were Viewed or Their General Status Changed Over Time
A rough summary
We Are Turning 19 in One Month, FSF Turns 40 in 3 Hours (CET)
For our anniversary next month we still have no concrete plans
Patent Docs (or PatentDocs) Learned the Wrong Lessons From the Death of TypePad
Had they gone ahead with an SSG, they'd become a lot more future-proof
USPTO Patent Bubble Already Imploding, After Decades of Artificial Inflation, Entire Offices Close for Good
we can deduce that financial pressures (lack of "demand" for monopolies) play a role
TikTok is Not Harmless (Being CheeTok in the US Will Advance Orange Agenda)
Social control media isn't "fun and games"; it's a digital weapon that lets hostile groups or nations infiltrate others, then turn them against themselves
Andy Farnell and Helen Plews Explain What "Modern" Tech Does to Old People
Imposing terrible tech "religion" on people is not helping them
Tomorrow the Free Software Foundation (FSF) Turns 40 and Its Web Site is Still Slow Due to DDoS by LLM Slop Bots
For an advocacy group, uptime is important (for its message to remain accessible)
Slopwatch: Google News as a Firehose of LLM Slop About "Linux"
Google News is really bad
Links 03/10/2025: "NPR’s Economics Lessons Come With Neoliberal Spin" and Canada Post at Risk
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/10/2025: Panic Attacks and Food Adulteration
Links for the day
Links 03/10/2025: Lawyers Caught Using LLM Slop Explain Why They Did It, LibreSSL 4.1.1 and 4.0.1 Released
Links for the day
FSF Board Grew 50% Since Last Year, Has New President, Turns 40 in Two Days
It's a good move for the FSF and - by extension - for software freedom
Links 03/10/2025: Conflicts, Death of TypePad, and TikTok/CheeTok Gives a Boost to Far Right Groups in Europe
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 02, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 02, 2025
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, Google News, and LinuxSecurity
They carry on polluting the Web with fake articles
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: Kubernetes With FreeBSD and robots.txt
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: 'Open' 'AI' Resorting to Gimmicks and Fake Funding, Europe’s ‘Drone Wall’ Discussed
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: Brave Passes 100M Users Milestone, Kodak Selling Its Own Film Again
Links for the day
Michael “Monty” Widenius: It Started in 1983 With Richard Stallman (RMS)
The other co-founder of MySQL is a bit notorious for confronting RMS rather viciously
For the Second Time in a Few Weeks Microsoft Lunduke Makes False Accusations Against Senior Red Hat Staff to Incite a Despicable 'Troll Army'
Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims of says can be trusted
su lisa && rm -rf /home/ibm/power
Novell was ruined by another person from IBM, Ronald Hovsepian
A Record Demand at Microsoft: Demand to Cancel
What we're witnessing is a very ungraceful destruction of XBox
Microsoft is Losing Europe
Hence all the "support" and "discount" offers that are limited to Europe
The Free Software Foundation Starts Fund-raising for 40th Anniversary
New pop-up 2-3 days ahead of the 40th anniversary event
Systemd Breaks Networking in Debian and Microsoft Staff Rushes to Make Face-Saving Excuses in LWN
Microsoft's bluca is already there in the comments, his Microsoft money pays for LWN to let him leave comments early
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 01, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 01, 2025
What the End of XBox Will Look Like: a Fiery Crash
XBox is the next Skype. It won't last much longer. Expect many more layoffs.
Richard Stallman is Going to Finland to Give a Talk Next Thursday
A day later he speaks in Sweden
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: SMTP Pipelining and End of ROOPHLOCH 2025
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Plagiarism, Fake Articles, and FUD About Linux
not a day goes by without Google News feeding FUD from slopfarms
Gemini Links 01/10/2025: Chat Control and End of Life
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: Long Covid Risk Reiterated, "Bitcoin Queen" Caught
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: EA $55 Billion Deal is Debt and Slop "Raises Vishing Risks"
Links for the day
Bluewashing at Red Hat Means Redundancies
The man who sold Red Hat to IBM meanwhile became a Microsoft Mono booster
After Killing OpenSource.com, IBM ('Red Hat') and OSI Told Us OpenSource.net Would Replace It (But That Didn't Happen)
Now it's time to move on, perhaps tarnishing the "Open Source" label some more (for whatever sponsor wants this)
Linux is Not a Community Project, It's a Wall Street Product
The core goal should be freedom
Bad Actors Abusing the Free Software Community, Vandalising It Using Rogue Politics and Old Tactics
Oil giants have long attempted to do this; now, the digital equivalent of Big Oil does this in technology
Social Control Media Isn't the Future, The Federation or Fediverse Isn't Growing, People's Accounts Vanish for Good
users' accounts will get deleted, not just become inactive
IBM is Failing, This Helps Show Wall Street is Entirely Detached From Actual Commercial Performance
IBM is unable to grow, it's just constantly shrinking
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 30, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Clerical Aspects of Publishing and Development
In Free software, the management aspects are considerably reduced
Slopwatch: Fake Articles and Google News Promoting "Linux" Spam or Bot-Generated Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)
These slopfarms help misplace blame
Third Wave of Microsoft Layoffs in September, This Time Many in Liverpool Affected
Be ready for more waves of layoffs ahead of the so-called "results" in late October