Bonum Certa Men Certa

Chapter 7: Patent War -- Use Low-Quality Patents to Prove That All Software Rips Off Your Company

Table of Contents

Introduction: Cover and quick Introduction [PDF]

Chapter 1: Know your enemies-- Act like a friend [PDF]

Chapter 2: Work with the system-- Use OEMs and your legal team [PDF]

Chapter 3: Playing the victim-- Show the world that too much freedom hurts development [PDF]

Chapter 4: You get what you pay for-- Getting skeptics to work for you [PDF]

Chapter 5: Open Source Judo-- How to bribe the moderates to your side [PDF]

Chapter 6: Damning with faint praise-- Take the right examples of free software and exploit them for everything [PDF]

You are here ☞ Chapter 7: Patent War-- Use low-quality patents to prove that all software rips off your company [PDF]

Chapter 8: A foot in the door-- how to train sympathetic developers and infiltrate other projects

Chapter 9: Ownership through Branding-- Change the names, and change the world

Chapter 10: Moving forward-- Getting the best results from Open source with your monopoly




Summary: Patents in the United States last for 20 years from the time of filing. Prior to 1994, the patent term was 17 years from when the patent was issued.

Patents in the United States last for 20 years from the time of filing. Prior to 1994, the patent term was 17 years from when the patent was issued.



Bill Gates was originally against the use of patents for software, because of the problems they create for developers in every company, including Microsoft:

"It's important to point out that there is no such thing as “patentable ideas” in the United States."“Amazingly we haven't found a way to use our licensing position to avoid having our own customers cause patent problems for us. I know these aren't simple problems but they deserve more effort by both Legal and other groups. For example we need to do a patent exchange with HP as part of our new relationship. In many application categories straighforward thinking ahead allows you to come up with patentable ideas.”

This was from a confidential 1991 memo which was published by a court.

From http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Bill_Gates_on_software_patents



It's important to point out that there is no such thing as “patentable ideas” in the United States. Utility patents can be issued for a process, a machine, a “manufacture” or a composition of matter (for example, if you develop a new non-stick coating for pans.)

A patent cannot be issued for something too abstract-- From an IP standpoint, the worst-case scenario is to have a copyrighted program classified similarly to a recipe or worse, a mathematical equation.

"The copyright is on the expression or implementation of the recipe (the wording) or the program (the code.) There is no copyright on the process or the concepts implemented."When Intel patents a physical device like a CPU, their IP covers some of the processes and physical designs, the goals of which are to carry out computer instructions. When we write computer instructions, we get a copyright on those instructions-- similarly to how a recipe is copyrighted. The copyright is on the expression or implementation of the recipe (the wording) or the program (the code.) There is no copyright on the process or the concepts implemented.

Thus, if people have access to our code they can implement some of our programs in a slightly different way. To prevent other people from creating a taskbar, or a search engine, or some other software we want to be the sole providers of, we need to find a way to apply patents to our work. One way to do that is to define a “computer implemented process” (a program) using patent terminology.

"To prevent other people from creating a taskbar, or a search engine, or some other software we want to be the sole providers of, we need to find a way to apply patents to our work."The CPU is already designed (and granted a patent) for performing its instructions, which makes for an interesting legal challenge to get a second patent on doing things the CPU is already designed to do-- for example, Toyota may already have a patent on a car, but if nobody has a patent on using a car to deliver pizza as part of a business model, there is a possibility of threatening competing pizza places for infringing on that process.

Another limitation we run into is that patents have to be on things that are novel and non-obvious to people in the field. To get around this and the other requirements, we have our legal team apply for countless patents using the most absurd, drawn-out, vague language possible.

If we drag a competitor to court using such patents and they have a competent legal team to defend them, we will probably lose several of these patents and possibly the case against them. However, if we have a very large company and a very powerful legal team, the competitor may decide (upon receiving threats about such a lawsuit and a request to stop infringing on our very large portfolios containing thousands of vague patents or more) to simply give up and cede to our demands for compliance— whether it is to pay royalties or stop offering a particular feature altogether.

"Still, as recently as 2014 Microsoft was still enjoying what amounted to an End-User-License-Agreement attached to the .Net framework-- enforced through an agreement to no sue over patents."Such patent battles have allowed Apple to harass companies with design patents over such trivial matters as rounded corners-- and to claim they invented a “slide-to-unlock” feature— which has existed on barnyard gates for hundreds of years at least, but never before on the screen of a smartphone! In fact you could say that their “slide-to-unlock” feature is really just the “scrollbar widget” that was probably invented by Xerox in the 1970s, but never before was it used to unlock a screen-- you get the picture.

Several efforts were made to reduce the viability of these strategic patent portfolios, and give legitimate companies a chance to thrive despite our larger businesses and more powerful legal teams. Prior to 2000 it was difficult to address these challenges, but with lobbyists working to reshape Washington to suit our needs above others, we can fight against laws that put smaller companies on more comparable legal footing.

Still, as recently as 2014 Microsoft was still enjoying what amounted to an End-User-License-Agreement attached to the .Net framework-- enforced through an agreement to no sue over patents. Even as software patents lose their potency, the agreements companies were coerced to participate in under these patent-protection schemes remain.

"Another possibility is to simply tie the license for certain high-value proprietary components to similar EULA-esque agreements as Microsoft did in the past."As said early, one possible avenue is to continue to offer protection against future, hypothetical patent aggression, based on the possibility of overturning Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International/35 U.S.C. €§ 101 (whether or not that could happen) or based on global enforcement of patents in Europe or Asia.

Another possibility is to simply tie the license for certain high-value proprietary components to similar EULA-esque agreements as Microsoft did in the past. With new investments from Apple, IBM and Microsoft into cloudware, overt proprietary licensing has taken a backseat while covert threats of strategic patent litigation are relied on. So if the patent angle falls apart, a simple return to “Shared Source” or cloudware/freemium-like access to certain enterprise features could form the basis of similar agreements in lieu of patent threats.

Relevant quotes from the Halloween documents:

“The primary threat Microsoft faces from Linux is against NT Server.”

“UNIX's perceived Scaleability, Interopability, Availability, and Manageability (SIAM) advantages over NT.”

“Linux can win as long as services / protocols are commodities”

“Linux's homebase is currently commodity network and server infrastructure. By folding extended functionality (e.g. Storage+ in file systems, DAV/POD for networking) into today's commodity services, we raise the bar & change the rules of the game.”

“Via tools such as enterprise agreements, long term research, executive keynotes, etc., Microsoft is able to commit to a long term vision and create a greater sense of long term order than an OSS process.”

From https://antitrust.slated.org/halloween/halloween3.html



“The effect of patents and copyright in combatting Linux remains to be investigated.”

“It plants the idea that any MIS manager so foolish as to use Linux will find his operating system yanked out from under him by a future patent lawsuit”

“Microsoft truly behaves as though it corporately believes that there's only a fixed pool of key ideas, most already discovered, which software designers must squabble over in zero-sum competition until the end of time. In that game, the only definition of `winning' is cornering enough goodies to guarantee you a monopoly lock.”

From https://antitrust.slated.org/halloween/halloween3.html



“We need to keep hammering on the difference between source that you can see only after signing a Microsoft NDA or non-competition agreement and source that anyone can examine, modify, and redistribute.”

“The risk that Microsoft will go on a patent-lawsuit rampage, designed more to scare potential open-source users than to actually shut down developers, is substantial. The language about “concrete actions” in relation to IPR has the same ominous feel”

“Seventy-four percent (74%) of Americans and 82% of Swedes stated that the risk of being sued over Linux patent violations made them feel less favorable towards Linux.”

From https://antitrust.slated.org/halloween/halloween7.html



“Our SCOsource licensing revenue to date has been generated from license agreements that are non-exclusive, perpetual, royalty-free, paid up licenses to utilize our UNIX source code, including the right to sublicense.”

“SCO holds no Unix patents; the state and disposition of the Unix copyrights is unclear and presently disputed between SCO and Novell”

“When a company decides to release existing proprietary code as Open Source, the show-stopper is almost always the other parties outside of that company who are involved. Such parties become involved through patents that have been licensed, proprietary code that has been produced by a third party and embedded into the product, and existing contracts relating to the product that have been entered into with customers or other vendors.”

“because it's possible to infringe a patent you've never heard of: you can never be sure there isn't some patent somewhere that you're infringing among the millions of patents granted annually.”

“SCO has also repeatedly made and withdrawn allegations about patents in the trade press.”

From https://antitrust.slated.org/halloween/halloween9.html



“Caldera/SCO has a long history of lawsuits over obsolete technologies stripped out of dead companies — starting with DR-DOS from Digital Research and continuing through USL's System V into the present with the IBM lawsuit.”

From https://antitrust.slated.org/halloween/halloween10.html

Recent Techrights' Posts

Turns Out LLMs for Code Don't Save Time and Don't Improve Quality
Neither legal nor useful
 
Links 13/07/2025: UnitedHealth's Censorship Campaign, Australia Wary of China
Links for the day
Firing Away With Nonsense
Or fighting fire with fire
Links 13/07/2025: Climate Crisis, GAFAM Poisoning the Water
Links for the day
The Microsofters Will Have an Obligation to Compensate Us
This story isn't just about Microsoft. It's also about corruption, there are many women victims, there is abject "abuse of process", and many more scandals to be illuminated in years to come.
Reproducing at the EPO Instead of Producing Monopolies for Foreign Monopolies With Their Price-Fixing Cartels
Does the EPO recognise the need of well-educated Europeans to bear kids?
Valnet Inc. Dominates Real (Not LLM Slop) GNU/Linux Coverage in 2025
And likely in prior years, too
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Fund Raiser Goes on
Later this month we'll expose another OSI scandal
EPO Staff Representatives Issue a Warning About Staff's Health and Inadequate Care
Even the EPO's own stakeholders (money sources) are openly protesting against what the EPO became
Links 13/07/2025: Partly Assorted News From Deutsche Welle and CBC
Links for the day
Gemini Links 13/07/2025: Board Games and Battle Styles
Gemini Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 12, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 12, 2025
Plunder at the Second-Largest Institution in Europe
cuts, neglect, health problems, even early deaths
Links 12/07/2025: Political Developments, Attack on Opposition, Climate Actions
Links for the day
Gemini Links 12/07/2025: Melodic Musings and Small Web July
Links for the day
Links 12/07/2025: Jail in China for Homoerotica, South Korea Discriminates Against Old Workers
Links for the day
If Only Everything Was Rewritten in Rust, We'd Have No More Security Issues?
Nope.
Links 12/07/2025: Birdwatching and Fake/Misleading Wall Street 'Valuation' Figures
Links for the day
Gemini Links 12/07/2025: How to Avoid Writing, Apps for Android
Links for the day
Using SLAPPs to Cover Up Sexual Abuse and Strangulation
The exact same legal team of the Serial Strangler from Microsoft and Garrett already has a history fighting against "metoo"
EPO Staff Committee on Harassment in the Workplace
slides
Adding the Voice of Writers to UK SLAPP Reform
The journey to repair antiquated (monarchy era) laws will likely be long
EPO Takes More Money From Staff for Speculation (Pensions), Actuarial Study Explains the Impact
"The key change in this year’s Actuarial Study, due to cascading the new “risk appetite” from the financial study, is a significant increase of the total pension contribution rate of 5.7 percentage points, up to a total of 37.8%. This is driven by an unprecedented decrease in the discount rate of 105 bps down to 2.2%."
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 11, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 11, 2025
Microsoft - Like IBM - Does the "Relocation" Tricks (Start Over Elsewhere, Then Get Sacked by Microsoft)
It is a "low blow" or a "dick move"
After the Free Software Foundation's Campaign to Raise Money Let's See Campaigns to Finish Off Microsoft (Vista 11, GitHub etc.)
Microsoft is in effect collapsing
Your Publications Have No Major Impact Unless or Until You "Get Some Heat"
we're on the right track
Slopwatch: A Cause for Hope, the Hype is Dying
For about a month we showed that becoming a slopfarm - for several weeks - resulted in utter failure and ruin for BetaNews
Links 11/07/2025: Censorship Worsening, 3D Printing Success Stories, UK and France Unite Around Nukes
Links for the day
Gemini Links 11/07/2025: Zorin OS and Scriptonite Updates
Links for the day
Links 11/07/2025: Hardware, Russia, and China
Links for the day
Links 11/07/2025: Intel Collapsing and Microsoft Resorts to Bribery to Push Slop Via Obligatory Education
Links for the day
The EFF Sided With the Team That Strangles Women and Tells Women to Kill Themselves
They say that apathy and inaction are a form of a "stance"
"Nat [Friedman] and [the Serial Strangler From Microsoft] Were Always Exceptionally Close," Says Former Housemate and Colleague
Now Alex (hiding behind another name when that suits him) not only attacks women but also people who merely report what he did to women
Exemplary List of Things That Are Not Artificial Intelligence or Even Intelligence
The "age of AI" or "era of AI" or "AI revolution" mostly boils down to rebranding, just like "the cloud"
New Letter From the European Patent Office Explains How the Office Plots to Grant Many Illegal Patents, a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of 'Growth'
Open letter to Mr Rowan (VP1) and Mr Aledo Lopez (COO)
Abuse of Process
5RB is employing people who help violent men
What Microsoft's Nat Friedman and Microsoft Lunduke Have in Common
"Get in da car; No time to explain, loser"
Microsoft and IBM Don't Have Much of a Future (They Mostly Pretend at This Point)
IBM and Microsoft are in some ways alike but in many ways different
It's Not Just Twitter (or X.com) That's Dying, Microsoft's Equivalent is Dying Also
Unable to find a business model
GitHub Copilot Can Cause the Bankruptcy of GitHub to Come Sooner and GitHub to be Shut Down Just Like Skype
Some publicly available information suggests that even for each paid subscriber for plagiarism (LLM 'coding') GitHub Copilot still loses more money than it makes
Wayland is Bad for the Planet
If you use Wayland, it'll take you longer to accomplish tasks and you will consume more energy (or battery life)
Legitimising Those Who Sabotage You
Microsoft is a very malicious company
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 10, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, July 10, 2025
On Microsoft Layoffs
we might be looking at about 60,000 Microsoft layoffs since 2023
EPO Management Already Breaks Its Own Promise (Lie) on "Bringing Teams Together"
This gut-punching move happened just 2 days ago
Gemini Links 11/07/2025: Occupation of 2025 and "Old Man Yells At Soundcloud"
Links for the day
Our Lawsuits Against the 'Cancel Mob' (Ringleaders) Helped Reduce Anti-Free Software Online Abuse
That's not to say that lawsuits are the best way to handle terrible people. But that can help.