Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Next Task is Defeating European Software Patents Because the Media Certainly Isn't Doing Its Job

Copying press releases isn't journalism and these so-called 'webinars' give away their true agenda

EUIPO EPO CII



EUIPO EPO CII webinar



Summary: With the UPC out of the way it's important to ensure that the EPO quits granting and advocating patents on algorithms; this is still going on and it is illegal

WHILE there are definitely software patents in Europe, courts continue to reject these and the European Patent Office (EPO) won't be able to change that. The UPC is dead -- a subject we shall cover separately later today, revisiting the latest blows. The wannabe UPC chief is probably consuming a lot of wine this weekend. His career is over. At least he managed not to be arrested like his protégé who lacked connections at the top.



We've seen lots of software patents ("CII") promotion this past week, together with the EUIPO, where António Campinos came from. We took note of it just before it happened (around Tuesday) and basically it's about granting software patents on computer games (it's already hard at the USPTO). It's rather clear that today's EPO just doesn't really care about the EPC. It's just harvesting money, which it then gambles with.

The other day we spotted an old ally returning to the battle. Good to see him rejoining his old battle against software patents -- for we need more "fire power" (many got exhausted and it's being exploited by law-breaking officials). He wrote that "Nokia's choice of software patents asserted against Daimler exposes pretext for refusing to license automotive suppliers" and in the corresponding article he stated: "That kind of communication is, of course, implemented in software (it already has been for a very long time)."

Here's more:



PaRR's EU antitrust reporter Khushita Vasant received information from two sources according to which a third round of mediation talks--after the first two, held in January and February, failed--might take place between Nokia and Daimler as well as many (though not all) of its suppliers of telematics control units (TCUs). Knowing how these things work, I guess the situation is now simply one in which the European Commission remains hesitant, for purely political reasons, to take action, and is playing for time, as is Nokia, whose patent portfolio is going down the tubes with every month that passes.

Commissioner Margrethe Vestager is even way tougher than her famous predecessor in office "Steelie Neelie" was when it comes to enforcement against U.S. companies, but (so far, so bad) soft as a jellyfish on Nokia. She and Nokia might just hope that the patent infringement ruling scheduled by the Munich I Regional Court for April 9, 2020 would scare Daimler into a settlement. It's hardly a coincidence that the rumored new round of mediation talks has the same target date...

Regardless of that latest disgraceful development, I was taking a closer look at Nokia's ten patents-in-suit against Daimler from the perspective of whether there is a scintilla of doubt about Nokia acting abusively by refusing to license Daimler's TCU suppliers. There is not.

As Daimler's lead counsel in the German infringement cases accurately noted last fall, cellular standard-essential patents (SEPs) cover techniques that are essentially embodied in the baseband chip. From a car maker's vantage point at the bottom of the supply chain, that's a tier 3 product, which gets incorporated into a (tier 2) network access device (NAD; one might also call this a connectivity module, which in turn resides in a TCU (tier 1). In other words, TCUs already contain a whole lot more hardware than is actually needed to exhaust the patentee's rights by licensing the upstream.

[...]

The software that controls data transfers over a cellular model resides in a baseband chip. That's the mastermind of the whole operation. It determines what is sent out via the antenna, and it interprets what is received.

All ten of Nokia's patents-in-suit against Daimler could also be called "protocol patents": they describe how two ends of a wireless connection communicate--what A has to tell B to cause B to do something, or vice versa. It's like I say "hello, how are you?" and you respond "fine, how are you?"

That kind of communication is, of course, implemented in software (it already has been for a very long time).


"In today's blog post," he told me, "I've (again) criticized the EPO for violating the EPC by granting software patents."

We're saddened to see Nokia reduced to this. Once upon a time it supported GNU/Linux, but then it was infiltrated by Microsoft and was destroyed very quickly.

Nokia is in some sense a symptom of a rotten system. The EPO's sheer dysfunction extends beyond the offices and trickles onto these EPO exams. As MIP noted the other day: "With the qualification process for UK attorneys being reviewed, lawyers in France, Germany and the UK ask whether the European system also needs an overhaul [...] In-house lawyers say that parts of the “somewhat artificial” European Qualification Examination should be re-worked so that they better reflect everyday practice and make life easier for in-house teams."

With the collapse of the UPC interest in these exams may decline. Interest in European Patents will, in general, decrease. Semiconductor Today, following some press releases in Business Wire and elsewhere (even sites blocked in the EU), speaks of just one new European Patent are though it's a very big deal. For a change, however, this is about a European Patent on something physical. Yes, for a change. It says: "AKHAN Semiconductor Inc of Gurnee, IL, USA – which was founded in 2013 and specializes in the fabrication and application of lab-grown, electronics-grade diamond as functional semiconductors – has been issued a patent by the European Patent Office (EPO) covering its next-generation n-type diamond semiconductor system and diamond-based multi-layer anti-reflective coating systems (key components in military & aerospace sensor and detector applications), amongst other applications."

This is a puff piece, almost identical to the press release that said:

AKHAN Semiconductor, a technology company specializing in the fabrication and application of lab-grown, electronic-grade diamonds, announced today that it has been issued a patent by the European Patent Office (EPO). The patent covers AKHAN’s next-generation N-type diamond semiconductor system and diamond-based multilayer antireflective coating systems, key components in military & aerospace sensor and detector applications, amongst other use cases.


Compare the 'article' to the press release; this is the kind of 'journalism' we've come to expect about the EPO and about patents in general...

Recent Techrights' Posts

Giving back to the community
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
SoylentNews Grows Up, Registers as a Business, Site Traffic Reportedly Grows
More people realise that social control media may in fact be a passing fad
Links 28/03/2024: Sega, Nintendo, and Bell Layoffs
Links for the day
Open letter to the ACM regarding Codes of Conduct impersonating the Code of Ethics
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
With 9 Mentions of Azure In Its Latest Blog Post, Canonical is Again Promoting Microsoft and Intel Vendor Lock-in, Surveillance, Back Doors, Considerable Power Waste, and Defects That Cannot be Fixed
Microsoft did not even have to buy Canonical (for Canonical to act like it happened)
Links 28/03/2024: GAFAM Replacing Full-Time Workers With Interns Now
Links for the day
Consent & Debian's illegitimate constitution
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
The Time Our Server Host Died in a Car Accident
If Debian has internal problems, then they need to be illuminated and then tackled, at the very least in order to ensure we do not end up with "Deadian"
China's New 'IT' Rules Are a Massive Headache for Microsoft
On the issue of China we're neutral except when it comes to human rights issues
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 27, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 27, 2024
WeMakeFedora.org: harassment decision, victory for volunteers and Fedora Foundations
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 27/03/2024: Terrorism Grows in Africa, Unemployment in Finland Rose Sharply in a Year, Chinese Aggression Escalates
Links for the day
Links 27/03/2024: Ericsson and Tencent Layoffs
Links for the day
Amid Online Reports of XBox Sales Collapsing, Mass Layoffs in More Teams, and Windows Making Things Worse (Admission of Losses, Rumours About XBox Canceled as a Hardware Unit)...
Windows has loads of issues, also as a gaming platform
Links 27/03/2024: BBC Resorts to CG Cruft, Akamai Blocking Blunders in Piracy Shield
Links for the day
Android Approaches 90% of the Operating Systems Market in Chad (Windows Down From 99.5% 15 Years Ago to Just 2.5% Right Now)
Windows is down to about 2% on the Web-connected client side as measured by statCounter
Sainsbury's: Let Them Eat Yoghurts (and Microsoft Downtimes When They Need Proper Food)
a social control media 'scandal' this week
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 26, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
Windows/Client at Microsoft Falling Sharply (Well Over 10% Decline Every Quarter), So For His Next Trick the Ponzi in Chief Merges Units, Spices Everything Up With "AI"
Hiding the steep decline of Windows/Client at Microsoft?
Free technology in housing and construction
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
We Need Open Standards With Free Software Implementations, Not "Interoperability" Alone
Sadly we're confronting misguided managers and a bunch of clowns trying to herd us all - sometimes without consent - into "clown computing"
Microsoft's Collapse in the Web Server Space Continued This Month
Microsoft is the "2%", just like Windows in some countries