Bonum Certa Men Certa

US Congress Should Stop Targeting Symptoms and Instead Tackle the Real Problem, Patent Scope

And Schumer Should Focus on the Correct Target (Software Patents), Not Trolls

Scope



Summary: Alluding to the fact that politicians pursue a corporate 'reform' (benefiting large companies) rather than the obvious reform which the USPTO needs

Somebody called Steph Kennedy contacted me a few days ago. I had an amicable exchange with this person who runs the IP Troll Tracker site -- a site which like us seems to realise that the Schumer 'reform' once again got derailed. He now speaks primarily about trolls rather than software patents/scope, which he focused on before. As Steph put it in her unique style, "I suppose on the one hand this is good news…all those software patents people don’t want issued? Well, they’ll languish forever now with the patent office reviewing cases for a living. It’s kind of like when Congress gets deadlocked: that’s a good thing because if they can’t agree? They can’t make more stupid laws.



"Throwing crazy-stupid legislation together so that you can tell your corporate constituents that you are trying to solve their problem? That’s what politicians do."

"Motorola is a defence mechanism, not an offence mechanism to Google, but EU regulators are too misguided to see this."She is throwing a wobbly Schumer's way. He no longer proposes a good reform. Here is another misdirected reform coming from the US government. And another. Why the sudden focus only on trolls? As Masnick's site puts it: "Of course, even before the law was officially on the books, it looks like Vermont's Attorney General has already sued a patent troll under existing consumer protection laws (raising questions as to why the new law is necessary). In this case, the troll is one we've written about a few times. Remember the series of rotating shell companies that had claimed that businesses who had a networked scanner need to pay $1,000 per employee? Yeah, that one."

Here is another report about Congress targeting trolls in isolation. Politicians serve corporate interests, only going after trolls, the side effect of a rogue system. Trolls are, on occasions, a proxy for large corporations, but this is the exception rather than the norm. Microsoft seems to be doing it, Apple hardly ever does (there are a few examples where Apple does this, e.g. MPEG-LA). Google won't use proxies like Microsoft and Apple do and it states this clearly, upfront.

Motorola is a defence mechanism, not an offence mechanism to Google, but EU regulators are too misguided to see this. completely missing the source of this issue and instead going after the victim which is trying to defend itself by expensive deterrence plan.

It is worth noting that Steph misunderstood some of the points I had made prior to the post in question, based on her response to me (posted some hours ago). Patent Troll Tracker was a lawyer, not her. The point I was making is that refocusing on trolls is often something that lawyers, politicians and lobbyists do, whereas bloggers often fall right into the same trap and lose sight of patent scope as the principal issue. The one point I disagree with Steph is that she says some companies are "actually selling off some of their patents to the trolls themselves (possibly and potentially Google and definitely Ericsson)."

Actually, while Ericsson is a good example which we covered before [1, 2, 3], she should mention Apple and Microsoft, not Google. Name even one troll which was fed by Google. None, right?

“Throwing crazy-stupid legislation together so that you can tell your corporate constituents that you are trying to solve their problem? That’s what politicians do.”
      --Steph Kennedy
A good example of an Apple- and Microsoft-backed patent troll is Intellectual Ventures, the world's biggest patent troll. How come Congress does not tackle this extortion operation? Too big to jail or even address. As Steph put it a few weeks ago, this troll makes nothing except propaganda. She wrote: "What long-term positive PR that IV thought they were going to accomplish with this survey is anybody’s guess."

As long as the USPTO is controlled by giants like software patents booster IBM, nothing will change for the better without a real fight.

Irving Wladawsky-Berger, an IBM veteran who endorses software patents, continues to post his pro-patents dross. These are the people who, sadly enough, control the politicians. A politicians who works for common interests is not a politicia but an activist. Strong action is needed to fix patent scope; Congress just isn't doing it,

Recent Techrights' Posts

Web Monopolist, Google, 'Pulls a Microsoft' by Hijacking/Overriding the Name of Competitor and Alternative to the Web
Gulag 'hijacking' 'Gemini'
Forging IRC Logs and Impersonating Professors: the Lengths to Which Anti-Free Software Militants Would Go
Impersonating people in IRC, too
GNU/Linux Popularity Surging, So Why Did MakeUseOf Quit Covering It About 10 Days Ago?
It's particularly sad because some of the best articles about GNU/Linux came from that site, both technical articles and advocacy-centric pieces
GNOME Foundation is in Reliable Hands (Executive Director)
Growing some good in one's garden
 
[Meme] Social Control Media Giants Shaping Debates on BSDs and GNU/Linux
listening to random people in Social Control Media
Reddit (Condé Nast), Which Has Another Round of Layoffs This Month, Incited People Against GNU/Linux Users (Divide and Rule, It's 2003 All Over Again!)
Does somebody (perhaps a third party) fan the flames?
Who Will Hold the Open Source Initiative (OSI) Accountable for Taking Bribes From Microsoft and Selling Out to Enable/Endorse Massive Copyright Infringement?
it does Microsoft advocacy
Using Gemini to Moan About Linux and Spread .NET
Toxic, acidic post in Gemini
Links 04/12/2023: Mass Layoffs at Spotify (Debt, Losses, Bubble) Once Again
Links for the day
ChatGPT Hype/Vapourware (and 'Bing') Has Failed, Google Maintains Dominance in Search
a growing mountain of debt and crises
[Meme] Every Real Paralegal Knows This
how copyright law works
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, December 03, 2023
IRC logs for Sunday, December 03, 2023
Links 04/12/2023: COVID-19 Data Misused Again, Anti-Consumerism Activism
Links for the day
Links 03/12/2023: New 'Hey Hi' (AI) Vapouware and Palantir/NHS Collusion to Spy on Patients Comes Under Legal Challenge
Links for the day
'Confidential Computing'? More Like a Giant Back Door.
CacheWarp AMD CPU Attack Grants Root Access in Linux VMs
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, December 02, 2023
IRC logs for Saturday, December 02, 2023
Links 03/12/2023: CRISPR as Patented Minefield, Lots of Greenwashing Abound
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news
Professor Eben Moglen: In 1991 Richard Stallman Thought GNU/Linux Was Doomed Due to Software Patents
Back when Linus Torvalds was about to release Linux Prof. Moglen and Dr. Stallman had already spent years developing GNU and refining its licence, the GPL, which Linux would later adopt
Montana’s TikTok Ban Was to Protect Free Speech and the United States' First Amendment
TikTok does not embrace Free speech
GNU/Linux Surges to Almost 4% Worldwide on Desktops/Laptops, 2% in Latest Steam Survey (Ubuntu Not the Top Distro)
We've fortunately bet on a winning platform
Links 02/12/2023: ChatGPT Drowns in Bad Press, Censorship Worldwide Increases Some More
Links for the day
Cybercrimes and Online Abuse From Extremists and Militants on a VPN/Tor
A straitjacket or lobotomy won't solve this issue
Links 02/12/2023: Pfizer Sued for Lies About Efficacy, Censorship of Scientific Dissent, More Pfizer Layoffs
Links for the day
Selling Free Software
by Richard Stallman
[Meme] Screenshots of Web Pages (Relevant to One's Article) Are Not Copyright Infringing Anywhere in the World
bullying and hate crimes
IRC Proceedings: Friday, December 01, 2023
IRC logs for Friday, December 01, 2023
A Year of Doing Techrights 'Full Time'
been a year!