Bonum Certa Men Certa

What Did Theodore Moustakas Actually 'Invent' and Why Does He Paint Boston University 'Patent Troll'?

Theodore Moustakas



Summary: Why Boston University's reputation is simply not worth what it used to be worth after Theodore Moustakas embarked on an ego trip

A few days ago we wrote about Boston University acting like a troll at the behest of Moustakas and his privatised, taxpayers-funded venture. Patents assigned to the university are used as tools of embargo, making one wonder if universities should just be banned from acquiring patents. Many patents of theirs end up getting passed to patent trolls like Intellectual Ventures, hence taxing the taxpayers who subsidised those patents in the first place. It's outrageous.



The press in Boston, as biased as one can expect it to be, covered the news as follows:

Boston University is taking on the richest consumer electronics company on the planet, claiming Apple ripped off a computer engineering professor’s patented electronic semiconductor and stuffed it into the world’s most popular devices.

In a bombshell lawsuit filed yesterday in U.S. District Court of Massachusetts, the university alleges that a small electronic component patented by computer engineering professor Theodore D. Moustakas in 1997 is included in the iPhone 5, iPad, and MacBook Air.


The CBS-owned CNET, a booster of Apple much of the time (Apple is a client and the author, Lance Whitney, worked for Microsoft), criticised BU for it and so did Troll Tracker, where BU gets treated like a patent troll. But let's look at what the claimed 'invention' actually is. The target of the lawsuit does not matter here (the Boston press focuses on Apple's wealth as though it somehow affects the legitimacy of the case), but what is it that Moustakas actually claims ownership -- not credit -- of? Let's examine. Here is the patent, assigned only to "Trustees of Boston University" under Moustakas. The patent is basically a sort of 'recipe' of what it takes to make a form of gallium nitride (GaN), which has been at the centre of a mysterious death in Singapore (the court ruled two days ago that there had been no apparent assassination). For those who don't know gallium nitride, it is basically essential for laser diodes. Moustakas did not invent it or anything. Gertrude Neumark Rothschild from Columbia University also tried to claim credit for some light-emitting diodes, suing a lot of companies. All that Moustakas appears to have done is extended somewhat the application of gallium nitride. Did Moustakas need to pay so-called 'royalties' for others before him who laid the foundations (probably in academia) to make his work possible? No, not really. Moustakas is an opportunist and a troll. He wants to get almost $100 million by going after the richest corporation which uses gallium nitride (he could claim the same infringement by just about any other company). Since the patent is about to expire and Moustakas has not much of a career left he is just trying to squeeze some money out or someone and we oughtn't defend him for it. Apple will hopefully defeat this troll in court.

Recent Techrights' Posts

New Techrights Turns 2
Today starts the third year of the SSG-based Techrights
What Scares Them the Most is Independent News Sites That They Cannot Control and Censor
Wikileaks was a good example of this
If You Don't Control Your Online Platform, Then Someone Else is Controlling You
be (or become) independent
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Has a Policy on Racism and Sexism
In then future we'll show the misogyny and racial slurs
Links 22/09/2025: Murdochs Might Join Fentanylware (TikTok) 'Investors' (Masters), United Kingdom Recognises Palestinian Statehood
Links for the day
The 50-Pound Note Experiment and the "War on Cash"
Britain is actually seeing a rebound in cash payments, and it's not a temporary phenomenon
 
MAHA is a Lie, Public Officials Never Valued Citizens' Health (They Still Value Private Businesses, Their Sponsors)
Reject demagogues
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has a New Press Kit for the Weekend After Next Weekend (40th Anniversary)
miles better than social [sic] media [sic] quips, moderated by narcissists and oil tycoons.
Microsoft Had Two Waves of Mass Layoffs This Month (That We Know of) and It'll Get Worse for Microsoft Soon
Will the axe fall again by month's end?
Gemini Links 23/09/2025: Happy Equinox, Photronic Arts, and Perception Cognition
Links for the day
Lessons We've Learned After 17 Years of American Hosting
GAFAM is "all-in" with the "Trump agenda"
Back to Normal Now, We Plan to Do More In-Depth Series (or Multi-part Stories)
Articles (or series thereof) that contain philosophy are important to us
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 22, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, September 22, 2025
Microsoft Media is Panicking Amid Mass Layoffs Every Month, H-1B Fees, and "Seattle’s Tech Scene in Trouble"
In "late stage Microsoft", copyleft becomes proprietary
The Next Wave of IBM/Red Hat Layoffs Being Discussed Already
Red Hat is sort of disappearing the way Tivoli did
Oracle Started This Year With Slop. Then It Stopped.
Passing fads are like this
Distros That Run on PCs Made 20 Years Ago and Don't Use Systemd
Betas for now
The Complaint About Brett Wilson LLP - Part I - Abusing British Women on Behalf of American Men Who Abuse American Women
Transparency is important to us, so we've decided to make this series
Slopwatch: Google News and the Evident Slopfarm Infestation
This is what people get about Linux when they query Google for Linux
Gemini Links 22/09/2025: Esperanto Music History and Apps For Android
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2025: More American 'Censorship' (Retaliation for Journalism), Cheeto "Might Be Losing His Race Against Time"
Links for the day
The Blob Slop
Give me more words, give me some text
Slopwatch: Blaming the Victims for Microsoft's Failures and Plagiarising Phoronix
That's what Google has been reduced to: slop and slopfarms
Links 22/09/2025: Breaches, Windows TCO, and Arrests
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/09/2025: Rabbit Hole and DeGoogling Fairphone
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2025: Russian War Planes Invade NATO Airspace While Dihydroxyacetone Man Escalates Attack on Free Speech Because of Critics
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, September 21, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, September 21, 2025
Links 21/09/2025: "Hey Hi" (Hype) Under Fire, Fakes Identified; Tesla Burns Family
Links for the day
Google's Software is Malware and Malware in Mobile Devices
Originally posted by Rob Musial
Links 20/09/2025: Hegemony Coming to a Close, Luigi Mangione Ruled Not Terrorist
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/09/2025: "Charlie Kirk Was a Hateful Piece of Shit" and Slop Code Attempted by Microsofter
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, September 20, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, September 20, 2025