Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Alice Case Beats Microsoft's Patent Troll Intellectual Ventures (Yet Again)

"The genesis of this idea was when I was at Microsoft." —Nathan Myhrvold, WSJ: Transcript: Myhrvold of Intellectual Ventures



Summary: Intellectual Ventures suffers another major blow as Alice v. CLS Bank (Alice/€§101) smashes software patents in the United States

WE finally have some more good news regarding Microsoft's pet troll, Intellectual Ventures (IV), which has been funded by and works with Bill Gates.



Patent Buddy, which has been good at tracking the post-Alice aftermath, has found this followup to previous IV v. Capital One losses, "Second IV Patent Asserted Against Capital One Also Killed by Alice/101," he claims, linking to this ruling [PDF].

This is part of a broader trend because as Patent Buddy put it another day, "101 Patentability-USPTO Bypasses Substantive 103 Examination" (101 refers to Alice).

More software patents were being thrown down the drain by a judge last week. To quote Reuters: "A federal court in Delaware has invalidated a patent on multimedia messaging early in a lawsuit against some of the country's largest cellphone providers, another example of a controversial trend that critics say wipes out patents before they are fully understood."

"Anyone who is not intellectually dishonest because he or she does patent 'business' for a living would probably acknowledge by now that software patents are on their death throes.""US business method patent applications down 52.4% since Alice," moaned the patent lawyers in Twitter, pointing to their new analysis which states that: "Companies have pulled back drastically from filing business method patent applications in the US. Managing IP analysed figures for USPTO applications in patent class 705, the class covering "data processing" in which business method patents are placed.

"Patent applications in class 705 not only plummeted after the Alice decision on June 19 2014, but have kept tumbling.

"Some 8,620 class 705 patent applications were filed in the 12 months between July 1 2013 and June 30 2014. In the same period 12 months later, after Alice, the figure was 4,106 – a 52.4% drop."

Patent maximalists that glorify the world’s biggest patent troll (IV) are now offering their ‘analysis’ (actually, offering by proxy), claiming that "Software Patents Are Resilient in the Wake of Alice Corp. vs. CLS Bank".

Yeah, right. And the world is cooling down, too. According to News Corp. and other oil tycoons-connected 'news' networks. Anyone who is not intellectually dishonest because he or she does patent 'business' for a living would probably acknowledge by now that software patents are on their death throes.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Links 03/11/2025: Internet Anniversary
Links for the day
Two Years of Uptime
Reboots are seldom involuntary
Richard Stallman is Giving Another Talk in Less Than a Fortnight
in two weeks' time (13 days from now)
Windows Falls Below 20% in the UK
Many people choose to leave Windows altogether
Microsoft's Search Business Falls to Lowest Point in 2 Years, Based on statCounter
what can Microsoft sell other than shares in Microsoft?
Evidence Regarding Layoffs at Red Hat
Seems like IBM layoffs
Microsoft: Our "Goodwill" Value Grew More Than Tenfold Since 2011
Hallmark of pseudo-economics
GNU/Linux as a Boarding Pass
being mostly analogue is still feasible
Links 03/11/2025: Lack of Trust in LLMs and Windows TCO at Jaguar
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/11/2025: Books in October and Change
Links for the day
Mozilla Firefox Won't Survive and Many Sites Don't Work With It (Compatibility Abandoned)
The Web has become monocultural
Debian is Non-Free
Devuan might be worth looking into
Slopwatch: Brian Fagioli and LinuxSecurity
This is a real problem and most certainly a big problem because when people try to find real information about security and GNU/Linux they instead read "word salads" made by bots
Four Reasons to Party With Us in Four Days, Celebrating the Four Freedoms
Today we expect to be back to a more-or-less regular publication pace
Links 03/11/2025: The "Smartphone Panopticon" and Belarus' Hybrid Attacks on EU Intensify
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, November 02, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, November 02, 2025
Microsoft's Debt Has Skyrocketed by More Than 15 Billion Dollars in 6 Months or 8.2 Billion Dollars in the Past 3 Months Alone
The corporate media intentionally disregards - or merely turns a blind eye to - such data
Rumour: IBM Layoffs in Canada Starting Tomorrow
"RA (IBM's term for layoffs) Coming to Canada this week (Nov 3rd)"
Debunking False/Misleading Statements Made or Told to the High Court
People who try to cheat the system by gaslighting judges will end up discrediting themselves
Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD) by LLM Slop
The Web has become such a sordid mess that this FUD made by bots is what Google News deems to be "the news"
This Month's Analytics Show Vista 11 Down, GNU/Linux Up
After pulling the plug on Vista 10 we see losses - not gains - for Vista 11
Almost Fully Caught Up
The EPO series will continue very soon, maybe tomorrow or on Tuesday
Links 02/11/2025: Another Halloween Bust and MAGA Regime Says Public Universities Should No Longer Hire 'Foreign' Employees
Links for the day
The Long-Coveted Milestone of 3,200 Active Gemini Capsules
Despite being away some days last week, about 50,000 Gemini requests were served each day, on average
Five More Days Till Techrights Party
We'll have many more batches of Daily Links as we catch up with a 'backlog' of news
Links 02/11/2025: More Nuclear Escalations and "Anti-Cybercrime Laws Are Being Weaponized to Repress Journalism"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 02/11/2025: "The Pragmatic Programmer", Perl New Features and Foostats
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, November 01, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, November 01, 2025
Linux.com is Becoming Microsoft
They took a once-reputable site with a vast audience and turned it into a pile of trash
Microsoft Lunduke: People Pointing Out I'm a Bigot is a Badge of Honour
It's almost as if he openly admits being a troll and is proud of it
Oracle's Debt Continues Rising to All-Time Highs, The "Slop Bubble" is a Smokescreen for Larry Ellison
wishful-thinking bubble waiting to implode completely
News on the Web is Becoming Rare, Shallow, and Difficult to Find
To efficiently and rapidly find original and important news without underlying comprehension/understanding of the news (and its context) is a hard task
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, Serial Slopper, WebProNews, and More
getting back into the habit
The Cocaine Patent Office - Part III: European Patent Office Officials Cannot Claim False Identification
Corroborating with other sources is always desirable if possible. We shall do so later in this series.
Facebook's Debt Leaps to Over 51 Billion Dollars
A lot of this is a bubble, aside from the bubble the media irresponsibly dubs "AI"
Still Catching Up, Daily Links a Top Priority
Readers who have additional information about the EPO can send it along to us
3 Days Ago Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news
Links 01/11/2025: "Americans Are Defaulting on Car Loans at an Alarming Rate" While Many Left to Starve (SNAP)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/11/2025: FIFO and Gemini Age Survey
Links for the day
Why Does German Media Protect the EPO From Accountability for Cocaine?
Can we trust such media to properly inform the public?
Most of This Month Will Deal With EPO Scandals
A timeline of sorts
Links 01/11/2025: Microsoft Azure Goes Offline Again
Links for the day
Links 01/11/2025: Microsoft Distributes Malware Again, Radio Free Asia Shut Down by Dictator
Links for the day
November is Here, Anniversary Party This Coming Friday
Expect this site to return to its normal publication pace either by tomorrow or Monday
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, October 31, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, October 31, 2025
Gemini Links 01/11/2025: Synergetic Disinformation and Software Maintenance
Links for the day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 30, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 30, 2025
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 29, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 29, 2025