Bonum Certa Men Certa

Technology Companies at CES Lash Out at the USPTO for Enabling 'Extortion Rackets'

Not only the EPO equips patent racketeers

Capone



Summary: The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is finally being accused by companies and people who are suffering from patents (those which it so habitually grants, including software patents) of enabling “extortion rackets”, to quote a respected journalist who attended or covered a session with Michelle Lee, the Director of the USPTO

THE just-ended expo in the United States, CES, revealed the first CES raids [1, 2] that we're aware of. In fact, only in Europe have we heard of/seen such scenes before [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13]. Companies that were at CES reportedly complained to the USPTO about the state of affairs. A highly-reputed journalist was there and wrote that "tech industry still hates patent trolls, but it’s starting to have good things to say about the government agency that issues the patents those trolls later wield in what amounts to a legalized extortion racket."



"When we accused the EPO of doing something similar the EPO threatened to sue."Well, companies like Microsoft do this as well, not just patent trolls. Racket is what it is, or an "extortion racket." We have been saying this for years. When we accused the EPO of doing something similar the EPO threatened to sue. The report continues with: "That was the somewhat surprising conclusion of a panel discussion at CES Friday morning that featured some of the leading critics of the current patent system — and was introduced by Michelle Lee, director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office."

The USPTO still issues software patents (and issued even more of them before); these are the sorts of patents that almost all patent trolls are using, so the USPTO ought to be held at least partly accountable. Ever since the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) gave the green light to software patents the USPTO has issued hundreds of thousands of software patents. CAFC, as we have shown before, is corrupt at several levels (see past articles) and hence highly biased. Patents lawyers' fronts such as Post-Grant Practice Group (profiting from patent maximalism) have just latched onto CAFC, as expected, saying that "efficacy of objective evidence of non-obviousness (i.e., secondary indicia) hinges on the ability to demonstrate a "nexus" between the evidence and the subject patent claims. This is because such evidence cannot be accorded substantial weight absent a nexus to the claimed invention. As pointed out in a previous post a compelling showing of nexus is more likely in the unpredictable arts where specific formulations, dosages and the like are more readily correlated to such secondary indicia as commercial success and long-felt but unsolved needs."

"It is evident that producing technology companies (excepting monopolies that use their brands and their patents, not production) are dissatisfied with the status quo."The wording/words in the above article/blog are designed to mislead (they're hard to read/follow because clarity isn't the goal). What they are trying to allude to, in simpler terms, is that "non-obviousness" (i.e. difficulty of coming up with an idea) can be demonstrated with claims (in the patent application) and evidence. A lot of these foreign language (or cryptic) terms are the way patent lawyers make their business. They make the language (legalese) hard for many people to follow (even to examiners who are purely technical) and this way they can trick people into granting what's not grantable (patent-ineligible).

There still needs to emerge a movement strong enough and broad enough to antagonise the likes of CAFC, the USPTO, and patent lawyers because they are all patent maximalists. Maximalism benefits them directly. It is evident that producing technology companies (excepting monopolies that use their brands and their patents, not production) are dissatisfied with the status quo.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Why We Still Love Gemini Protocol
Gemini Protocol may seem like something "old" (it's actually very new) and something "nobody would use", but many people use it
This is the Man Who's Attacking Linus Torvalds et al in "a Disease" (Social Control Media)
One thing that Richard M. Stallman and Torvalds can agree on is that Social Control Media should be avoided
Unlike GAFAM, Free Software Serves You, It Does Not Serve Governments and MElons (Overlapping Forces)
Tired of oligarchy controlling your life through gadgets and "apps"?
When It Comes to Social Control Media, Linus Torvalds is Channeling Techrights
GAFAM workers know exactly who to aim at
New EPO Paper: Promoting (Rewarding) People Who Grant Many Illegal European Patents to Make More Money (at Europeans' Expense) While Patent Courts in the EU Are Themselves Illegal
now the coup is sort of complete and even the "courts" are part of the corruption
Slopwatch: Carnival of LLM Slop and FUD Spewed by Bots, Pasted in by MaKenna Hensley and Day
Welcome to the Web in 2025. Articles about "Linux", "Security", and the Web (e.g. "Firefox") are fake.
 
Richard Stallman (RMS) Does Not Have Media Companies and Lobbyists on His Side, But His Message Spreads Regardless
The message of RMS is spreading in spite of all the smears
GNU/Linux Rises to All-Time High in Chile
sharp rise for GNU/Linux in Chile
Links 09/02/2025: Hottest January on Record, Panama Blackmailed
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/02/2025: "Died as a Mineral" and Game Interface for a Non-Game
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, February 08, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, February 08, 2025
Links 08/02/2025: UK Back Doors and Religious Fundamentalists in Positions of Higher Power
Links for the day
Today's IBM (Red Hat) Isn't the Company That Fought a Microsoft-Sponsored SCO in Court
IBM is nowadays in a state of rapid disintegration
When You Simply Rebrand Almost Everything as "Hey Hi" ("AI"), "Hey Hi Workloads", "Hey Hi Datacentres" and Whatnot
The "growth" has been a growing lie for years if not decades
Microsoft Windows Falls to 12% in Myanmar
Remember that Microsoft is virtually 0% in mobile
Gemini Links 08/02/2025: "Thought Leaders" and Returns to Gemini Protocol
Links for the day
Links 08/02/2025: MElon Coup, Mass Layoffs at Facebook, and PlayStation Network Down
Links for the day
On Wars Against Founders
We need to insist that founders remain
Links 08/02/2025: News Corp Admits Traffic Declines, Wildlife Trafficking Tackled
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/02/2025: Lamp and Notions
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, February 07, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, February 07, 2025
Links 07/02/2025: Amazon’s Stock Collapses and US Government Being Dismantled (Still)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/02/2025: Mid-level Details and Simple Code
Links for the day
Links 07/02/2025: US 'Demolition Crew', e-ID Loopholes, and Sanctions
Links for the day
Professor Eben Moglen on How Social Control Media Metabolises Humans and Constrains Freedom of Thought
Nothing of value would be lost if all these data-harvesting giants (profiling people) vanished overnight
Social Control Media is Narcissism
Nowadays there's a lot more literature and even press coverage explaining the harms of Social Control Media
Debian Left Twitter (MElon "X"), We Think the Free Software Foundation (FSF) Should Do the Same
What would the FSF really lose if it stopped posting there?
statCounter Sees GNU/Linux Share Doubling in China Over the Past Year
It'll be interesting to see what data in the coming months shows
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, February 06, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, February 06, 2025
Richard Stallman (RMS) Confirms Next Week's Talk in Europe
He gave at least 2 talks in Europe last month
Nationalism As A Service (NaaS) by Microsoft Azure, Gutting the US Government for Profit
Will Microsoft be receiving bailouts as a reward for all this?
Rumours of IBM Layoffs Apparently Confirmed Yesterday, IBM Canada Consulting Impacted (as Rumoured)
when IBM has layoffs we must also read it as Red Hat layoffs