Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Federal Circuit, a So-called 'Court', Increasingly Refuted by US Courts and the Appeal Board (PTAB)

Sanity fights its way back into a system which is dominated by large corporations and trolls-leaning 'think tanks'

CAFC corruption
The above [1, 2, 3, 4] are symptoms of a much broader and systemic problem



Summary: The US Federal Circuit (initiator of software patents), or “CAFC” as it's commonly referred to, gets increasingly involved in patent cases and spreads its bias on such matters in ways that even patent professionals find dubious

"The data released from the USPTO in its annual report shades the truth somewhat," wrote Patently-O yesterday. "but includes a number of important signals."



"The Federal Circuit may as well just become synonymous with or renamed to Federal Patent Court."The EPO's report also shaded the truth. That's what these self-serving (and not independent) reports do. In the case of the USPTO -- as is increasingly the case under Battistelli at the EPO -- only numbers count, not quality. The integrity of the processes (notably examination) is severely compromised in the name of short-term monetary gains. This is not acceptable.

Another new article from Patently-O says that "the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“CAFC”) hears patent appeals, but some readers may be surprised when told that the CAFC also hears, inter alia, appeals from the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (“CAVC”)."

Techrights spent years writing about the Federal Circuit, which is rife with corruption and patent maximalism, including software patents which originally came about from there. Anything that gives CAFC even more power would put at risk the entire system. Patently-O says that the "Federal Circuit Now Receiving More Appeals Arising from the PTO than the District Courts". It's all about patent feuds now. Good for patent lawyers, not for anybody else except their biggest clients (large corporations). "Appeals arising from district court patent infringement cases," wrote Patently-O, "have historically made up about a third of the court’s docket. In 2011, for example, appeals from the district courts constituted 33% of appeals filed, while appeals from the PTO were about 9%."

The Federal Circuit may as well just become synonymous with or renamed to Federal Patent Court. Here is a patent lawyer (from Troutman Sanders) writing about CAFC, bemoaning the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), as usual, as PTAB helps crush software patents. To quote one paragraph, "Judge Newman wrote in dissent that the PTAB’s interpretation runs afoul of the AIA’s intent to create an efficient alternative forum for resolving patent disputes, since a failure to resolve all claims before the PTAB leads to duplication in district court."

Actually, the district courts would not be needed if the USPTO properly did its job in the post-Alice era and PTAB completed the job by throwing in the trash invalid (e.g. abstract) patents that the USPTO erroneous of fraudulently (for personal gain) granted. Years ago we noted that the USPTO had been giving financial incentives to accept patent applications rather than reject/decline them. What kind of system is that? Is there any illusion left of objectivity?

MIP, another patent maximalism site, wrote yesterday about "PTAB issues to watch in 2016". It said that the "Patent Trial and Appeal Board is taking a harder line on institution, while PTAB watchers eagerly await a face-off at the Supreme Court over claim construction and the Federal Circuit increasingly pulls the Board up on procedural issues" (SCOTUS has already issued its judgment on that in the Alice case).

Writing about CAFC, Patently-O says that "In a split decision [it] has again rejected a jury verdict" (so much for justice). "Here," said the author, "the alleged infringing meters are designed to be bolted down to exterior walls and left in place for years. Of course, it is fairly easy for an electrician to move these meters and install them, but they are designed to operate in a fixed location once installed. The majority ruled that the best (and only reasonable) construction of the term involves both of these requirements (portability and non-permanent location)."

"Decades after CAFC brought all sorts of ludicrous patents to the US (notably software patents) they seem to be fading or ebbing away."Another new Patently-O post by Dennis Crouch says: "In an interesting and important mandamus ruling, the Federal Circuit has ordered the district court to withdraw its order compelling discovery of communications with non-attorney patent agents."

The Federal Circuit sure isn't doing much to improve its image. It engages not only in its own turf wars but also others'. Consider some belated comments on the recent Lexmark case (EN | ES) that appear in patent maximalism blogs [1, 2]. It increasingly seems like CAFC is so biased that it merely works for corporations, not for justice.

"US courts have become much more defendant friendly," wrote a software patents proponent yesterday, "district courts routinely find against plaintiffs asserting patents – particularly NPEs [patent trolls] – and if they don’t the Federal Circuit (CAFC) often overturns district court judgments."

This patent maximalist, Joff Wild, basically bemoans courts which don't support software patents (the trolls' favourite weapon) and he adds: "Specific decisions from the Supreme Court – Alice, Myriad and Mayo, for example - have had a direct impact on patentability in areas such as software, biotech and business methods."

This is of course a good thing. Decades after CAFC brought all sorts of ludicrous patents to the US (notably software patents) they seem to be fading or ebbing away. Patent maximalists (which include patent lawyers) won't tolerate this defeat. Neither will CAFC.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Links 06/07/2025: Climate Change and "The Right to Criticise"
Links for the day
The Mainstream Media Took 4 Days to Realise Microsoft Shut Down Its Operations in Pakistan and Fired Everybody
We estimate that Microsoft has had about 29,000 layoffs since January
“Twibel” Actions Against Comedians (and Why It's a Truly Low Blow)
they try to make up in quantities for a lack of merit or quality
 
Links 06/07/2025: End to End Encryption at Risk, Reuters Twitter ("X") Account Withheld in India
Links for the day
Gemini Links 06/07/2025: Tinylog and Certification Rotation
Links for the day
PCLinuxOS Sites Coming Back, Gradually
let's just be patient
Social Control Media, Even If Based on Free Software, Still Has Many Problems
a distraction from what actually mattered and still matters
IBM is Not Your Master
IBM makes friends with people who exclude the majority of the population: women
Help Fund the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
If you have some dollars to spare, go support the FSF
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 05, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 05, 2025
A Short History of Attacks on Techrights (and Boycott Novell Before That)
good opportunity to tell again the story of several (not all) attempts to silence us
Leadership in Free Software
Don't let IBM lead. It's a terrible flag bearer.
Linux Foundation Apparently Flirting With Slop (Marketing by LLM-Generated SPAM)
The Web is in a really bad state!
COVID-19 Sped Up Site Improvements in Techrights
A few months later we created our very own IRC network
Gemini Links 05/07/2025: Negative Questions and 'Touching Grass' (Going Outside)
Links for the day
Links 05/07/2025: Dalai Lama Succession as 90th Birthday Approaches, 40 deg C in China
Links for the day
Links 05/07/2025: Hungary and US Defecting to Russia, "Google's Hotseat Hypocrisy"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/07/2025: 4th of July 2025 and "Zig Roadmap 2026"
Links for the day
How to Combat the Exploitation and Abuse by Microsoft GitHub
Not to mention corruption and crimes against women
Bryan Lunduke is Actually Sending His Audience to Attack People
"[Lunduke] is actually sending his audience to attack people."
Even The Right Wing is Rejecting Bryan Lunduke
no wonder he became so irrelevant and marginal
Microsoft's MSN Helps Microsoft Spread Lies About the Layoffs' Scale (Well Over 25,000 People Laid Off This Year)
There seem to be monopolies on lies and on truth
The Death of X Has Been Greatly Exaggerated (by Compromised Media)
X.Org Server is alive and well
Rewriting Things in Rust
How far would you go?
In 2025 Everything is "AI". Remember Blockchains?
Talk about what companies and things (services, products, software) actually do, not the labels they use
Julian Assange Has Been Free for a Year
Julian Assange and I disagreed on some things
Monopolies and Scalping
Monopolies gravitate towards price hikes
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 04, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 04, 2025
Microsoft's August Layoffs Wave: "August is Confirmed for Additional Performance Based Cuts"
"August is confirmed for additional performance based cuts from the recent connects along with additional organizational cuts."
What Microsoft Reputation Laundering (With a Weaponised Law Degree) Looks Like in a Foreign Continent
You would expect this in uncivilised and primitive countries
Slopwatch: LLMs 'Write' Fake or Distorted 'News' About "Linux"
LLM slop disguised as news
Links 04/07/2025: Google Replaces the Web With Slop, "AI Might Kill Us All"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/07/2025: Mindfulness and F1
Links for the day
Weeks After Microsoft Bankruptcy in Russia the Company Shuts Down in Pakistan, Too
Last month Windows' share in Pakistan fell to an all-time low
Rob Musial's June 2025 Additions of Malware in Proprietary Software
Via the GNU Web site this week
Links 04/07/2025: Microsoft's H-1B Visa Applications Show Another Crisis Unfolding, Many More Deep Cuts and Shutdowns Revealed, Complete Microsoft Exits
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/07/2025: A Day To Remember and "Stop Killing Games"
Links for the day
Crime and Corruption at Microsoft GitHub Cannot be Covered Up by SLAPPs in Another Continent
We'll write about this for a long time to come
Slop Videos Are Disappointing Garbage, Nothing New, Just Brute Force up on Display or a Pedestal of Slop
Slop videos aren't a new thing
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 03, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, July 03, 2025
The War on Local Storage (People Hosting Their Files Locally and Privately)
There's nothing wrong with controlling one's computing
What Digital Independence Means
Independence in the digital realms means abandoning platforms like GitHub, not just rejecting proprietary software
NVidia is a Bubble
they temporarily see fortunes and wrongly assume perpetuity thereof
Fedora Does Not Care About Diversity and Inclusion, It's About Optics (Corporate Image)
any notion of inclusion is superficial and misleading
Don't Buy the Excuses for Microsoft's Mass Layoffs
Back in the 90s, Microsoft bought a lot of companies to get and stay ahead