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

"Security Advantages" Explained by a Scammy "Security" Site That Uses LLMs to Spew Out Garbage
destroying the Web by saturating it with "bullshit".
 
Links 13/10/2024: Science, Politics, and Some Gemini
Links for the day
Links 13/10/2024: Writing, Remembering John Wheeler, Voice Cloning
Links for the day
Certificate Authority Let's Encrypt Falls to 0.7% in Geminispace (It Was Around 12% Just 2 Years Ago and 7.5% This Past February)
Let's Encrypt is down again
Gemini Links 13/10/2024: Self-hosting Snac2 and Invasion of e-ink
Links for the day
SDxCentral, which the Linux Foundation Paid to Produce Marketing SPAM, Has Now Become Slop (LLM Spew) Disguised as 'Articles'
Google should delist it
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, October 12, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, October 12, 2024
Links 12/10/2024: More Site Blocking, China's Hostility, and Evan Gershkovich's Upcoming Book
Links for the day
Links 12/10/2024: Boeing to Cut 17,000 Jobs, Medieval Sleeping Habits, Warning About Liquidweb
Links for the day
Links 12/10/2024: Health, Safety and Climate Concerns
Links for the day
Gemini Links 12/10/2024: Ensemble and Assembler
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
Links 12/10/2024: TikTok Layoffs and Risk of More Wars
Links for the day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, October 11, 2024
IRC logs for Friday, October 11, 2024
Gemini Links 11/10/2024: Against Cynicism, on Atheism, and Dropping Off The Internet
Links for the day
IBM Employees Smell Another Wave of Mass Layoffs (and Explain the Signs)
IBM currently has the policy of hiding the layoffs from shareholders and from the press using NDAs
Links 11/10/2024: Lots More Censorship and Growing Concerns About Health Impact of Social Control Media
Links for the day
Going Almost 4.5 Decades Back to Find 'Dirt' on a Person
That incident was 42.5 years ago. Is that how far some people would go in an effort to discredit a person?
XBox is Dead. This is Just the Beginning.
the main reason Microsoft bought Activision/Blizzard was to hide the growing losses and failure of XBox
The Risk to the "Linux" Brand
Brands that are not guarded from misuse/abuse will inevitably lose their original meaning and their value
Gemini Links 11/10/2024: Deploying Common Lisp Programs and Examining FreeBSD
Links for the day
Links 11/10/2024: Discord Still Blocked in Turkey, Google Might be Split
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 10, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, October 10, 2024