Bonum Certa Men Certa

Lobbyists for Software Patents in 'Journalism' and 'Reform' Clothing (With Microsoft Connections)

One big happy family with lots of money in circulation and pro-software patents agenda

David Kappos PAI



Summary: The latest examples of unequivocal pushes for software patents, under the guise of 'reporting' (poor-shaming) or patent 'reform' (nothing to do with reform), courtesy of IAM 'magazine' and David Kappos, respectively

PATENT quality at the David Kappos-led USPTO has been poor and declining. This was apparently the goal, or an obvious (predictable) consequence of the strategy. It leaves the United States in a state of total mess, where a lot of startups are forced to cough out 'protection money' or go out of business. Not only patent trolls are causing this havoc but also large patent aggressors, such as Microsoft and IBM. Imagine what this kind of mess would mean to India, where a lot of software is being developed and the budget of local firms is relatively tight (hiring lawyers in another country is extremely expensive).



"Not only patent trolls are causing this havoc but also large patent aggressors, such as Microsoft and IBM."Taking stock of the latest propaganda from IAM 'magazine', Techrights cannot help but berate and ridicule this so-called 'magazine' (more like a lobbying pamphlet). It's not even a magazine, it's Kool-Aid in paper form and a paywalled Web site (to keep only the choir in the know, no dissenting voices allowed). Here is today's IAM brainwash about US patent 'quality' (the number of granted patents doubling in just a few years is evidently an indication of declining quality) and even worse brainwash that misrepresents the views of Indians, composed by an Anglo-Saxon who is employed to write such tripe. No Indian is even quoted in this article, except a law firm (obviously no bias there!).

Even after Alice, which challenges software patents in their home country, IAM continues to bat for software patents. IAM is London-based, which makes it even more outrageous, until one checks where IAM's funds actually come from...

"Techrights cannot help but berate and ridicule this so-called ‘magazine’ (more like a lobbying pamphlet). It’s not even a magazine, it’s Kool-Aid in paper form and a paywalled Web site (to keep only the choir in the know, no dissenting voice allowed)."Robert R. Sachs from Bilski Blog (shrewdly named after the famous Bilski case) is preparing a paper (and a series of articles derived from it) about why software patents are just mental processes, hence abstract. In many ways, software patents a major deception, exploiting people's misunderstanding of how software actually works (it's not hard to scam or bamboozle patent judges who never wrote a single line of code).

Earlier today I confronted the editor in chief at IAM, who is a trolls denialist (he still pretends that no such problem exists, just like people who deny human-caused global warning or climate change). This editor and his guys (the only woman there is clerical) are not reporting. They're pushing for software patents in India today, using distortion of facts and outright lies. Shame on IAM for doing this. As I put it earlier today, in response to the editor: "As long as you guys do reputation laundering for patent trolls and software patents while they PAY you, you're fake news. PR."

"They're pushing for software patents in India today, using distortion of facts and outright lies."It's increasingly important to shed light on what IAM really is and who's funding it (and what for).

As I put it earlier today, IAM "continues to demonstrate that it's not a real newspaper/magazine but just paid lobbying pretending to be reporting. Disgusting."

IAM is full of patent maximalists (look at the authors' background) who want more patents in more places, more domains, more companies, and so on. IAM is funded by those interests. What does that say about IAM? It's like a magazine about energy which is funded by oil and coal companies, in order to suppress any coverage of alternative forms of energy. Bias by omission at the very least. This villainous, trolls- and EPO-connected IAM 'magazine' now shames India over India's very tactful decision to block software patents, in the same way it repeatedly shamed Germany for not doing enough (much to the editor's displeasure) to openly promote UPC, which incidentally IAM got paid to promote (even by the EPO's PR firm). It doesn't take a genius to see what's going on here, who pays, and cui bono etc. IAM dedicated their latest issue to the world's largest patent troll [EN|ES] -- an issue which apparently included this article, whose whole premise (and headline) is a big lie. The title says "India’s tough new line on software patents could hamper plans for boosting its digital start-ups" (no kidding!).

"It's increasingly important to shed light on what IAM really is and who's funding it (and what for)."In reality, the very opposite is true as software patents would hamper India's plans for boosting its digital start-ups. Ask these start-ups and they will say so. Ask Microsoft or IBM (or their patent lawyers in India) and they will say 'on behalf' of these start-ups just a bunch of lies. Ask lobbyists of big companies and patent lawyers (like those that pay IAM) and they too will tell lots of lies. It's the same scenario we saw in New Zealand and in Europe, where Microsoft even pays lobbyists to pretend to represent small businesses and actually say the very opposite of what European SMEs think and believe in. IAM now demonstrates that it's no better than these lobbyists. The difference is the way they publicly characterise themselves.

Indian startups need code, not patents, which are priced out of reach anyway, never mind cost of litigation. IAM wrote: "It seems to me that this could cause some big problems for the digital start-ups that the government is so keen to support. Many of them will have computer-related innovations at the heart of their business models; if it becomes much more difficult for them to obtain patent protection on these, then the reasons for them to consider relocating outside of India could well become even more compelling."

"Indian startups need code, not patents, which are priced out of reach anyway, never mind cost of litigation."This is nonsense. Where is the evidence that without software patents those start-ups would move out of India and given that the software market is an international market (definitely not local), what difference would relocation make anyway? It might make a difference for multinational corporations such as IBM or Microsoft, no doubt about that...

Speaking of Microsoft, last night we discovered (not too shockingly) that Microsoft is putting money on Debian's table (conference). It becomes -- gasp -- a sponsor. Yes, it's E.E.E., but does Debian understand that? As we noted some days ago and last weekend, Microsoft still sponsors patent maximalism conferences (with Microsoft-funded lobbyists who promote software patents), wherein it can further influence the EPO (its partner in crime, so to speak) and European politicians. Can Microsoft be trusted at all while it's extorting and blackmailing Debian-based device manufacturers using software patents? That's a rhetorical question.

"Can Microsoft be trusted at all while it's extorting and blackmailing Debian-based device manufacturers using software patents?"Incidentally, having mentioned David Kappos earlier, he too is now acting more as a lobbyist (official-turned-lobbyist a classic way of turning influence into money), funded by Microsoft and others in order to promote software patents. Remember that Horacio Gutierrez and his Microsoft chums once (or more than once) paid Florian Müller to do the same thing. Here is a recent article which a reader sent to us last night. It neglects to mention the special role of Kappos there. It just says that "Apple is taking a bigger role in pushing for patent reform in the United States by teaming up with IBM, Microsoft, and other companies as part of the Partnership for American Innovation. The organization's goal is to lobby the Federal government to adopt the changes it wants to improve the country's patent system."

No, it wants to promote software patents. When Microsoft says patent "reform" it means software patents lobbying (same for Apple and IBM). They hijack the word reform and their chief lobbyist at PAI is David Kappos himself.

"Microsoft is now in the Kappos-led group that pushes for software patents.""By the way," told us one reader, "we've been wondering here about why Microsoft is so quiet and not attacking FOSS deployments and legislations. We figured that they must be working on something that can do an end-run around both. Digging a bit, it might be that they are confident that TTIP, TISA, and CETA will ban FOSS. There's been no coverage of that to speak of in the mainstream press. In the same digging, I see that I've underestimated the importance of Wikileaks as well as the motives for Microsoft and its government stooges to crush it. As far as I know, TISA or TTIP is also pushing software patents, but I've read almost nothing yet and am about to start."

Microsoft is now in the Kappos-led group that pushes for software patents. as our reader put it, "reform turns out to be one of their weasel words."

The same goes for "loving" Linux. Watch out, Debian. You're already fractured and fragmented due to systemd. Now you let the patent bully enter your events? Will buttons that say "Microsoft loves Linux" be distributed to put people off, as usual? It perfectly fits the latest E.E.E. pattern.

"I’ve killed at least two Mac conferences. [...] by injecting Microsoft content into the conference, the conference got shut down. The guy who ran it said, why am I doing this?"

--Microsoft's chief evangelist



Recent Techrights' Posts

New XBox Leaks Probably Serve to Confirm XBox's Collapse (Many More Layoffs)
It's very much consistent with what many other sites have reported lately
 
Noteworthy Claim That IBM is Firing a Lot of Lawyers This Week (RAs in the Legal Department)
A lot of what they do is patent 'trolling' or lawyering up against their own staff (e.g. HR disputes)
Links 10/10/2025: US Judge Bars Attacks by ICE On Journalists and Protesters; “We Took The Freedom of Speech Away” Says the President
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Serial Sloppers, Google News Gifting Slopfarms, and Fake News/Plagiarism About "Linux"
Google itself is a slop pusher these days
Qualcomm, the New Owner of Arduino, Blasted for Its Software Patents Tax on 'Smartphones'
A lot of Qualcomm's patents are on software. We wrote about this in prior years.
XBox Layoffs Rumours, Downtime, and Criticism From XBox Co-Founder
"everyone is ditching the xbox."
Links 10/10/2025: Honoring The Legacy Of Robert Murray-Smith, Many Articles on the Hey Hi (AI) Bubble
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: October Gothic and Reading Middle Earth Role Playing; C and Ada
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 09, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 09, 2025
Links 09/10/2025: Farewell to Jane Goodall, California Bans Algorithmic Price-Fixing
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Lost Wages and a Saga Of Continuing To Use Palm PDAs
Links for the day
Richard Stallman's Talk in Helsinki is Done. Tomorrow Göteborg.
There are scarce details in Finnish about Dr. Stallman's talk
The Slop Song
The train wreck marches on
LLM Slop/Advanced Plagiarism Flooding the Zone With Capital That Does Not Exist
Many publishers out there still participate in this bubble instead of calling it what it is
Links 09/10/2025: Sacked Microsoft Workers Make "Sackbird", IBM Taps CockroachDB for PostgreSQL
Links for the day
"Happy Hacking Day" Richard Stallman Talk This Afternoon (From 14:00 to 16:00) at Haaga-Helia University in Pasila
Richard Stallman in Helsinki, Finland
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 08, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 08, 2025
Links 09/10/2025: Impact of Microsoft Layoffs, More Data Breaches
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Autumn Blues and C IRC Bot
Links for the day
Slopwatch Appreciated by Real Authors of GNU/Linux Articles
We do try to keep on top of those things
Upgraded R.R.R.R.R.R. Today
The Web of 2025 is full of garbage, not limited to slopfarms
Freedom From Proprietary Prisons
Forking always an option
IBM's Watson Died in 1956, Now Watson Dies Again
IBM is becoming just a reseller of GAFAM and other stuff
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, UbuntuPIT, and Google News
We've also just noticed more slop from UbuntuPIT
Microsoft Says That Constant Mass Layoffs Are Success, the Media Isn't Buying This Microsoft Narrative Anymore
If people in the media feel an obligation to repeat whatever lies Microsoft tells, what point will there be to the media?
Links 08/10/2025: "Mali Puts Free Speech on Trial" And Apple Enforces Dictatorship
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: ‘Death to Spotify’ and Law to Ban Loud Commercials on Streaming (Dis)Services
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: Real Innovation and Nina.chat is Dead
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: Y2K38 Bug is a Vulnerability, Chat Control in Europe a Threat
Links for the day
Microsoft Windows is No Longer an Operating System, It's Surveillance Project
Why is this even legal to preload on PCs outside the US?
How and Why Once-Legitimate Sites Turn Into Slopfarms
Many sites will go offline and many social control networks will shut down once they realise or even openly admit they spend money and time gardening a bunch of bots and slop
UbuntuPIT Became a Slopfarm and Gnoppix Tarnishes Its Own Brand With Slop
It fits all the characteristics of mildly-edited (if at all) slop
Slopwatch: Linux Journal and Other Slopfarms
GAFAM needs to go the way of the dodo
Gemini Links 08/10/2025: "Seek Seek Revolution" and Gradient Backgrounds
Links for the day
Qualcomm Arduino Takes Aim at Raspberry Pi
Qualcomm is a Microsoft partner
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 07, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, October 07, 2025
Stagnation of the Economy and What Free Software Can (or Could) Do For It
If your economic model is based on a pyramid of lies, it won't last very long
Social Control Media is Sinking
it would rightly seem like the era of centralised "social" sites (they're not social, they're about controlling the users) is ending, not overnight but gradually