Summary: Software patent lawyers and software patent trolls are still active in the United States, even if the climate is unfriendly to them after the Supreme Court's decision on Alice and ۤ 101

WITH ۤ 101 and Alice (2014), it's now abundantly apparent that things have changed. It's rather common for software patents to simply die, either at the courts or at PTAB. As patent trolls rely so heavily on software patents, they too are suffering and now there's a plan for an "IPO Webinars on Section 101". To quote a patent maximalism site: "The Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) will offer two one-hour webinars entitled "Section 101 РThe Way Ahead". The first webinar, concerning the impact of ۤ 101 on the software industry, is being offered on August 10, 2016 from 2:00 to 3:00 pm (ET). Stephen Durant of Schwegman, Lundberg & Woessner, P.A.; Michelle Macartney of Intellectual Ventures, LLC..."

Well, Steven Lundberg's firm, which we last mentioned in April, is one of the worst offenders and one of the most vocal proponents of software patents. They even have a dedicated blog and lobbying on the matter. The world's largest patent troll (and Microsoft's troll) Intellectual Ventures taking part in pro-software patents event is also noteworthy. It really shows what the Intellectual Property Owners Association has been reduced to; it's like a think tank for lobbyists, parasites and trolls.

"It's rather common for software patents to simply die, either at the courts or at PTAB."In writing about Technicolor, the trolls-funded 'news' site IAM did not bother mentioning that MPEG-LA is a parasitic patent troll. The editor, who wrote this article, denies that trolls exist (like people who deny climate change). MPEG-LA and related patent pools (mentioned therein and covered here in the past) pass a massive tax to the public, in the name of software patents even when these patents do not exist (and are not legitimate). Companies that latch onto MPEG-LA to extract revenue from the public are nothing but leeches. They don't innovate, they just look for a patent troll like MPEG-LA to act as a proxy and bully any company which streams video (or helps stream video) without paying millions of dollars in unjust tax. Even Mozilla became a victim of this. What a waste of money for a FOSS company and a project like Firefox.

Speaking of trolls, IBM increasingly acts like one and it relies on software patents for this. Using the words "PTAB Attack" (another negative-sounding term like "killer" or "death squad") a patent attorney wrote that "IBM's Online Reservation Patent Survives PTAB Attack: https://dlbjbjzgnk95t.cloudfront.net/0822000/822630/ipr2016-00604_institution_decision_12.pdf"

"Companies that latch onto MPEG-LA to extract revenue from the public are nothing but leeches."The cited PDF is 25 pages long and in it it's "ORDERED that, pursuant to 35 U.S.C. €§ 314(a), an inter partes review is not instituted for claims 1–8, 11, 12, 14–21, 24, 25, 27–34, 37, 38, 40–45, 47–49, 51–57, and 60–66 of U.S. Patent No. 5,961,601." The Petitioners are Richard Zembek and Gilbert Greene. The patent owner (or firm representing him/her/them) is Andrew Heinz and/or Kevin McNish.

What we have here is a reminder that PTAB is not always the ultimate remedy. Having said that, there are also the courts to fall back on, so if IBM resorts to lawsuits rather than just saber-rattling, the patent can still die (at very high cost to the defendant though, possibly lasting several years after a number of appeals).

The latest in a high-profile case against Apple suggests that VirnetX's patent lawsuit which it won against Apple isn't the end of it because "TX Ct [Texas court] Vacated VirnetX $625M Award Against Apple; Ordered Two New Trials: https://dlbjbjzgnk95t.cloudfront.net/0823000/823395/https-ecf-txed-uscourts-gov-doc1-17518671566.pdf"

Texas again. It figures.

"What we have here is a reminder that PTAB is not always the ultimate remedy."In other news, Patently-O wrote last night about Illumina's battle against Ariosa Diagnostics. It's one of those controversial patents on genetics (i.e. on life) and Professor Crouch wrote: "The essence of the conflict is whether Illumina’s U.S. Patent No. 7,955,794 is covered by the “Core IP Rights” licensed as part of a 2012 supply agreement. Illumina argues that ‘794 patent was not licensed and, when Ariosa refused to pay a license fee, sued Ariosa for patent infringement. Ariosa’s counterclaim of breach of contract and other covenants stem directly from the infringement allegations."

Sadly, as seen above, there is a persistent (if not also growing) element of confrontation around software patents and other dubious patents because the USPTO lost touch with patent scope and granted nearly anything that came in -- the same mistake that Battistelli now makes at the EPO. ⬆