Wanting to eat Linux (and Linux revenue) for breakfast...

Summary: Some of the latest reports pertaining to Microsoft's (and its patent trolls') pursuit/lobbying for software patents at a time when such patents lose their appeal/lustre in the United States

SOFTWARE PATENTS are still possible to attain at the USPTO, but this does not mean -- and is certainly no guarantee -- that courts or even boards (like PTAB) will tolerate these. In fact, both often reject these and this reduces the incentive to pursue software patents in the first place.

"They want software patents restored so that they can carry on blackmailing software companies (usually with Linux/Android) at greater ease."Watchtroll offers tips for overcoming the barriers to software patenting, having come to grips with the fact that at the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) almost no software patents survive (one can count this year's exceptions on the fingers of one hand).

As noted here the other day, based on two reports, Microsoft and its trolls continue trying to undermine the new rules. They want software patents restored so that they can carry on blackmailing software companies (usually with Linux/Android) at greater ease. According to this new report about Microsoft's biggest troll:

Earlier this week, Intellectual Ventures (IV) petitioned the full Federal Circuit to review the panel opinion in Intellectual Ventures v. Symantec, which invalidated two of its patents under section 101. Both patents—the '050 and the '610—are directed to filtering email or file content. (IV does not challenge the invalidation of a third patent, which was directed to receiving, screening, and distributing email.) The petition echoes concerns raised by clients, courts, and the patent bar about the growing uncertainty about what is—and what is not—patent eligible, especially in the area of software patents. Identifying two emerging fault lines in the court's evolving section 101 jurisprudence, IV urges the full court to bring much needed doctrinal clarity and methodological consistency to the patent eligibility analysis.

It's important to keep track of this case. Microsoft's and Bill Gates' (personal connections) patent troll now pressures CAFC to kowtow to software patents while the media keeps telling us that Microsoft loves Linux so much. We don't suppose the Linux Foundation cares to comment on Microsoft's own lobbying for software patents (directly, not just by proxy). It's an Inconvenient truth when the Linux Foundation gets paid not to understand, having received Microsoft money for a while now [1, 2, 3]. Here is what Simon Phipps (head of OSI for a long time) wrote about the Linux Foundation's decision to join Microsoft the other day:

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"Microsoft's and Bill Gates' (personal connections) patent troll now pressures CAFC to kowtow to software patents while the media keeps telling us that Microsoft loves Linux so much."Another odd 'friend' of Linux, a company that is attacking small companies using software patents while lobbying for software patents and spreading proprietary software, is mentioned in the news today. IBM’s Manny Schecter is trying to find some balance between secrecy and software patents and we sure hope that he'll quit his stance on software patents as it often makes IBM look almost as hostile as Microsoft. ⬆

'“Other than Bill Gates, I don’t know of any high tech CEO that sits down to review the company’s IP portfolio" —Marshall Phelps (of IBM and Microsoft)