Bonum Certa Men Certa

One Week Later, as Expected, the Patent Trolls' Lobby Continues to Moan About Oil States and Tries to Bring Another Challenge to PTAB (at the Supreme Court Level)

Patent Lawyers' Tears

Patent Lawyers' Tears



Summary: People who made their career out of patent maximalism aren't entirely happy to see the media covering Oil States (like it did Alice and TC Heartland), knowing this decision contributes even further to the legitimacy of the appeal board, PTAB

THE USPTO spoke about the impact of the Supreme Court's (SCOTUS) decisions on PTAB yesterday afeternoon. We have not seen any coverage about that. At least not yet...

As a recap, here is what we have written about Oil States since this decision that was published almost exactly one week ago:



We said it would probably dominate the headlines for days if not weeks. Seeing Watchtroll's latest attack on Oil States (as well as Section 101 and the rest) is therefore not surprising to us. Watchtroll wrote 3 articles about Oil States in just 5 hours after the decision. Court- or jurist-bashing included, as usual. Watch the comments from the likes of Paul Morinville; these aren't mere maximalists but what we often call/refer to as patent extremists. These are the sorts of people who were bullying Michelle Lee until she quit her job, leaving a vacuum for some law firm that used to work for Donald Trump to take over.

Well, anyway, Watchtroll went even further than this. Writing about John Bean Techs. Corp. v Morris & Assocs. (a CAFC case involving estoppel) they carry on pretending that almost nothing has just happened. Estoppel has also just been noted in relation to Akeso Health Sciences, LLC v Designs for Health, Inc. -- a case that Docket Navigator tracks extra closely:

The court granted defendant's motion for summary judgment that plaintiff's patent infringement claims were barred by equitable estoppel due to its ten-year delay in filing suit and found that defendant was materially prejudiced by plaintiff's silence following its cease-and-desist letter.


We won't let the patent microcosm leave Oil States behind and distract from (or bash); this is what they want. In fact, seeking to undo the 'damage', they try to get another case like Oil States going at the Supreme Court. Watchtroll writes about Droplets (already promoted by Patently-O). They try to get many firms/groups involved, in order to put pressure on SCOTUS and compel Justices to deal with the case. It is not a special case and it doesn't merit SCOTUS time; in short, PTAB found the patent to be bogus and CAFC re/affirmed (agreed). Why appeal to SCOTUS? Here's what Watchtroll said yesterday:

In an IPR brought by E*Trade in response to an infringement suit by Droplets, the Board found that the Droplets ‘115 patent was invalid due to obviousness. The patent properly claimed priority to the ‘838 patent but also attempted to claim priority to an earlier ‘917 provisional patent and an intervening ‘745 patent through incorporation by reference. The Board concluded that these priority claims were not proper, and the Federal Circuit agreed.


So that's it; nothing too unique about this. It happens every week.

Patently-O, a PTAB-bashing blog favoured among the patent microcosm, still loses its mind over patent reform. SCOTUS just constantly refuses to stop PTAB (not even with a Trump-appointed Justice), which basically eliminates bogus patents that should never have been granted. Patently-O wrote this a day ago:

Until today, a host of patent cases have been pending before the Supreme Court — hanging onto the coattails of Oil States. Following full affirmance of the IPR regime, the Supreme Court has now denied certiorari in those cases. The one additional case that was ripe-for-certiorari in the most recent Conference is PNC Bank National Association v. Secure Axcess, LLC, No. 17-350. The court issued no order in that case — suggesting that it may be up for further consideration. In PNC, the substantive question is “whether . . . CBM review requires that the claims of the patent expressly include a ‘financial activity element?'”


Good. SCOTUS already made it pretty clear (7 to 2) that PTAB is OK and can carry on. The patent microcosm just carries on trying to 'shelve' Oil States and override this decision as soon as possible. Patently-O tried hard to solicit briefs (or certiorari) to that effect.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Michael “Monty” Widenius: It Started in 1983 With Richard Stallman (RMS)
The other co-founder of MySQL is a bit notorious for confronting RMS rather viciously
For the Second Time in a Few Weeks Microsoft Lunduke Makes False Accusations Against Senior Red Hat Staff to Incite a Despicable 'Troll Army'
Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims of says can be trusted
 
Links 03/10/2025: Lawyers Caught Using LLM Slop Explain Why They Did It, LibreSSL 4.1.1 and 4.0.1 Released
Links for the day
FSF Board Grew 50% Since Last Year, Has New President, Turns 40 in Two Days
It's a good move for the FSF and - by extension - for software freedom
Links 03/10/2025: Conflicts, Death of TypePad, and TikTok/CheeTok Gives a Boost to Far Right Groups in Europe
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 02, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 02, 2025
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, Google News, and LinuxSecurity
They carry on polluting the Web with fake articles
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: Kubernetes With FreeBSD and robots.txt
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: 'Open' 'AI' Resorting to Gimmicks and Fake Funding, Europe’s ‘Drone Wall’ Discussed
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: Brave Passes 100M Users Milestone, Kodak Selling Its Own Film Again
Links for the day
su lisa && rm -rf /home/ibm/power
Novell was ruined by another person from IBM, Ronald Hovsepian
A Record Demand at Microsoft: Demand to Cancel
What we're witnessing is a very ungraceful destruction of XBox
Microsoft is Losing Europe
Hence all the "support" and "discount" offers that are limited to Europe
The Free Software Foundation Starts Fund-raising for 40th Anniversary
New pop-up 2-3 days ahead of the 40th anniversary event
Systemd Breaks Networking in Debian and Microsoft Staff Rushes to Make Face-Saving Excuses in LWN
Microsoft's bluca is already there in the comments, his Microsoft money pays for LWN to let him leave comments early
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 01, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 01, 2025
What the End of XBox Will Look Like: a Fiery Crash
XBox is the next Skype. It won't last much longer. Expect many more layoffs.
Richard Stallman is Going to Finland to Give a Talk Next Thursday
A day later he speaks in Sweden
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: SMTP Pipelining and End of ROOPHLOCH 2025
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Plagiarism, Fake Articles, and FUD About Linux
not a day goes by without Google News feeding FUD from slopfarms
Gemini Links 01/10/2025: Chat Control and End of Life
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: Long Covid Risk Reiterated, "Bitcoin Queen" Caught
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: EA $55 Billion Deal is Debt and Slop "Raises Vishing Risks"
Links for the day
Bluewashing at Red Hat Means Redundancies
The man who sold Red Hat to IBM meanwhile became a Microsoft Mono booster
After Killing OpenSource.com, IBM ('Red Hat') and OSI Told Us OpenSource.net Would Replace It (But That Didn't Happen)
Now it's time to move on, perhaps tarnishing the "Open Source" label some more (for whatever sponsor wants this)
Linux is Not a Community Project, It's a Wall Street Product
The core goal should be freedom
Bad Actors Abusing the Free Software Community, Vandalising It Using Rogue Politics and Old Tactics
Oil giants have long attempted to do this; now, the digital equivalent of Big Oil does this in technology
Social Control Media Isn't the Future, The Federation or Fediverse Isn't Growing, People's Accounts Vanish for Good
users' accounts will get deleted, not just become inactive
IBM is Failing, This Helps Show Wall Street is Entirely Detached From Actual Commercial Performance
IBM is unable to grow, it's just constantly shrinking
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 30, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Clerical Aspects of Publishing and Development
In Free software, the management aspects are considerably reduced
Slopwatch: Fake Articles and Google News Promoting "Linux" Spam or Bot-Generated Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)
These slopfarms help misplace blame
Third Wave of Microsoft Layoffs in September, This Time Many in Liverpool Affected
Be ready for more waves of layoffs ahead of the so-called "results" in late October