Bonum Certa Men Certa

Covering Software Patents For 12 Years

With 23,907 blog posts so far, soon to cross the 24k mark, we carry on going

Techrights grid



Summary: From our focus on Microsoft back in 2006 we have moved on to EPO affairs and we'll soon turn 12

TECHRIGHTS was born as a response to Microsoft's patent aggression back in 2006. That was way before EPO scandals and way before patent reforms at the USPTO (AIA), not to mention Bilski, Alice, TC Heartland and Oil States at SCOTUS.



Having written two articles about Microsoft's patent aggression yesterday (last night [1, 2]), we certainly hope that readers don't fall for PR campaigns like "Microsoft loves Linux", the "new Microsoft" and so on.

"Monday evening," said Soren Spicknall from Microsoft, "come to @MSFTChicago [Microsoft "Building Decentralized Tech Tools for Democracy"] to hear from @DemocracyEarth" (citing this page). He exchanged some messages with me after I had challenged him on Microsoft's very negative record with democracy. I told him that Microsoft is good at crime, not democracy. I also cited Microsoft's ruthless assault on Free software in voting machines, which is well documented. All he could then do is pretend that it has nothing to do with him (the "not my department!" defense).

"Thankfully, there are several good sites out there which challenge the status quo."Here we are in 2018. I try hard not to cover Microsoft as much as I used to (it's tempting, but the company is becoming irrelevant) and instead I focus on the EPO, leaving much of these US affairs (Microsoft included) mostly aside until weekends. It's easier to catch up in weekends and cover less urgent matters 'in bulk', so to speak.

Thankfully, there are are good sites out there which challenge the status quo. Aside from Patent Progress (CCIA) and Unified Patents there's also the Docket Navigator with its selective reports on cases of interest. Among the latest:

Sub Zero Franchising, Inc. v Frank Nye Consulting LLC, d/b/a The Arctic Scoop et al

The court granted defendants' motion for more than $360,000 in sanctions under Rule 11 and 28 U.S.C. €§ 1927 against plaintiff's counsel because plaintiff's standing allegations and pre-suit investigation were unreasonable.


BASF Corporation v Johnson Matthey Inc.

The court denied plaintiff's motion to strike defendant's expert report from a law professor, but allowed plaintiff to file an early Daubert motion.


Resh, Inc. v Skimlite Manufacturing Inc. et al

The court granted defendants' motion to dismiss plaintiff's claim for a declaration of patent infringement for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.


We have decided that in the coming week if not weeks we're going to focus on new EPO scandals, particularly with emphasis on the "inventor of the year" nonsense and Battistelli's abusive affairs in France. There's a lot more to be dug out there and with Battistelli's immunity having less than 2 months 'on the clock' we certainly hope that he will be held accountable for his abuses.

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
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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
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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