Bonum Certa Men Certa

Google 'Prior Art Archive' (for Patents) the Wrong Solution to the Wrong Problem

Patent scope, not prior art, is the principal culprit

American sector



Summary: The American technology sector is being 'protected' by a cabal of large technology companies, which can very well deal with a breadth and wealth of low-quality patents -- something that small companies cannot as they lack dedicated legal departments and cannot cross-license with a war chest of patents

THE issues associated with patents and patent trolls are well documented. They are generally understood by the public, too. But patent lawyers pretend that the only issue is that there are not enough patents, not enough lawsuits etc. (because they make money from these) and Google became a patent aggressor last year, which means that Google too is part of the problem.

"...Google became a patent aggressor last year, which means that Google too is part of the problem."A few days ago a report emerged under the title "Google throws support behind Prior Art Archive" -- something which isn't really unprecedented. Google should, instead of perpetuating the scale of this maze, put its weight behind abolishing all software patents. Its work with patent offices like the EPO and USPTO (patent databases, patent translations, patent search) merely exacerbates matters. It gives the false impression that issues are being tackled. As WIPR put it:

Google has shown its support for the newly-launched Prior Art Archive by connecting it with its Google Patents database.

Launched yesterday, October 3, the Prior Art Archive was designed to address the problem of low-quality patents which, according to the initiative’s creators, should not have been granted in the first place.

The Prior Art Archive, which was created by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and technology company Cisco, will help USPTO examiners identify prior art and obvious technology.


Quoting the original, Ian Wetherbee (Tech Lead/Manager, Google Patents) and Mike Lee (Director, Head of Patents) decided to say: "A healthy patent system requires that patent applicants and examiners be able to find and access the best documentation of state-of-the-art technology."

"Several years ago Google began stockpiling patents -- software patents included -- just like other giants in its domain."That might not help, however, in rejecting applications based on how trivial the claims are.

Several years ago Google began stockpiling patents -- software patents included -- just like other giants in its domain. As we explained on Friday, a Google-centric aggregator of software patents (DPA) known as LOT Network is even being embraced by Microsoft, probably for the sole purpose of marketing a protection racket [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21].

"Google also makes money from patent translations."So it should be generally accepted that Google isn't part of the solution; it's arguably part of the problem. Google also makes money from patent translations.

Lisa Ouellette, in yesterday's post "Language Barriers and Machine Translation," overlooks two key issues: 1) these translations are utterly incomprehensible for most languages, more so in technical domains and 2) one cannot digest millions of patents. Such a system is moot.

To quote this Associate Professor at Stanford Law School:

One of the more expensive parts of acquiring global patent protection is having a patent application translated into the relevant language for local patent offices. This is typically viewed simply as an administrative cost of the patent system, though my survey of how scientists use patents suggested that these translation costs may improve access to information about foreign inventions. As I wrote then, "[t]he idea that patents might be improving access to existing knowledge through mandatory translations and free accessibility is a very different disclosure benefit from the one generally touted for the patent system and seems worthy of further study." E.g., if researchers at a U.S. firm publish their results only in English but seek patent protection in the United States and Japan, then Japanese researchers who don't speak English would be able to read about the work in the Japanese patent.

I've also been interested in the proliferation of machine translation tools for patents—which can make patents even more accessible, but which also might limit this comparative advantage of patents over scientific publications if machine translation of journal articles becomes commonplace.


Meanwhile, another patent scholar and patent maximalist, Dennis Crouch, makes a stunning admission. It has been a slow news week for patents, so he makes public his notes to himself and then mentions some book that's not even about patents. In there he admits that US standard for patentability is low when he tries to justify it as follows: "The US patent system fits this approach in some ways — one reason why we have 10,000,000+ patents is that the standard for patentability is low enough so that many many individuals experience sufficient genius. The problem though is that the hoops, tricks, and costs leave the patent system as an insider game not accessible to the vast majority are locked-out."

"Deep inside Google knows that it can afford to spend a lot of money on tens of thousands of low-quality patents, then cross-license with other giants."This is very wrong. Patents should not be mere trophies; awarding these may mean that they end up in the hands of patent trolls, causing a lot of trouble to real geniuses (which trolls aren't). There's a big difference between finding oneself in the literature (for attribution or credit) and receiving an actual monopoly which costs a lot of money to invalidate/disprove. Google may be trying to make patents (or applications) easier to invalidate/disprove, but it does nothing at all to raise the bar for patents. Deep inside Google knows that it can afford to spend a lot of money on tens of thousands of low-quality patents, then cross-license with other giants.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Thankfully We've Made Copies of More Interesting Data From statCounter
If statCounter (the Web site or the 'webapp') vanished overnight, we'd still have something left of it
More Silent Layoffs at IBM/Red Hat
when the media counts such layoffs or presents tallies the numbers are very incomplete
 
Following the Line of Cocaine All the Way to the Top
Even a million denials and spin-doctoring won't distract from the core issue
The Cocaine Patent Office - Part I: António Campinos Brought Corruption and Nepotism to the EPO, Then Came the Cocaine
High-level manager at the European Patent Office (EPO) caught in public with cocaine, the Office has some answering to do
Purchasing/Possessing Computers Isn't the Same as Controlling Computers
Let's strive to put computers back under the control of their users, no matter who purchased these (usually the users)
Gemini Links 27/10/2025: Alhena 5.4.3 and Fixing Bash
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, October 26, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, October 26, 2025
Links 26/10/2025: Microsoft Spies on Gamers, Open Transport Community Conference
Links for the day
Links 26/10/2025: LLM Slop / Plagiarism Programs Continue to Disappoint, CISA Layoffs Threaten Systems
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/10/2025: Gemsync and Joining the Small Web
Links for the day
India.com a Click-baiting, SEO-Spamming, Slopfarming Heap
They do this almost every day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, October 25, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, October 25, 2025
Without XBox Consoles, XBox is No More, It's Just a Brand (More Rumours of Microsoft Ending XBox, Then Laying Off Lots of Staff)
All signs indicate that Microsoft wants to "exit" the XBox business (not brand), but it does not want to publicly admit this as it would alarm staff and shareholders
Gemini Links 25/10/2025: Portugal, Midnightpub, and "Tech Right Admins"
Links for the day
Almost 2026 Already (When We Turn Twenty)
In just over a year the site will turn 20
When "Sponsored Feature" in The Register MS Means Ponzi Scheme Promotion From the Communist Party of China (CPC)
the promotion of a financial scam
Week of EPO Leaks: Workers of the EPO Are Getting a Pay Cut While Prices Rise Fast
More to come in the next few days
Microsoft is Finally Giving Up on XBox, The Chief Says the Grapes Are Sour Anyway
Microsoft loses hundreds of dollars on each XBox that it sells
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, UbuntuPIT, and Various Slopfarms Propped up by Google News
Why can't Google News do better than this?
Links 25/10/2025: Two New Smokescreens for Scam Altman and ‘TikTok USA’ Remains in Limbo
Links for the day
Bad faith: can't change Debian Social Contract (DSC) without unanimous consent of every joint author
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Confirmed: Very Close Friend of Bill Gates and Microsoft's Biggest Patent Troll Nathan Myhrvold Flew the Lolita Express (a Gateway to Pedophilia), According to Bill Gates-Sponsored Seattle Times
There is no speculation or any "conspiracy theories" here;' those are verified facts
Gemini Links 25/10/2025: "The Highest Leader of The Global Civil Society Community", SSL Certificates Causing Bitrot
Links for the day
Links 25/10/2025: Target Layoffs and "Shutdown Sparks 85% Increase in US Government Cyberattacks"
Links for the day
"Big Data" Was a Big Lie
Remember "Big Data"? Remember "Data Scientists"...?
statCounter Has Been Broken for a Long Time
Considering the huge proportion of Web requests that come from LLM bots (more so this past year or two), statCounter may struggle to justify the operating costs
Techrights Anniversary Party on November 7th
Let us know if you need any accommodation-related arrangements
Trends That Must Alarm Microsoft and Mozilla
Expect Firefox to no longer be supported by various sites in the US
Why Microsoft Became the Layoffs Leader
The corporate media is projecting or signalling its own dishonesty when it tells us that Microsoft is a very "valuable" company while the data shows Microsoft is also a "market leader" in layoffs
Speaking for Ourselves and Letting the Facts Speak for Themselves
we've already published over 50,000 pages
For Second Time in a Day The Register MS Takes Money From Private Companies to Sell a Ponzi Scheme
Do not have empathy for those who have zero empathy towards you
IBM is Misleading IBM Shareholders
IBM is still all about vapourware and buzzwords
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, October 24, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, October 24, 2025