Bonum Certa Men Certa

USPTO and EPO: Call Software Patents 'Hey Hi' ('AI') and Use Microsoft Software (or Else!)

A dip in patent quality and integrity

A dip



Summary: The mischief of the world's biggest patent offices (or biggest bar China's) is costly and very much corrosive to the image of patent systems; if they don't obey the law, how is the public expected to respect them?

THE LATEST 35 U.S.C. €§ 101 cases (in our daily links) show that software patents continue to be rejected by courts, never mind what the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) says. As we shall show in other future posts (we've just received lots of new documents), the European Patent Office (EPO) is the same; European courts reject such patents and the UPC will never materialise, i.e. those courts will continue to decide on patent scope. While software patents are being granted in Europe there's no legal certainty; they're pointless if not worthless. António Campinos and his friend Battistelli were granting loads of fake patents or Invalid Patents (IPs).



"It's a growing problem because it has become a common dodge (from the law) both the USPTO and EPO now leverage."We recently wrote a bunch of articles about the "Hey Hi" (AI) hype -- more articles than we care to recall or even count. It's a growing problem because it has become a common dodge (from the law) both the USPTO and EPO now leverage. This dodge lets them fake 'productivity' -- in effect granting patents which they very well know courts would throw out (if given the chance/challenge).

Law firms don't really mind all these fake patents; they still get to collect payments from applications, renewals, searches and lawsuits. They're in it for the money, not for science or innovation (with few rare exceptions, who might end up seeking a career change sooner or later). Consider this latest promotion of software patents in Europe from a firm that brags about a "European Software Patents Knowledge Base" (while in this case acknowledging that the said patents aren't even valid!); also spot Gene Quinn (Watchtroll) still attacking judges ("Note to the Federal Circuit: Spewing Illogical Nonsense Does Not Make It True" is his latest insult/headline). He's just angry that the Federal Circuit rejects software patents and affirms inter partes reviews (IPRs). What a villainous site; it's hardly surprising that EPO management associates with it! The EPO too attacks judges. Today's EPO is a rogue institution placed above the law so that it can break the law every single day. It's granting patents on maths, on nature and on life. The USPTO too grants patent monopolies on life itself. Totally insane? Sure. But here, it has just done so again.

"Nowadays the EPO doesn't even use the same old buzzwords for software patents. It came up with new ones, including "AI"."The "EPO [is] promoting swpats [software patents] again," Benjamin Henrion warned earlier this week. "Using patents to protect digital business models," he quoted from a new event page of theirs.

Nowadays the EPO doesn't even use the same old buzzwords for software patents. It came up with new ones, including "AI". The USPTO copies some of these buzzwords.

"USPTO patenting statistics," Henrion wrote, citing the latest nonsense from the USPTO. They call it "AI" and it's about software; no matter if actual courts throw our or push all these fake patents away...

Disguising fake patents on software (or algorithms) using buzzwords like "hey hi" might help trick examiners, but not courts.

"USPTO seeks public comment on patent policy and artificial intelligence," said Susan Decker from Bloomberg, where she often spouts out the lies of the patent microcosm.

Bear in mind all these proponents of "AI" patents never even wrote any computer code. "AI" is, to them, some sort of "geek magic".

"Bear in mind all these proponents of "AI" patents never even wrote any computer code."Here's Dennis Crouch's take on "Artificial Intelligence (AI) Patents," where he states that: "The USPTO is seeking information on artificial intelligence (AI) inventions."

Here's the "CII" nonsense (the term which the EPO used to name-drop a lot): "written description support for computer-implemented inventions [CII] generally require sufficient disclosure of an algorithm to perform a claimed function, such that a person of ordinary skill in the art can reasonably conclude that the inventor had possession of the claimed invention."

Crouch wrote another post about price hikes and Microsoft promotion; it's a subject we wrote about last year. To quote: "New Fee: Non-DOCX Application Filing Surcharge Fee of $400" (OOXML promotion, discrimination against open standards like ODF). This might merit a separate post/rant because it's a major scandal and right now it's just in "proposal" status. There's an actual, confirmed scandal below [1]. Covered 2 days ago.

If patent offices want patents to be taken seriously, then they should themselves set an example. Obey the law, for starters.

Related/contextual items from the news:



  1. The Patent And Trademark Office Is Apparently Branching Out Into The Immigration Enforcement Business

    Here's another one of those weird signs of the time. Under any normal presidential administration, this move by the US Patent and Trademark Office might look a bit strange. But only a bit. There are some legitimate reasons for doing this, but filtered through the administration's xenophobia, it seems to be just another way to hassle non-citizens. (h/t Jef Pearlman)



Recent Techrights' Posts

Parties and Milestones Again
we've begun putting up about 40 balloons
Microsoft is Disloyal Towards Its Most Loyal Employees
Against its most faithful enablers
 
The Cocaine Patent Office - Part II: The Person Who Planted Paid-for Fake News for the European Patent Office (EPO) is a Cocaine User, Friend of António Campinos, Now on Record as Having Been Arrested
Background: High-level manager at the European Patent Office caught in public with cocaine, arrested
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, October 27, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, October 27, 2025
Google News Drowning in Slop (and Slopfarms That Hijack About Half the Results)
Google News seems to be drowning in this stuff
Gemini Links 28/10/2025: "How to Maximize Your Positive Impact" and ASCII Art and Artist Attribution
Links for the day
PETA and Activism
Being staff or volunteer in PETA isn't easy
Big Blue, Huge Debt
debt will soar again
Links 27/10/2025: Mass Surveillance Sold as "AI", People Reluctant to Lose Physical Media
Links for the day
Techrights' 19th Anniversary: Bronze
Time to go back to preparing for this anniversary
Our Latest European Patent Office (EPO) Series Will Last Several Weeks, Will Ask the EPO Management and the European Union (EU) Very Difficult Questions
If nobody loses a job (or jobs) over this, then the EU basically became no better than Colombia or Nicaragua
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, UbuntuPIT, Brian Fagioli, and Google News
We focus on stories that are fake or LLM slop that disguises itself as "news" about Linux
Links 27/10/2025: Wikipedia Vandalism, Bruce Perens Opens up on Childhood
Links for the day
This Site Could Not be Done by LLMs Even If It Wanted to (Because It's Not a Parrot of What Other Sites Say)
LLMs have no knowledge or deep understanding
19 Years, No Censorship
No factual information is ever going to be removed, more so if it is in the public interest
We Are Not a Conventional Site, That's Why They Hate (or Love) Us
Throughout the week this week we'll be focusing on the EPO
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
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
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