Category: Patents

Cloudflare goes berserk on next-gen patent troll, vows to utterly destroy it using prior-art bounties • The Register


Web giant wants to invalidate Blackbird Tech’s designs, get them thrown out of profession

Source: Cloudflare goes berserk on next-gen patent troll, vows to utterly destroy it using prior-art bounties • The Register

Stupid Patent of the Month: A Lyrics Website With User Interaction | Electronic Frontier Foundation


Song lyrics are some of the most searched-for topics on the Internet. This has lead to fierce competition among lyrics sites. If you scroll to the bottom of one of these websites, you’ll see the claim: “Song discussions is protected by U.S. Patent No.

Source: Stupid Patent of the Month: A Lyrics Website With User Interaction | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Original “patent troll” law firm is shutting down | Ars Technica


The Niro firm made tech companies shudder and made a few inventors wealthy.

Source: Original “patent troll” law firm is shutting down | Ars Technica

John Deere Really Doesn’t Want You to Own That Tractor | Electronic Frontier Foundation


John Deere is at it again, trying to strip customers of the right to open up and repair their own property. In the new License Agreement for John Deere Embedded Software [PDF], customers are forbidden to exercise their repair rights or to even look at the software running the tractor or the signals it generates.

Source: John Deere Really Doesn’t Want You to Own That Tractor | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Stupid Design Patent of the Month: Rectangles on a Screen | Electronic Frontier Foundation

This month’s stupid patent, a design patent, shows just how broken the current system of design patents is. Design patents, unlike the utility patents we usually feature, consist only of a single claim followed by pictures. It is generally the pictures that inform the public as to what is claimed. Importantly, in a design patent only the features drawn in solid lines are claimed. Anything in dotted lines is generally not part of the claim.U.S. Patent D767,583, issued on September 27, 2016, is a patent on a design for a “display screen portion with graphical user interface.” Here, the claim is to “the ornamental design for a display screen portion with graphical user interface, as shown and described.” As most design patent owners do, the patent also makes clear that “the broken line showing of the display screen in the figure forms no part of the claimed design.” Below is the sole picture from the patent showing the patented design:

Source: Stupid Design Patent of the Month: Rectangles on a Screen | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Stupid Patent of the Month: Elsevier Patents Online Peer Review | Electronic Frontier Foundation


On August 30, 2016, the Patent Office issued U.S. Patent No. 9,430,468, titled; “Online peer review and method.” The owner of this patent is none other than Elsevier, the giant academic publisher. When it first applied for the patent, Elsevier sought very broad claims that could have covered a wide range of online peer review. Fortunately, by the time the patent actually issued, its claims had been narrowed significantly. So, as a practical matter, the patent will be difficult to enforce. But we still think the patent is stupid, invalid, and an indictment of the system.

Source: Stupid Patent of the Month: Elsevier Patents Online Peer Review | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Stupid Patent Of The Month: Mega-Troll Intellectual Ventures Hits Florist With Do-It-On-A-Computer Scheduling Patent | Techdirt

When it comes to patent trolls, no one is bigger than Intellectual Ventures. The Washington State-based behemoth is at the center of both patent trolling and the debate around patent reform. Though it claims to promote innovation, Intellectual Ventures is behind some of the most outrageous troll campaigns in recent years. Famous for hiding behind thousands of shell companies, it spawned Lodsys, the troll that harassed small app developers, and the Oasis Research litigation featured in This American Life.
This month, Intellectual Ventures filed some fresh lawsuits against targets including JCPenney, Sally Beauty, and flower delivery service Florists’ Transworld Delivery. We checked out the asserted patents to see if any deserved our Stupid Patent of the Month award. All were worthy candidates, but one in particular stood out.

Source: Stupid Patent Of The Month: Mega-Troll Intellectual Ventures Hits Florist With Do-It-On-A-Computer Scheduling Patent | Techdirt

Pharma’s drug hikes doubled average cost of prescriptions in last decade | Ars Technica


Soaring costs of brand name and specialty drugs outpacing inflation, income of elderly.

Source: Pharma’s drug hikes doubled average cost of prescriptions in last decade | Ars Technica