On Monday, Unified Patents reported: “On December 13, 2021, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued a final written decision in Unified Patents, LLC v. Voice Tech Corporation holding all claims of U.S. Patent 10,491,679 invalid.”
This is the first major victory in the patent troll saga, and we are grateful for the public support of our community and the attention they brought to our cause. Unified Patents was one of those who took notice of Mycroft’s make-no-mistakes response to the irrelevant and poor-quality patents asserted against us last year. Unified independently chose to file a petition to invalidate one of Voice Tech’s patents and we could not be more pleased with the result.
Mycroft ideologically opposes the use of patents for what we believe to be extortion by non-practicing entities that invent nothing, produce nothing and serve only to slow innovation. A decision on the second patent is due in May 2022 and we expect to be fully vindicated.
We are incredibly gratified to not be alone in protecting the open source ecosystem from patent abuse. However, we are compelled to restate this message from our April 2020 blog post:
“Our patent abuser … [is] trying to cast themselves as the victim when in fact they are the aggressor. […] It is never okay to threaten someone with bodily harm or harass them. Don’t. Just don’t.”
An accomplished serial entrepreneur and open source enthusiast, Michael mastered hardware development at his first startup, Stellar Semiconductor, before founding Cryptic Studios and launching the legendary City of Heroes MMORPG. Michael and his family live in Venice, California.