Halliburton Tries To Patent Form Of Patent Trolling
We see all sorts of ridiculous patent applications and patents, but my favorites tend to be the patents that have to do with patents themselves (such as the patent app on a method for filing a patent). However, the folks over at Patently-O …
Context & Ripple Effects
Halliburton's patent application is a striking twist in the long-running story of patents on the patent system itself — an attempt to claim ownership over litigation tactics rather than any technology. It lands amid a wave of questionable filings and suits, from companies being sued over an infamous computer solitaire patent to broader complaints that the USPTO has become a rubber stamp, as captured in coverage of the Patent Office back to approving pretty much anything.
First-order effects
- If granted, Halliburton would hold a patent covering a method of asserting patents offensively — effectively letting it charge others for doing what patent trolls do.
- The filing immediately draws scrutiny to how the USPTO examines 'business method' style applications that describe litigation strategy rather than invention.
Second-order effects
- Operating companies facing troll suits could find themselves negotiating not just with trolls but potentially with a patent-holder claiming rights over the trolling playbook itself, adding a new layer to licensing demands.
- Reform advocates gain a concrete exhibit: a major corporation seeking to monetize litigation behavior strengthens the case for tightening business-method patent standards.
Third-order effects
- If patents on litigation methods become grantable, the system risks recursive self-harm — patents used to control who may enforce patents — pushing courts and Congress toward excluding such subject matter altogether.
- The episode feeds the structural critique that the patent system rewards extraction over innovation, a pattern later quantified by studies showing most tech lawsuits come from non-practicing entities, including findings that 90% of tech patent lawsuits were filed by trolls and that trolling pays far more than real-company enforcement.
The trend: This is one data point in the long arc of the patent system turning inward — claims on abstract processes and even litigation itself — which ultimately fueled the business-method patent backlash and reform pressure of the following decade.