Bonum Certa Men Certa

UK Intellectual Monopoly Office (UK-IPO) May be Breaking the Law

UKIPO



Summary: The UK-IPO sees itself as above Freedom of Information (FOI) Act; EPO and Monsanto revisited; Microsoft sued by BetaNet LLC for patent infringement

"That's what I call innovation," says Glyn Moody, who links to this "hilarious visual image of selected 2009 patents..."



This whole patent framework is obviously causing great harm to everyone except monopolies (which swap mutual protection in bulk) and patent trolls (or lawyers). To make matters worse, this system has gone underground (secretive) and having received a dosage of Microsoft influence, it now refuses to obey the law and to reveal to the public what is happening behind closed doors.

On the 8th of November one of our members, Gordon Harrison, submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO). The request was for a complete list of the organisations that made submissions for the report 'The Way Ahead; A Strategy for Copyright in the Digital Age', together with a copy of each submission. The IPO had already published some of the submissions but according to their website a number of submissions were made in confidence. Gordon asked that they be made public under the the terms of the Freedom of Information Act.

[...]

We have looked at the list of organisations that made public submissions, such as the BBC and Microsoft, but there are some surprising ommissions from that list, such as Google and Yahoo.


This is not the end of it, but the above clearly shows that the UK-IPO works for unaccountable corporations, not for people. That's just a shame.

The EPO has had people marching in the streets on several occasions. At one stage (last year) it was EPO staff protesting against the EPO and this year it was a protest against the likes of Monsanto ('pig patents'), a company which is strongly backed by the Gates Foundation and recently fell under investigation for market abuse. For the EPO to back Monsanto's plot would in some way be abusive as well. TechDirt has some more information on this (including many comments).

How Monsanto Used Gene Patents To Corner The Market In Seeds



Dark Helmet points us to the news of an Associated Press investigation into how Monsanto basically cornered the market in seeds by using gene patents and coercive licensing agreements that basically make it impossible to grow certain products without having to first reach a restrictive agreement with Monsanto. And they did this all in about a dozen years. Gene patents are already troubling enough, and reading this report on how Monsanto used its gene patents to basically wipe out all competition is quite telling in exactly how patents can be used to significantly harm a market.


Yesterday we wrote about Eolas suing everyone in Texas, having previously sued Microsoft [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. Another Eolas-like parasite has just launched a fresh attack on many companies that include Microsoft.

An east-Texas company, BetaNet LLC, has filed a patent-infringement suit against Apple, Microsoft, Adobe, Oracle, IBM, SAP, and a dozen other companies.


Make no mistake; Gates and Microsoft invest billions of dollars in the world's biggest patent troll. Increasingly, as time goes on and evidence mounts, the patent systems seem like a government-approved racket. Companies like Monsanto potentially kill a vast number of people using their patents. It may be worse in the pharmaceutical industry whose patents Bill Gates is also backing [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]. This industry makes an obscene amount of money from people's deaths (externality) and this usually gets defended by the "R&D" lies, despite the fact that most of the money is pocketed, a lot of the research is already publicly funded (sometimes invested in through academia and then passed to private hands), and a huge amount of money is spent on just marketing (imposed deception disguised as information) and unimportant products for rich people (like anti-wrinkle creams). The scams of the big pharmaceutical companies are a broad topic in their own right and are worth exploring in isolation one day.

Related posts:



Recent Techrights' Posts

Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part IX: Minimum Wages For You (Experienced Scientist), Alicante/EU Paydays For Me (Unproductive, Corrupt Official)
Does UPRP maladministration extend to the false belief that qualified and experienced scientists can play the role of circus clowns?
"The Liberating Power of Simply Telling People the Truth."
'polite' bullying
Who Imitates Who? Plagiarist as Client (From Microsoft), 'Plagiarism' at the Law Firm?
let's revisit the subject
EPO's Central Staff Committee (CSC) Scrutinises the Man Who Illegally Grants (and Forces Others to Illegally Participate in Granting) Software Patents in Europe
EPO compels examiners to break the law in the name of obeying illegal "rules" or "orders"
The Latest Rumour Says The Next (as Correctly Predicted Before) Wave of Layoffs at Microsoft is 3 Weeks Away, "Larger Than the First Wave"
Step 2
TV Licensing Used to SPAM Your Postbox, Now It Does the Same to E-mail
First they ask for your E-mail address; then they start nagging you via E-mail
Our Priority is Still Tackling Software Patents and Corruption in Patent Offices
Meanwhile we got compliments on our recent articles, which means that they are effective
Slopwatch: Another Day, Another Slopfest, LLM Slop Scrapers Slow Down Our Site
We too have some slop issues; this past day this site and the sister site had to answer about 2.5 million requests (not counting Gemini Protocol) and it's slowing things down for everybody
 
Links 12/06/2025: Portland Homeless Deaths Quadruple, COVID Cases Surge in Asia
Links for the day
EPO's Gareth Lord Asked About "Quality and Productivity" or, Put Another Way, Why the EPO Keeps Granting So Many Invalid/Illegal Patents
letter to Lord
The Toxic Playbook
Either you support Prince Mohammed bin Salman or you're a nazi
It's Possible That BetaNews Got Cracked, But Nobody Talks About It, The Site Contains an Outdated Old Image, No Activity
It's possible that they will never explain what happened to the site and users' accounts
Links 12/06/2025: Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson Dies
Links for the day
Gemini Links 12/06/2025: Video Game Diegesis and Steam Next Fest
Links for the day
Why the Militants Have Lost Every Battle Since 2022 (When Attacking My Wife and I in Various Ways, Even Attacking Our Employers)
This takes patience, sure, but at the end most evildoers face the consequences for their actions
Politics Will Impact Software Choices
Will those systems respect users' freedom?
EPO: Neglecting Children to Promote American Monopolies by Shielding Them From European Competition
Yesterday the Central Staff Committee at the EPO spoke about another "reform" at the Office
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, June 11, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, June 11, 2025
Links 11/06/2025: More Vulnerabilities Found in 'Smart' Phones, China Extends Reach in the Pacific
Links for the day
Gemini Links 11/06/2025: Grain and Steam Next Fest
Links for the day
Links 11/06/2025: "Quantum" Hype From IBM, US Closer to Martial Law, and “The Nation” Celebrates Milestone
Links for the day
IBM's CEO Roasted, Sizzled and Grilled for Dumb and Inconsistent Vapourware Promises
It looks like being a chronic liar is what it takes to lead the company once synonymous with computing
IBM's Goal Is Not (and Never Was) Computer Users' Freedom
More than 1.5 decades ago I found IBM to be an "ally of convenience" because of OpenDocument Format (ODF)
Wayland Shows the IBM/Red Hat Way of Doing Things
IBM is trying to 'kill' X
GitHub is Proprietary, Controlled by Microsoft, and GPL Violation Warehouse
"IRS tax filing software [will be] released to the people as free software" ... In general this is good news
Slopfarm Catastrophe
Seems like BetaNews (or BetaNoise) has just suffered a major data loss and restored the site from a week-old backup
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part VIII: Illegal Working Conditions
How many people need to die for these people to get their massive salaries?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 10, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, June 10, 2025
Links 10/06/2025: Apple Hype and Physical Attacks on Bloggers
Links for the day
Gemini Links 10/06/2025: Loon Lake, Farming, and Forth
Links for the day
Links 10/06/2025: Jaws at 50 and US Democracy Crushed Very Rapidly (Martial Law Seems Imminent)
Links for the day
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part VII: Washing Their Hands After Corruption and Abuse
"Tragedy or comedy?"
Culling Bad RSS Feeds of Bad Sites
Not throwing out the baby with the bathwater
If 'Microsoft v Techrights' is Dealt With by a 'Microsoft Court' (or a Court Outsourced to Microsoft)
More on that later
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 09, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, June 09, 2025
Gemini Protocol Turns Six in 10 Days From Now
If you haven't tried it yet, then give it a go today
Live as You Preach
technology is fast becoming dysphoric