Bonum Certa Men Certa

Guest Post: The EPO, EPC, Unitary Patent and the Money Issue

By unknown, who is intimately familiar with EPO matters

John Bull
1888 (in public domain): American cartoon of John Bull (England) as an Imperial Octopus with its arms (with hands) in - or contemplating being in - various regions.



Summary: Remarks on the Unitary Patent (UP) and the lesser-known aspects of the EPO and EPC, where the “real issue is money, about which very little is discussed in public...”

THE staff of the EPO generally longed for and supported the creation of a community patent, as thought that it would have meant a cure for many of the original sins of the EPC.



It was believed, or hoped, that the EPO could become in the process an organ of the European Union, which, despite all its flaws, would have most probably brought an improvement in the governance of the organisation and the lot of the staff.

"The staff of the EPO generally longed for and supported the creation of a community patent, as thought that it would have meant a cure for many of the original sins of the EPC."Just look at the shabby display given every quarter by the dysfunctional EPOrg's Administrative Council, dominated as it is by a self-serving clique that cows it into submission through arm twisting and client politics.

Becoming a part of the EU could have meant for staff improved conditions in matters such as taxes, pensions, union recognition and collective bargaining, legal protection, conflict resolution...

"To sum it up, the implementing regulations are rubber-stamped by minor bureaucrats dwelling way down the food chain, and not decided by national parliaments."As for the citizens of Europe, it could have brought improvements in its control of patent law, as changing an EU Directive or Regulation is still vastly simpler than amending the European Patent Convention through a diplomatic conference, and involves some form of debate in the EU parliament.

Then there are also the EPC implementing regulations, into which many sections of the convention were transferred with the EPC 2000 revision. Like the saying goes, "the devil is in the details", and such details are created by the EPO's legal department under instructions of the President, and submitted for approval to the AC [see above...]. And then the AC is essentially composed of civil servants from National Patent Offices and/or National Departments for Trade and Industry.

To sum it up, the implementing regulations are rubber-stamped by minor bureaucrats dwelling way down the food chain, and not decided by national parliaments. These bureaucrats have at heart a Sir Humphrey like interest in preserving their little fiefs [e.g. the Croatian patent office], which should have been wound up long ago had there been a real will for a truly European patent.

"If those bloody foreigners can roam around your territory without needing your permission, why make more of a fuss when it comes to patents?"Among the roadblocks to a proper EU patent were inter alia languages: the EPO accepts applications in DE, EN, FR. The EU must function in 24 languages. I think that a compromise could have been found in which all languages could have been accommodated, as the number of applications stemming from Europe which are not in the three EPC official languages aren't wholly unreasonable. TR, GR, and IT already translate their national applications before sending them on to the EPO for prior art searches and opinions on patentability.

Then there was the issue of EU membership. EPC members TR, CH, and NO do not [currently] belong to the grand design, but this didn't have to be an insurmountable problem. These countries already accept that a foreign body, the EPO, decides on whether a patent has legal force over their territory. This organisation is already EU-dominated, and even then, the parliaments [or strongmen...] of TR+CH+NO have presently next to zilch influence in the running of the EPO.

"My feeling is that the real issue is money, about which very little is discussed in public..."Then there is the fact CH+NO are part of that other EU-invented club called "Schengen". If those bloody foreigners can roam around your territory without needing your permission, why make more of a fuss when it comes to patents?

My feeling is that the real issue is money, about which very little is discussed in public...

"Something must yield to make work that Unitary Patent monstrosity they came up with, and that is the EPO's staff."Something must yield to make work that Unitary Patent monstrosity they came up with, and that is the EPO's staff. For the language and membership issues, the EPO must remain this autonomous death start which has been hovering above the continent for 40 years. And Battleship Eponia's "independence" is essential for making staff become what they call in French a "variable d'ajustement", i.e., the fudge factor which will mop up all the inconsistencies in that unitary contraption.

"This could explain why Battistelli equates any sign of resistance against his iron will to be opposition to the UP."This could explain why Battistelli equates any sign of resistance against his iron will to be opposition to the UP. Is that association even conscious?

Recent Techrights' Posts

Quality Comes First (Techrights Search)
It's generally working already, but we wish to polish it some more
Techrights Party Countdown
Late next week we'll be holding a party near our home
European Parliament and Council Directive on Privacy is Vanishing
"edited / censored some time more recently"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 28, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, October 28, 2025
Slopwatch: The March of Slopfarms, From UbuntuPIT to Linux Journal and to Various Fake Sites Still Promoted by Google News
It's so worrying to see what the Web has become
Links 29/10/2025: CISA, Ukraine, and Amazon Problems
Links for the day
[Teaser] The EPO's Spokesperson, a Cocaine User, Fancies Young Women
How's that for "optics" in the EU and Europe's second-largest institution?
How Will António Campinos Respond to the EPO's 'Cocainegate'?
That's the same thing we saw and still see when the press deals with enablers and partners of Jeffrey Epstein
Join Us Now and Share the News - Part IV: There Cannot be Free Software Without Free Press and Free Information
One day, one can hope, more people will recognise that for Software Freedom we need free press and free thinkers
Join Us Now and Share the News - Part III: Principled Stance Is Never Cheap
Protecting the truth and insisting that the general public is made aware of things that really happened isn't cheap
Join Us Now and Share the News - Part II: Because Scarcity of Accurate Information Breeds Collective Ignorance
we too will strive to share information that's aggressively suppressed
Gemini Links 28/10/2025: More New Arrivals at Geminispace, xkcd on "Document Forgery"
Links for the day
Join Us Now and Share the News - Part I: Defence of the Truth
This year we make a very strong, firm statement for truth, even if that means explaining our work to the top media judge in the country
Links 28/10/2025: Meta and Fentanylware (CheeTok) Age-Restricted Down Under, "Britain Needs China’s Money"
Links for the day
Links 28/10/2025: Mass Layoffs at Amazon and Charter to Cut 1,200 Jobs
Links for the day
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
Parties and Milestones Again
we've begun putting up about 40 balloons
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
Microsoft is Disloyal Towards Its Most Loyal Employees
Against its most faithful enablers
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