One of the poorest and smallest countries in Asia becomes "Asian country to recognise European patents"

Summary: Having toured various banana republics in pursuit of easy-to-sign deals, Battistelli now goes to Cambodia again, in order to make it seem as though the EPO is conquering Asia

WE are not sure whether to laugh or cry at the sight of this ridiculous new (published this afternoon) announcement from the EPO (warning: epo.org link).

This latest Battistelli farce is too embarrassing for words. A country with no EPs at all is going to respect EPs (European Patents) on its territory? No offense to Cambodia, but when the country makes anything high-tech it's usually done on behalf of foreign corporations (e.g. bicycles, clothing) and the Cambodian market is hardly relevant to them. It's worth almost nothing to them.

This isn't the first time Battistelli rushes to Cambodia, a former French colony, for truly cheap PR stunts. We wrote about this in the past. Here is what the latest text says: "EPO President Benoît Battistelli and Senior Minister Cham Prasidh, Cambodian Minister of Industry and Handicraft, have signed an agreement in Phnom Penh to extend, upon request of the applicant, the validity of European patent applications and patents to Cambodia. This means that Cambodia is set to become the first Asian country to recognise European patents on its territory. The agreement will enter into force once it has been adopted into Cambodian law, tentatively 1st July 2017."

That has no meaning whatsoever to 99.x% of the Asian market, so the accompanying headline can simply be dismissed as propaganda.

If this is what the EPO is up to these days, then things are indeed pretty grim. ⬆