Bonum Certa Men Certa

Primer to the Crisis and Scandals at the European Patent Office (EPO)

Summary: An introduction to the chaotic state of what used to be the world's leading patent office and quickly became Europe's biggest embarrassment

WHEN DEALING with subjects for a number of years it's easy to delve into pertinent details and lose sight of the overall picture, which in turn can put off or turn away an ordinary audience with no prior knowledge of the subject. Back in the days when we focused on Novell we occasionally wrote short summaries about the subject (upon request/demand from errand readers). Today we wish to do the same about the EPO, which is, in our assessment, Europe's biggest scandal that the media intentionally ignores (with few exceptions) because media owners have no interest in 'scandalising' the subject and moreover the EPO pays a lot of European media, thereby buying its loyalty/silence.



"Patent law firms would benefit from a surplus of litigation, so they conveniently lie (often by taking over the media) on behalf of Europeans, bragging about the supposed advantages of the UPC."The EPO stands either for European Patent Office or European Patent Organisation. These are not the same thing. They came into existence a number of decades ago -- irrespective of and predating the EU (the EPO has nothing to do with the EU) -- through a long document known as the European Patent Convention (EPC). It is the de facto 'treaty' of the Organisation, which is supposed to manage or oversee the Office through a set of national delegates, who are in practice (typically) heads of national patent offices (NPOs).

In recent years a massive set of blunders came with ambitions of so-called 'reforms', supposedly in preparation for the Unitary Patent -- a horrible regime constructed by (and for) patent law firms and their largest clients, which are not even European. The Unitary Patent, or Unified Patent Court (UPC), merits a separate primer, but in a nutshell it offers no benefits to European people, European businesses, or European workers of the EPO. It would be mostly beneficial to patent trolls from abroad -- those who would like to target (in the prosecution sense) a lot of European people and European businesses. Patent law firms would benefit from a surplus of litigation, so they conveniently lie (often by taking over the media) on behalf of Europeans, bragging about the supposed advantages of the UPC. There are dangers associated with patent scope too, namely the expansion of patent scope in the whole of Europe without proper national debates on the matter.

"Workers of the EPO are rightly upset about all this. They will lose their job if this carries on."Workers of the EPO are not bad people. They are highly educated staff (not just the examiners) who thought they had joined for a good cause and as specialists in various fields of science (some have academic background) they want to reward real innovation, not merely operate like production line workers yanking out a lot of worthless patents. But the EPO is now run by a tyrant, who not only ruined the Office but is also ruining the entire Organisation (which is capable of firing him, but never did it due to cronyism) and stomping on the EPC. The situation is untenable. To make matters worse, this tyrant brought over many of his old friends (sometimes even their family members) to top positions, hired highly notorious thugs who face criminal charges in their home countries, and ousted anyone who dares question his authority, e.g. actions in defiance of the law, the EPC and so on. To use an analogy, think of Mugabe, ErdoÄŸan, or Putin. Separation of powers was gradually and deliberately vandalised. There is no democracy at the EPO; it's akin to monarchy even if it's not formally labeled as such.

Workers of the EPO are rightly upset about all this. They will lose their job if this carries on. They regularly go on protests, they go on strikes, and their unions are being attacked by the tyrant, who already strategically fired some of them using bogus (or highly dubious) charges. The tyrant enjoys supposed immunity which is guarded by self-serving governments and his terrible gymnastics in 'justice' are defended by a cowardly ILO, which only gives an illusion of recourse to justice.

"The EPO does not need scorn; it needs our help. It has been hijacked by malicious actors and nefarious interests."In the course of this tyrant's regime the tyrant has not only hired firms to corrupt the media but also to illegally spy on staff, to censor the Internet connection (banning sites such as Techrights), and to send threatening legal letters to bloggers who are in no way affiliated with the EPO. Contracts are habitually being signed without tenders (especially for big projects), contractors are being 'burned', waste and abuse are a matter of norm, and EPO stakeholders (e.g. applicants, law firms) are understandably upset. Any person who ever received a European Patent (EP) suffers from this and staff of the EPO is growingly depressed, many to the point of being suicidal (the number of suicides is said to have grown tenfold under the tyranny).

The EPO does not need scorn; it needs our help. It has been hijacked by malicious actors and nefarious interests. If the EPO cannot be rescued from this self-serving, money-draining tyranny, Europe as a whole and science as a whole will suffer dearly.

Recent Techrights' Posts

New Video Report About Microsoft Cancelling Multi-Billion Dollar Projects
direct link to the video
Microsoft is Already Laying Off Lots of Contractors
cost-cutting at Microsoft takes a new "edge"
Coming Soon: Microsoft Fake Results, Mass Layoffs, and Silence About All the People Microsoft Pressured to "Quit" (So That They Don't Get Counted as Layoffs)
there will be more mass layoffs
Speed of GNU/Linux
The media seldom speaks of the dangers of "proprietary software"
 
Google Spreading Misinformation and Lies
Google is in the propaganda business
statCounter: GNU/Linux Adoption Surging in Switzerland, Windows at All-time Low
What happened?
Gemini Links 28/04/2025: Free Speech and Perfectionism in Design
Links for the day
What Fake News Looks Like (IBM)
IBM told a lie. The media then just blindly repeated this lie.
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, April 28, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, April 28, 2025
China is Already Culling GAFAM (Not Just Microsoft Windows)
OS monoculture or "OS hegemony" may be coming to an end
The "Telephone Operating System in the Vatican" is 95 Years Old, Vatican Moved to GNU/Linux
Maybe Microsoft is down to zero already
If Tesla Shares (and Alleged Value) Fell 55% (From $489 to $222) in a Few Months Maybe It's Not Worth Anything At All (It's Just Gambling)
Tesla swasticars have turned from a "status symbol" into a "public embarrassment" and cause for casual humiliation
Chromebooks' Adoption in Sweden No Longer Depends on Schools
School breaks are when classrooms are shut
No, IBM is Not Investing $150 Billion in the US and It Doesn't Even Have That Kind of Money
Here we go again... media as a vehicle of lobbying and misinformation
Leak: The EPO's General Consultative Committee (GCC) Does Not Consult Staff on Crucial Matters and Bypasses the Administrative Council (AC) to Do Illegal Things
violations against the EPO's very staff
New Leaks Coming Soon, We Maintain 100% Record of Successful Resistance to Censorship
We won't be told what we can and cannot say (especially when it's true)
Central African Republic (CAR): Vista 11 is Only ~0.2% Market Share
99.8% to go!
BSD and GNU/Linux Replaced Microsoft in Secure Servers, All Microsoft Has Left is LLM Slop for Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD)
the FUD machine never rests
Gemini Links 28/04/2025: A Simple Task Tracking and Auto-Prioritization Tool and Other Programs
Links for the day
Links 28/04/2025: Canada's Election, Pakistan-India Conflict
Links for the day
Glue Inside Your Pizza (or Why People Will Get Fed Up With Slop)
People are given "answers" from non-intelligence word dumpsters
Proprietary Windows Versus "Linux" News (Trying to Keep People on Windows, Never Exploring GNU/Linux)
Good editors know better how to recognise threats and not give them lip service
Ensuring That Every Computer User Anywhere in the World Can Take Control of All His or Her Computers
We must fight the people who attack general-purpose computing, in particular those who push this agenda very aggressively inside Linux
Links 28/04/2025: Cyberattacks Happening, Chatbots Disappointing, and "Free Speech Under Fire"
Links for the day
Phone Adoption Very Low in Vatican, Windows Usage Fell Nonetheless
Even in places where people still use desktops/laptops most of the time (and have access to these) Windows is gradually losing ground
GNU/Linux 9% in Cuba, Vista 11 Waning, Android Dominant
Microsoft has pretty much lost Cuba
Gemini Links 28/04/2025: Autism and Structural Navigation
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, April 27, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, April 27, 2025
What Happened to the Open Source Initiative (OSI) Elections: The Purge, the Cover-up, and the Witch-hunts
OSI has gone "full Microsoft"
In 24 Countries Observed by statCounter Vista 11 is Still Less Than a Quarter of Windows Users Despite All Other Versions Being 'Expired'
They ought to move to GNU/Linux
Links 27/04/2025: Pope Goodbyes, "Politics of Fear", Slop Redux and More Google Shutdowns (Google Debt Had Grown This Year)
Links for the day
Links 27/04/2025: Serenity Dialectics, Hockey Jersey Ethics, and More
Links for the day
Links 27/04/2025: Death of Nest Thermostats, Death of Metaverse
Links for the day
Links 27/04/2025: Projects Workflow and Discovering Technology
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, April 26, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, April 26, 2025