08.08.17
Gemini version available ♊︎EPO Already Thinks It’s the UPC (Which Will Likely Never Happen)
Summary: The everlasting decline of the EPO’s quality and moral compass, as evidenced by the latest words and actions
THE quality of patents at the EPO no longer matters; the President now conflates speed of decision with quality. At the same time the EPO grants patents on life — something which even the US patent office does not do. It certainly seems like Benoît Battistelli and his preached-to choir aim for the bottom of the bottom. Stakeholders and examiners do notice (they are not happy).
“It certainly seems like Benoît Battistelli and his preached-to choir aim for the bottom of the bottom.”According to this news from yesterday, the EPO grants even more monopolies on genetics (before the matter has had a chance to be examined independently/separately from the EPO). This is a recipe for disaster. All it can ever lead to is lots of frivolous litigation and this is perhaps what Battistelli aims for. He wants a UPC-like regime — something which he’ll never get to see (his days are numbered).
Earlier this week the EPO wrote “We protect inventions” and “make the world a better place!”
Really? Protect inventions? The EPO is supposed to perform patent examination. That’s all.
“Besides bribing the media (and doing a fair deal of lobbying), the EPO deems itself judge, jury and executioner before outsiders (like ILO) get a say.”Someone else noticed that and wrote [1, 2]: “Really? Is that what you do? Are you sure? I thort [sic] you decided if an invention could be protected. Have you moved into enforcement?”
Well, Battistelli’s EPO isn’t just schizophrenic. Besides bribing the media (and doing a fair deal of lobbying), the EPO deems itself judge, jury and executioner before outsiders (like ILO) get a say. Staff is preemptively fired based on bogus accusations, patents are invalidated without even a trial, and there’s a program called Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH), which helps discriminate against some applicants (like PACE).
Today we found this shameless self-promotion/marketing from Spruson & Ferguson (the third such marketing we’ve come across in the past month from that region). To quote: “The PPH pilot program enables preferential examination of an applicant’s corresponding patent applications where claims have been found patentable by the EPO or the IPOPHL/MyIPO.”
“Watching the lies (or misleading language) from the EPO is like a full-time job.”It certainly looks as though the EPO ‘forgot’ what its duties are. It sometimes seems as though the EPO is just trying to become something that it’s not. The UPC isn’t happening, so how much muscle-flexing will we see from Battistelli? How many lies?
“Surely the UK have to withdraw from the UPC due to Brexit,” someone wrote yesterday, as “UK in UPC is unworkable” (never mind a dozen other countries that have not ratified*).
Watching the lies (or misleading language) from the EPO is like a full-time job. They’re in need of a lies tracker. The EPO has not only lost world leadership; it has totally lost sight of what it’s supposed to do (as per the EPC). █
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* Bulgaria and Greece have not ratified the UPC (perhaps never will, either), but seeing this week’s spin from Bristows [1, 2] might give people a wrong impression.
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