Bonum Certa Men Certa

EPO Management is Lobbying for Software Patents and the UPC in ICT Seminar 2017

Super PAC



Summary: Super PAC-like behaviour from the European Patent Office (EPO) in direct violation of the Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council against the patentability of computer-implemented inventions

THE EPO just can't help breaking the rules. Earlier this week we showed that it was publicly pushing for software patents in Europe. This has become so routine! They just don't care about patent quality or patent scope anymore! Anything goes!



"They just don't care about patent quality or patent scope anymore!"Well, European Patents (EPs) are no longer difficult to get; just ask EPO examiners as some of them explicitly tell us so (under conditions of anonymity). People or companies pay a lot of money (prohibitive costs to small companies or sole inventors) for examination/search that some professionals say is inferior to that offered by national patent offices like Spain's. Why waste money like this and how long will it last? The number of applications (EPs) is already declining and this new press release (from today) sounds like a software patent just got granted by the EPO. It speaks of a "mobile-based transaction authentication system and the cryptographic processes it uses to identify individual mobile devices and secure communications to and from them" (i.e. software-level security).

"....European Patents (EPs) are no longer difficult to get; just ask EPO examiners as some of them explicitly tell us so (under conditions of anonymity)."Why are such patents still being granted? It sounds like the classic type of patent to be passed to trolls for litigation/blackmail against any company that merely uses software, not just companies that develop software.

Earlier today the EPO resumed promotion of both software patents and the UPC (see the cited page about "ICT seminar 2017"). These two things are connected, for reasons we wrote about in past years. The EPO keeps granting patents on software even though that's against the rules and then it says this: "Join us to find out about the differences between US & European practice for ICT patent applications..."

By "ICT" they mean mostly software and here is the part about UPC:

There will also be sessions on "Streamlining patent prosecution at the EPO" and "Latest developments in the Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court" as well as overviews from both the EPO and IPO on recent developments relevant to the audience.


Guess who will be in the "audience"... it's an echo chamber again.

"The EPO's lobbying activity (influencing the governments) makes as much sense as border control agencies publishing an endorsement of a political party ahead of an election."As noted in our last post, the UPC is stuck and its proponents can only ever pretend that its ratification is inevitable. The EPO seeds some lies about it and then the patent industry uses that as 'proof' that the UPC is coming. We wrote some posts about it (several times since it had come out). Today we found this new example of the echo chamber effect. Camilleri Preziosi's Henri Mizzi, Sharon Xuereb, Terence Cassar and Kristina Azzopardi wrote an article titled "EPO Publishes a Guide on Obtaining, Maintaining and Managing Unitary Patents" (which don't even exist).

One major problem is, the UPC agreement isn't happening and the Unitary Patent as a whole may be dead. EPO management is just lobbying; it forgot the purpose of its existence. The EPO's lobbying activity (influencing the governments) makes as much sense as border control agencies publishing an endorsement of a political party ahead of an election.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Comparing U.E.F.I. to B.I.O.S. (Bloat and Insecurity to K.I.S.S.)
By Sami Tikkanen
New 'Slides' From Stallman Support (stallmansupport.org) Site
"In celebration of RMS's birthday, we've been playing a bit. We extracted some quotes from the various articles, comments, letters, writings, etc. and put them in the form of a slideshow in the home page."
Thailand: GNU/Linux Up to 6% of Desktops/Laptops, According to statCounter
Desktop Operating System Market Share Thailand
António Campinos is Still 'The Fucking President' (in His Own Words) After a Fake 'Election' in 2022 (He Bribed All the Voters to Keep His Seat)
António Campinos and the Administrative Council, whose delegates he clearly bribed with EPO budget in exchange for votes
Adrian von Bidder, homeworking & Debian unexplained deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Sainsbury’s Epic Downtime Seems to be Microsoft's Fault and Might Even Constitute a Data Breach (Legal Liability)
one of Britain's largest groceries (and beyond) chains
 
People Don't Just Kill Themselves (Same for Other Animals)
And recent reports about Boeing whistleblower John Barnett
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 18, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, March 18, 2024
Suicide Cluster Cover-up tactics & Debian exposed
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 19/03/2024: A Society That Lost Focus and Abandoning Social Control Media
Links for the day
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE: Plagiarism & Child labour in YH4F
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Linux Foundation Boasting About Being Connected to Bill Gates
Examples of boasting about the association
Alexandre Oliva's Article on Monstering Cults
"I'm told an earlier draft version of this post got published elsewhere. Please consider this IMHO improved version instead."
[Meme] 'Russian' Elections in Munich (Bavaria, Germany)
fake elections
Sainsbury's to Techrights: Yes, Our Web Site Broke Down, But We Cannot Say Which Part or Why
Windows TCO?
Plagiarism: Axel Beckert (ETH Zurich) & Debian Developer list hacking
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 18/03/2024: Putin Cements Power
Links for the day
Flashback 2003: Debian has always had a toxic culture
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
[Meme] You Know You're Winning the Argument When...
EPO management starts cursing at everybody (which is what's happening)
Catspaw With Attitude
The posts "they" complain about merely point out the facts about this harassment and doxing
'Clown Computing' Businesses Are Waning and the Same Will Happen to 'G.A.I.' Businesses (the 'Hey Hi' Fame)
decrease in "HEY HI" (AI) hype
Free Software Needs Watchdogs, Too
Gentle lapdogs prevent self-regulation and transparency
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE analogous to identity fraud
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 18/03/2024: LLM Inference and Can We Survive Technology?
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 17, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, March 17, 2024
Links 17/03/2024: Microsoft Windows Shoves Ads Into Third-Party Software, More Countries Explore TikTok Ban
Links for the day
Molly Russell suicide & Debian Frans Pop, Lucy Wayland, social media deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Our Plans for Spring
Later this year we turn 18 and a few months from now our IRC community turns 16
Open Invention Network (OIN) Fails to Explain If Linux is Safe From Microsoft's Software Patent Royalties (Charges)
Keith Bergelt has not replied to queries on this very important matter
RedHat.com, Brought to You by Microsoft Staff
This is totally normal, right?
USPTO Corruption: People Who Don't Use Microsoft Will Be Penalised ~$400 for Each Patent Filing
Not joking!
The Hobbyists of Mozilla, Where the CEO is a Bigger Liability Than All Liabilities Combined
the hobbyist in chief earns much more than colleagues, to say the least; the number quadrupled in a matter of years
Jim Zemlin Says Linux Foundation Should Combat Fraud Together With the Gates Foundation. Maybe They Should Start With Jim's Wife.
There's a class action lawsuit for securities fraud
Not About Linux at All!
nobody bothers with the site anymore; it's marketing, and now even Linux
Links 17/03/2024: Abuses Against Human Rights, Tesla Settlement (and Crash)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 16, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, March 16, 2024
Under Taliban, GNU/Linux Share Nearly Doubled in Afghanistan, Windows Sank From About 90% to 68.5%
Suffice to say, we're not meaning to imply Taliban is "good"
Debian aggression: woman asked about her profession
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 17/03/2024: Winter Can't Hurt Us Anymore and Playstation Plus
Links for the day