Bonum Certa Men Certa

Battistelli's Club Med at the EPO – Part IV: The Angolan Patent Office (IAPI) Seems Almost Defunct

Angola and the Portuguese “laundromat” explained further

IAPI domain



Summary: IAPI, the Angolan authority in charge of patents, turns out to be what we in the UK call "dodgy as Hell" (or worse words than "Hell")

THE EPO is getting closer to Angola (see part 1) -- a country which António Campinos and Benoît Battistelli are connected to (see part 2). Angola is widely known for corruption (see part 3) and today we wish to expand on that, offer some more links, and tie things together with an explanation that relates to the later/future parts (where EPO is revisited).



"From these reports it seems clear that very little moves in the Angolan economy without the clique around the Dos Santos family claiming a slice of the action."For further information, in case the previous parts were not already read, see parts 2 and 3 in particular. In parts 6 and 7 we shall deal again with António Campinos and Benoît Battistelli. The relevance will become more obvious.




Over the last few years, Forbes has published a number of interesting reports about corruption in Angola. Several different writers in there covered it in 2013, 2014 [1, 2], and 2016. This article is a month old.

"What kind of government office uses a Microsoft Hotmail account in 2017?"From these reports it seems clear that very little moves in the Angolan economy without the clique around the Dos Santos family claiming a slice of the action. Unfortunately, there is no information available about how well (or not) the system of intellectual property protection functions in Angola.

The official website of the IAPI seems to be permanently down. To make matters worse, when we last checked the site it looked like a hijacked (squatted) .gov domain. "Thank you for visiting the Bargain Auto Finance webpa:e" [sic] is what the page says. It goes on: "Bargain Auto Finance was established because of a love for cars and a desire to give the consumer a peace of mind buying experience. Our team of fully qualified Finance and Insurance Managers will negotiate terms on your behalf giving you a secure process. Bargain Auto Finance offer a variety of financing or refinancing options."

Sounds like one of these notorious scams. What does that do in iapi.gov.ao? It's definitely not some very temporary mistake or accident. It has been like this for a number of days (at least, based on our checks over the past week).

"There is no website listed in the WIPO database entry for Angola," a reader told us. That's true. "The "Bargain Auto Finance" website seems to belong to a South African company," the reader noted (bargainfinance.co.za), so something very dodgy is definitely going on here. "The e-mail address for the Angolan Intellectual Property Institute listed in the WIPO database entry is a hotmail.com address. Also the WIPO entry seems to be out of date because the current Director of the IAPI is Mr Dário Camati," the reader concluded. WIPO says: "Title and name of head; Director General: Ms. Ana Paula da Costa Pereira Migel (E-mail address paulabolivar8@hotmail.com)."

"It could be interesting to find out more about how the proposed "validation agreement" with the EPO is going to operate."What kind of government office uses a Microsoft Hotmail account in 2017? And with account name/alias paulabolivar8? "No idea what is going on here," our reader said.

Their Facebook page seems to be completely empty. Not that a government office should be operating through Facebook either way...

It could be interesting to find out more about how the proposed "validation agreement" with the EPO is going to operate.

These "validation agreements" typically involve the payment of an initial validation fee of a few hundred Euros to the EPO. The initial fee is shared out between the EPO and the national IP Office of the validation state based on a proportion set down in the validation agreement.

"Given what is generally known about the rampant levels of corruption in Angola, it would not be surprising if foreign investors encountered a system of patent protection that was not very effective at safeguarding their rights or that some additional "financial incentives" would be required in order to get a result in their favour."Thereafter the patent proprietor pays annual renewal fees to the national IP Office of the validation state based on the amounts laid down under national law.

Depending on the level of uptake, such a scheme could could potentially generate a handy revenue stream for the Angolan government. It would be interesting to follow the subsequent money trail and see how much of that would be likely to end up in the pockets of the ruling clique.

Another issue confronting foreign patent proprietors opting for validation in Angola would be the question of how effective the system of patent protection is and whether or not patent proprietors can actually enforce their rights, for example via the courts.

Given what is generally known about the rampant levels of corruption in Angola, it would not be surprising if foreign investors encountered a system of patent protection that was not very effective at safeguarding their rights or that some additional "financial incentives" would be required in order to get a result in their favour.

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