10.05.17
Gemini version available ♊︎EPO Makes European SMEs More Vulnerable to Litigation From the Former Soviet Union
Scud man Battistelli
Summary: Battistelli sure knows what European SMEs need, apparently, e.g. more litigation from the former Soviet Union, including Russia
THE EPO lies to the public every day. Yesterday it repeated its own lies about SMEs, in a tweet that links to a so-called 'study' which misrepresents SMEs.
“IP landscaping can be used to provide input into an SME’s R&D strategy,” it said. “This case study shows how,” it added, linking to its own propaganda together with that hashtag, #IPforSMEs (which the patent maximalists lobby uses, along with “SMEmanifesto”).
“The EPO actively discriminates against SMEs. Lying about them or misrepresenting their stance is a step further — a step that the EPO was recently shameless enough to take.”Anyone who works for the EPO probably knows about PACE (we were first to publish these leaked documents). The EPO actively discriminates against SMEs. Lying about them or misrepresenting their stance is a step further — a step that the EPO was recently shameless enough to take. Previously, it was mostly Team UPC’s domain. It’s part of the UPC lobbying effort. It’s akin to “think about the children” (small businesses).
“Next round of patent information from the BRICS countries will focus on the Russian Federation,” the EPO wrote yesterday (Wednesday), just as it wrote about the EPO making itself more about litigation and less about patents, with hurried examination to help litigants, this time at the Eurasian Patent Office (EAPO):
Inventors and businesses applying for patent protection at the EPO and the Eurasian Patent Office (EAPO) are now able to benefit from fast-track patent examination at both offices, following the entry into force of the joint Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot programme. The PPH also permits each participating patent office to share and re-use existing work results.
[...]
The EPO already has operational PPH pilot programmes with the IP5 offices (a grouping of the world’s five largest IP offices, made up of the EPO and the patent offices of China, Japan, Korea, and the US), as well as with the national patent offices of Australia, Canada, Colombia, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, Russia and Singapore.
PPH (similar to PACE) is, suffice to say, very dangerous because it lowers patent quality (work under greater pressure) and enables companies (even trolls) from other countries to target European firms. SMEs would suffer the most because legal fees (usually court fees) by far exceed the amount demanded for settlement. █
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