Bonum Certa Men Certa

The European Union Now Repeats Paid Propaganda From the EPO (Regarding the Unitary Patent)

EUSummary: The EPO's push for UPC, which has already involved payments to media and academia, is spreading to the EU, which unfortunately fails to uphold the Rule of Law and the spirit of the EPC

THE EPO, having recently corrupted academia for some UPC propaganda, managed to convince the European Union (Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme to be specific) to promote the lies, dubbing these "[a] new study [sic] concerning the Unitary Patent..."



The EPO has also just repeated the lie it told earlier this week. "These findings confirm that the fragmentation of the current European #patent system is a persistent gap in the completion of the European Single Market for #technology," it said. The EPO is wrong again. It did not bother asking actual technology companies. Sovereignty or assumption of innocence is not "fragmentation", it's due process. And either way, technology companies do not want the UPC. Many have signed a petition against it. There's a legitimate fear that UPC would usher in software patents, among other patents that are not acceptable in pertinent nations based on their national patent law. The UPC can be viewed as a Trojan horse that overrides -- not just bypasses -- rational patent scope.

"Patent maximaklism at the EPO has become a disease that insiders -- notably examiners -- routinely complain about."What about patents on life? Hazel Ford from Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP has just published this article (actually, self-promotional marketing piece) that speaks of "Natural Products" (product of a process) being patented. Sure, go ahead and compare nature to "products" (industrial term) in order to sell/promote patents on just about everything.

She points out that the USPTO is rightly restrictive on this matter and then addresses 'perils' (to lawyers) associated with the EPC, which the EPO ignores anyway. To quote:

There is currently a significant divergence in practice between Europe and the United States when considering the patentability of naturally-occurring products. Since the Myriad decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, the USPTO has started to reject claims directed to naturally-occurring products under 35 USC €§101. In the European Patent Office (EPO), such objections do not generally arise.

The EPO’s position is that that merely finding a previously unrecognised substance occurring in nature is an unpatentable discovery. However, if that substance can be shown to produce a technical effect, then the naturally-occurring substance may be patentable (EPO Guidelines for Examination G-II, 3.1).

This ability to patent natural products derives from the rules of the European Patent Convention (EPC), which explicitly state that biological material which is isolated from its natural environment or produced by means of a technical process can be patented, even if it has previously occurred in nature (Rule 27(a) EPC). Similarly, although the human body itself cannot be patented at the EPO, elements isolated from the human body, including gene sequences, can form patentable inventions, even if they are structurally identical to a natural element (Rule 29(1) and (2) EPC).

In order to obtain a patent at the EPO to a product that occurs in nature, the claim must specify that the product is isolated from its natural environment, or it must make it clear that the product as claimed was produced by a non-natural process.


Patent maximaklism at the EPO has become a disease that insiders -- notably examiners -- routinely complain about. UPC is a danger because it extends enforcement -- not just patent-granting -- to nations that would otherwise reject these patents based on national, rational law (evidence-based). The UPC needs to be stopped before any real damage is done to Europe's productive industries; thankfully, the UPC is stuck, probably for good.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Lies Need to be Corrected
the Court never invited us
 
Second or Third Wave of Microsoft Mass Layoffs in October 2025, This Time Portugal
Those are just the ones we know about, there may be several more
'Help Net Security' (helpnetsecurity.com) May Have Become a Slopfarm as Well
Zeljka Zorz, Editor-in-Chief at Help Net Security, was reported to us
Gemini Links 17/10/2025: Rant About Network Solutions, Strange Anomaly on Lagrange
Links for the day
EPO Staff Representation Lacks Social Dialogue With Relevant Management, Controversial and Sometimes Illegal Policies Implemented Without Necessary Input
"In this open letter, the CSC requests that the President submits an agenda item in the next available General Consultative Committee (GCC) meeting on setting up regular meetings between the CSC and the higher management of DG1."
Links 16/10/2025: Political Leftovers and Gemini Protocol Links
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Guardian Digital (linuxsecurity.com), Slashdot, Google News, and More
Maybe one day, once the bubble pops completely, Google News will just outright delist all slopfarms
Lufthansa Modern Slavery, Joerg Jaspert (ganneff) & Debian NSB Softwareentwicklung charade
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 16/10/2025: US Starting More Trade Wars With China, CIA War on Venezuela
Links for the day
SUSE Blog is Still LLM Slop, Marketing Manager at SUSE Cannot Write
Would you buy from a company or seek support from a company that cannot even write (or fakes writing)?
Pretend You're Not Dead: Microsoft Spent Almost Two Decades Rebranding Things as "Cloud, Then "AI", Now "XBox" and "Quantum"
"AI" bubble pops, Microsoft harping about "quantum" already
IBM Allegedly Found New Tricks for Silent Layoffs: LPI, Then MIS (Not PIP)
Remember that "Red Hat layoffs" won't be reported after the bluewashing
Links 16/10/2025: Red Lines and Feeding of Microsoft Trolls
Links for the day
MIT as a Propaganda Mill of GAFAM, Paid by GAFAM
"the news" today
Links 16/10/2025: Lies Euphemised as ‘Dueling Versions of Reality’ and Microsoft "Open" "Hey Hi" Resorts to Porn as No Business Model Was Found
Links for the day
The Local Staff Committee Munich (Representation of the EPO's Staff) Explains When Cluster of Pregnancies May Result in Reduced Pay
"...even one week of part-time working is sufficient to reduce the salary you perceive during the entirety of your maternity leave."
Another Black Eye for 'Secure Boot', Microsoft Media Tries to Blame "Linux"
It enables Microsoft to remotely control computers, even computers that don't run Windows and never had any Microsoft software installed
Slopwatch: UbuntuPIT, linuxsecurity.com, and Various Slopfarms in Google News Attacking "Linux"
A new survey of the Web said that the majority of the Web is now slop (that's being said in the news this week)
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 15, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 15, 2025
Links 16/10/2025: Increased Use of Social Control Media Surveillance in US, French Rage Over Pensions
Links for the day
Links 15/10/2025: Qantas Airways Loses Control of Sensitive Data and Software Patents Are Being Thrown Out
Links for the day
Vista 10 is 'Dead', Here's Why People Should Move to GNU/Linux (or the BSDs)
Today we try to make an outline of reasons move away from Windows to GNU/Linux
Our Sites Continue to Improve
LLM slop has had no noticeable impact on us
Gemini Links 15/10/2025: Neovim, Helix Compared and Gemlog.blue Now Closed
Links for the day
Links 15/10/2025: Mass Layoffs at Amazon, OneDrive Spyware Revved Up, More 'Gen Z Protests'
Links for the day
The EPO's Staff Engagement Survey 2025 is Already Tainted by Intimidation by EPO Management (Trying to Influence Outcomes by Scaring Genuine, Honest Critics)
"[W]e have received reports that, following the previous survey, teams with negative responses were reproached or questioned about their answers..."
The DDoS Attacks by Microsoft's Scam Altman and Other Slop Charlatans and Frauds is Hurting the FSF, Delinking It From Copyleft Projects
This impacts a lot more than access to the licences
Microsoft Scanning Faces in Photos People Upload to Microsoft (Even Unconsciously), Slashdot Turns Report About It Into "Microsoft Sez" (Says)
Or "let's repeat the lies from a PR person/Microsoft's publicist"
[Teaser] Angel Aledo Lopez the Manipulator (Nepotism, Poll Rigging, and Other EPO Corruption)
We'll discuss this later today or tomorrow, based on internal EPO material
Attacks on Techrights Are Only Making Techrights Bigger and Even More Popular
A week ago they offered to settle with us
Epic Metaphor for End of IBM: "The IBM Demolition is Down to the Last Shards!"
Nothing lasts forever
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 14, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, October 14, 2025
Proprietary and DRM Prisons Spiralling Down the Sinkhole? Not Just Yet.
Let's hope that more people will flee to GNU/Linux
The European Patent Office (EPO), the Second-Largest Institution in Europe, is Cracking Down on Recreational Activities
Without AMICALE activities, and as staff already says it's pressured to work more for less, how can the EPO recruit bright people?
Transparency: FSFE financial reports exclude speaker fees and expenses
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock