02.08.18

^{Gemini version available ♊︎}

When INPI Met INPI and IAM Met the EPO

Posted in Europe, Patents at 1:26 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

The three Frenchmen (context)

The three Frenchmen

Summary: The relationship between the EPO and the media (financial relationship) gives room for thought ahead of the appointment of an ex-banker, an old friend of Battistelli, as EPO President

THE EPO has not made many announcements this year. Battistelli too has kept a relatively low profile, maybe because he’s leaving soon. A lot of the ‘action’ is now at the USPTO (which we mostly cover during weekends).

“Battistelli too has kept a relatively low profile, maybe because he’s leaving soon.”A few days ago Battistelli added another photo op (warning: epo.org link) to his portfolio. The politician from INPI (who brought his cronies from INPI to the EPO) shakes hands with another INPI, the one in Argentina. To quote:

At the meeting, the EPO and INPI presidents also discussed progress on other joint projects laid out in a memorandum of understanding on bilateral co-operation signed by the two offices in May 2017. This agreement covers areas such as access to information, sharing data and tools, improved patent procedures, and training.

The Latin American Herald Tribune then published this puff piece about it, not adding anything particularly interesting. Argentina is barely relevant to the EPO (several orders of magnitude less than Germany, for instance).

“No doubt the EPO and IAM will continue their sick relationship; they already groom Campinos on a regular basis, giving him all sorts of awards (e.g. “personality of the year”) before he even enters the EPO.”EPO puff pieces have become the norm. Thankfully we already have hard evidence of EPO payments to media firms. That helps explain it. Sometimes the EPO pays the media directly, but sometimes the money gets funneled indirectly, e.g. via PR agencies. That’s what seems to have happened with IAM, which seems like it’s already preparing the next “EPO is awesome” report. A few days ago IAM became ‘incestuous’ with Battistelli again [1, 2]. It’s no laughing matter because it makes IAM complicit in a lot of human suffering. IAM has also just published ads for Carpmaels & Ransford LLP and for Awapatent AB on Wednesday (the ads are euphemistically labeled “international reports”). The latter is SPC promotion (indirectly related to UPC). It then promoted the AI hype. Can we please stop promoting the AI hype? It’s not new (a century old) and patents should be pursued by humans, not some lousy algorithms; same for academic papers; don’t corrupt these like the stock market (played primarily by bots now).

No doubt the EPO and IAM will continue their sick relationship; they already groom Campinos on a regular basis, giving him all sorts of awards (e.g. “personality of the year”) before he even enters the EPO. This banker will just drive the 'investment bank' into the ground for short-term cash, just like Battistelli. █

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