02.14.18
The EPO’s Paid Promotion of Software Patents Gets Patent Maximalists All Excited and Emboldened
This (from earlier today) is part of a new hype wave
Summary: The software patents advocacy from Battistelli (and his cohorts) isn’t just a spit in the face of European Parliament but also the EPC; but patent scope seems to no longer exist or matter under his watch, as all he cares about is granting as many patents as possible, irrespective of real quality/legitimacy/merit
THE quality of patents at the EPO keeps sliding downwards and it’s related to scandals that result in brain drain and unreasonable pressures. Examiners complain that they’re unable to do their job properly.
A European Patent (EP) has just been upheld and the company behind it issued a press release to celebrate this. To quote:
Global visual technology market leader RealD Inc. announced today that the European Patent Office’s (EPO) Opposition Division has upheld the validity of one of the Company’s key patents for light-doubling 3D cinema projection systems.
The Opposition Division too is under pressure; it’s now dealing with literally thousands of oppositions (several times what it used to be) per year. One can imagine how many bogus ones have been granted since Battistelli entered the Office. Probably tens of thousands…
Remember that not all bogus patents are being challenged because the process is tricky and expensive. Some bogus patents can end up in court and some alluded to in threatening legal letters (patent shake-down). IAM has just published this paid puff piece for Carpmaels & Ransford LLP. It’s about British or European Patents that aren’t being renewed (or something similar).
As EPO insiders may have noticed, there has been barely any EPO press coverage so far this year. Earlier today we saw this article about “Fourth Industrial Revolution” — a buzzword that Team Battistelli promotes by paying the media. The EPO — by essentially bribing European media to promote software patents (under the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” banner/buzzword) — seems to be getting its money’s worth if the goal is to actually promote illicit patents (under terms like “Fourth Industrial Revolution”, “CII” and “ICT” also). From the article (behind its paywall): “The inventions presented to the EPO and considered in this analysis are classified into three main areas, each of which is divided into different technological sectors. First of all, it is found that Core Technologies in the ICT sector…”
Those are just software patents; IAM recently admitted this (as explicitly as possible) in an article about its special engagements with Battistelli (speeches, articles and so on). It’s all rather troubling. Battistelli controls the media using money which isn’t his and he uses this control to proudly peddle software patents.
Watch what this patent maximalist wrote earlier today, piggybacking the ‘shower thoughts’ of Mr. Best. He tweeted about this too, bemoaning that “Blockchain patent activity increases – but granted patents are still rare in this field…”
Those are, without exception, software patents and should be rejected on that basis alone. █
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