Bonum Certa Men Certa

The European Patent Office Has Become a Kakistocracy

Team Battistelli fits the definition almost perfectly

Kakistocracy



Summary: Nowadays, under Benoît Battistelli, the worth of human life and human rights may seem far too low at the EPO; for a change, however, citing the European Patent Convention (EPC), EPO staff rejects a key patent, so there's still a power struggle between competent people and people who misuse/sabotage the Office for personal gain

THE European Patent Office (EPO) keeps wrestling with patent quality, which management is trying to squash, whereas examiners try to insist on (at risk of being laid off for such insistence if not resistance).



High patent quality is the enemy of patent maximalists, such as patent law firms. They profit from a large pool of patents and lawsuits, including frivolous ones. They could not care less if money is drained out of the economy because that money typically lands in their pockets. This is why they are pushing so hard for the UPC -- a subject we shall revisit in our next post.

"High patent quality is the enemy of patent maximalists, such as patent law firms."We recently wrote about Finnegan (together with IAM) promoting patents on life/nature. Finnegan is one of the largest patent law firms out there (Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP). Yesterday it wrote about Amgen [1, 2, 3] -- an envelope which no doubt it's willing to push for its large clients, such as pharmaceutical giants. Sanya Sukduang and Thomas J. Sullivan did this so-called 'podcast', which they preceded with the following text (a case we covered here several times before): "In June 2017, the Supreme Court announced its decisions in Sandoz v. Amgen and Amgen v. Sandoz – cases that examined how makers of biosimilars and branded biologic drugs bring products to market. At issue was the so-called "patent dance," a complex series of disclosures between biosimilar makers and the manufacturers of branded versions. In its decision, the Court left it up to states to decide whether to enforce the patent dance and how."

This case concerns the US patent system, but there's an analogous dispute in Europe over biosimilars. What's at stake is the worth of human life, e.g. access to medicine. Given that the EPO already grants abstract patents on mathematics, why not patents on life/nature as well?

According to an article we saw yesterday, "EpiPen patent [got] revoked in Europe". Life Sciences Intellectual Property Review wrote:

The European Patent Office (EPO) has revoked a patent covering Mylan’s EpiPen (epinephrine) injector after finding that patent amendments contravened the European Patent Convention (EPC).

ALK-Abello, a Denmark-based pharmaceutical company that makes the Jext injector, and Merck had opposed European patent number EP1,786,491 in November 2016.

The patent is owned by Meridian Medical Technologies, a subsidiary of Pfizer and the manufacturer of EpiPens for Mylan.

LSIPR previously reported on the battleground for the patent opposition.


Might the USPTO follow suit? Maybe PTAB will be petitioned some day? The behaviour of the maker of EpiPen still makes headlines in the US (quite a few even yesterday). EpiPen losing its 'teeth' at the EPO is a good sign. It shows that at least some parts of the Office (e.g. Oppositions, which recently shot down a CRISPR patent) still manage to function. But for how much longer? And to what extent? As we said yesterday, only about 4% of granted patents are opposed (not because the remaining 96% are OK). And as we have seen before, those who stand in the way of patent maximalists like Battistelli tend to be punished somehow. It's not like there are legal safeguards against such retribution tactics.

As Märpel noted yesterday, there are "No human rights." To quote a portion of this latest post:

This message from the President of the European Court of Human Rights himself is of the utmost importance to the staff of the EPO as the European Court of Human Rights was perceived of the only way to reform a dysfunctional justice system: member states should not be able to create an organisation where basic human rights are not respected and access to a functional justice system is a basic human right. Märpel understands that there are pending cases involving the EPO at the European Court of Human Rights.

What Guido Raimondi basically said is that all these cases shall be lost. Human rights at the EPO are good enough or, more precisely, the need of international organizations for immunity and an independent justice system is more important than the breeches suffered by their staff.

SUEPO notes that Between May 2003 and May 2010, Guido Raimondi worked at the International Labour Office (ILO) as a Deputy Legal Adviser and Legal Adviser of the Organization. Doesn't this cast doubts on his independence and fairness? The article of Guido Raimondi on the case law of the European Court of Human Rights on international Civil Service law is below. English translation from SUEPO.


As we said yesterday, one legitimate concern is that EPO examiners no longer have the courage to oppose bad patents, except anonymously (i.e. not in their professional capacity). A terrorising administration made it this way. This would not only cost Europe a lot of money (several times the aggregate revenue of the EPO) but it would also cost lives. The former Chief Economist of the EPO publicly warned about this. Battistelli replaced him with some Frenchman who keeps talking a lot of nonsense in the latest Gazette (I was personally astounded by how shallow and boorish his articles/puff pieces were). The EPO has truly become a kakistocracy.

Recent Techrights' Posts

GNU/Linux Grows at Windows' Expense and Microsoft Trolls Infest and Maliciously Target Articles About It
Microsoft is - and has long been - organised crime
They Say I'm Mr. Bombastic
They didn't take good lawyers
Linux Foundation is a Mediator for Microsoft et al, Not for Small Companies That Support Rather Than Attack the GPL
Many people still wrongly assume that because it is called "Linux Foundation", then it is pro-Linux and represents the same mindset
 
BetaNews is a Plagiarism and LLM Slop Hub, the Chief Editor Isn't Addressing This Problem Anymore
SS Fagioli is basically a parasite leeching off or exploiting other people's work
Links 09/06/2025: Chaos in Los Angeles and Hurricane Season
Links for the day
Links 09/06/2025: Windows TCO and Many Data Breaches
Links for the day
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part VI: Political Stunts by Former President Edyta Demby-Siwek and the Connection to Profound Corruption at EUIPO
it's like a money-laundering operation where one politician rewards another at taxpayers' expense
Gemini Links 09/06/2025: Pipelines and Splitgate
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, June 08, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, June 08, 2025
Links 08/06/2025: Tiananmen Carnage Censorship Persists, North Korean Goes Offline
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/06/2025: Love as an Ethnographic Method and Monitorix Gemini-Frontend v0.1
Links for the day
Links 08/06/2025: Exposure of More GAFAM Surveillance and Social Security Records Compromised
Links for the day
This Past Friday, Confirming What We Said All Along About Brett Wilson LLP: It's Shrinking, Has Considerable Debt, Loss of Net Assets Despite the Microsoft SLAPP Money
The documents only became publicly available less than 2 days ago
Some of the Many Reasons We Sued Microsofters for Harassment
perpetrators of harassment
For 20 Years Many People Were Sharecropping for Canonical's Oligarch, Now He's Deleting All Their Contributions
"Ubuntu has erased instead of archiving the trove of material at Ubuntu Forums"
There Was Always Too Much 'Crazy Stuff' Going on Around Freenode
What many IRC users lost sight of
Exposing Crime is Not a Crime (It Never Was)
In the eyes of rich and powerful people, those who speak about their crimes are the "criminals"
GNU/Linux Distros Abandoning Microsoft GitHub
Will curl be next to leave Microsoft GitHub?
Expect More XBox Mass Layoffs Soon If the Rumours Are True
From a Microsoft media operative
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, June 07, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, June 07, 2025
Europe Needs to Move Away From GAFAM; The Sooner, the Better
Europe - not just the EU - must abandon GAFAM as soon as possible
The Issue Isn't GNOME's Promotion of Diversity But GNOME Corruption, Abuse, Censorship, and Worse
So-called "Conservative" (republican, pro-Trump, bigoted) people want you to think the problem with GNOME is politics
When the News Sources Become Scarce and Increasingly Full of Polluted/Contaminated 'Content' (With LLM Slop and Slop Images)
Integrity matters
"Linux" Sites That Spew Out LLM Slop
We're lacking enough material for another "Slopwatch"
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part V: Breaking the Law, Just Like EPO
We'll hopefully cover some of the pertinent details later this year
Links 08/06/2025: Security Lapses, CISA Cuts, and More
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/06/2025: Mime Types and Geminisphere Introduction
Links for the day
Links 07/06/2025: Slop Companies Retain All Private Data, More Books Banned in the US
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/06/2025: "A Monk's Guide to Happiness" and "Wireless Earbuds"
Links for the day
Links 07/06/2025: More Rumours of Mass Layoffs in Microsoft's XBox Division, New COVID Variant
Links for the day
Drug Addiction is a Real Problem, It Destroys Families
a rather sensitive matter
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part IV: Political Scrutiny and Errors/Inconsistencies in Official Documents
When such organisations receive scrutiny they start focusing on cover-up and muzzling of facts (or crushing people who say the truth)
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, June 06, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, June 06, 2025