Bonum Certa Men Certa

EPO Management Keeps Embarrassing Itself, UPC More Dead Than Before, and Nokia Turns Aggressive

How long can the marketing campaign (marketing Mr. Campinos) hold?

António Campinos FTI



Summary: The EPO's race to the bottom of patent quality continues, it's now complemented by direct association with patent trolls and law stands in their way (for they repeatedly violate the law)

JUST like today's USPTO, the European Patent Office (EPO) promotes software patents in Europe using hype waves. It nowadays invites the most notorious patent trolls from the US to be keynote speakers at events which 'dress up' software patents in Europe as "blockchains". As the EPO put it earlier today: "The EPO's Patenting #Blockchain conference will happen tomorrow. If you won't be able to attend, we will be live-tweeting the highlights of the event. Stay tuned!"



"It nowadays invites the most notorious patent trolls from the US to be keynote speakers at events which 'dress up' software patents in Europe as "blockchains"."Then there's the bizarre concept of "AIpatents" or "AI" patents that are just software patents i.e. fake patent grants. The EPO is now granting fake patents that court would no doubt reject, throw away. "Panellists at the EPO’s Patenting #ArtificialIntelligence conference identified three types of AI patenting," the EPO wrote this morning. Welcome to the EPO under António Campinos; it doesn't care about quality of patents and it doesn't care about staff, either. Poland turns 100 and on Friday the EPO leveraged some bizarre slant to make it all about patents and Campinos. We mentioned this over the weekend and the EPO amplified this nonsense earlier today.

"Then there's the bizarre concept of "AIpatents" or "AI" patents that are just software patents i.e. fake patent grants."This morning the EPO retweeted, yet again, this lie from Managing IP (Managing Intellectual [sic] Property [sic]): "António Campinos has so far succeeded in improving relations in the upper echelons of the @EPOorg since taking over as president in July."

"This tweet is a lie," I told them (again). "It is a falsehood. He has NOT "succeeded in improving relations". Ask actual EPO workers and unions (if they're allowed to speak). They call him "mini Battistelli"."

Speaking of Managing IP, a longtime pusher of the UPC, in light of this huge blow to Team UPC (Sam Gyimah resigning) they said that "Gyimah is the 10th person to resign over the UK government’s EU Withdrawal Agreement, including previous IP minister Jo Johnson" (his predecessor). Huge blow for the UPC as three consecutive ministers who promoted it have all resigned (or moved) in just 2 years.

"Their bubble long ago burst and they hope that UPC will reverse this trend by creating a new bubble."Alas, as usual, one can rely on Team UPC to craft some spin and fantasy; earlier this week Ramona Livera ("an advocate at Elias Neocleous & Co. Llc") wrote in the Cyprus Mail that the "unified patent court provides security" (financial security for people like Ramona, pursuing more litigation). Why don't they hire actual journalists? This paper has just published self-promotion lies for Team UPC, whose agenda is a direct assault on science and technology in Europe (for the sake of the legal billing 'industry').

"Budget pressures pushing patent processes in house," says a recent headline of Managing IP. This should be read as mass layoffs or loss of 'business' for patent law firms. Their bubble long ago burst and they hope that UPC will reverse this trend by creating a new bubble. By bubble we mean frivolous litigation.

No propaganda day would be complete without IAM's contribution. Days ago it said: "Nokia now working its way through the Chinese mobile market. Another royalty bearing licence means more patent-related revenue dropping straight onto the company’s bottom line."

"No propaganda day would be complete without IAM's contribution."Microsoft turned Nokia into a troll and this latest deal, announced widely at the time (e.g. [1, 2, 3]) was also mentioned earlier today by a patent propaganda site, Managing IP. How many of the underlying patents have actually been tested in court?

Recent Techrights' Posts

Richard Stallman's Talk at Georgia Tech is Just 2 Days Away
We're still curious to see how malicious people (or trolls) in social control media will try to slant his talk as "bad"
The "Alicante Mafia" - Part VII - The Industrial Actions Began Yesterday, Here's Why
The "Alicante Mafia" might not last much longer
 
Software Patents by Any Other Name
There is no such thing as "AI" patents
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, January 21, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, January 21, 2026
The "Alicante Mafia" - Part VIII - Salary Cuts to Staff, 100,000 Euros to Managers Busted Using Cocaine (for Doing Absolutely Nothing, Just Pretending to be "Sick")
Today we look at slides from the union
Gemini Links 22/01/2026: Forest Monk, Aurora Observation, and Arduino Officially Launches the More Powerful Arduino UNO Q 4GB Single-Board Computer
Links for the day
Next Week is Close Enough for Wall Street Storytelling About 'Efficiency' by Layoffs for "AI"
This coming week GAFAM and others will tell some creative tales about how "AI" something something...
Google News Still a Feeder of Slop About "Linux", Which Became Rarer in 2026
Our main concern these days is what happened to Linuxiac. Bobby Borisov became a chatbots addict.
Links 21/01/2026: "Snap Settles Lawsuit on Social Media Addiction" and Attempts in the US to Revive Software Patents
Links for the day
Links 21/01/2026: Microsoft 'Open' 'Hey Hi' in More Trouble, US Has "Brown Shirts" Problem
Links for the day
Yesterday Afternoon The Register MS Published Paid Microsoft SPAM Disguised as an Article About "AI PCs"
The Register MS cannot help itself, can it? [...] Follow the money.
Microsoft's XBox is in Effect Dead Already, Now It's a Streaming and Advertising Platform
Expect many layoffs soon
EPO's Web Site Misused for Propaganda About Illegal Kangaroo Courts to Distract From EPO Scandals and Judicial Crisis in Europe
UPC is illegal and unconstitutional
Gemini Links 21/01/2026: Edible Circuits and "Sayonara HTTP"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, January 20, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, January 20, 2026
IBM Hides Its Own Destruction (and Red Hat's)
It's like scenes out of '1984', which is what a now-famous advertisement from Apple compared IBM to
LLM Slop Not Dead Yet, Examples of Slop About "Linux"
We wish to see the totals down to zero
Links 20/01/2026: Cheeto Blackmails France Into 'Peace' While Looking to Annex EU, Mass Layoffs in Capgemini (Microsoft Reseller/Promoter) in France
Links for the day
Gemini Links 20/01/2026: Boxing and "Inbox Zero" Success
Links for the day
Windows and Slop Declining While Microsoft Silences Critics
Microsoft tries to suppress facts while faking 'demand' by imposing slop on everybody, everywhere
openai.com Traffic Said to Have Fallen 50% in the Past Three Months, Reports Say It Nearly Ran Out of Money to Borrow
After the slop frenzy all we'll have left is environmental destruction
IBM Kills OzLabs, Signalling An Attack on Free Software (a Sign for Red Hat)
ibiblio also appears to have died (or experiences critical issues)
Red Hat Vice President Leaving After Nearly Two Decades
IBM's culture of secrecy is not compatible with Free software
Links 20/01/2026: "ChatGPT Health" (Latest Distraction From Being Insolvent) Flops and Raises Concerns, "The U.S. Military Faces a Reckoning on Greenland"
Links for the day
Rudeness and Vulgarity Won't Stop Journalism About Free Software
we seem to be on the right path
Readers Pleased With Layout Changes
Two days ago we began improving clarity and accessibility in the site
IBM Plans for Layoffs Becoming Clearer With "Employee Reviews"
Of course this impacts Red Hat as well
IBM is Outsourcing Red Hat's Fedora to Slop to 'Save Money'
If IBM cared about quality rather than alleged "cost savings" (cutting corners), it would assign more IBM staff to Fedora, but instead the exact opposite happened, with the likes of Cotton and Miller removed from the project
European Patent Office (EPO) Industrial Actions Formally Start in Two Hours
As per the latest (revised) action plan, today workers will slow down their work and limit patent grants
Microsoft Under Fresh Investigation by the Italian Competition Authority
In 2025 we kept a running tally of 30,000+ Microsoft layoffs, so 40k this year would not be unthinkable
The "Alicante Mafia" - Part VI - More Strikes Planned at the EPO, Starting This Month
Yesterday we said that friends of Berenguer or inside Berenguer's circle may have left
Gemini Links 20/01/2026: New Tea, Using a Roku at a Hotel, and "Voltage-Based Power Management for Any Raspberry Pi"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, January 19, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, January 19, 2026