Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Media is (Still) Failing to Cover EPO Corruption

Even basic plants are being patented

Grass



Summary: The 35 U.S.C. €§ 101 controversy in the US (attempts to grant invalid or to-be-invalidated-by-courts patents) is still receiving some press coverage; in Europe, however, the granting of patents in violation of the EPC gets largely overlooked

THE European Patent Office (EPO) keeps granting software patents in Europe in defiance of the EPC. António Campinos is a rogue manager. He's all marketing. A former banker who treats the EPO like a bank.



Similarly, today's U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) ignores caselaw because its new Director came from the litigation 'industry'. Earlier this month he was slammed for it, even by the Federal Circuit. Suffice to say, 35 U.S.C. €§ 101 is based on SCOTUS and that's why patent extremists have gone bonkers again. They keep looking for someone to blame. Patently-O responded relatively politely (it's barely active this year) and there are more details in our daily links (we wish not to cover pertinent cases anymore as it's time-consuming and too detailed to matter at a higher level). Compare this to Watchtroll, which is losing it again. Gene Quinn came back to lash out at judges and courts ("You Had One Job: The Federal Circuit Can and Should Fix Section 101"). Well, the job is to uphold the law, which is what they do in the face of the 'arms industry' of patents. See what Josh Landau (CCIA) wrote yesterday (more in daily links) on why the Founding Fathers of the US would oppose patents on nature and mathematics (Mayo and Alice).

"IP Kat has not covered it yet. Maybe it never will. It never writes anything negative about the EPO anymore..."Where does the EPO stand on these matters? It's worse than in the US. Just read all the comments here. They're new. It seems as though even EPO stakeholders still view the EPO as rogue and corrupt. Europe will suffer a lot from it and they know it. There's a sense of lawlessness and these comments/article were mentioned by SUEPO on Monday along with the survey [1, 2] -- another thing that has invited only negative comments. A closer look or proper analysis of the answers reveals that only about one in six people, based on the EPO's biased questions, trusts the EPO's management. I personally reckon that the real number is one in a hundred (i.e. Directors), but this survey was paid for and controlled by the propagandist, not those being indoctrinated (in vain).

IP Kat has not covered it yet. Maybe it never will. It never writes anything negative about the EPO anymore; yesterday it published this promotion of a patent maximalists' tool which only massive corporations can afford to participate in. The EPO is mentioned.

Will any other media mention or scrutinise the survey? The EPO is clearly constructing lies, as it did years ago with PwC, which is why we made the whole report available for scrutiny. The public needs to know what's really happening. Campinos managed to get people (staff, stakeholders, even ordinary citizens) fed up within just months; it took years for Battistelli to turn everyone sour, so we wonder if Campinos will even finish his term! As IP Kat deleted all comments critical of Campinos it can be regarded as somewhat complicit at this point.

Mind the following new comment about the oral proceedings of one case being moved to room 128 of the Isar building, not Haar. Cees Mulder wrote:

Would be best if the matter is referred to the Enlarged Board of Appeal, as this is a matter of "ensuring uniform application of the law" as required by Art. 112(1) EPC.

Whatever the outcome, the Guidelines for Examination in the EPO will have to be amended, because they, currently, are too strict.


Well, the EPC is routinely being violated. It is a lawless state of affairs.

Where is the media?

Some of it has been too busy parroting EPO press releases.

As one 'monarch' meets another we see a Monday tweet (from the EPO) about a late Friday press release and then Ben Wodecki (IPPro Magazine) amplifying it as usual. The EPO barely gets any applications from Jordan, which is far from the EU and isn't part of the EPO's member states. But still, headlines about the EPO now include "EPO meets with Jordanian IP office to discuss validation agreement" and another puff piece based on the other press release from Friday (amplified also elsewhere, with more fluff here).

With IP Watch practically defunct, sometimes it feels like very few are left to shed light on EPO affairs.

The EPO is meanwhile granting monopolies on plants. Next up: water and oxygen? Ehrlich Group's Hadassa Waterman has just published "European Board of Appeals: Plants Obtained by Essentially Biological Processes Are Patentable Implications to Cannabis" (via).

What?!

It has gotten really bad. Yesterday we also saw this new advertisement for the "CDR Life Sciences Litigation Symposium 2019" (speaking of the "life sciences industry" [sic]) and an upcoming meeting in Sofitel St James, London. To quote:

The life sciences industry is one that is highly innovative but also fiercely competitive, legally complex and highly regulated. Whether you are in protecting investment and innovation in a changing landscape, or navigating patent disputes, pricing regulations or product liability, this summit will help you find novel solutions to overcome the challenges faced by pharmaceutical and biotechnology businesses.


Scroll down a bit to find: "Understand how the unified system has streamlined patent approval process through the use of both legal and technical experts via Unitary Patent Court (UPC)" (but UPC is dead; in fact it does not exist!).

Recent Techrights' Posts

Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
This Saturday It's Gonna be 3.5 Years* Since Russia Invaded Ukraine. No Microsoft Protests Against Microsoft Having Provided Russia With Services.
Companies do not have consistent policies and enforcement of "corporate values" is somewhat of an egg salad
 
Links 23/08/2025: onmicrosoft.com as Spam Cannon, The Cheeto-Intel Deal Is Official
Links for the day
Wired Complained About LLM Slop Only Days Before It Got Caught Doing That Itself
Never throw stones in a glass house
IBM "Value" Down 14.16% in a Month, Red Hat Layoffs Allegedly Discussed 12 Days Ago
"IBM is a dinosaur. Dinosaurs get extinct when the don't keep up."
We're Seeing More Countries Where Windows Isn't Even in Second Place Anymore (Third or Worse)
In a way, Microsoft can barely even hold onto second place anymore
The US Government is Now in the Business (Literally!) of Saving Microsoft and Intel
This means that President TACO/Cheeto now has grater financial incentive to also prop up Microsoft and Windows
Microsoft Workers on Canonical's Payroll
If you want something that's sort of like Ubuntu but is not controlled by Canonical, then look into Linux Mint, Debian, or LMDE
GNU/Linux Climbs to 4% in Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone isn't a very rich country (to say the least), but it's better off than some of its neighbours
The SLAPPS Run Out of Oxygen Because They're Abuse of Process
At the end of the day we plan to publish over 1,000 articles explaining what happened
The Register MS Gets Paid by the Employer of the Previous Editor in Chief to Promote the "AI" Ponzi Scheme, Which Does Considerable Damage to the Web and to Online Journalists
The Register MS can 'badmouth' slop all it wants; it gets paid to inflate this bubble. It's actively participating in it.
Soon It'll be Autumn, Time to Repair Things
Where they don't charge an arm and a leg
Doing Our Best to Cover Software Patents When the Mainstream Media Does Not
Even the FSF has its limits
Gemini Links 23/08/2025: August Questions and Network Solutions
Links for the day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, August 22, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, August 22, 2025
Microsoft Has Issues in Guyana
It's not just Guyana
About 25% of the "Linux" News/Results in Google News Today Are LLM Slop, Almost 20% From the Same Rogue Operators of Slopfarms
Google, which tries to market itself as an LLM giant, apparently fails to understand what's wrong with it
Harassing People on Holiday
There are "no-go areas"; but that assumes all laws firms have ethical standards
The Great, Undeniable Value of Paper Trail, Not Purely Digital Systems
Suppose you have nothing but bits on someone else's computer and "word of mouth"...
The Company Behind Ars Technica, Reddit and Wired Caught Publishing LLM Slop (It Also Admits It Now)
Condé Nast busted
Links 22/08/2025: Lagrange 1.18.8, Wired Magazine and Business Insider Caught Resorting to LLM Slop
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Sites Gone Rogue, Google Promoting Lies, and DDoS Attacks by Plagiarism Giants
Charlatans and frauds engage in a war against artistic industries, mislabeling plagiarism as "AI"
Links 22/08/2025: Cisco Layoffs, LA Times Says "AI Hype is Fading Fast"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/08/2025: K for Kentucky and Caddy Versus LLM Slopbots
Links for the day
The "End Software Patents" Initiative of the FSF Explains "WHY [to] ABOLISH SOFTWARE PATENTS"
We hope to cover patent-related issues more and more as the big anniversary of the FSF approaches
Freenode Sniffing
The grown-ups left the building
The Only Thing Worse Than Misinformation is Misinformation Sold to Everyone as "Intelligence"
Misplaced trust is worse than none at all
The Register MS Now Openly Admits LLM Hype Does Damage, But It's Also Being Paid to Participate in the LLM Hype (With Paid 'Articles' and 'Webcasts' for Paying Advertisers)
The Register MS gets paid to do this
End of the Smartphone Era? No.
Maybe the media should focus on producing accurate, factual news
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 21, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, August 21, 2025
Enshittification of Airports, Airlines, and Airplanes
If people are willing to tolerate standard declines and enshittification (nowadays sold as "pivot to AI" or "replaced by AI" or "AI layoffs") they will pay for it some other way
Latest Is Not Greatest: The Case of "Foldable" Tech
don't be shamed into abandoning old things just because the "fashion industry" of Apple and Samsung tells you to
Airlines and Their Tricks That Only Work in the 'Digital Age'
People sceptical of the direction technology has taken are not "Luddites"
Open Source Initiative (OSI), Which Became a Propaganda Front of Microsoft and "Hey Hi" (Hype, Misnomer), Wants You to Forget These Scandals
A lot of these issues won't be set aside until there's a resolution
The Culture of Overnight Coding
An industry-wise push-back is needed
Windows Down to New Lows in Guinea Bissau and Many Countries Around It
If Android is accounted for, Windows is down to about 10%
Gemini Links 21/08/2025: Modern Dating, Debian 13, and Apache
Links for the day
Microsoft Has Had About 10 Waves of Mass Layoffs So Far This Year (Not Two as Mainstream Media and Slopfarms Endlessly Claim)
Notice how the MSM (Mainstream Media) never mentions the debt of Microsoft. It is a conscious, deliberate decision.
Links 21/08/2025: Covid Cases on the Rise, "Social Media Trolls", Russia's Attacks Intensify
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/08/2025: The Attraction of Back Alleys, Initramfs, and BSD ISPs
Links for the day
Links 21/08/2025: Stephanie Shirley Dies and "Groklaw Domain Hijacked?"
Links for the day
Search in 2025 (Age of DDoS Attacks Under the Guise of "AI" "Innovation")
One common concern when things go "live" is that any random bot out there can execute queries, pumping up RAM and CPU usage, as happened when we used MediaWiki and WordPress
Using Slop for Images Does Not Make Your Site Look Advanced or Witty, It Just Makes Your Whole Work Look Like Presumed Plagiarism
Lazy slobs and Serial Sloppers use the guise/excuse of "AI" to plagiarise and spam the Web
Financing of the "Hey Hi" (AI) Bubble by Those Who Profit From Planetary Destruction (Global Warming)
It's about personal gain, too
Richard Stallman Will Speak in Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress
it's good to see that the FSF pays considerable respect to it founder, who is moreover invited to speak at events
(At Least) Second Wave of Mass Layoffs in Microsoft This Month
This is not the first time this month that Microsoft has mass layoffs
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 20, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, August 20, 2025