THE European Patent Office (EPO) is unwilling and unable to put scandals behind. It's still bribing academics (this is still -- nearly a month down the line -- advertised by the EPO in Twitter almost every day) and even the media. There's also that old bunch of "media partners" it brings (even flies at its own expense) to European Inventor Award. The ceremony is harming patent neutrality and even awarding money and honours to literal criminals. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) doesn't do things like that, so why does Europe need this? Why doesn't António Campinos put an end to it?

“The very president under which the EPO lost its reputation as a respectable international organisation, the president under which nepotism became the norm, the president who intruded into DG3 daily business and ruined DG3's independence, the president under which the quality of work has reached the abyss, the president under which pressure at work has peaked to unprecedented heights (with 6 suicides never investigated), the president under which numerous union officials have been brutally targeted and sanctioned, the president who hired the infamous Alexandre Benalla as one of his 6 bodyguards.”
      --Anonymous"What a truly independent jury indeed," a reader of ours joked, pointing to the above. Yes, that's Battistelli right there! He's still involved in the EPO.

"Besides the fact that the European Inventor of the Year is highly questionable PR event which involves the wasting of huge amounts of applicants' money every year (some speak of more than 1.5 Mio EUR per event)," said this reader, "it is now a premiere to see a former president involved in the Jury.

"And Battistelli auch noch! The very president under which the EPO lost its reputation as a respectable international organisation, the president under which nepotism became the norm, the president who intruded into DG3 daily business and ruined DG3's independence, the president under which the quality of work has reached the abyss, the president under which pressure at work has peaked to unprecedented heights (with 6 suicides never investigated), the president under which numerous union officials have been brutally targeted and sanctioned, the president who hired the infamous Alexandre Benalla as one of his 6 bodyguards.

"There was surely no better candidate to involve in this circus than this very one. Shame on you, Mr Campinos!"

"What are they celebrating? Violation of the law?"As we pointed out earlier this week, they're already using this event to glamourise software patents in Europe -- patents that should never have been granted in the first place! The EPO offers awards to people for fake patents that are software patents and incredibly harmful, expensive to society. Incompatible with the EPC also. What are they celebrating? Violation of the law?

The person's employer is still using this for PR purposes (EPO has entered the corporate endorsements fray). Here's the third example we've seen in Twitter: "Marta Karczewicz von @Qualcomm Tech, Pionierin der #Videokompression und Erfinderin von mehr als 400 #Patenten weltweit, wurde für den Lifetime Achievement Award von @EPOorg nominiert..."

There are accompanying EPO press releases and new press coverage (puff piece from The First News) like "Maths genius gets lifetime achievement nomination for her work on video compression" (EPO wants to give an award for patents on maths).

"Now they have the very criminal who used the European Inventor Award to steal money right inside the jury!""Mathematic genius Marta Karczewicz has been nominated for the lifetime achievement European Inventor Award 2019 for her work on advancing video," it said. Actually, as is widely known, she built barriers. These patents have been a very major nuisance to a lot of software development. See our many articles about MPEG-LA. There have been other puff pieces coming out of this stupid ceremony, like yesterday's [1, 2] articles which said "Israeli engineer and Mobileye’s Chief Research Scientist Gideon Stein, who helped found the Jerusalem-based advanced driver assistance system, has been nominated for the European Inventor Award 2019 for his Advanced Driver Assistance System, the European Patent Office (EPO) announced Tuesday."

These aren't even Europeans. The European Inventor Award has nothing to do with Europe. Years ago they offered honours to a literal criminal from the United States. Now they have the very criminal who used the European Inventor Award to steal money right inside the jury! An opportunity for Europol and Interpol to stage an arrest when he's not sheltered by CEIPI, a so-called 'law' school? ⬆