06.23.19
Posted in Europe, Law, Patents at 4:18 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Older: What If Lionel Baranes Was EPO President?
Summary: Succession based on nepotism at Europe’s second-largest institution served to shown how inherently broken things had become and why cover-up of injustices is nowadays paramount (not fixing the flaws/ills but merely perpetuating them)
IT wasn’t too long ago that Battistelli rigged the selection/coronation process in favour of António Campinos after Judge Cuno Tarfusser had applied for the job of European Patent Office (EPO) President. Next week Campinos ‘celebrates’ a year in the job. He has been utterly appalling and he has failed to demonstrate respect for the rule of law — the one thing the EPO needed most.
We tried hard not too be so harsh on him, but he turned out to be everything we worried he’d become. He’s just a 'soft' face on dictatorship. Replacing Battistelli with Campinos is a lot like replacing Trump with Pence. It may look OK, but only on the surface. The same policies may persist and no matter how many impeachable scandals preceded (and crimes committed), nobody will be held accountable, definitely not arrested. Battistelli is still ‘in hiding’ at CEIPI and days ago he showed his face again at an EPO event. We hope that like his former boss Nicolas Sarkozy perhaps one day (perhaps a decade late when he’s nearly 80) justice will catch up with him. Because he himself will never catch up with justice. These are sociopaths. █
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Posted in America, Europe, Patents at 2:36 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Plastic fans of “innovation”!
Summary: A ‘paper economy’ is what Europe turns into if the current trajectory is followed (led by lawyers, not producers)
PATENT maximalism is a disease. It’s a very deadly disease, as we reminded readers a couple of hours ago in relation to the European Patent Office (EPO). Some software patents in Europe are being granted awards and one of the award recipients is a person who came up with a patent that prevents other people recycling (in a particular fashion). How is this beneficial to society? Battistelli was in the jury, so don’t expect sound rationale. António Campinos is the President, so it’s basically a banker running things (at the USPTO it’s law firms running the Office). Seeds, plants and even animals (including humans) are claimed to be ‘owned’ by few corporations — often corporations that aren’t even European! What is human kind doing to itself?
“Seeds, plants and even animals (including humans) are claimed to be ‘owned’ by few corporations — often corporations that aren’t even European! What is human kind doing to itself?”As someone told me a few months ago, it won’t be long before lawyers claim that their clients or “inventors” ‘own’ air as well, claiming/insisting that the oxygen came from their trees, which are their “AYE PEE” (IP). Too many trees with too many owners to keep track of? Worry not, there will be a “patent pool” (for air). It can be a tax with different ‘tiers’ for those who cannot afford it.
35 U.S.C. § 101 in the United States improved things a great deal, but Europe is going down the slippery slope of a ‘paper economy’ — an economy based on monopolies printed on a piece of paper rather than production (which these monopolies stifle). We certainly hope that patent examiners who read this site realise how self-harming patent maximalism really is. It’s a house of cards (cardboard/paper). █
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Posted in Bill Gates, Deception, GNU/Linux, Microsoft at 2:00 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
“Where are we on this Jihad?”
–Bill Gates
Summary: Microsoft, which routinely commits very serious crimes, tries to come across as some sort of philanthropy whereas those who share their work with the public (for greater good) are described as erratic, rude and unworthy of respect from corporations (outcasts basically, deprived of income source)
THE manager of Microsoft is Bill Gates. He was always the manager of Microsoft (and cofounder, the other one is dead). This narcissist created a sham ‘charity’ (the Gates Foundation) and he’s on top of the Board of Microsoft, which means he can fire Nadella if he wants to (nobody else in the Board has got the clout he has and there’s a cult-like worship, if not of the person then his money, which nearly doubled in less than a decade). A lot of people still choose to ignore that. Nadella is to Gates What Dmitry Medvedev was to Vladimir Putin (it’s a tandemocracy).
“Bill Gates call call for a “Jihad” (his word), but we cannot use words like “bullshit”…”The chief of the Linux Foundation infamously said we need to “respect Microsoft” and that speaking negatively of Microsoft is like “kicking a puppy” (we’re not making this up, look it up!) and this is the kind of attitude that makes Microsoft more than happy with him being the boss of Linus Torvalds, whose face is far more familiar (he’s more popular and has more influence in general, so it threatens Bill Gates/Microsoft’s narrative). The same can be said about Richard Stallman, an atheist whose ‘beliefs’ (stances) on software are often compared, derogatorily, to religion.
Can Torvalds still use “slurs” against Microsoft? Well, he has not done anything to that effect since the Code of Conduct was put in place. He had definitely done so beforehand, e.g. here. On Friday The Register published this article entitled “‘Bulls%^t! Complete bull$h*t!’ Reset the clock on the last time woke Linus Torvalds exploded at a Linux kernel dev”. All this melodrama in the Microsoft-friendly rag is about Torvalds using the terms “bullshit,” “complete bullshit,” and “obviously garbage.” These aren’t sexist or racist or anything like that. But what we see here is corporate media playing the part of “language police”, trying to maintain Torvalds in a corporate-friendly ‘mode’ (like his boss, who poses for photo ops with Microsoft). This was the sole purpose of the article and even the headline alone makes Linux ‘stink’…
Bill Gates can call for a “Jihad” (his word), but we cannot use words like “bullshit”…
Microsoft executives, Gates included, have used far worse words (here’s a compilation from 12 years ago).
Microsoft’s de facto PR people (for a decade) can anally rape children, but we in the FOSS community are “dangerous” and “zealots”. █
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Posted in Europe, Marketing, Patents at 12:49 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
EPO as a marketing agency
Summary: The EPO’s practice of elevating some patents over the other patents (European Patents) is perhaps more of a societal liability than the EPO cares to realise
Last year, after European Inventor Award 2018, we took a closer look at the winner Andane Remmal (3 parts [1, 2, 3]). Battistelli and his colleagues/friends in France made a fortune from that event and it was far from the first scandal associated with these events, which were typically hosted in France when Battistelli was President.
“They’ve just awarded Frenchman and check what for.”European Patent Office (EPO) President António Campinos wants us to think that he does life-saving work that helps the environment, helps Europe etc. In the EPO’s own words (warning: epo.org link), these are “exceptional inventors” (actually patents do not always imply invention and these two terms are intentionally conflated by patent maximalists). As Law Professor Sarah Burstein (specialising in design patents) put it some hours ago in response to a video from EUIPO (former Campinos employer): “Because everyone knows human creativity & innovation did not exist until patents were invented in the 15th century [extreme sarcasm font]”
“This is some next-level propaganda,” she later added. The EUIPO is managing to outclass even itself.
The next comment said: “Accounts like that make me feel sick whenever I see an username with the word #EU in it, or the #EuropeanUnion flag as their avatar. Congratulations: You lobbyists managed to turn the EU into a symbol of tyranny and repression!”
“So not only does he have a monopoly on it; now it’s a glorified (“award-winning”) patent monopoly. On an algorithm.”Kris Joseph wrote: “I read the film as an example of what you get when all IP is locked down and everything looks the same because nobody can create anything new without getting sued. The title for my version is “DisneyTopia.””
And on it goes.
We’ve meanwhile noticed the EPO retweeting INPI a lot throughout this event (or the event’s day), which quite frankly (or Franc-ly) happens a lot when almost all the Presidents are French.
They’ve just awarded a Frenchman and check what for. Shades of Elizabeth Holmes using patents for false marketing of a fraud?
It seems like a European software patent (I myself worked in this area of diagnostics, so I should know). In the EPO’s own words: “The French immunologist’s diagnostic tool assesses the risk of relapse in cancer patients. It uses digital images of tumour samples and advanced software to measure immune response. Galon’s invention is already in use at clinics around the world to improve the accuracy of prognosis for patients with colorectal cancer.”
So not only does he have a monopoly on it; now it’s a glorified (“award-winning”) patent monopoly. On an algorithm. We’ve already covered why patents on cancer treatment may actually harm cancer patients, e.g. in [1, 2, 3].
When the jury includes a nontechnical Frenchman like Battistelli no wonder winners are of questionable eligibility/merit. █
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Content is available under CC-BY-SA