Bonum Certa Men Certa

EPO Under Fire From EU Parliament, But Patent Trolls Already Storm Europe, Emboldened by Low Quality of European Patents

Earlier this month: European Patent Office's Cooperation and Collaboration With Patent Trolls Instead of Science and Technology

Candid Europe



Summary: There are further signs that the MEPs (European politicians) have at least taken an interest in EPO abuses, particularly the outrageous patent scope that renders many European Patents void and illegal (courts would almost certainly reject them if it reached that far; patent trolls try hard to settle outside them)

"Today is World Day Against Software Patents," Benjamin Henrion jokingly declared ("Anyone can make up World Day of anything," I responded). "Freedom of programming is under attack in the US, with the STRONGER patent act law proposal to restore software patents, and the pending EU Unitary Patent Court to validate the EPO practice to grant them..."



"The EPO does not want so-called 'clients' ("stakeholders") to see this dissent as it may further harm confidence in European Patents."Thankfully, the EPO recently came under fire from the European Parliament, as we mentioned in [1, 2] very recently. The EPO has said nothing about it. Not even mere "tweets". The EPO does not want so-called 'clients' ("stakeholders") to see this dissent as it may further harm confidence in European Patents. In other words, EPO management is trying to hide the damage its own decisions caused.

A Web site that exists to promote patents on life and nature (Life Sciences [sic] Intellectual [sic] Property [sic] Review) has just reacted to European authorities rightly opposing the aforementioned EPO abuse. From this 'news' (lobbying) site:

The European Parliament has said that the internal rules of the European Patent Office (EPO) “must not undermine democratic political control of European patent law”.

In a resolution passed last Thursday, September 19, the parliament urged the European Commission and EU member states to do “everything in their power” to obtain legal clarity from the EPO regarding the patentability of products obtained exclusively from biological processes.

The dispute between the parliament and the EPO originates in a December 2018 decision of the latter’s technical board, which established what the parliament called a position of “legal uncertainty”.


This “legal uncertainty” is legal dynamite for trolls! Companies shed off "low certainty” patents and sell them to parasites.

"10 of the 11 patent suits filed today were filed by patent trolls," it has been reported this week, "according to RPX Corp. That's 91%."

Coming to Europe already.

Recent Techrights' Posts

On Groupthink, Mindless 'Sheep', and Toxic Online Cults
This week, treat yourself to a life free of social control media
BetaNews is Run and Written by Bots That Make Clickbait
At least one author is doing this
 
[Meme] Trying to Terrorise Critics
How Microsofters roll...
Illegitimi Non Carborundum
If you try to suppress our publication, we'll not just bark back but also bite
Why This Site Became "Simple" a Year Ago
Light is good, heavy is bad
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, November 25, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, November 25, 2024
Links 26/11/2024: International Microsoft Outages, Microsoft Mass Layoffs Bigger Than Reported Last Friday
Links for the day, Deutsche Welle and CBC focus
Gemini Links 26/11/2024: Not Pagan, Emacs Wiki, and More
Links for the day
Links 25/11/2024: Egypt Harasses Bloggers, The University of Michigan Has Become Like a Corporation
Links for the day
Links 25/11/2024: Climate News, Daniel Pocock Receives a Fake/Fraudulent €17,000 Electricity Bill
Links for the day
[Meme] Microsoft: Our "Hey Hi" Hype is Going So Well That We Have MASS Layoffs Every Month. Makes Sense?
Contradiction
Latest Mass Layoffs at Microsoft Are Confirmed, Bing and Vista 11 Losing Market Share
They tried to hide this. They misuse NDAs.
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, November 24, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, November 24, 2024
Gemini Links 25/11/2024: Purity and Cory Doctorow's Ulysses Pact, Smolnet Portal and SGI
Links for the day
Technology: rights or responsibilities? - Part VIII
By Dr. Andy Farnell
GNU/Linux Reaches All-Time High in Europe (at 6%)
many in Europe chose to explore something else, something freedom-respecting
Patents Against Energy Sources That Reduce Pollution
this EV space (not just charging) is a patent mine field and it has long been that way
DARPA’s Information Innovation Office, Howard Shrobe, Values Compartmentalisation But Loses the Opportunity to Promote GNU/Linux and BSDs
All in all, he misses an opportunity
Wayland is an Alternative to X
the alternative to X (as in Twitter) isn't social control media but something like IRC
BetaNews, Desperate for Clicks, is Pushing Donald Trump Spam Created by LLMs (Slop)
Big clap to Brian Fagioli for stuffing a "tech" site with Trump spam (not the first time he uses LLMs to do this)
[Meme] Social Control Media Bliss
"My tree is bigger than yours"
Links 24/11/2024: More IMF Bailouts and Net Client Freedom
Links for the day
Gemini Links 24/11/2024: Being a Student and Digital Downsizing
Links for the day
Techrights' Statement on Code of Censorship (CoC) and Kent Overstreet: This Was the Real Purpose of Censorship Agreements All Along
Bombing people is OK (if you sponsor the key organisations), opposing bombings is not (a CoC in a nutshell)
[Meme] The Most Liberal Company
"Insurrection? What insurrection?"
apple.com Traffic Down Over 7%, Says One Spyware Firm; Apple's Liabilities Increased Over 6% to $308,030,000,000
Apple is also about 120 billion dollars in debt
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, November 23, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, November 23, 2024
[Meme] GAFAMfox
Mozilla Firefox in a state of extreme distress
Google Can Kill Mozilla Any Time It Wants
That gives Google far too much power over its rival... There are already many sites that refuse to work with Firefox or explicitly say Firefox isn't supported
Free (as in Freedom) Software Helps Tackle the Software Liability Issue, It Lets Users Exercise Greater Control Over Programs
Microsofters have been trying to ban or exclude Free software
In the US, Patent Laws Are Up for Sale
This problem is a lot bigger than just patents
ESET Finds Rootkits, Does Not Explain How They Get Installed, Media Says It Means "Previously Unknown Linux Backdoors" (Useful Distraction From CALEA and CALEA2)
FUD watch
Techdirt Loses Its Objectivity in Pursuit of Money
The more concerning aspects are coverage of GAFAM and Microsoft in particular