Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Greenwashing and Chronic Lying From the EPO Spreads to EU Through EUIPO

The lies of the EPO are becoming a credibility risk factor for the EU as well

Willy Minnoye impeach
When lies spread everybody gets dirty



Summary: The lies of the EPO keep spreading even to EU agencies and there are greenwashing aspects to these lies (which means climate science too can be discredited)

"HEY HI!" (AI)

It's so easy to fake innovation using a bunch of meaningless buzzwords and sound bites. António Campinos did that at EUIPO, so why not at the European Patent Office (EPO)? Battistelli started this buzzwords craze as well as habitual greenwashing.

"It's so easy to fake innovation using a bunch of meaningless buzzwords and sound bites."Yesterday the EPO published yet another greenwashing puff piece (warning: epo.org link). This one too gets promoted as "sustainable technologies", having been presented to an audience from the litigation 'industry', with a keynote full of greenwashing by the lying Romano-Götsch, whose track record at the EPO is far from positive (the staff hates her for what she did). Here's what the EPO wrote:

More than 160 participants from 110 companies attended this year’s User Day – an opportunity for the EPO to receive direct feedback from our users, and for IP professionals to share their experiences, and discuss procedural and technical matters face-to-face with EPO experts.

The annual event, which took place on 24 September in The Hague, was attended by patent attorneys, paralegals and other IP specialists from 19 countries. It featured a mix of interactive plenary sessions and practical workshops on key topics such as the EPO’s online services, opposition and appeal procedures, and sustainable technologies.

[...]

In her afternoon keynote, Ms Romano-Götsch spoke about the future of mobility, patents and the benefits of sustainable technologies in the global race against climate change.


She speaks of the "benefits of sustainable technologies in the global race against climate change," but patents do not help tackle climate change; instead they create a monopoly on any solutions that may exist. This is obscene greenwashing not only by the EPO.

"This is obscene greenwashing not only by the EPO."AWA has just promoted through Lexology (same company as IAM) this piece entitled "Denmark champions patents as fundamental to preventing climate change" and guess what they cite as "proof"... to quote, "Kollerup’s comments come as a Joint Report from the European Patent Office (EPO) and European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) published on IPR-intensive industries and economic performance in the European Union."

It's that disgraceful 'study' which even IP Kat debunked this week. There's a new comment on it. "Don't pull my leg" left this comment:

Who said once that you should never believe a statistic you did not manipulate, not to say faked, yourself?

This study has be looked at the fact that at best a third of applications at the EPO are coming from European applicants. How

Furthermore, the patent policy, or better IP policy, of subsidiaries of non-European companies residing in Europe is not decided in Europe. Has this point been taken into account?

It is pretty obvious that neither the EPO nor the EUIPO can explain that their effect on European industry/society is negligible. That lots of approximations were necessary to show this, does not render the study more convincing.

Thanks for having drawn our attention to a study which has not one but quite few drawbacks.


When the EPO offers bribes to scholars it's hardly surprising that they reach dubious 'conclusions' and 'findings'.

"When the EPO offers bribes to scholars it's hardly surprising that they reach dubious 'conclusions' and 'findings'."When the EPO bribes the media it's not too shocking that some publishers gleefully disseminate the lies (we covered some examples of these last week).

The EPO has retweeted EUIPO (EU) as saying: "One in three Europeans works in industries that use #trademarks, #patents, #designs and #copyright intensively."

"The underlying 'logic' of this whole 'study' may be suitable for a project or a report in elementary school."So what? Three in three employed Europeans work in companies with lavatories on site. Does that mean that urinating and defecating are a recipe for commercial success? Of course not. This so-called 'study' is ridiculous. But not only the EPO and EUIPO keep amplifying what they paid for. The UKIPO joined in and the EPO retweeted it as saying: "Industries that make intensive use of #intellectualproperty rights (IPRs) generate 45% of economic activity in the EU."

Industries that make intensive use of lavatories generate 100% of economic activity in the EU. Right? Right? Right. This whole 'study' of the EPO is poo and those who keep parroting its 'findings' -- including greenwashing aspects -- have poo for brains. The underlying 'logic' of this whole 'study' may be suitable for a project or a report in elementary school. Or something an adult writes at the pub of the top floor of the EPO's building in Munich (after heavy drinking). It's infantile nonsense.

Recent Techrights' Posts

American Back Doors No Longer Trusted by Europeans
Has the EU paid attention, for a change?
When Energy Prices Double in About a Month the Slop Bros Won't Sleep at Night
Unhinged leadership does not seem eager to end a conflict that it started
Newer is Not Better, Lunar Edition
Maybe in 57 years (2083, after all these wars) we'll managed to launch a capsule with a human and a dog above the stratosphere again
 
Ubuntu More Honest Than Microsoft Windows
If you don't like the direction Ubuntu has taken, then try something else
Azure is Dying, the "Entertainment" (Slop) Couldn't Lift Up Fake 'Demand' For Azure
Azure has had mass layoffs every year since 2020 and even earlier this year
2026 Starting to Feel Like 2020
Can Wall Street survive this?
Growing Awareness of Techrights' Importance
We're not an individual's blog but a community project
Harassment by Microsoft, Then a Cover-up
That Microsoft relies on blackmail, bribes and harassment (even against its own people) isn't surprising given the roots of the company and its toxic, deceitful management
SLAPP Censorship - Part 37 Out of 200: The Correct Suspicion Garrett and Graveley Were Collaborating in Overseas Litigation Against Critics
Microsofters and back doors' boosters from America frivolously sue Brits
Microsoft Has Lost Nearly 20% in "Desktop Operating System Market Share" Since COVID-19 Began
Add Android and iOS, then Windows falls to 24%
Maintenance Later This Month
Apr 24, 2026 21:00 - Apr 25, 2026 09:00 BST
Microsoft: Move Over, XBox, Slop is the New "Entertainment" and We Demote Our "Entertainment" CEO
Marketers, marketers, marketers, as a CEO called Ballmer put it
linuxbuz.com is a Slopfarm, It Depends on LLMs
In the more distant past it could be said that linuxbuz.com was an OK site
Links 07/04/2026: Patent Trolls Leigh M. Rothschild, Bolstered by GNOME and OIN, Continues to Attack; ‘Retaliatory Antitrust Suit’ by MElon
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/04/2026: Copyleft Revisited, Killing Linux Processes With FZF
Links for the day
It Would be Good for Debian to Have a Female DPL, But...
Debian isn't exactly selecting people for quality or policing bad behaviour
IBM Insiders Say What's Wrong With IBM in Albany (and Yes, There Are Layoffs)
promotions boil down to what insiders now call "brown-nosing" and nepotism
After Killing OpenSource.org IBM Together With OSI Told Us It Would Carry on OpenSource.net, But the Site Has Been Essentially Dead for 9 Months (Effectively Abandoned)
OpenSource.org has been dormant for 4 weeks already and OpenSource.net last had a new page 9 months ago (it'll be 9 months tomorrow) [...] That's IBM in a nutshell
A Lot of What Happened to OSI is Because of Reporting by Techrights
Half a year since Stefano Maffuli (Executive Director) "left"
Public Presentations by RMS Hardly Interrupted Anymore
We'll carry on covering those sorts of topics throughout the year
Links 07/04/2026: US Wants to Put Journalists in Prison for Reporting Facts, Artist ‘Bale’ Arrested Over Rape Allegation in Social Control Media
Links for the day
To IBMers, IBM Has Failed and is Fast Becoming a Book of Jokes and One-Word Punchlines
How else can one make it obvious that IBM is circling down the drain?
"AI Revolution" Was a Lie: Microsoft CEO Admits What He Calls "AI" is Sometimes Sloppy and Microsoft Admits That Slop is for "Entertainment Purposes Only" (Not for Any Serious Work)
if it gets "memory-holed", we can bring it up again and again
Social Control Media is Not a Viable Business Model
The future of the Web might not be the Web
From Datacentres Boom to Actual Booms That Target Datacentres, Now Struggling to Justify Humongous Energy and Water Consumption
Datacentres that are used for mindless "entertainment" (as Microsoft calls it) like slop are not a priority at this time
Gemini Links 07/04/2026: Aircraft Lift Force, Editor History, and Consumer Hardware Stagnation
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, April 06, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, April 06, 2026
What Matters is Software Freedom, Not the Brands
The important thing is to speak about Software Freedom
Wikileaks is About to Turn 20
~2 days ago it turned 19.5
The Cloud of Smoke
Will 2026 be the year that "The Cloud" openly confesses the risks it brings about?
SLAPP Censorship - Part 36 Out of 200: Claim KB-2024-003529 in a Nutshell (Microsoft Employee Does Terrible Things, Then Sues the Reporter in Another Continent)
It commences with more of an overview
Gemini Links 06/04/2026: Solar Panel Story and Centralisation
Links for the day
"Free Speech, Free Press": What the World Needs to Improve
Darkness breeds corruption
IBM prioritises a "lot of smoke and hype and use of trending buzzwords"
IBM can pretend all it wants things are fine
GAFAM Paying the Price for Pursuing US Military Money (Taxpayers' Money as 'Stimulus' With Strings Attached)
The "cloud" in cloud computing is a cloud of smoke
Observing Slop's Demise
If energy becomes more scarce, then one rare/side perk (or upside) will be slop companies screaming for lifeboats
Links 06/04/2026: Crackers Breached the European Commission, Why "Old Way of Campaigning Won’t Cut It Anymore"
Links for the day
Enron Versus NVIDIA (the Cost of Circular Financing, or Funding Your Own Customers to Buy Your Products) - “The Inventory Paradox” or “The Vibe Revenue Admission”
Round-tripping (finance)
You Know "The Economy" is Fake When 6 Months After Oracle Says Debt-Saddled 'Open' 'AI' (Slop) Will Pay It $300,000,000,000 Oracle Says It Must Lay Off 30,000 Workers at 6AM
Oracle is in deep debt, which increased at a pace of almost 4 billion dollars per month lately
Free Software Will Outlive GAFAM
GAFAM is overhyped
Techrights Was Further Decentralised Three Years Ago
In 2020 we began working on IPFS stuff
The Military Attacks on Dubai Internet City as Reminder That GAFAM Isn't Safe (Disregard the "Nobody Gets Fired for Buying GAFAM" Mindset)
These are all realistic and foreseeable scenarios that GAFAM sceptics have long warned about
The Wars Aren't Ending, Now We See GAFAM Facilities Being Bombed
This is becoming a tech issue
Links 06/04/2026: Turning 34, Throwing Things Away, and Printing in GNU/Linux
Links for the day
Links 06/04/2026: Ex-Microsoft Engineer Explains Why Azure Fails, Germany Prepares for War
Links for the day
EPO "Cocaine Communication Manager" - Part XI - EPO Strike Enters Its Second Week, EPO Sheds Off Qualified Staff to Make Way for Nepotists
More than six months ago the "Cocaine Communication Manager" got arrested for cocaine use
Another Microsoft Outlook Downtime
Microsoft has sloppy code, it's not something suitable for mission-critical things
Week 2 of April IBM Layoffs Accelerate Based on Rumours
"Heard about Layoff at IBM"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, April 05, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, April 05, 2026
Culture of Harassment Inside Microsoft, Says Former Director at Microsoft
listen to Microsoft insiders
Drone Strikes on Amazon (GAFAM) Datacentres Highlight Azure's Miniscule Share
Azure is failing
SLAPP Censorship - Part 35 Out of 200: How to Make ~10,000 Pound Sterling (13,220.50 United States Dollars) by Copy-Pasting and Editing 10 Pages
Today it's Easter Sunday, so we'll keep this part relatively short
Gemini Links 05/04/2026: Artemis II Mission Tracker, Meditation on Copyright, Alhena 5.5.5, "Gemini as the Final Frontier of Human Cognition"
Links for the day
Microsoft Windows Falls to All-Time Low of ~60% in Switzerland, GNU/Linux Among Top Gainers
What will it take for mainstream media (not just geeks' site) to cover it?
Mainstream Media on "Practical Survivalism"
Suffice to say, panic buying begets more panic and price surges
Cloud Computing as a Cloud of Smoke (Your Hosting Provider is a "Legitimate" Military Target)
When a French datacentre went up in flames people joked that the "cloud" meant a cloud of smoke
Andreas Tille Congratulates Sruthi Chandran Before the Election for Debian Project Leader (DPL) is Even Over
Andreas Tille, the current Debian Project Leader (DPL) who has been in this role for nearly 24 months
When You Try to Change the World for the Better and Somehow They Find a Way to Say You Are the Villain
Don't be a fool. Don't fall for inversions of narratives.
Slop Was a Flop and Energy Crisis Will be Slop's Final Blow
Today we see no slopfarms in Google News
Links 05/04/2026: "Taiwanese Airlines to Hike Fuel Surcharges 157%" and Openly Racist Voter Suppression Starts in the US
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/04/2026: Playing with Hyprland and Migrating Antenna Filters
Links for the day
Links 05/04/2026: "Confidential Computing" as Proprietary Bundle of False Promises and "The Web Is an Antitrust Wedge"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, April 04, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, April 04, 2026