Bonum Certa Men Certa

The European Patent Office (EPO) Carelessly Shows the Only 'Small' 'Businesses' It Serves Are Law Firms and Patent Trolls

Related: The EPO is Still Violating the EPC Every Day

Yes. We're here in Ireland. No! Don't tell them we're here to help lawyers from London!



Summary: The façade of EPO 'caring' for SMEs cannot stick if the EPO continues along this same trajectory, which merely reveals the nature of so-called 'businesses' EPO managers truly support (and profit from 'on the side')

THE LATEST bunch of daily links (or Daily Links -- a tradition older than a decade here), with in-line editorial comments, speaks regarding anti-Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) 'scholars' whose sole goal is scuttling quality oversight; they try to manipulate the Federal Circuit into discrediting PTAB judges. Does that sound familiar? Well, haven't we got an eerily similar problem in Europe? To certain people the sole goal of any patent office should be to grant as many patents as possible and courts need to facilitate as many lawsuits as possible. We know who profits from that: law (litigation) firms.



"WIPO already self-nukes (or shoots its own foot) by celebrating millions of low-quality Chinese patents simply because these help perpetuate the 'endless growth' pipe dream. "Frankly, the firms that play along (in this agenda) dig their own grave; they damage their collective credibility and put at risk the world's patent system/s. WIPO already self-nukes (or shoots its own foot) by celebrating millions of low-quality Chinese patents simply because these help perpetuate the 'endless growth' pipe dream.

Patents and innovation/inventions are not the same thing. Inherently, patents are temporary monopolies, granted in exchange for publication. Yesterday we saw this new press release boasting about the EPO "granting it a monopoly of exploitation..."

Yes, rarely does a company admit so openly, in a paid-for press release, what such patents are:

After the United States, the European Patent Office (EPO) has just awarded Spineway a patent for its Mont-Blanc MIS range, granting it a monopoly of exploitation and the protection of its innovation in nearly 40 countries for a period of 20 years. This recognition confirms the innovative nature of its MIS range, marking an important step for its redeployment.


We're sure that EPO examiners (or examiners elsewhere as well) very well know what patents are, how they work, and why an overabundance of them is a negative -- not a positive -- thing. It's common sense and it has been talked about for many decades if not several centuries.

Notice how, in the above press release at least, words like monopoly and exploitation are used. Did a law firm advise this company (paid or unpaid consultation) before emitting that statement?

"We're sure that EPO examiners (or examiners elsewhere as well) very well know what patents are, how they work, and why an overabundance of them is a negative -- not a positive -- thing."Law firms aren't honest; they tend to lie a lot. Aside from words like "protection" or "property" they also resort to words like "assets" (referring to mere ideas) and call monopolies "rights" -- as if one has some natural right to exclude others from competing. This morning we quoted one such law firm, Phillips & Leigh. It's not merely a firm but a very large company that makes nothing; the company is expressing happiness about European Patent Office (EPO) management breaking its own law to allow software patents in Europe (even the US, post-35 U.S.C. €§ 101, barely allows any!). Read all about Phillips & Leigh's latest and the "SME" 'study' -- the study of António Campinos -- maintaining the same lies Battistelli had spread.

World Intellectual Property Review, or WIPR for short, is already spreading these EPO lies for the EPO's management. It's not a news site but a litigation propaganda platform, as its recent track record shows. No EPO scandals are covered there anymore; they haven't doone so in years. They also lost (or fired) writers who covered these issues. Journalism isn't their goal; the business model is propping up the illusions or lies law firms want the public to believe.

"Journalism isn't their goal; the business model is propping up the illusions or lies law firms want the public to believe."Journalism would be greatly harmed it if was reduced to mere 'tweets', especially ones from the EPO itself. Let's examine what the EPO wrote yesterday alone. It's as laughable as always. Almost every tweet contained the misleading term "IP", but let's look past that minor detail. "New study released by the EPO’s Chief Economist," the EPO tweeted. It's just another bundle of old lies 'refreshed'/rehashed. He is still lying for Battistelli and lying to everyone in Europe. It's an insult to everybody's intelligence, including EPO employees. Another tweet then said: "SMEs commercially exploit two thirds of their inventions. For more findings on the impact of European patents on SMEs’ commercial success, have a look at our new study..."

So-called 'study'. Also look who's promoting it! A so-called EPO 'economist' (a Battistelli-appointed liar that uses veneer of "economist"/"economics" to promote bad policy), doing photo ops with front groups of patent trolls. "Fiona Lesi" (LESI) wrote: "Thomas Bereuter and Yann Meniere of ⁦ @EPOorg⁩ at the start of the EPO/⁦ @LESIntl⁩ high growth tech conference in Dublin today - great programme & speakers" (photo added). The EPO obviously retweeted this and then continued with this: "@EPOorg and #LESinternationalr High Growth Technology Business Conference in #dublin kicked off by Yann Méniére and Thomas Bereuter of the #EPO. Setting the scene for the day."

"Now they lie to us, pretending that they cherish "SMEs"..."Another EPO retweet: "Full house at the ⁦ @EPOorg⁩ @LESIntl @LESBandI Enterprise Ireland High growth tech conference in Dublin - speaking today on behalf of @Inngot on tools to help identify, manage and value your IP"

"Heartwarming to see EPO alongside front groups of patent trolls," I responded, "because that helps reveal just whose interests EPO keeps pushing this past decade or so (at Europe's expense)..."

Now they lie to us, pretending that they cherish "SMEs"...

Don't ask them to actually define that term; as people pointed out, critiquing such past 'studies', they cherry-pick a very particular type of so-called 'SMEs'... hardly a representative set. That's because, to EPO management living in one particular nonscientific bubble, facts do not matter. Facts often turn out to be an inconvenience.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Debian is Not a Community, Many Debian Developers Work for Large Companies Including GAFAM (US)
"Community" sounds like friendship and amicability
Links 08/09/2026: Slop Companies Attack Some More Sites, Nvidia Bribes 'Linux' Foundation for Some More Openwashing and for Saying Slop is "Secure"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/09/2026: Ultra Introverts, BlackBerry Bold in 2026, and Laughing at LLMs
Links for the day
Microsoft Layoffs in October 2026
Microsoft is a market leader. In NDAs.
Links 08/09/2026: "The Green Revolution Has Failed Africa" and Palantir/Microsoft Harming NHS
Links for the day
Microsoft's Silent Layoffs Are the New Normal at Microsoft
Microsoft has a ton of layoffs all the time, but the media isn't mentioning those as no WARN notices get issued
SLAPP Censorship - Part 175 Out of 200: Implicit and Explicit Coalition Against the UK's SLAPP Industry
SRA recognises the problem
Further Transparency Problems at the EPO
The EPO was never meant to be profitable
Gemini Links 08/09/2026: "Everything Must Go", Announcing Perigee, and Presentations in a Browser
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 07, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, September 07, 2026
Alleged Manager at IBM Says "[t]here are likely to be a lot (and I meant, A LOT) of RAs before December."
"We’re getting pressure from above to put some team members on PIPs."
Links 07/09/2026: Amazon Cargo Plane Crash, .org/.net/.com Domains Considered Risky
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/09/2026: Cheese, Text-based Life, and Icons in Swaybar
Links for the day
Freedom, Not Fame, is His Goal
pursuit of money can be not only tiring but also involve abandoning one's freedom
Links 07/09/2026: Slop Trashes Memory of Parton, Flock Surveillance Infuriates Everyone
Links for the day
Getting Better After 20 Years
Exactly two months from now this site is turning 20
EPO Hiding Cocainegate and Abandoning Transparency (Even Access to Very Basic Information is Denied)
The EPO isn't just becoming like a private for-profit corporation. It's also becoming more secretive.
Richard Stallman Has Resurrected Lost Updates
We didn't ask about it
SLAPP Censorship - Part 174 Out of 200: Cascading Scandals and a Path Towards Much-Needed, Long-Awaited Reform
Reform the UK's law, not "Reform UK"
EPO's Gema Requena Sempere (PD People) Contacted Regarding Children With Disabilities
In the coming week we may be in fruitful contact with some media regarding EPO scandals
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
Gemini Links 07/09/2026: Music Composition, Free Stuff, and Self-hosting Git Repos
Links for the day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, September 06, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, September 06, 2026
People Who Enforce the GPL Banned From Linux Foundation Board (After Bribes From Prolific GPL Violators), Now They're Banned From Giving Talks at Events
about the "LF" ('Linux' Foundation)
Gemini Links 06/09/2026: The Slop Plagiarism 'Holy War' (Hype, Scam, Scheme), Burning CD-Rs, and Hardcopy Mono
Links for the day
Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Inaction and Incompetence - Part IV - Insufficient Resources in the Face of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) by Lawyers
it's about 120KG
OpenStreetMap is the Future, Dictatorship is the Past
OpenStreetMap helped us check maps for transport, various overlays with addresses, and there was 0% reliance on GAFAM or "Google" anything
Silent Layoffs, Cool-down, and Cool-off: How GAFAM and IBM Operate (the Law Doesn't Apply to Them)
Laws? What laws?
How Strikes at the European Patent Office Are Seen by Striking Staff in Berlin, Germany
We have some more EPO scandals to cover later this year and next year
Association for Computing Machinery Cites Techrights in Relation to GemText and Gemini Protocol
published yesterday, Open Access
Links 06/09/2026: More XBox Trouble (Microsoft Unrest, Many Silent Layoffs This Month), John Duffy as Next USPTO General Counsel
Links for the day
Gemini Links 06/09/2026: Avoiding 'Smart' 'Phones' and Setting up Gemini for the First Time
Links for the day
Links 06/09/2026: Sabotage by Slop and "What Happens If 'Open' 'AI' Dies?"
Links for the day
How Back Doors Became the 'Normal' or 'Norm'
"We also allowed a lethal monoculture to fester"
Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Inaction and Incompetence - Part III - The SRA is Vastly Worse Than Brits Realise, We Have a "Wild West" in London
In the next part we'll begin looking at correspondence with the SRA
SRA and Manslaughter: How the SRA Contributed to Agony in Proprietary Software Scandals With Clear Misuse of "Without Prejudice"
Trying to prevent the public from finding out the criminal stuff that went on, resulting in many deaths
Canonical (or Ubuntu) Rejecting IRC Isn't the Widespread Trend
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) adoption still growing by some yardsticks
SLAPP Censorship - Part 173 Out of 200: Two Years
It was exactly 2 years ago that we filed lawsuits against Garrett
Linux of America
We could not help but notice GNU/Linux in North America yesterday
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, September 05, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, September 05, 2026
Gemini Links 06/09/2026: Internet Limiting (Limited Time Allotted) and Solar MiniServer
Links for the day
Eight Months of Strikes in EPO, Organised by the Staff Union (SUEPO) Also in Berlin
In Berlin, only one member of staff voted against the action plan