Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Concept of Confidentiality May be Self-Defeating in the Context of Patents

If confidentiality or secrecy is the very thing patents were conceived to tackle/discourage...

Patents encourage publication but please keep it all a secret



Summary: If transparency through publication is the supposed motivation of patents, then why is the concept of confidentiality so strictly enforced (even when the EPO itself actively violates the confidentiality of applicants and other stakeholders)?

WHEN someone produces a physical invention it is possible to disassemble it and possibly reverse-engineer it thereafter. It doesn't matter if there is or isn't a patent, so in a sense that invention is disclosed as soon as it hits the market/s. The specifications underlying this invention just aren't formally disclosed. In the case of drugs (or chemicals) the production process may not be obvious to the recipient of a drug. However, the ingredients can be determined and sometimes the structural composition as well. In both cases we can see that patents as means of publicising an invention (unlike secrecy or even trade secrets) may be moot; and sure, sometimes patents allude to things that do not exist in the market (yet, if ever) and having some formal description may be valuable for reproduction (in the future or at present by peers/competitors). When it comes to software patents, it all boils down to code. If it is Free software, anyone can study and also copy that code. No point to patents on those...



The American courts, having already grappled with 35 U.S.C. ۤ 101, more or less concluded that patents pertaining to nature and code aren't valid. Alice and Mayo may have put millions of US patents in their graves (or already-expired patents even deeper in the ground). For over 5 years SCOTUS has refused to revisit or reconsider the matter; as for the Federal Circuit (one level below SCOTUS), it rarely deviates from this well-cemented norm...

There are many misconceptions abound regarding patents and it's up to us, non-lawyers, to address and correct those falsehoods.

"The concept of confidentiality in this case is akin to "trade secrets" -- a sort of thoughtcrime, with laws enforceable by employers who seek to make the mere 'possession' of some knowledge a 'crime' (somewhat like NDAs)."Recently, the appeal boards in Munich (oh, sorry! Haar, but let's pretend it's part of Munich) dealt with the aspect of secrecy surrounding patent-pending research. This week UDL published an article about it. Sorry to disappoint you, UDL (promotional piece in Lexology, akin to a paid press release), but the European Patent Office (EPO) does not protect confidentiality and barely grasps that very concept. Under the watch of António Campinos it has happened repeatedly after being 'normalised' in the Battistelli era.

Here are some portions from the article:

The confidentiality of patient data is an essential consideration in any clinical trial — but stakeholders must also consider the confidentiality of the invention being trialled. If just one member of the public can access information about the invention before a European patent application is filed — whether this is through writing, oral disclosure or use — the invention may lack novelty.

This is so important due to the sheer number of stakeholders involved in a clinical trial, which can include sponsors, Contract Research Organisations (CROs), investigators and site personnel, healthcare personnel, regulatory agencies and participants.

[...]

While the Boards of Appeal of the EPO found in T598/12 that a trial participant isn’t a member of the public in the strict sense, a particularly contentious area of law is whether unused and unreturned trial drugs form a public disclosure.

A general principle of the European Patent Convention, following the Enlarged Board of Appeal’s Decision in G1/92, is that the chemical composition of a product is state of the art when the product as such is available to the public and can be analysed and reproduced by the skilled person, irrespective of whether or not particular reasons can be identified for analysing the product.

[...]

The Opposition Division followed T7/07 in agreeing that information given to patients cannot be regarded as prima facie confidential. Indeed, it might be considered unethical to bind trial patients by general explicit or implicit confidentiality obligations, as they should be able to discuss medication with their spouses and doctors. However, it was found that trial participants were under a legal obligation to use the tablets according to a stipulated schedule and return any non-administered drugs. In contrast to T7/07, loss of control over the return of the dispensed drugs hadn’t been established, as patients were legally prevented from disposing of the drugs and also from passing on information contained in them to third persons not bound by confidentiality. Any ‘breach’ therefore didn’t allow a conclusion to be made that the tablets were available to a member of the public.


The concept of confidentiality in this case is akin to "trade secrets" -- a sort of thoughtcrime, with laws enforceable by employers who seek to make the mere 'possession' of some knowledge a 'crime' (somewhat like NDAs). Do we really wish to steer patent law in such a direction? Isn't that rather antithetical?

Recent Techrights' Posts

Comparing U.E.F.I. to B.I.O.S. (Bloat and Insecurity to K.I.S.S.)
By Sami Tikkanen
New 'Slides' From Stallman Support (stallmansupport.org) Site
"In celebration of RMS's birthday, we've been playing a bit. We extracted some quotes from the various articles, comments, letters, writings, etc. and put them in the form of a slideshow in the home page."
Thailand: GNU/Linux Up to 6% of Desktops/Laptops, According to statCounter
Desktop Operating System Market Share Thailand
António Campinos is Still 'The Fucking President' (in His Own Words) After a Fake 'Election' in 2022 (He Bribed All the Voters to Keep His Seat)
António Campinos and the Administrative Council, whose delegates he clearly bribed with EPO budget in exchange for votes
Adrian von Bidder, homeworking & Debian unexplained deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Sainsbury’s Epic Downtime Seems to be Microsoft's Fault and Might Even Constitute a Data Breach (Legal Liability)
one of Britain's largest groceries (and beyond) chains
 
People Don't Just Kill Themselves (Same for Other Animals)
And recent reports about Boeing whistleblower John Barnett
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 18, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, March 18, 2024
Suicide Cluster Cover-up tactics & Debian exposed
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 19/03/2024: A Society That Lost Focus and Abandoning Social Control Media
Links for the day
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE: Plagiarism & Child labour in YH4F
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Linux Foundation Boasting About Being Connected to Bill Gates
Examples of boasting about the association
Alexandre Oliva's Article on Monstering Cults
"I'm told an earlier draft version of this post got published elsewhere. Please consider this IMHO improved version instead."
[Meme] 'Russian' Elections in Munich (Bavaria, Germany)
fake elections
Sainsbury's to Techrights: Yes, Our Web Site Broke Down, But We Cannot Say Which Part or Why
Windows TCO?
Plagiarism: Axel Beckert (ETH Zurich) & Debian Developer list hacking
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 18/03/2024: Putin Cements Power
Links for the day
Flashback 2003: Debian has always had a toxic culture
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
[Meme] You Know You're Winning the Argument When...
EPO management starts cursing at everybody (which is what's happening)
Catspaw With Attitude
The posts "they" complain about merely point out the facts about this harassment and doxing
'Clown Computing' Businesses Are Waning and the Same Will Happen to 'G.A.I.' Businesses (the 'Hey Hi' Fame)
decrease in "HEY HI" (AI) hype
Free Software Needs Watchdogs, Too
Gentle lapdogs prevent self-regulation and transparency
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE analogous to identity fraud
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 18/03/2024: LLM Inference and Can We Survive Technology?
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 17, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, March 17, 2024
Links 17/03/2024: Microsoft Windows Shoves Ads Into Third-Party Software, More Countries Explore TikTok Ban
Links for the day
Molly Russell suicide & Debian Frans Pop, Lucy Wayland, social media deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Our Plans for Spring
Later this year we turn 18 and a few months from now our IRC community turns 16
Open Invention Network (OIN) Fails to Explain If Linux is Safe From Microsoft's Software Patent Royalties (Charges)
Keith Bergelt has not replied to queries on this very important matter
RedHat.com, Brought to You by Microsoft Staff
This is totally normal, right?
USPTO Corruption: People Who Don't Use Microsoft Will Be Penalised ~$400 for Each Patent Filing
Not joking!
The Hobbyists of Mozilla, Where the CEO is a Bigger Liability Than All Liabilities Combined
the hobbyist in chief earns much more than colleagues, to say the least; the number quadrupled in a matter of years
Jim Zemlin Says Linux Foundation Should Combat Fraud Together With the Gates Foundation. Maybe They Should Start With Jim's Wife.
There's a class action lawsuit for securities fraud
Not About Linux at All!
nobody bothers with the site anymore; it's marketing, and now even Linux
Links 17/03/2024: Abuses Against Human Rights, Tesla Settlement (and Crash)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 16, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, March 16, 2024
Under Taliban, GNU/Linux Share Nearly Doubled in Afghanistan, Windows Sank From About 90% to 68.5%
Suffice to say, we're not meaning to imply Taliban is "good"
Debian aggression: woman asked about her profession
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 17/03/2024: Winter Can't Hurt Us Anymore and Playstation Plus
Links for the day