Bonum Certa Men Certa

Missing in Action: Investigative Reporting About the European Patent Office

Recent: Journalism in the Area of Patents and the Domain of Patent Litigation is Dead

Leaves



Summary: It's difficult to see any effort whatsoever going into investigation of EPO affairs, including the recent vote for a strike; EPO payments and threats may have played a big role in this apparent indifference

THE YEAR has barely started for the European Patent Office (EPO). No press releases, only rather mindless and unoriginal 'tweets', no press articles...



We suppose that António Campinos prefers it that way. Battistelli failed to duck negative press quite to the same extent (even if nothing has changed since!).

"Patents aren't a physical thing but a monopoly, granted temporarily in exchange for publication/disclosure."This does not mean that the EPO is no longer mentioned anywhere. It's just that nothing at all is mentioned about internal affairs and scandals. They pretend it's all "business as usual". Even IP Kat does that. AIPPI's and patent maximalists' event has just been promoted by Bristows (one of the IP Kat editors now, after the 'great shuffle') and by other patent zealots. There are also some press releases such as "Cellmid (ASX:CDY) midkine patents granted in the U.S. and Europe" and "Cellect Biotechnology Strengthens IP Portfolio; Receives "Intention to Grant" Patents from European and Israeli Patent Offices" [1] ('Intention to Grant').

There's also this article (self-promotional) [2] about "Protecting AI at the EPO – Two dimensions of technical character" and it's about getting software patents in Europe by disguising them or their true nature with buzzwords.

This is the kind of thing we've been seeing lately; there's also this widely-circulated press release [3,4] about EPs. It uses lots of misleading propaganda terms such as “property” and “assets”; they’re lying even to themselves. Patents aren't a physical thing but a monopoly, granted temporarily in exchange for publication/disclosure.

Is there not a single journalist in Europe interested in EPO scandals? Have they all been muzzled? The EPO is Europe's second-largest institution.

Related/contextual items from the news:



  1. Cellect Biotechnology Strengthens IP Portfolio; Receives "Intention to Grant" Patents from European and Israeli Patent Offices

    Cellect Biotechnology Ltd. (Nasdaq: APOP), a developer of innovative technology which enables the functional selection of stem cells, received official communication from two jurisdictions, the European Patent Office (EPO) and the Israeli Intellectual Property Office, regarding their intention to grant European Patent Application No. 14851547.1 and Israeli Patent Application No. 244982, respectively. These patent applications include a cell-based product and a method of manufacturing a stem and progenitor cell population with enhanced activity by short incubation with an apoptotic ligand.



  2. Electronics Newsletter – December 2019

    Many users of the European patent system rarely use the appeals procedure. However, a recent revision of the Rules of Procedure of the Boards of Appeal ("the RoP") that comes into effect on 1 January 2020 has implications which extend beyond the appeals procedure into examination and opposition proceedings, and therefore is of importance to all users.

    [...]

    The European patent office (EPO) is keen to let applicants know that it is open for business when it comes to protecting inventions around AI. This may at first sight seem surprising: much of AI can be considered to be solutions to problems embodied in mathematical models, and Article 52 of the European Patent Convention tells us that mathematical methods are not patentable, at least to the extent that a European patent application relates to the mathematical model as such. So, how can you prevent your AI invention being considered as a mathematical method as such?



  3. Microbot Medical Receives Intention to Grant from European Patent Office for a Patent Application Covering its Self-Cleaning Shunt

    Microbot Medical Inc. (MBOT) has received an official communication from the European Patent Office (EPO) regarding its intention to grant European Patent Application No. 11795301, covering the Company’s Self-Cleaning Shunt (SCS™). Globally, the Company now has 36 patents issued/allowed and 16 patent applications pending worldwide.



  4. Microbot Medical (MBOT) Receives Intention to Grant from European Patent Office for Patent Application Covering its Self-Cleaning Shunt

    “We have always maintained that a strong and growing intellectual property portfolio is one of our strongest assets and will enable us to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage while establishing barriers of entry to future competitors” said Harel Gadot, Chief Executive Officer, President, and Chairman. “We will continue to expand and seek protection for our unique innovative platforms. This provides the foundation for the establishment of a multi-generation product portfolio, including our latest introduction of the LIBERTY™ Robotic System, the world’s first fully disposable robotic system for use in neurovascular, cardiovascular and peripheral vascular procedures.”



Recent Techrights' Posts

The Register Bill
The Register MS - putting the "MS" in your centre of the universe
Analogies for "Memory Safety" in Rust
Don't worry, it's Rust! It can do anything!
 
Links 07/09/2025: Yle Impersonated in Social Control Media, Boat-Attacking Orcas, Midjourney Sued Again
Links for the day
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, Linux Journal, and the Serial Slopper
Google won't tackle the issue because Google participates not only in relaying slop but also in generating lots of it
Links 07/09/2025: Google Fines in EU and "Your Internet Access Is at Risk"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/09/2025: Little Brother and Corporate Theatre
Links for the day
Links 07/09/2025: More Harms of Slop and Anthropic's Nightmare Scenario (Huge Legal Liabilities for Slop)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, September 06, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, September 06, 2025
Microsoft Sites Now Talking About September's Mass Layoffs at Microsoft
It's noteworthy that even Microsoft's MSN now covers the latest revelations about mass layoffs
Gemini Links 06/09/2025: SpellBinding Moving and "The Cloud" Ridiculed
Links for the day
Slopwatch: On "the Apology Industry", Chatbots (Punchbag for Customers), and Fake Articles About "Linux"
"news reporting priorities changed"
Links 06/09/2025: "Covid Incidence on the Rise" and Many Attacks on the Press Worldwide
Links for the day
Nobody Denies That SecureBoot Will Cause Problems After September 11
Not even Microsoft
Gemini Links 06/09/2025: Infinite Scrolling and Posting from Emacs
Links for the day
Links 06/09/2025: GitHub Meltdown Over Slop, "U.S. Jury Says Google Should Pay $425 Million in Privacy Lawsuit"
Links for the day
Despite Its Severe Financial Problems Gnome Foundation Inc Paid Rosanna Yuen Over 100,000 Dollars Last Year
maybe relocation should be considered
The "Left" and the Right"
It poisons everything
Mozilla and Rust Are Not Leftists
they're part of the mass consumerism machine
Disposable to Microsoft
There is an extensive set of people who got used by Microsoft, only to be thrown away a month later or a year later or a decade later
The UEFI 9/11 - Part VII - This Coming Week Many PCs Will Refuse to Boot "Linux" (Because of Microsoft's Expired Certificate)
The real solution is, disable "secure boot" or "SecureBoot" while it's still possible. [...] Just like submarine patents, a lot of this problem was "hibernating" for a while
The Thing Nobody in Red Hat Wants to Talk About Openly
There is a real sentiment or worry among Red Hatters, Europeans and Americans in particulars (because of higher salary expectations)
Slopwatch: Small Parade of Fake News About "Linux" and Scams Borrowing the Name (or Word) "Linux"
In practice, LLMs are a risk
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, September 05, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, September 05, 2025
Genini Links 05/09/2025: Community, ROOPHLOCH, and PITkit
Links for the day
Links 05/09/2025: Vaccine Sceptics Poison the Well, Two Exploited Vulnerabilities Patched in Android
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/09/2025: Logitech Lift and DIY Gemini Servers
Links for the day
Links 05/09/2025: Sainsbury's Caught Spying on In-Store Shoppers and Microsoft "OpenAI is Using Legal Threats to Harass its Critics"
Links for the day
BASIC Predates Microsoft by Over a Decade, Microsoft-Controlled Sites Like The Register MS Don't Want You to Know This
The state of the media is really bad when it relies a lot on oligarchs' money and is appointing editors who are working for oligarchs
Brian Kernighan, "Only Third to Dennis Richie and Ken Thompson" (UNIX), Agreed With Someone Who Said Rust Was Just Hype, Should Not Replace C
17 hours ago
Reminder: Microsoft's "Secure Boot" Certificate for "Linux" Will be Expired in One Week
Many PCs won't manage to 'rotate' to another certificate
"Many of the Red Hat Employees Are Still Looking for Work"
Shame on IBM's CEO
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, September 04, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, September 04, 2025
Microsoft Started With Code Literally From The Trash, Nothing Has Improved Since
The reality is, there are systems and code that are reliable. But they're not Microsoft's.
Hypothesis That New McKinsey/Microsoft Executive Inside Red Hat Will Outsource Research and Development Operations to India (Like They Do in IBM)
IBM is floundering
Slopwatch: Scams, Fake Articles About "Linux", Plagiarism, and Worse
Perhaps some time soon the LLMs or the "Big LLMs" will run out of money (to borrow) and go offline, leaving those slopfarms in a tough place