EPO management is like the Trump regime, distracting from its profound abuses. Deterioration of real journalism ('journalists' who push "Obamagate" nonsense) and partisan crap (patent maximalist versus realists). Happy stories of fake scandals rather than reality.

Summary: Life Sciences Intellectual Property Review, which lobbies for patents on life, is the kind of 'puff piece factory' that the European Patent Office (EPO) fancies; we're barely seeing any real journalism about EPO and its latest scandals (not anymore; bribes to media and academia contribute to the silence or the 'conspiracy of apathy')

THE "Fun and Profit" meme isn't a new one; it's probably not suitable in this context either, so that's not the word we'd like to use here. "Power" seems like the more suitable word. We sort of doubt there's much fun and joy in all this, except megalomania that accompanies bullying and law-breaking... when you're a chronic sociopath (that much can be said about several people in top-level EPO management).

We're almost in summertime already (it doesn't feel like it here; we'll reach freezing point tonight!) and people are still stuck inside their homes. EPO workers are forced to work even whilst away; even with their kids (if they have kids) wandering around. This is no holiday; to some, this is babysitting combined with a job they really, really hate. Some people can't travel back to the place they call home, either. Not with Campinos in charge. Yes, what a lovely 'new' boss... same as the old one.

Funnily enough, albeit predictably, the so-called 'media' has had no time to cover the latest EPO scandals (there are several) but plenty of time to cover the 'news' of two employees having their salaries raised a little. It's an excellent example of corporate spam as 'news'. Sarah Morgan wrote that "IP [sic] firm HGF has appointed two patent attorneys to partner, increasing the partner group to 63 partners."

Wow, major news! How about covering the actual news about what goes on at the EPO, including the latest law-breaking?

"From what I can gather, the boss of this publication doesn't want any real journalism; firing real journalists is OK if that means preservation of a status quo of injustice."No, not interested?

From what I can gather, the boss of this publication doesn't want any real journalism; firing real journalists is OK if that means preservation of a status quo of injustice. We're talking about Life Sciences Intellectual Property Review, WIPR's sister site, which used to do some actual journalism half a decade ago or more. Look what this rag has been reduced to; now it's purely a PR front and perpetuation of lies from people who lie for a living -- people like António Campinos and Benoît Battistelli. It's almost sickening. Where have their real journalists gone? Nowhere in sight. Just like Barney...

Mind you, this is not a news site, despite the fancy name ("Review"). This particular site lobbies for patents on life, like some that lobby for software patents in Europe but never ever speak to actual software developers. And why would they? It would refute the lies... it would diminish the false narrative. The same is happening in the 35 U.S.C. ۤ 101-hostile U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO); how many times have they actually consulted software developers like myself or Benjamin Henrion or the millions out there who do code for a living? Almost never. It's all lawyers and corporate lobbyists. They also dominate the media.

Over in IRC yesterday, Henrion pointed out this new JURI publication (English), dated yesterday. "This report is insane," he said. "Points out that mathematical methods are excluded from patentability unless they "constitute inventions of a technical nature, which are then patentable if the applicable criteria relating to inventions are met; points out, further, that if a claim relates either to a method involving technical means or to a device, its purpose, considered as a whole, is technical in nature and it is therefore not excluded from patentability; consequently, notes that innovations in AI are patentable if the criteria relating to inventions are met;" having regard to the Guidelines for Examination in the European Patent Office (EPO) of November 2019..."

"It's all lawyers and corporate lobbyists. They also dominate the media."As MinceR put it, "they're trying to make software patents legal?"

Well, "it's just an Initiative report," Henrion responded.

MinceR pointed out that "this pdf was generated from a docx" and Henrion said that "EP uses docx [...] they even force their citizens to use it..."

As we pointed out earlier this month, the EPO is now doing the same thing. It's in bed with Microsoft and it is reinforcing Microsoft's monopoly, even the proprietary formats (lock-in).

Under normal circumstances, the JURI report from yesterday would cause a controversy, but it is hardly shocking. Remember JURI's position on the dead UPC. As Henrion put it, that's just "European Parliament copy/paste EPO's technical crap..."

Does the EPO (Office) control the European Parliament like it controls the Council? Does the tail wag the dog again?

"If patent quality does not improve, the European economy as a whole will go down the toilet."The European Parliament really ought to stop the EPO breaking the law by granting illegal patents. It should moreover revoke, en masse, all those bogus patents. Some of these are actively being used for shakedowns. Instead, the EP/EU/EC keeps turning a blind eye to EPO corruption while occasionally assisting the corrupt officials. What impact might this have on the EU's legitimacy? It can only cause more 'brexits'...

We've meanwhile just noticed this new press release from "Forward Pharma" (dated yesterday). As we noted several times before, fake patents granted by the EPO caused this company to collapse. If patent quality does not improve, the European economy as a whole will go down the toilet. Just fabricating a large pile of low-quality monopolies doesn't help economies (as opposed to monopolies); instead it crushes and crashes them. There's scholarly evidence to that effect -- albeit not the sort of studies that the EPO will 'sponsor' (bribe for) at this moment. ⬆