Bonum Certa Men Certa

Marketing Illegal Things at the European Patent Office and Amplifying Old Lies About UPC

As if the European Patent Office (EPO) boasts about being above the law

German Typing Error



Summary: Weaponised and bribed media keeps telling us a lot of lies while turning a blind eye to corruption and other crimes that carry on unabated at the European Patent Office

TWO years ago (start of July 2018) António Campinos replaced Benoît Battistelli as 'king' of EPOnia. In practical terms nothing has changed; earlier this morning we noted that Campinos is lobbying for software patents in Europe (not even the US tolerates such patents because of 35 U.S.C. €§ 101; courts reject them en masse) and the approval rate of Campinos among EPO staff is near zero.



"Facts ceased to matter. Law ceased to matter. Constitutions are treated like tissue paper one finds inside toilet bowls."The EPO's attitude towards law and order is equally appalling. The legal processes, constitutions and most basic legality ceased to matter. The Rule of Law was in effect suspended for the sake of "productivity" (which means granting as many patents as possible and as quickly as possible). We see this in the mistreatment of staff, the fraudulent 'studies', and the endless lies; we see this in UPC too. Facts ceased to matter. Law ceased to matter. Constitutions are treated like tissue paper one finds inside toilet bowls. There's also the lack of impartiality/independence of judges -- an issue we addressed again this morning. If that's not bad enough, here's the EPO's management openly bragging about illegal outsourcing (to Microsoft) of EPO legal processes. (warning: epo.org link)

"Even the EPO's technical chiefs lack a technical background; they just happen to know Campinos from the old employer (whose IT department was outsourced to India months before he left)."This is illegal, but who cares, right? They put that in the "news" section on Friday as if to celebrate the illegality. It's all just referred to as "VICO" (with a screenshot showing Microsoft). What the heck is going on? Only days ago there was a ruling of relevance. Yesterday one report said that "EU Court Again Rules That NSA Spying Makes U.S. Companies Inadequate for Privacy" (suffice to say, this applies to courts or tribunals). "This decision shows," says the outline, "yet again, that the U.S. needs much broader, privacy-protective reform, and that Congress’ inaction makes us all less safe, wherever we are."

But never mind these 'inconvenient' (to EPO management) facts. Even the EPO's technical chiefs lack a technical background; they just happen to know Campinos from the old employer (whose IT department was outsourced to India months before he left).

Where's the media coverage about this scandal? Nowhere!

Nowhere at all.

"Where's the media coverage about this scandal?"Kluwer Patent Blog mentioned it in passing several months ago, but it's merely a blog that almost nobody can see except lawyers who follow the site closely.

Over at Managing IP (EPO mouthpiece) there are now sponsored 'articles' and even so-called 'reporting' by the "Georgia IP [sic] Alliance" (and the private company of the author), followed by this hogwash from Patrick Wingrove. It's about "VICO". "Patent owners and implementers say the lockdown has made negotiations more efficient," he wrote, "but they'd like to use a hybrid remote and in-person model after COVID" (so even after the emergency they wish to maintain an illegal practice).

Should we expect this publication to take note of the illegality? Of course not, just follow the money...

"As long as EPO managers blackmail and bribe the media we can only expect those things to further exacerbate and create a fictional world with inverted facts."The same author has also just produced an hilarious headline that says "EU hints UPC alive" (it's not). Managing IP's Patrick Wingrove was previously spinning for Team UPC based on a telephone chat with Justice Huber months before Huber threw out the UPCA; months later Huber said there's more to the issue than just the two-thirds majority, but Team UPC doesn't like to talk about that...

Citing the outrageous nonsense from Thierry Breton [1, 2, 3, 4], a Battistelli ally, Wingrove wrote the following: (to which we respond to in-line, in yellow)

EU Commission [well, Thierry Breton] says Germany can ratify UPCA despite Brexit



The European Commission would welcome Germany’s swift ratification of the Unified Patent Court Agreement despite Brexit, commissioner for the internal market Thierry Breton wrote on Wednesday, July 15.

In a letter to MEP Patrick Breyer, who is from the German Pirate Party and asked in May whether Germany could ratify the UPCA now that the UK has left the EU, Breton said that Brexit does not affect the UPC’s ratification process. [It's a lie]



The commissioner reasoned that the UK ratified the UPCA when it was still an EU member state [but the UPC as a whole wasn't ratified yet], and that its departure from the bloc simply meant that it would not be able to participate in the UPC after the end of the Brexit transition period. [The UK ratified a UPCA that still says there's a court in London]



“The unitary patent will be an effective tool for [large foreign] businesses [and especially monopolists] to protect their inventions [monopolies] on [by suing] the European market at a competitive price [to them], and the Unified Patent Court will offer the possibility for these businesses to enforce their patents [sue many European SMEs] at a European Union level, thereby enhancing legal certainty and reducing costs,” Breton wrote. [Certainty for monopolies, business uncertainty for everybody else]



“It will further boost innovation in Europe [litigation is innovation, right?], which will be key for the economic recovery following the COVID pandemic.” [Which politician does not exploit COVID-19 these days when spreading lies?]



The UK confirmed in February that it would not seek to participate in the UPC, noting that membership was inconsistent with its aims to become an independent and self-governing nation.



In June, the German Federal Ministry of Justice called for comments on a draft of its UPCA Approval Act, three months after the Federal Constitutional Court ruled that Germany’s pre-ratification of the agreement was void because it did not have a two-thirds majority in the Bundestag. [There's a lot more to it]



Of course, the lies are embedded in the 'reporting', which is little more than parroting Team UPC and its enablers (e.g. Thierry Breton, a Battistelli ally). With Bristows pushing it into Lexology and various law firms constantly pushing those same talking points it's difficult to actually find facts. The signal-to-noise ratio is very low.

The demise of the law necessitates the demise of honest media. As long as EPO managers blackmail and bribe the media we can only expect those things to further exacerbate and create a fictional world with inverted facts.

Recent Techrights' Posts

More on "Lunduke is Actually Sending His Audience to Attack People"
"pepe the frogs"
Dalai Lama Succession as Evidence That Determined, Motivated People Can Reach Their Nineties
And we need to quit talking about their death all the time
Many Lawyers (for Microsoft) and 1,316 Pages to Pick on a Litigant in Person Who Exposed Serious Microsoft Abuses
Answers must be given
Layoffs and Shutdowns at IBM, Not Just Microsoft
Same as Microsoft
With Workers Back From a Holiday Weekend, Microsoft Layoffs Carry on, More Waves to Come
Now it's Monday and people are bad to work, even some journalists
You Need Not Wave a Rainbow Flag This Month to Basically Oppose Arseholes Looking to Disrupt and Divide the Community
Don't fall for it
What Miguel de Icaza and Microsoft Lunduke Have in Common
Similar aims, different methods
 
Gemini Links 08/07/2025: Creativity, Gotify with NUT Server, and Sudo Bugs
Links for the day
Links 08/07/2025: Sabotage of Networking Infrastructure, Microsoft XBox Game Pass Deemed “Unsustainable”
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/07/2025: Ancillary Justice and Small Web July
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 07, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 07, 2025
The FSF's (Free Software Foundation, Inc.) 2025 Summer Fundraiser Already Past Halfway Line
This is where GNU/Linux actually started
Mozilla Had No Good Reason to Outsource Firefox Development to Microsoft
What does Mozilla plan to do when GitHub shuts down?
Mozilla Firefox Did Not Die, It Got Killed
To me it'll always look like Mozilla got killed by its sponsors, especially Google, which had a conflict of interest as a sponsor
Dan Neidle, Whom Brett Wilson LLP SLAPPed (on Behalf of Corrupt Rich Tax Evaders), Still Fighting the Good Fight
Neidle fights for the poor people
Wayland Should Start by Dumping Its Very Ugly Logo
Wayland wins the "ugliest logo" award every year
Stop Focusing on Hair Colours, Focus on Corporate Agenda
If someone commits a crime, it does not matter if his or her hair was mostly white or there was no hair or a wig or whatever
Links 07/07/2025: Science, Conflicts, and a Fictional K-pop Group
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/07/2025: Being a Luddite and Announcement of Gotify
Links for the day
Links 07/07/2025: XBox Effectively 'Dead', DMCA Subpoena Versus Registrar
Links for the day
The 'Corporate Neckbeard' is Not the "Good Guy"
Works for IBM
The Nasty Smear (and Stereotype) of "Neckbeard" or "Greybeard" is Ageism
This is the sort of stuff they might try to volley at critics of Wayland
Why Many of Us Use X Server and Will Continue to Use It For Many Years to Come
Don't make this about politics
Microsoft's Nat Friedman Became Unemployed the Same Time the SLAPPs Against Techrights Started Coming From His Friends (Weeks After We Had Exposed Scandals About Him and the Serial Strangler, His Best Friend, Who Got Arrested a Few Days Later)
Nat Friedman is not "Investor, entrepreneur"
Brett Wilson LLP Uses Threats to Demand Changes to Pages or Removal of Pages Without Even Revealing Which Staff Member Does That (Sometimes People From Another Firm!)
This has been in the public for years
Dan Neidle Said "It Really Then Became a Job of Tormenting" Lawyers Like Brett Wilson LLP (Who Threatened Him for Exposing Crimes, Just Like They Threatened My Wife a Few Months Later)
he and his wife decided to take on the evil people and their evil lawyers
Large Language Models (LLMs) Externalise Their Cost to the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
"The forty-sixth Free Software Bulletin is now available online!"
Weeding Out Extremism in Our Community
To me it seems like Microsoft Lunduke is rapidly becoming like a "hate preacher" who operates online, breeding an extremist ideology or trying to soften its image
Censorship Versus Fact-Checking and Quality Control
It's not censorship but a matter of quality control
Reinforcing the Allegations Some More, Bryan Lunduke Digs His Own Grave
In his latest episodes he merely repeats his own lies, which I debunked using evidence right from his own mouth
Global Warming and Free Software as a Force of Mitigation
we'll need to think about Software Freedom, not just brands like "Linux"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 06, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 06, 2025
Gemini Links 07/07/2025: BaseLibre Numerical System and TUI Rant
Links for the day
[Video] "Copyleft Isn't a Bug."
"Copyleft isn’t a bug. It’s a feature. GNU GPL forced the world to treat code like a public good."
Being in Social Control Media Means Exposing Oneself to Heckling
Richard Stallman does not (either himself or directly) post to any social control media
Links 06/07/2025: Airlines Perils, Scams, and Breaches
Links for the day
Two Risks to Companies: The Microsoft Culture and the Microsoft Tools
Novell was killed by a form of "social engineering" by Microsoft
It's Hard to Trust People Who Worked - Not Only Those Who Still Work - at Microsoft
Bryan Lunduke is just what people would call an "arsehole of a person"
For the Second Time, Bryan Lunduke From Microsoft is Siccing Racist Trolls and Vandals at Me
You're only reinforcing the point we made yesterday
Links 06/07/2025: End to End Encryption at Risk, Reuters Twitter ("X") Account Withheld in India
Links for the day
Gemini Links 06/07/2025: Tinylog and Certification Rotation
Links for the day
Links 06/07/2025: Climate Change and "The Right to Criticise"
Links for the day
PCLinuxOS Sites Coming Back, Gradually
let's just be patient
Social Control Media, Even If Based on Free Software, Still Has Many Problems
a distraction from what actually mattered and still matters
IBM is Not Your Master
IBM makes friends with people who exclude the majority of the population: women
Help Fund the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
If you have some dollars to spare, go support the FSF
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 05, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 05, 2025
A Short History of Attacks on Techrights (and Boycott Novell Before That)
good opportunity to tell again the story of several (not all) attempts to silence us
The Mainstream Media Took 4 Days to Realise Microsoft Shut Down Its Operations in Pakistan and Fired Everybody
We estimate that Microsoft has had about 29,000 layoffs since January
Leadership in Free Software
Don't let IBM lead. It's a terrible flag bearer.