09.13.20
Gemini version available ♊︎Fake Patents Granted by the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA) and the EPO’s Misleading Propaganda Video Series (Conflating Patents With Other Things) Exploits Dead People
As if science would not exist if it weren’t for patents…
Not the first time EPO management is exploiting deaths
Summary: Europe’s biggest and most powerful patent office (EPO), which is also Europe’s second-largest institution, is misleading the public and exploiting the deaths of many Europeans for shameless, self-promotional marketing
THE EPO issues persist, assured us an EPO insider last week. This site may not seem to be focused on the EPO anymore. That’s simply because not much is known about what goes on at the EPO, as we explained earlier this month. SUEPO has not been saying much and we don’t fault it for that; aside from holidays there seems to be growing secrecy and some people aren’t or haven’t been working ‘onsite’ for a while.
The EPO itself has hardly said anything lately, with only two public statements in more than a month! We have not been seeing promotion of European software patents for a while, but that does not mean they’re not being granted anymore.
“Many fake patents last their entire lifetime (a couple of decades typically) without a single challenge, so many out there will presume they’re legitimate. This is what happens when so many monopolies are granted with little concern for facts.”The other day we saw this report about a patent which was wrongly granted by the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA) and then (mis)used for litigation. To quote a report in English: “The patent in dispute is protected as German Patent “Method and Device for the Generation of Print Data” (GER Patent No. 11 2004 002 429.3) since 2004 and also as international PCT patent (PCT/JP2004/018213). Patent holder is Ryobi MHI Graphic Technology Ltd. (Japan).”
Notice how long it took to revoke this fake patent. Many fake patents last their entire lifetime (a couple of decades typically) without a single challenge, so many out there will presume they’re legitimate. This is what happens when so many monopolies are granted with little concern for facts. Sometimes the patents are not being challenged because so many of them are leveraged in bulk and in tandem, discouraging a full legal battle and pushing towards a settlement or cross-licensing (meaning tacit endorsement of low-quality and likely junk patents).
A few days ago the EPO went even further by issuing this truly ridiculous ‘news’ (self-promotional garbage), which merely exploits COVID-19 for shameless marketing like the EPO exploited terror attacks. (warning: epo.org link)
Let’s examine what they said.
The EPO today has published Inventors against coronavirus, a new video series highlighting the inventors working on solutions to various COVID-19 issues.
This has nothing to do with patents. It’s about invention. Patents don’t beget invention; sometimes they suppress research (fear of litigation).
It comprises interviews with experts from several fields including vaccinology, satellite navigation, diagnostics and haematology, and explores the role of each in driving recovery from the pandemic.
[...]
Inventors against coronavirus is one of several measures implemented by the Office to disseminate information to keep the public informed with expert viewpoints, and help researchers make informed decisions.
This is not what patent offices exist for. This is just PR-centric propaganda from the EPO and it exploits a tragedy, as usual.
On it goes:
Earlier in the year, patent examiners and data analysts compiled datasets to support the important work of clinicians, scientists and engineers. These cartographies are available in the Fighting coronavirus pages of the EPO website.
This is a catalogue of monopolies; it details what cannot and should not be done. It’s an impediment/barrier to researchers. Earlier this year French researchers studying COVID-19 got sued by a patent troll, using a patent the EPO granted to a literal fraud. The EPO later glorified this fraud using EIA, which this ridiculous ‘news’ item now celebrates!
So much for public service…
And get this:
They show recent developments in coronavirus-related technical fields as revealed in patent databases, including which countries and inventors have filed the most patent applications.
So they’re equating number of “patent applications” with solution to coronavirus. What kind of fool would fall for it? It’s basically an invitation to send in loads of low-quality patent applications, in the name of fighting with “Inventors against coronavirus” (as if coronavirus is afraid of monopolies, as opposed to open-ended collaboration to defeat and eradicate the virus as soon as possible).
“So they’re equating number of “patent applications” with solution to coronavirus.”Shallow propaganda such as this does not present the EPO as benevolent and mighty; instead, it serves to expose what a bunch of clueless and incompetent people nowadays run Europe’s largest patent office. They don’t understand the sector they’re in, they shamelessly lie at the expense of almost a quarter million Europeans who lost their lives (soon a million worldwide), and they constantly attack their own staff, ruining these people’s physical and mental health while claiming to fight for public health. █
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