04.27.21
Gemini version available ♊︎The EPO Abuses Climate Change, Hijacking or Misusing Grassroots Activism for Corporate Public Relations Stunts
Anything to distract from crimes and corruption inside the Office, with tactics ranging from pinkwashing to greenwashing
Summary: Just like the world's most notorious corporations (which pollute the most), Europe’s second-largest institution hijacks a real issue for AstroTurfing purposes; climate activists oughtn’t be amused as patents on mitigation techniques create monopolies and thus perpetuate the risk
SOMETIMES we have to wonder if climate action will be thwarted by the large corporations that hijack it for deception and profit. They don’t actually care about the planet, they just care about their image and their profits. While the planet heats up and weather becomes less predictable (even extreme at times) the corporations become fewer and bigger, shielded by patent monopolies and governments they keep in their back pockets.
As noted already in the latest batch of Daily Links, the EPO shamelessly resorts to greenwashing (warning: epo.org link) even twice on the same day (warning: epo.org link) — that’s yesterday — because the European Patent Office isn't about patents but about marketing. “It is outright ridiculous that people who break the law now hijack climate change to make themselves seem ethical,” as we noted in Daily Links, as “this is what leads to some people to disdain over greenwashing and climate action [...] Never mind if their staff calls them “Mafia”… they’re “green”…”
Earlier this month there was also this fluff about the EPO posing as something that it’s not: “When the pandemic lifts and he can travel safely again, he plans to visit major European archives, including the European Patent Office in Munich, the National Archives in the UK and the National Archives in Paris, to carry out some of his research.”
“What will be the impact on Europe in the long run?”What is the EPO? A museum? An art gallery? No, it’s an assembly line of illegal patents (unlawful as per the EPC). European software patents have just been mentioned by Unified Patents, which formally challenges them because of patent trolls that prey on companies.
Benoît Battistelli and António Campinos seem to have prioritised fluff, not patents, and patent trolls over actual invention. What will be the impact on Europe in the long run? Well, the German government will look the other way, as will the media, just because some people profit from this injustice. █
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