Bonum Certa Men Certa

Article 116(1) EPC and the Stacked Courts Initially Entrusted to Judge Their Own Actions

Summary: There's growing awareness of the catastrophic setup, allegedly designed to rule in favour of unlawful procedures; we expect the EPO to bombard the media in the coming days (to blind people or lead them away from the controversy)

A DAY after we had covered here the removal of the BoA President from G 1/21 (ViCo referral) Rose Hughes (AstraZeneca) expectedly followed up. She wrote: "I. Beckedorf has therefore also been replaced on the panel."



Frog: Look, Justice in the EPO works as intendedThis more or less confirms that it's Beckedorf who was removed along with his 'boss'. We'll discuss both of them later in our ongoing series and show them in tandem.

There's a certain irony about G 1/21. That hearing itself has been outsourced to the US. To quote: "The rapidly scheduled public hearing will take place via Zoom next week (28 May 2021)."

An outsourced hearing about the legality of outsourced hearings. Classic!

More from Dr. Hughes:

The referral to the Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBA) in G1/21 relates to the legality of conducting Board of Appeal oral proceedings by Video Conferencing (ViCo) without the consent of all parties (IPKat). The rapidly scheduled public hearing will take place via Zoom next week (28 May 2021). The EPO has now opened registration to watch the livestream.

The new rule of procedure of the Boards of Appeal (RPBA), Article 15a, was introduced earlier this year. Article 15a RPBA permits a Board of Appeal to hold oral proceedings by ViCo whenever "the Board considers it appropriate to do so".

The referral in G1/21 asks the question whether Article 15a RPBA is compatible with the right to oral proceedings as enshrined in Article 116(1) EPC. The referral itself stems from appeal of the opposition decision to maintain EP1609239 in amended form (T1807/15). The Opponent originally requested the referral to the EBA as an auxiliary request in the appeal hearing. The Opponent subsequently withdrew the request. The Board of Appeal none-the-less decided to continue with the referral (IPKat). The Opponent has since changed representatives, and has submitted a request that the referred question should be answered in the negative, i.e. that ViCo oral proceedings without the consent of all parties are not compatible with Article 116(1) EPC. The patentee will not be participating in the oral proceedings.

In testament to the controversy surrounding ViCo oral proceedings, the referral has attracted almost 50 amicus curiae. These include submissions from epi, CIPA, multinational companies (BASF, Philip Morris, Siemens) and patent attorney firms. Aside from the substantive question of the legality or otherwise of Article 15a RPBA, considerable concern has been raised by multiple parties over the risk of perceived partiality by the EBA members themselves.


"It's about "AI-generated IP" and other nonsense with misnomers."We don't suppose that EPO officials will mention this case much; instead, as was the case under Benoît Battistelli and under António Campinos during G 2/19 (another Enlarged Board of Appeal case), there will likely be bombardment against the media with pure noise, misleading or misdirecting the public, legal observers in particular. We couldn't help but notice that days ago (warning: epo.org link) Campinos added a pair of jeans to his beloved sneakers, pretending he's cool and casual while in fact abetting corruption in Europe's second-largest institution. It's about "AI-generated IP" and other nonsense with misnomers. No substance at all, but two -- not just one -- Campinos photo ops.

Tell me something I don't know. Won't you, António?
Man of his people...

Recent Techrights' Posts

Hundreds of Microsoft Layoffs (Net Headcount Decrease) in the United Kingdom
headcount decreased
What Really Matters to Companies is Net Income or Profit (Bankruptcy is Possible Even With High Revenue)
We ought to stop talking about revenue without focusing on actual profit
Carole Cadwalladr Talks About How Big Business Tried to Silence Her (and Why You Might be Next)
Our story is very different from Cadwalladr's for many reasons
 
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, April 14, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, April 14, 2025
Gemini Links 14/04/2025: Silver Pigs and more Foundation, Disliking Computers
Links for the day
Links 14/04/2025: Russian Attack on Sumy Shows No Intention of Peace, Virgin Australia Admits Overcharging People
Links for the day
The Dilemma of Web Browsers Lying About What They Are (in Order to Bypass Discriminatory Gateways Like Clownflare) Worsens Due to LLM Slop
LLM crawlers/scrapers have made sites more restrictive and hostile towards browsers that are potent but not "famous"
Companies Conspiring to Keep Salaries Down and Undermine Competition
People who do all the practical work are being paid less and made to work for much longer
Links 14/04/2025: Disinformation, Public Disdain for LLMs, and "Lessons on Tyranny"
Links for the day
LLM Slop and SEO SPAM Take Us Further Away From Facts (the Case of IBM Layoffs)
Some of these can impact Red Hat as well
Gemini Links 14/04/2025: Ween and Historic Ada Project Management
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, April 13, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, April 13, 2025
Influencers: Red Hat, Inc's IPO, 1999, post-mortem on the directed share offer to open source developer community
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 13/04/2025: Microsoft Cuts to "AI" and Azure (It's Failing), ‘Ghiblification’ Shows Slop Doing Much Harm
Links for the day
Microsoft SLAPPs Against Techrights Losing Momentum
It always backfires
Links 13/04/2025: Tariff Remorse and Chatbots Leak Again
Links for the day
Gemini Links 13/04/2025: No CSS, Spring Scripting
Links for the day
Richard Stallman Turns 72 and Will Be Giving Talks in Europe Soon
We have many local copies of his talks as WebM, having converted files uploaded to YouTube
Revisionism and Lies by LLM Slop and Lazy "Media"
What happened to investigation of issues?
Exposing Corruption and Crimes Against Women Isn't a Crime, It's an Imperative
When evil and greedy people are so desperate to silence you it typically gives you more motivation - not less - to do more of the same
EPO Likely Breaking the Law Yet Again, This Time by Using Slop for Patents (to Lower Costs While Producing Monopolies That Cause Ruinous Lawsuits)
Nobody authorised this
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, April 12, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, April 12, 2025