Bonum Certa Men Certa

Time for the Boards of Appeal to Host Their Own Files, Knowing That the Patent Office is Censoring Submissions From the Public

Video download link



Summary: For the appearance and practice of independence the Boards of Appeal must immediately take control of their systems as the EPO is tampering with evidence and removing (censoring) some of it to influence the outcome of the cases

THE video above was made before writing this article. It explains why we're comparing the situation at the EPO to what happened last year (and in late 2019) in Seattle. That serves as a cautionary tale.



"Just as police departments must comply with a FOIA request in the US (within reasonable limits based around sensibilities and safety), the EPO (Organisation) must inform the judges of stakeholders' input, thoughts, general information of interest, including any conflict of interest."Pardon us, dear readers, if the analogies aren't convenient, but they're worth entertaining. On the one hand we have a police department (supplying evidence to a court, where the accused decided to plead guilty); on the other hand, on the other side of the Atlantic, we have a European tribunal that's supposed to judge the largest patent office in Europe.

Just as police departments must comply with a FOIA request in the US (within reasonable limits based around sensibilities and safety), the EPO (Organisation) must inform the judges of stakeholders' input, thoughts, general information of interest, including any conflict of interest.

But now we know that the EPO has been manipulating what judges can see and what various concerned observers can view/digest.

This is appalling. This is a catastrophic disaster, albeit don't expect European media to even mention it.

"That was around 2019, well before the media caught up with things and thereafter blasted Gates (it was also in 2019 that his wife sought a divorce, largely due to her husband's connections with Epstein, whom he had repeatedly met behind her back)."To borrow the Seattle analogy, we requested police files about the arrest at Bill Gates' home -- files that were likely hosted on Microsoft servers and thus potentially subjected to tinkering, manipulation, and censorship by Microsoft (and its co-founder, Gates). The fact that it took them months just to open their own files (they tried and failed many times) does not bode well, does it? In fact, we wrote about this many times before and directly quoted the Police Department (PD) on it. In general terms, you cannot let the subject of investigation be in control of the investigative authority and its files. Think about it for a moment; why should it take several months for a PD to open its own files?

That was around 2019, well before the media caught up with things and thereafter blasted Gates (it was also in 2019 that his wife sought a divorce, largely due to her husband's connections with Epstein, whom he had repeatedly met behind her back).

As noted in the video, several readers wrote to us regarding the revelations from EPOnia. Some were outright astounded that it hadn't (yet) become a scandal.

"Do you find normal that the registry of the EBA ("the court") is hosted (and censored/filtered) by the EPO ("the administration")," one reader asked us. "A proper independent court should have its own registry of documents, notably to avoid censorship from the administration."

"It's not a solved issue and merely the edge of a massive iceberg that's the loss of judges' autonomy (lots and lots of patent judges)."Indeed, it's a very severe abuse of power and yet more evidence of the lack of independence.

The reader continued: "Do you have any proof that the submission has been censored?"

We have it now. "I am thinking about writing a submission," the reader added, but then asked, "is the period to submit comments still open?"

Expect more to come about this. It's not a solved issue and merely the edge of a massive iceberg that's the loss of judges' autonomy (lots and lots of patent judges). Yesterday, "Congressional Committee Calls On GAO To Investigate Whether Patent Office Director Is Putting Thumb On The Scale Of Patent Reviews" was published by TechDirt. Remember what Andrei Iancu did to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) in sight of inter partes reviews (IPRs) thwarting lots of patents that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) should never have granted in the first place. Many were software patents, invalid under Alice/35 U.S.C. €§ 101.

In any event, we now have hard evidence of the censorship, which is a form of tampering. "Censorship of third party observations by EPO confirmed," one source told us, sharing this new pair of pages [PDF]. Here they are as a GIF:

G1-21 - TPO - 4 June 2021
G 1/21 - TPO - 4 June 2021



Notice the date.

"A new third party observation which was submitted on 4 June has appeared [PDF] in the public register for case no. G 1/21," the source told explained. "This new submission of 4 June draws the attention of the Enlarged Board to a recent judgment of the French Supreme Court. According to the person who made the submission, the French Supreme Court has ruled that hearings held by ViCo without the consent of a party are not compatible with the rights of citizens as guaranteed by the French Constitution."

It's also not compatible with a lot of other things. Each such hearing is held in violation if not contempt of the law.

"The fact that this submission is visible in the public register whereas the earlier submission of 1 June is not visible confirms earlier suspicions that the EPO is censoring the submission of 1 June," our source noted. "The submission of 1 June raises allegations of cronyism against Campinos and casts doubts on his motives for supporting mandatory hearings by ViCo (i.e. without the consent of the parties). EPO management clearly wants to prevent these allegations from becoming public knowledge."

"If the media doesn't cover this scandal, maybe that says a lot about the media, not about the severity of the scandal itself."Some EPO insiders wrote to us expressing complete agreement with the observation made therein. Campinos must be shivering in his boots sneakers. What if the whole subversion of justice was designed out of personal interest? Or convenience (for himself and his cronies)?

"Art10 of the RoP of the EBOA is a joke," one reader told us this morning, as "they can do whatever they want with the 3rd party submissions, including throwing them in the bin (not publishing them), like they probably did here."

Our reader then noted: "I would not be surprised if those rules are written by the EBOA itself, we have the same problem with the UPC where the ROP are made by this ad hoc committee they created in the treaty to make those 130 pages without any parliamentary involvement."

If the media doesn't cover this scandal, maybe that says a lot about the media, not about the severity of the scandal itself.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft Windows is No Longer an Operating System, It's Surveillance Project
Why is this even legal to preload on PCs outside the US?
Qualcomm Arduino Takes Aim at Raspberry Pi
Qualcomm is a Microsoft partner
Arduino is Now a Patent Bully (Qualcomm)
Qualcomm has just bought Arduino
Many Years of Microsoft Cancellations and Faked (Acquired) Revenue "Growth"
XBox is basically the "next Skype"
 
Links 08/10/2025: ‘Death to Spotify’ and Law to Ban Loud Commercials on Streaming (Dis)Services
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: Real Innovation and Nina.chat is Dead
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: Y2K38 Bug is a Vulnerability, Chat Control in Europe a Threat
Links for the day
How and Why Once-Legitimate Sites Turn Into Slopfarms
Many sites will go offline and many social control networks will shut down once they realise or even openly admit they spend money and time gardening a bunch of bots and slop
UbuntuPIT Became a Slopfarm and Gnoppix Tarnishes Its Own Brand With Slop
It fits all the characteristics of mildly-edited (if at all) slop
Slopwatch: Linux Journal and Other Slopfarms
GAFAM needs to go the way of the dodo
Gemini Links 08/10/2025: "Seek Seek Revolution" and Gradient Backgrounds
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 07, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, October 07, 2025
Stagnation of the Economy and What Free Software Can (or Could) Do For It
If your economic model is based on a pyramid of lies, it won't last very long
Social Control Media is Sinking
it would rightly seem like the era of centralised "social" sites (they're not social, they're about controlling the users) is ending, not overnight but gradually
Participation in Cancel Culture Detrimental to One's Career
A cautionary tale
Passion Wins
we've increased the number of birds we feed to 100+
How Solderpunk and Sean Conner Started Gemini Protocol (and, Collectively, Geminispace) Back in 2019
Based on the "official" history
The Comment TheLayoff.com Has Just Censored for Criticising a Ridiculous Puff Piece of IBM Management
If comments get censored for their "style" rather than their substance, then society will be worse off
The Power of Writing Down Facts
The more we write and publish, the more people will know what happened
Microsoft's Non-Denying Denial About XBox's Death is Already Being Shattered to Pieces
Like Microsoft's 'open' 'hey hi', heralding meaningless non-committing agreements with AMD is little more than vapourware
Slopwatch: UbuntuPIT Joins the Slopfarms Club
Slopfarms gonna slop
Links 07/10/2025: Privacy at Risk, GAFAM Remains Off the Hook
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/10/2025: Modern Retro Console Idea and Batch vs Bash
Links for the day
Links 07/10/2025: International Criminal Court (ICC) Convicts Ali Kushayb; Moroccan Imprisoned for 'Offensive' Shirt
Links for the day
Links 07/10/2025: EU' Chat Control is Back, US Cracks Down on Democracy
Links for the day
Techrights Pursues Justice and Truth Because, Without Those, Society Descends Into Chaos
most people reject dogma and pseudoscience
Upcoming Talks by Richard Stallman in Helsinki, Göteborg, and Rome
Join with him and share the software
Something Bad is Happening in the Open Source Initiative (OSI)
The latest OSI blog post is from a Microsoft operative and a few weeks ago the Executive Director left
TLS 1.3 Dominates Geminispace (99% of Known Capsules)
it's nowadays safe to assume almost every capsule can handle TLS 1.3
Why soylentnews.org Has Been Having Technical Difficulties Lately
The network has been going up and down quite a lot this past week
A Statement Against Violence
The facts are on our side
They've Run Out of Things to Rebrand or Label as "AI"
The next few years will be interesting because if Microsoft lays off tens of thousands of workers each year, there won't be much left except mountains of debt and dying brands
The Register MS is Still Being Paid to Participate in the "AI" Ponzi Scheme Which Will Crash the Economy
The Register MS is hoping to get lucky by tricking people into a scam
Richard Stallman Confirms His Talk in Göteborg This Coming Friday
"The hosts say that the list will not be given to the state"
Most of the "Linux" Results This Morning in Google News Are LLM Slop From the Same Slopfarm, Plagiarising Phoronix
The main question is, does Google even care at this point?
Gemini Links 07/10/2025: Civil War and "Goodbye Web"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, October 06, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, October 06, 2025
Evidence Contradicting Microsoft's Non-Denying Denials and Expectation of Many Layoffs Soon
"Microsoft has had this constant drip of layoffs for months."
The "AI Revolution" is Going Very Well, Right?
money that does not exist and alleged potential that is pure fiction
Links 06/10/2025: Scam Altman Himself Admits He Runs a Scam Based on a Bubble, US Administration Adopts “War From Within” Narrative to Crush Opposition/Dissent
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Fake Ubuntu 'Articles' and Google News Helps People Who Plagiarise Phoronix Using LLMs
Michael Larabel can't possibly be happy about that
6,000 Pages/Articles a Year
Today in one month from now the site turns 19
When Things Become So Ubiquitous That They're Almost Nameless
The notion or the concept of software freedom isn't tied to any particular brand or project, so it should still resonate
At Least 3 Richard Stallman Talks in Europe Confirmed So Far, Next Week in Rome There's Another
Dr. Stallman has not announced this yet
IDG Seems to Have Abandoned Sandra Henry Stocker's UNIX/Linux Column
Unless we hear otherwise or see some update/s, this may mark another death blow from IDG
Gemini Links 06/10/2025: Winter Nights and "Virtue Signaling"
Links for the day
Links 06/10/2025: Scientific Awards and Typhoon Matmo
Links for the day
IP Kat Gone Bonkers, Pushing Slop in Patents (Likely Illegal, With Severe Consequences)
AstraZenecaKat: "Last time, this Kat covered some practical steps on how to ensure client confidentiality when using AI tools (IPKat)."
Links 06/10/2025: Grokipedia as Malicious Slop, US 'Martial Law' a "New Normal"
Links for the day
Fake Economics and Clown Computing Circuses
who's gonna pay for these scams?
Nobel Prize in Economics Does Not Exist, It's Propaganda From Sveriges Riksbank
"It is that time of the year when it is important to remind people that there are no Nobel Prizes for professional wrestling, astrology, or economics"
Rust is Eating Linux
That's a recipe for problems
Cindy Cohn (Executive Director of EFF) is a Millionaire, Earned Almost $30,000 Per Month Before Departing While the EFF Lost Money
EFF is "Big Business"
Non-Denying Denial From Microsoft (Again) Regarding the End of XBox Consoles
It's kind of hilarious that even the site chosen by Microsoft to relay its BS, based on past loyalty, isn't quite buying it
Bringing Back Lost Articles From the 1990s: Microsoft Products Leave Door Open to NSA
Nothing has changed since then
When the Slop Bubble Pops People Will Say Richard Stallman Was Right (Again)
What was once known as Computer Science turned into "IT"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, October 05, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, October 05, 2025
Links 06/10/2025: Science, Hardware, and Andrej Babis Making a Comeback
Links for the day