Bonum Certa Men Certa

EPO Applicants Complain That Patent Quality Sank and EPO Management Isn't Listening (Nor Caring)



More translations (with more languages) available in the site of the EPO's union, SUEPO

Summary: SUEPO has just released 3 translations of new articles in German (here is the first of the batch); the following is the second of the three ("Kritik am Europäischen Patentamt - Patente ohne Wert?")

THIS is an article from yesterday, composed by Thomas Magenheim, who understands these matters. The following is at least partly machine-generated:

Criticism of the European Patent Office Patents without value?

26.05.2023 - 00:00 hrs Photo: imago/STL

To increase its revenues, the European Patent Office grants questionable patents, say critics. Transparency International sees structures that favour corruption.

Thomas Magenheim

The example described by the Munich patent attorney makes it clear what is at stake. A pharmaceutical company developed a pill against infertility, had it protected at the European Patent Office (EPO) and invested in its marketing. Then a rival entered the market with an alleged plagiarism. The patent holder went to court and lost. The alleged imitator was able to show a US patent that Epa examiners had overlooked. This rendered their property right worthless. "In extreme cases, this can cause millions in damages," explains the patent attorney, who wishes to remain anonymous. He works for one of the largest patent law firms in Europe. Patenting for several countries alone consumes a six-figure sum and many times that amount is invested in production in reliance on the patent. There is a system of meagre returns, the expert complains. Examiners are encouraged to grant more and more patents because this maximises the office's income. Quality research falls by the wayside.

Michael Heisel hangs the grievances even higher. "We see structural problems at the Epa that facilitate corruption," says the Bavarian head of the anti-corruption organisation Transparency International. An element of this, he says, is the Epa Board of Directors, in which 39 European countries are represented and which is supposed to control the management of the office. But this is called into question by a conflict of interests, warns Heisel. On the one hand, the office takes over the patent examination for many countries. On the other hand, the states receive a share of the Office's income for granted patents. "The supervisory authorityThe administrative board is not independent of the person being controlled, and that can't work," Heisel criticises. Epa service instructions support this view. "Productivity has to improve, very soon, . ...because productivity is the only thing that guarantees that our payroll will be paid on 26. of each month," writes an Epa director. The clarity of a patent is not a priority, the inventive step is not to be examined in depth, it continues. It is to be examined quickly, decided positively and recognised a lot, it means.

Siemens is also among the critics



This practice is also a thorn in the side of Siemens patent chief Beat Weibel. His company is the largest German patent applicant and initiator of an industry initiative with the abbreviation IPQC. 20 major international corporations such as Siemens, Bayer or Nokia, but also smaller companies, have united because they fear for effective patent protection. "We have nothing in our hands if patent examiners can't find the state of the art and can only do incomplete research due to internal time pressure," complains Weibel. Siemens, too, has had similar experiences with Epa patents. Representatives of IPQC and Office 2023 have met twice to discuss and resolve problems. But that already fails in terms of awareness. "The Management of the office has denied quality deficiencies," regrets the Siemensian. The Critics, meanwhile, remain silent. "We ask for your understanding that Epa does not wish to comment on this," a spokesperson explains succinctly when asked.

The data speak a clear language. For example, Siemens has documented an increase in the time spent on patent applications by one third in the past decade. At the same time, according to internal Epa statistics, the time available to examiners per patent search has almost halved, i.e. the opposite development has taken place. As a result, those who challenge patents are becoming more successful. From 2015 to 2021, the revocation rate climbed from 41 to 46 per cent, according to Siemens. For 2022, a study by the Chair of Intellectual Property at the University of Osnabrück has determined a revocation rate of almost 50 per cent at the Epa Board of Appeal. Another almost 40 per cent of contested patents were marginally to substantially restricted. It is striking that not even one in ten revocations is based on documents that could not be found in the Epa patent database, the study authors write. This means that in nine out of ten contested cases, the patent should not have been granted in the first place if a precise search had been carried out.

Internal complaints have gone unheard



"We need reliable patents, and for that examiners need enough time and experience," emphasises a patent expert from the pharmaceutical company Roche in Switzerland. He too is a member of the IPQC. Epa - Staff representatives support the accusations from industry and research. To the outside world, the office management claims that everything is fine and plays down quality deficiencies or ignores them altogether, they explain. Only four out of five exiting auditors are replaced, despite an increase in work. Internal complaints that this is at the expense of the quality of research have gone unheard.

"The Office must provide more examiners and more examination time," the Munich patent attorney also demands. A few years ago, several large patent law firms sent a fire letter to the Office. which criticised the declining quality of patents. This has been negated on the part of the office. "Nothing happened," regrets the expert. Like Transparency International, he sees the Epa Board of Directors as problematic.

Aiming for patent fees



"There are states for which this is a significant source of income," says Weibel, criticising the control body's actions and its focus on patent fees. Patent trolls have also recognised this and are taking advantage of it. These are applicants who apply for superficial patents, which are granted if the examination is poor, explains Heisel. These patents then block competitors. "China in particular applies for a large number of patents, and if they are not carefully examined, German companies can lose innovation opportunities. [sic] take," warns Heisel. This is another reason why the IPQC remains persistent. "We will not give up," promises Weibel in the fight for patent quality.

European Patent Office



Organisation The European Patent Office (EPO), with its headquarters in Munich, is a supranational organisation, not an EU organisation, which is only subject to very limited state jurisdiction in the German country where it has its headquarters. The management of the Office, under President Antonio Campinos, is controlled by the Epa Administrative Council. It is made up of representatives of the 39 European states that are members of the European Union.

Patent Convention have acceded to. These representatives are usually the heads of the national patent offices. For Germany, there is a Secretary of State for Justice.

Patents In particular, patent applications from China have been on the rise at the European Patent Office for years. In 2022, the increase on this basis was a good 15 percent to more than 19,000 requests for protection by Chinese inventors. By comparison, applications from the USA grew by only three percent to a good 48,000 requests, while those from Germany fell by almost five percent to 24,684 inventions. However, these figures say nothing about their quality.


EPO managers redefined quality as speed of granting. That's not quality at all. Remember that the EPO hired people from Transparency International (noted above). That helped silence them about EPO corruption for a while.

Recent Techrights' Posts

At BetaNews, "Most Commented Story" Is Not a Story But LLM Slop! (Readers Talking to Bots)
They make fake stories with provocative headlines and then boast that these get many comments
[Meme] Swiss Lawyers/Attorneys Who Fake Qualifications and Rob People
Switzerland mostly guards its reputation by censorship of media
Just How Slow Has the News Industry Become?
We're drowning in garbage from fake publishers
BetaNews is Beta-Testing the Site as LLM Slop With Microsoft Propaganda Thrown In
Many of the people there are Microsoft boosters and they use slop as "filler" (for marketing)
Gemini Links 13/11/2024: Phasing Out 3G, Brian Kernighan Books, Tcl/Tk, Time to Ditch x86
Links for the day
BetaNews, Inc. Became a Spam Operation/Web Site, LLM Spew (Slop) for SEO Disguised as "Articles"
Published 5 minutes ago by Brian Fagioli...
WordPress is for the 'Old Web'; the New Web Necessitates Static Pages
There are purely practical reasons to move away from WordPress and the likes of it
Biggest Debt Leap in Years, More Than Half a Trillion Dollars in Just One Month
We remind people (almost every year) that it's also "buynothingday"
 
More Than 3 Years After Vista 11's Release More Chinese Computer Users Still Use Vista 7 (Than "11")
it was "officially" released October 5, 2021
In Switzerland, GNU/Linux Reaches Record Highs, But What About the Corruption?
Pocock is a disappointed citizen of Switzerland
Things That Still Work OK (But We're Being Shamed for Using)
Using old stuff is nothing to be shamed of (or afraid to do)
Free Software is About Collaboration
WordPress limits it
Even the Managing Editor of BetaNews is Doing Slop and Spam
A Fish Rots From The Head Down
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, November 12, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, November 12, 2024
PERA Bill in US Senate Strives to Crush Caselaw, Making Patents on Mathematics and Algorithms 'Great Again'
Follow the money
Evolution of euthanasia & WIPO UDRP similarities exposed by W. Scott Blackmer
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 12/11/2024: A Lot of Censorship and SWNS at 50
Links for the day
Gemini Links 12/11/2024: Invidious Down and YouTube Addiction
Links for the day
Links 12/11/2024: Hey Hi (AI) Failures and COP29 Fakers
Links for the day
Latest Rumours of Red Hat Layoffs
Rumours or gossip is how almost everything starts
Windows Falling to All-Time Lows and Microsoft Has Nothing to Replace It With
It's mostly Android (Linux) replacing Windows
Cybershow Has a New 81-Minute Episode on Digital Sovereignty and International Cyber-Relations
it is a high-quality show
Activism in the Digital Realm Can Never (and Must Never) Rely on GAFAM
This simply means that tech activists must completely abandon any hopes of finding allies in Google or IBM or whatever...
Golden Dawn(ald) and What GAFAM Means to Liberal Techies
In one single screenshot
IBM CEO Says Donald Trump as President-Elect is Good for IBM in New Interview With CNBC
most unprincipled CEO ever?
GNU/Linux Up to 6.1% in Finland (Almost 9% If One Counts ChromeOS Too)
Home of Linux (the kernel)
BetaNews Has Become a SPAM/Slop Factory, Brian Fagioli Publishes Fake 'Articles'
everything is now suspect in BetaNews
It's Morbid to Talk About Living People as If They're Dead
What happens to LLM slop when Brian Fagioli dies?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, November 11, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, November 11, 2024
Free Software and Love of Nature
It's not a coincidence that many Free software activists are also lovers of nature
Silicon Valley and GAFAM Were Never Liberal
spineless CEOs and founders aren't against Trump
Windows and 'The Desktop' Floundering
Microsoft should be extremely worried
WordPress is Bad for the Planet (Even If Many Still Use It)
the costs nobody wishes to talk about
Gemini Links 11/11/2024: Closed Systems and Verify You Are Human To Continue
Links for the day
Running Twitter at a Loss and Then Profiting From Trumpism
How very liberal of Jack Dorsey, the greedy "Liberal" who only prioritised money
Microsoft, Which Benefits From Donald Trump, is Normalising Donald Trump
Some people still wrongly believe that Microsoft is left-leaning
ChromeOS and GNU/Linux Growing in Spain (Almost 10% Now)
Whether this persists next month and next year will certainly matter
When You Upload Talks of Richard Stallman to Proprietary YouTube
Also: notice they work to abolish the word "whitelisted"
Free Software is Probably a Lot Healthier for You
Does Free software help people live longer and/or live better for longer?
Sweden: ChromeOS + GNU/Linux at 17%, an All-Time High
According to statCounter
Windows Collapsed to Only 12% of the Operating Systems Market in India, Says statCounter
Windows falls to 64% on desktops/laptops in India, dips to 12% overall
Links 11/11/2024: Mastodon Year 2 in Review, Freshworks Laying Off 13% of Staff
Links for the day
[Video] Daniel Pocock Warning About Someone Like Elon Musk Buying and Misusing Twitter Almost 7 Years Ago
Daniel Pocock spoke about Facebook and Twitter while attending the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland
[Meme] It Takes Only Words to Destroy Malicious People and Pathological Liars
Trying to silence us is foolish. Boasting about this in public is worse than foolish; it's a legal liability.
Dead Blog ('Hoisted By His Own Petard')
The saying "people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones" is also applicable here
Debian Voters Clearly Supportive of Richard Stallman (Founder of GNU/Linux), But Debian Leaders Keep Giving Voting Rights to Microsoft Staff
It can be seen that the pro-Stallman positions are dominant
WordPress is Unfit for Purpose in 2024
The Web itself changed a lot and the majority of Web traffic is pure junk
[Meme] Remember That Microsoft and Trump Already Have a "Targets List"
Microsoft loves Trump bailouts
Service Notice: IRC Downtimes RESOLVED
We believe we've solved this entirely (or hope so), but it may take another week to know for sure
Linux 'Not Inclusive' 6.12 (Trumpism Inside Linux Foundation Affirmed)
They can make a codename for this release: Linux 'Not Inclusive' 6.12
The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is Dead. Cause of Death: Microsoft Bribes.
At the core, Linux Foundation and OSI adopted lies as a business model
Joan Meyer correctly linked Gideon Cody raid on Marion County Record to Kristallnacht
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Trans People Misused to Attack a Project or Developer Who Has Nothing to Do With Them
And why that truly hurts all trans people
Our 18+ Years of Freedom-Fighting
We always fight back
Gemini Links 11/11/2024: Men Losing Grip and "You're Relaxing Wrong"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, November 10, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, November 10, 2024
Nobody Knows What's in Our Fridge! Wow, Spooky!
Freedom means you can also purchase things anonymously
Freedom Must Always Be Fought For (All the Time)
Ridicule of "freedom fighters" in the digital realm is typically orchestrated by dictators or wannabes.