Bonum Certa Men Certa

EPO Says Crushing Patent Neutrality is a Good Thing€® Because Authenticity of Self-Incriminating EPO Document Cannot be Denied

A two-tiered society for large corporations and for little people

Manchester



Summary: The EPO's 'damage control' is so weak that it almost resembles satire and staff protests are having a strong effect, with people threatening to take their exceptional skills elsewhere

ENGLISH-SPEAKING media is starting to catch up with news about EPO leaks.



Recall the special role Microsoft plays in all this. Microsoft's role is prominent for reasons explained in this new article. "According to the memos," it says, "the idea for the scheme was prompted by alleged complaints by both Microsoft and Canon that a number of their applications had been excessively delayed." Neither Microsoft nor Canon is European. Why are they driving European policy?

"Florian Müller," continues the reporter, "author of the FOSS Patents blog, said the memos are “incontrovertible evidence of the EPO’s institutionalised unfairness”. Roy Schestowitz, author of the Techrights blog, said they show that the EPO is acting like a business."

Well, guess what? EPO hides the evidence. They are now blocking both sites which speak about this, the Techrights blog and also the FOSS Patents blog, based on this morning's revelations.

The EPO tried to tell us on Twitter that our leak is "wrong", as if just putting an EPO document up there on the Web makes us "wrong" (as in incorrect). This is just hilarious in a sense. They don't know what to do as they cannot deny the authenticity of the document (shown to journalists by several independent sources, maybe because EPO tried claiming -- to journalists -- that the document had been forged). With the accuracy having been verified, they now go right into spin mode (not denial).

"The EPO tried to tell us on Twitter that our leak is "wrong", as if just putting an EPO document up there on the Web makes us "wrong" (as in incorrect)."It is hard to read the new article with a straight face. Consider excuses like this one: "The EPO spokesperson said the net effect is that smaller applicants will benefit because RAEX will not be flooded with requests from the biggest filers."

That's like saying that having a 'fast lane' for First Class and Business Class (for rich people) is a Good Thing™ for the rest of the passengers because it helps shrink the queues of Economy Class. There's no logic there. In fact, this is so illogical that it's hard to think where to begin refutation. It's almost self-refuting.

Well, they also try to frame this as a temporary thing even though, based on our sources, this may just be an afterthought/spin/revisionism because of the negative publicity.

There is a staff protest right at this moment and there is another new article about today's protest. It starts as follows:

EPO labelled ‘totalitarian state’ as controversy and demo hit



The president of the European Patent Office (EPO), Benoît Battistelli, has reportedly urged the Administrative Council (AC) to dismiss a member of the Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBA) despite that body not recommending such action.

It comes amid separate allegations of harassment and as workers demonstrate today, October 14.

Battistelli’s request was allegedly outlined in a message sent to the AC ahead of its meeting this week, according to the IPKat blog yesterday, October 13.

Under article 23 of the European Patent Convention, a member of the EBA cannot be dismissed without the body lodging an official request with the AC, a supervisory organisation of the EPO.

Article 23 is in place to guarantee the independence of the EBA from the AC and EPO president.

So far, the EBA has not made such a request and in fact last month rejected a request by the AC to dismiss the member.



One person who is apparently attending the protest told us s/he "just saw appeal board members demanding he is fired. Poor sign."

Recent Techrights' Posts

The Lawsuit by Clients of Brett Wilson LLP Against Brett Wilson LLP is Officially On, It is Progressing, The 'Experts' Pick Outside Law Firms (RPC and Mills & Reeve) to Spare Them From Litigants in Person
So it is probably quite potent
Slopwatch: Plagiarism and "Linux" Articles by Bots
Sites that do this won't survive; many of them rely on slop services (suppliers) that will cease to exist after the bubble bursts
 
10 Out of 10: RMS Attracts Massive Audience in Göteborg, Sweden (All Seats Occupied, Some People Standing)
a 55-second clip of his talk
Staying Happy in Times of Crackdowns on Civil Society
Optimism in this sort of "new reality" or "new normal" seems like something for the irrational person
"Nobel" Exploited Posthumously for "AI" Hype, Now They Do the Same With "Quantum"
ere have been many jokes about "Nobel" for peace (often granted to pro-war people) and a fake one for "Economics" (establishment propaganda)
Distinguished Lecture by Richard Stallman This Coming Monday in Rome
After "Free software, Crucial for Freedom in a Digital World"
Links 10/10/2025: Putin Admits Russia Downed Azerbaijan Airlines Jet, More New Heat Records
Links for the day
Noteworthy Claim That IBM is Firing a Lot of Lawyers This Week (RAs in the Legal Department)
A lot of what they do is patent 'trolling' or lawyering up against their own staff (e.g. HR disputes)
Links 10/10/2025: US Judge Bars Attacks by ICE On Journalists and Protesters; “We Took The Freedom of Speech Away” Says the President
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Serial Sloppers, Google News Gifting Slopfarms, and Fake News/Plagiarism About "Linux"
Google itself is a slop pusher these days
Qualcomm, the New Owner of Arduino, Blasted for Its Software Patents Tax on 'Smartphones'
A lot of Qualcomm's patents are on software. We wrote about this in prior years.
XBox Layoffs Rumours, Downtime, and Criticism From XBox Co-Founder
"everyone is ditching the xbox."
Links 10/10/2025: Honoring The Legacy Of Robert Murray-Smith, Many Articles on the Hey Hi (AI) Bubble
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: October Gothic and Reading Middle Earth Role Playing; C and Ada
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 09, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 09, 2025
Links 09/10/2025: Farewell to Jane Goodall, California Bans Algorithmic Price-Fixing
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Lost Wages and a Saga Of Continuing To Use Palm PDAs
Links for the day
Richard Stallman's Talk in Helsinki is Done. Tomorrow Göteborg.
There are scarce details in Finnish about Dr. Stallman's talk
New XBox Leaks Probably Serve to Confirm XBox's Collapse (Many More Layoffs)
It's very much consistent with what many other sites have reported lately
The Slop Song
The train wreck marches on
LLM Slop/Advanced Plagiarism Flooding the Zone With Capital That Does Not Exist
Many publishers out there still participate in this bubble instead of calling it what it is
Links 09/10/2025: Sacked Microsoft Workers Make "Sackbird", IBM Taps CockroachDB for PostgreSQL
Links for the day
"Happy Hacking Day" Richard Stallman Talk This Afternoon (From 14:00 to 16:00) at Haaga-Helia University in Pasila
Richard Stallman in Helsinki, Finland
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 08, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 08, 2025
Links 09/10/2025: Impact of Microsoft Layoffs, More Data Breaches
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Autumn Blues and C IRC Bot
Links for the day
Slopwatch Appreciated by Real Authors of GNU/Linux Articles
We do try to keep on top of those things
Upgraded R.R.R.R.R.R. Today
The Web of 2025 is full of garbage, not limited to slopfarms
Freedom From Proprietary Prisons
Forking always an option
IBM's Watson Died in 1956, Now Watson Dies Again
IBM is becoming just a reseller of GAFAM and other stuff
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, UbuntuPIT, and Google News
We've also just noticed more slop from UbuntuPIT
Microsoft Says That Constant Mass Layoffs Are Success, the Media Isn't Buying This Microsoft Narrative Anymore
If people in the media feel an obligation to repeat whatever lies Microsoft tells, what point will there be to the media?
Links 08/10/2025: "Mali Puts Free Speech on Trial" And Apple Enforces Dictatorship
Links for the day
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
Microsoft Windows is No Longer an Operating System, It's Surveillance Project
Why is this even legal to preload on PCs outside the US?
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
Qualcomm Arduino Takes Aim at Raspberry Pi
Qualcomm is a Microsoft partner
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