Bonum Certa Men Certa

Watch Out for the Latest EPO Charm Offensive in the Media, Greenwashing Being the Theme Du Jour

Tired of exploiting refugees and cancer for public relations (PR) purposes?

Greenwashing card



Summary: The European Patent Office is now pulling the greenwashing card in an effort to improve its image

WIKIPEDIA defines greenwashing as "a form of spin in which green PR or green marketing is deceptively used to promote the perception that an organization's products, aims or policies are environmentally friendly."



"Media “presence” objectives spring to mind; the EPO is now interjecting itself into media after this sort of publicity stunt (usually coordinated with some partners such as IAM or UNEP in this latest case)."Well, the EPO is now doing exactly that (warning: this is an epo.org link) and we can't help but wonder if this is part of the media presence campaign, or seeding of positive publicity. Around the same time that the EPO was negotiating with and working towards ~$1,000,000 in budget to fracking AstroTurfers from FTI Consulting the EPO also came up with the headline "EPO to donate EUR 100 000 to help refugees in Munich" (small money compared to what was spent manipulating the media).

The EPO's latest charm offensive (of the greenwashing kind) is already in rather obscure British media and Chinese state media. Media “presence” objectives spring to mind; the EPO is now interjecting itself into media after this sort of publicity stunt (usually coordinated with some partners such as IAM or UNEP in this latest case).

"As many can probably agree, the cute and cuddly narrative which the EPO's management is trying to prop up is enough to make some people vomit."Speaking of opportunistic charm offensives, see this new article titled "EPO intends to grant patent to its cancer immune primer INTUVAX". This will become very relavant when we cover future scandals. We are going show how the EPO uses cancer to advance its political agenda while also pretending to fight cancer. In reality, the EPO uses cancer to crush 'unwanted' staff.

As many can probably agree, the cute and cuddly narrative which the EPO's management is trying to prop up is enough to make some people vomit.

"When good men die their goodness does not perish, but lives though they are gone. As for the bad, all that was theirs dies and is buried with them."

--Euripides



Recent Techrights' Posts

Giving 'Free Publicity' to the People You Hate and Attack
Be careful what you wish for in social control media
Andrew Lee Has Turned Freenode Into a Slopfarm (Because Who Needs IRC Anyway?)
The site is churning out slop all day long
SLAPP Censorship - Part 168 Out of 200: When Choosing Clients Recklessly and Poorly Self-Harm is Inevitable
"If you're doing something hard and nobody hates it, you probably aren't doing it. If the right people hate it and those people happen to be some of the worst people alive, so much the better."
 
Quit Talking About "AI Layoffs" and Talk About How Chatbots and Other Bots Broke Recruitment Processes by Cheating
Bots talking to other bots isn't HR; it's a catastrophe
It's Inevitable Anyway, So...
of course blame Chinese Communists for the "anti-AI" messages
Robotics Isn't "Hey Hi", Robotics Isn't New Either
Is the official Arduino blog becoming shilling platform for Qualcomm's "hey hi" [so-called 'intelligent'] chips?
Today We'll Focus on Growth of GNU/Linux
We've meanwhile noticed that Clownflare statistics for north American nations show 19% of requests (CDN) originating from GNU/Linux
IBM Secret (or Silent) Layoffs in September 2026
We need whistleblowers
Gemini Links 02/09/2026: GAFAM's E-mail Cartel, ROOPHLOCH 2026, and Homeworlds
Links for the day
Not Only Microsoft and IBM Hide Layoffs (Secret Layoffs) and Fail to Follow the Law (or Bypass It)
Microsoft's tactics are not so unique
People Who Participate in the Slop Plagiarism Pyramid Scheme and the Moral Dilemma (What's Acceptable for a Salary?)
giant pyramid scheme
State of the Slop, Linux Edition
Whether slop about "linux" becomes rarer by the end of this year, well... time will tell
Links 02/09/2026: 'Open' 'AI' (Proprietary Slop Plagiarism) Destroying Evidence, "Data Center Backlash Has Officially Rattled Scam Altman"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 01, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 01, 2026
FSF Staff Uses 'CoC' to Stop Conversation About Autistici/Inventati in Relation to Free Software
The list is already heavily moderated
IBM Allegedly Stopped Hiring (This Tends to Coincide With Mass Layoffs)
Is a hiring freeze an echo of layoffs? Yes, definitely.
Something Big is Happening at IBM This Week/Month
Some people at IBM (and Red Hat) are panicking
Gemini Links 01/09/2026: Biscuits, Epstein Files, Power Users, and Alhena 5.6.8
Links for the day
Links 01/09/2026: Almost 5,000 Missing/Dead in Nepal-China Flood and Marijuana Factory Explodes
Links for the day
September at IBM: Silent Layoffs on Day 1
PIPocalypse at IBM
Last Month IRC Entered Its 39th Year and It's Still Growing (New IRC Networks)
There are 511+ known IRC networks
Links 01/09/2026: Climate, Disinformation, Microsoft Overworking People
Links for the day
Richard Stallman's Site Still Offline (Third Day), But Richard Stallman is Active Online
he is busy online despite his site not being accessible so far this week
PIP Layoffs at Microsoft, Even in India
Microsoft is trying to hide the true scale of the layoffs
Layoff Trackers Are a Sham, They're Like US 'Unemployment Data'
Layoff trackers are similarly misleading as they only measure what companies openly admit and register with WARN notices
The Peculiar Case of OSNews, Which Experiments With Slopfarming
It wasn't published in error. It has been there for two months.
Russian Federation is Removing Windows From Computers
Windows is going "out of fashion"
XBox CEO Has No Clue What She is Selling
Some people believe Microsoft will parcel and offload the whole "gaming" unit to some other companies
analognowhere.com and xkcd.com Selling Physical Copies of Webcomics
That's one way to support their work
PIP/GVSA at Microsoft: Mass Layoffs Disguised as Something Else
Microsoft is trying to cheapen the workforce because the numbers don't add up
Microsoft Lunduke Uses Twitter ("X") Because It's Algorithmically Designed to Boost His Worldview/s, He Ignores What "X" Is
Maybe all those people really deserve one another
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, August 31, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, August 31, 2026
Censorship by Threats
It should be noted that the Web site of Richard Stallman will soon enter its third day of downtime
In Romania, GNU/Linux Reaches 6%, According to Clownflare
Tomorrow we'll see the latest data from statCounter (for September)
Gemini Links 01/09/2026: Denali Park Train Trip, Crafts, and Community-Building in smol.pub
Links for the day
Microsoft Workers Doing 80 Hours a Week After Microsoft Culled Their Colleagues
there are days when they work 17 hours a day (barely any time left to sleep and eat) and work starts at 5AM
IBM Defrauds Shareholders With Fake News (Bribed Press) About "Quantum"
That says a lot about the state of "Tech Giants" and also the utterly shameless state of the media
Record Highs for GNU/Linux, Especially in the United States of America
the "market share" of GNU/Linux is about 9%, still about a third of what Vista 11 stands at
PIPocalypse at IBM
Silent layoffs
Spending Over a Million Bucks on Lawsuits Abroad When There's a Big Mortgage to Pay in America
Priorities, priorities...
Gemini Links 31/08/2026: Announcing ROOPHLOCH 2026, smol.pub Discussion, and LLM Plagiarism Engines Target Geminispace
Links for the day
Richard Stallman's GNU Turns 43 in 4 Weeks, FSF Growing
In a few weeks GNU turns 43
IBM's Cuts Are Worsening Security in GNU/Linux
IBM is still run by the same idiot who proposed taking over Red Hat
Microsoft: Work Weekends Too
Microsoft literally working its workers to death
Links 31/08/2026: Anthropic Sued Again for Copyright Infringement of Massive Scale, 'Tokenmaxxing' Shows Slop is a Worthless Liability
Links for the day
Links 31/08/2026: "Teslas Are Still Driving Into Oncoming Freight Trains" and "LLM Moats Quickly Evaporating"
Links for the day
Stallman Has Explained Slop is "Marketing Hype Campaign" and Torvalds Agreed. The Difference is the Bribes.
So be like Stallman
Debian Project Discards About 25% of the Votes on LLM Slop, Microsoft Votes in the General Resolution (GR)
"[t]he rules of the vote saw community members asked to rank each of the eight proposals. Just under 600 people voted, but Debian’s election team rejected many for unspecified reasons, leaving almost 450 valid votes to count."
Essentiality of Rest and Killing Oneself for Vicious Companies
Working for Microsoft is foolish
In the UK, Bing (Microsoft) Down to Lowest Level Since January
our tax money being passed to Microsoft via MoUs (back door deals with kickbacks)
SLAPP Censorship - Part 167 Out of 200: The Court of Appeal Might be the Next Step
Today is our last vacation day
German Government Sponsors IBM Because of GNU/Linux
Flatpak is sponsored by, run, and controlled by IBM
Richard Stallman Speaks to Christine Hall of FOSS Force, stallman.org is Down for Over a Day
interview does a good job addressing the hype about LLMs too
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 30, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, August 30, 2026
Gemini Links 31/08/2026: Holidays, Stream of Consciousness, and Posting Online
Links for the day