Bonum Certa Men Certa

The European Patent Office is Wasting Its Already Limited Budget on Misleading Press Releases/Paid-for Coverage That Overlook Sharp Decline in Patent Quality

The steep slope of EPO doublespeak

EPO flying high
See our response from yesterday: EPO Record Low on Quality of European Patents (EPs) in 2016



Summary: The media is awash with EPO talking points, which were not necessarily the result of objective journalism or fruits of labour but were sometimes simply paid for if not ghost-written too (as is typical by now)

THE arguably cash-strapped or debt-saddled EPO is now paying a fortune pushing a lie or a half-truth (lie by omission). Why? Because Battistelli will meet his supposed overseers one week from now. The EPO is attempting to distract from what is really happening. It's like utterly autocratic and oppressive regimes that boast or brag about "reduction in crime". It just depends whose, and at what cost...



"Time to say goodbye," one person asked about Battistelli this week. "You wish ...

"The EPO is attempting to distract from what is really happening.""The rumours currently circulating inside the EPO indicate that he is planning to do all he can to block the Admin Council from kicking off the selection procedure for his successor which is due to be discussed at the quarterly meeting next week (15/16 March).

"He has no plans to go because it looks like there is no "cushy number" waiting for him back in France."

We don't expect Battistelli to be fired as long as the EPO is so thoroughly compromised (resignation is another matter altogether). Redemption will need to come from the outside, i.e. national/international interventions (ILO is not strong enough for this).

"We don't expect Battistelli to be fired as long as the EPO is so thoroughly compromised."The EPO likes to pretend that it's all just business as usual with stock photography and tweets like this one that says: "During their EPO study visits, participants do practical exercises to learn more about patent filing strategies..."

The matter of fact is, the EPO is extremely unpopular (unprecedented recruitment problem/crisis and brain drain) and visitors too aren't particularly fond of the management. "Did you search their telephones too," I asked them about the visitors, as visitors too are now presumed "terrorists" until proven otherwise (which was always the case, there's no genuine, solid basis for this paranoia at all).

"The matter of fact is, the EPO is extremely unpopular (unprecedented recruitment problem/crisis and brain drain) and visitors too aren't particularly fond of the management."Proceeding to the key point, the principal lie being pushed forth this week is that the EPO is doing better than ever before. An avalanche (collapse) of patent quality is being touted as a victory. To quote the EPO's Twitter account: "EPO President Benoît Battistelli: "2016 saw significant advances at the EPO." http://buzz.mw/b1w9z_l #AnnualReport #AnnualResults"

This links to another lame video of Battistelli -- similar to the lame video we remarked on last year. When it comes to quality, he just likes to mention his propaganda mills, such as IAM, in such awkwardly-framed videos.

The EPO says "Granted patents up by 40% in 2016. See the full report: http://buzz.mw/b1w9w_l #annualreport #annualresults"

If a local hospital has a 40% rise "in demand" (an industrial term), does that indicate success or simply increase in illness? What is the actual goal of a hospital?

Watch this later tweet from the EPO. It uses a factory term, "patenting demand," as if it's all about supply and demand. It figures. To quote: "These are the TOP technology fields with the fastest growth in patenting demand in 2016 http://buzz.mw/b1w7n_l #annualreport #annualresultspic.twitter.com/ZSLCjhMzBA"

"...the principal lie being pushed forth this week is that the EPO is doing better than ever before."The EPO also drew attention to this self-promotional tweet from Philips. The company said "2,568 patent applications at @EPOorg during 2016 = our commitment to innovation. Find out more http://philips.to/2mwoDHn"

"How many of these patents were granted after just 2 hours," I asked them, linking to this EPO leak. Philips links not to an English article about it but a paid press release. What a waste of money pushing self-serving statements.

But Philips, being a corporation, has every right to spend its money doing this. What about the EPO? Well, Battistelli is in essence bribing various large publications, including this publication which now repeats his propaganda in French while censoring critical (and factual) coverage. Money well spent? The EPO's PR team, in the meantime, is pushing various publishers to parrot EPO talking points, probably even gratis!

Disappointing coverage came out of World IP Review (WIPR), which parrots the EPO's claims without looking deeper and investigating the full picture. It says that the "European Patent Office (EPO) granted a record number of European patents in 2016, while the US led the charge for applications."

"If a local hospital has a 40% rise "in demand" (an industrial term), does that indicate success or simply increase in illness?"What about patent quality and how were these supposed gains achieved? No remarks on that? Even IP Watch, which is typically OK, helps the EPO spread this nonsense (very promotional headline).

Patent systems are not a numbers contest. Without quality control we could have millions of patents granted PER WEEK. That's hardly an accomplishment worth celebrating.

"What about patent quality and how were these supposed gains achieved?"To make matters even worse, the EPO now spreads (using press releases, i.e. EPO budget) misleading patent propaganda in the UK, conveniently enough amidst UPC talks. Using various press outlets, not to mention a total waste of money (paid propaganda for Battistelli), they are hoping to 'sell' lies in the meeting with Battistelli's Chinchillas and also 'sell' this to British politicians. We have found numerous sites, e.g. [1, 2], where the EPO 'planted' the press release "2016 a good year for UK companies and researchers at the European Patent Office" (that is not what the numbers show; they equate raw numbers with other things). Watchtroll, in the mean time, contributed its own lawyers-leaning angle. In a later post we shall focus on what the EPO and the UPC (if it ever becomes something at all) mean to British businesses.

The EPO also disseminated a similarly misleading press release for the US, "European Patent Office Grants More Patents To US Companies Than Ever Before," and the Swedish English-speaking media -- basically the same bunch of sites as last year (we criticised them for it) -- just does some puff pieces. The same network, incidentally, brainwashes the Swiss about it. The richest countries, which can most easily afford EPO fees (application, renewal, litigation etc.) are not necessarily "champions" (as the headline put it). But who cares about facts anyway? It's the EPO's day to "shine", facts be damned!

"To make matters even worse, the EPO now spreads (using press releases, i.e. EPO budget) misleading patent propaganda in the UK, conveniently enough amidst UPC talks."What the EPO speaks about isn't good news. They're aware of it. They rely on so-called 'results' that are framed in misleading terms, which assume that the goal of a patent system is just to yank out lots and lots of patents, irrespective of their merit.

"All results for 2016 are available here," the EPO wrote, but these so-called 'results' say nothing about quality; quality is down sharply. Does that not matter? It has a profound negative impact on the value (or perceived legitimacy) of patents granted by the EPO for several decades. They're muddying the water now.

One particular firm now treats the EPO's numbers like a popularity contest and states: "We’re 63rd in @EPOorg’s 2016 patent rankings! We believe in the power of #science and #innovation: http://spr.ly/60138XqxB pic.twitter.com/Qq6gBNRSFW"

"It has a profound negative impact on the value (or perceived legitimacy) of patents granted by the EPO for several decades."Unlike the EPO which believes in anti-science, post-truth and alternative facts?

If "patent rankings" are based on just raw numbers, where wealthy parties can just successfully ram lots of low-quality patents down the throat of the Office (the USPTO was notorious for this), then what we're getting here is a system ripe for abuse, not a respected patent system that took nearly half a century to build its reputation.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Michael “Monty” Widenius: It Started in 1983 With Richard Stallman (RMS)
The other co-founder of MySQL is a bit notorious for confronting RMS rather viciously
For the Second Time in a Few Weeks Microsoft Lunduke Makes False Accusations Against Senior Red Hat Staff to Incite a Despicable 'Troll Army'
Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims of says can be trusted
 
Links 03/10/2025: Lawyers Caught Using LLM Slop Explain Why They Did It, LibreSSL 4.1.1 and 4.0.1 Released
Links for the day
FSF Board Grew 50% Since Last Year, Has New President, Turns 40 in Two Days
It's a good move for the FSF and - by extension - for software freedom
Links 03/10/2025: Conflicts, Death of TypePad, and TikTok/CheeTok Gives a Boost to Far Right Groups in Europe
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 02, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 02, 2025
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, Google News, and LinuxSecurity
They carry on polluting the Web with fake articles
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: Kubernetes With FreeBSD and robots.txt
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: 'Open' 'AI' Resorting to Gimmicks and Fake Funding, Europe’s ‘Drone Wall’ Discussed
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: Brave Passes 100M Users Milestone, Kodak Selling Its Own Film Again
Links for the day
su lisa && rm -rf /home/ibm/power
Novell was ruined by another person from IBM, Ronald Hovsepian
A Record Demand at Microsoft: Demand to Cancel
What we're witnessing is a very ungraceful destruction of XBox
Microsoft is Losing Europe
Hence all the "support" and "discount" offers that are limited to Europe
The Free Software Foundation Starts Fund-raising for 40th Anniversary
New pop-up 2-3 days ahead of the 40th anniversary event
Systemd Breaks Networking in Debian and Microsoft Staff Rushes to Make Face-Saving Excuses in LWN
Microsoft's bluca is already there in the comments, his Microsoft money pays for LWN to let him leave comments early
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 01, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 01, 2025
What the End of XBox Will Look Like: a Fiery Crash
XBox is the next Skype. It won't last much longer. Expect many more layoffs.
Richard Stallman is Going to Finland to Give a Talk Next Thursday
A day later he speaks in Sweden
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: SMTP Pipelining and End of ROOPHLOCH 2025
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Plagiarism, Fake Articles, and FUD About Linux
not a day goes by without Google News feeding FUD from slopfarms
Gemini Links 01/10/2025: Chat Control and End of Life
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: Long Covid Risk Reiterated, "Bitcoin Queen" Caught
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: EA $55 Billion Deal is Debt and Slop "Raises Vishing Risks"
Links for the day
Bluewashing at Red Hat Means Redundancies
The man who sold Red Hat to IBM meanwhile became a Microsoft Mono booster
After Killing OpenSource.com, IBM ('Red Hat') and OSI Told Us OpenSource.net Would Replace It (But That Didn't Happen)
Now it's time to move on, perhaps tarnishing the "Open Source" label some more (for whatever sponsor wants this)
Linux is Not a Community Project, It's a Wall Street Product
The core goal should be freedom
Bad Actors Abusing the Free Software Community, Vandalising It Using Rogue Politics and Old Tactics
Oil giants have long attempted to do this; now, the digital equivalent of Big Oil does this in technology
Social Control Media Isn't the Future, The Federation or Fediverse Isn't Growing, People's Accounts Vanish for Good
users' accounts will get deleted, not just become inactive
IBM is Failing, This Helps Show Wall Street is Entirely Detached From Actual Commercial Performance
IBM is unable to grow, it's just constantly shrinking
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 30, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Clerical Aspects of Publishing and Development
In Free software, the management aspects are considerably reduced
Slopwatch: Fake Articles and Google News Promoting "Linux" Spam or Bot-Generated Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)
These slopfarms help misplace blame
Third Wave of Microsoft Layoffs in September, This Time Many in Liverpool Affected
Be ready for more waves of layoffs ahead of the so-called "results" in late October