Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Diminishing Value of European Patents (EPs)

EPC cartoon



Summary: The lack of interest in the EPO's services has just caused Battistelli to offer discounts -- as pathetic as that may seem -- and Grant Philpott continues promoting software patents

IT HAS BECOME common knowledge that the EPO is overgranting patents and in order to maintain an illusion of quality control it rejects applications based on minor technicalities rather than lack of merit/novelty. Prior art search is too 'costly' (in terms of time, talent and so on). People inside and outside the Office are noticing this and they are not happy. They're quite rightly upset and some are courageous enough to speak out about it. What good is a piece of paper which courts are likely to disprove or disregard?



The number of patent applications is declining, the most talented/experienced staff is walking away, and the EPO cannot attract "demand" due to diminishing reputation. This was foreseeable and staff representatives warned about this. Earlier today Battistelli wrote in his 'blog' (warning: epo.org link) about his reactionary move. This was promoted about 4 hours later by the EPO and we interpret this is a desperate effort to spur "sales" using a discount. Battistelli, like a used cars salesman, tries to frame it all as "savings" for the "clients" and says it "equates to a 5% reduction which will save our users around 7 million Euro next year."

"What good is a piece of paper which courts are likely to disprove or disregard?"Basically, European Patents (EPs of the past, present and future) have lost their value due to Battistelli and his abusive behaviour. He probably shaved off BILLIONS worth of "value" (losses for those who invested in EPs), but why should he care? All he cared about was the inflow of money, even if that led to the collapse of the Office in the long run.

Earlier today the EPO wrote: "With Patent Translate you can translate patent documents at the click of a button...

But not accurately. Many people have already pointed out the weakness of such translations. They're of no use in a legal context; these are, at best, approximations.

The EPO is also planning this conference next week and today (Monday) we discovered that Grant Philpott (epic name for a grant-by-default policy) still promotes software patents in Europe. He is using buzzwords that are meaningless. There are photos there and the text says: "Grant Philpott @EPOorg about #patents created by #ArtificialIntelligence & #Computer-implemented #inventions #CII in #Industry40 @Telefonica"

"People who came up with the EPC would turn in their grave if they could see what Battistelli had done."Where are the boards when one needs them? The EPO is not supposed to grant software patents, but Battistelli has already taken care of that by defanging judges. The EPO has sent the appeal board to 'exile' to prevent them having a sense of independence, or the courage to do their work without fear. Earlier today the EPO wrote: "How can you get to the new location of the Boards of Appeal?"

Maybe if there were exiled to Poland, nobody would bother appealing at all and patent quality would seem superb. What we have here is a crisis of governance and a collapse in patent quality. People who came up with the EPC would turn in their grave if they could see what Battistelli had done.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Professor Eben Moglen on How Social Control Media Metabolises Humans and Constrains Freedom of Thought
Nothing of value would be lost if all these data-harvesting giants (profiling people) vanished overnight
Debian Left Twitter (MElon "X"), We Think the Free Software Foundation (FSF) Should Do the Same
What would the FSF really lose if it stopped posting there?
Tons of Anti-Linux 'Articles' Published by Bots (LLMs), Maybe Microsoft's
Upon closer inspection, all this FUD turned out to be LLM garbage
Ubuntu Desktop Director of Engineering Has Only One Blog Post. It Promotes Microsoft Windows.
Remember that even 15 years ago (more or less, maybe 16 years ago) Canonical appointed a a 'former' Microsoft manager (Spencer) to lead Ubuntu on the desktop
 
Gemini Links 07/02/2025: Mid-level Details and Simple Code
Links for the day
Links 07/02/2025: US 'Demolition Crew', e-ID Loopholes, and Sanctions
Links for the day
Social Control Media is Narcissism
Nowadays there's a lot more literature and even press coverage explaining the harms of Social Control Media
statCounter Sees GNU/Linux Share Doubling in China Over the Past Year
It'll be interesting to see what data in the coming months shows
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, February 06, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, February 06, 2025
Richard Stallman (RMS) Confirms Next Week's Talk in Europe
He gave at least 2 talks in Europe last month
Nationalism As A Service (NaaS) by Microsoft Azure, Gutting the US Government for Profit
Will Microsoft be receiving bailouts as a reward for all this?
Rumours of IBM Layoffs Apparently Confirmed Yesterday, IBM Canada Consulting Impacted (as Rumoured)
when IBM has layoffs we must also read it as Red Hat layoffs
Gemini Links 06/02/2025: Voicemail Sucks and Night of Lights
Links for the day
Links 06/02/2025: YouTube Takedowns Out of Control, 'DOGE' Breaking Laws
Links for the day
IBM Red Hat on "era of cloud computing", pushing "hey hi" (AI) hype in Microsoft Azure
LLM slop might actually be more benign than Microsoft promotion
Corruption and Rule-Breaking Prevail at the European Patent Office (EPO), Europe's Second-Largest Institution
The law does not really exist at the EPO; it can be perceived as merely a "recommendation"
statCounter: More Countries Where Windows is Around 1% "Market Share" (People Have Moved to Android/Linux)
in some nations Windows is already 1% or less
404 Media Says "Workers at NASA Told to Drop Everything to Scrub Mentions of Indigenous People, Women from Its Websites" But There's Also Accessibility in the Firing Line
In the case of abandoning accessibility, everyone stands to be hurt and proprietary software can be brought in to replace standards
When BetaNews Writes Real Articles About "Linux" They Promote Windows
The Web is in a bad state. We need to at least try to correct this.
Gemini Links 06/02/2025: Cynicism and "Real Magic on the C64"
Links for the day
Links 06/02/2025: New Sanctions, Layoffs, and Executive Orders
Links for the day
Distros and Desktop Environments, Devices
GNU/Linux focused
New Rumours of IBM Layoffs in 2025, IBM Consulting Still Struggles, Based on Management
"Hey hi" (AI) has been a common excuse for business failure
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, February 05, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, February 05, 2025
Links 05/02/2025: Kessler Syndrome and News Online
Links for the day
statCounter: Monaco Now 7% GNU/Linux ("Proper")
GNU/Linux, not counting Chromebooks, is on the rise
Many Parts of Google Lose Money
It's quite apparent that many parts of Google - even some that rely on ad revenue or push ads - aren't profiting
European Internet Forum (EIF) is Dominated by American Corporations and Microsoft Lobbyists, Staff Take the Lead
Should the officials over here or the European Parliament pay attention to these people?
Links 05/02/2025: Connection without Connectivity and Unionised Grocery Workers
Links for the day
Just Because People on Top of the Microsoft Pyramid Made a Lot of Money Doesn't Mean Microsoft is Wealthy
The bigger they are the harder they fall
Gemini Links 05/02/2025: Learning, Madman Ruling a Mad Country, Back in Geminispace
Links for the day
statCounter Shows "WIntel" Chasing a Dying Market
Microsoft acts as if it's running out of money
Free Software Foundation, Inc. (FSF) Still Raising Money, Richard Stallman Contributes
total exceeding $430k
A Lot of Stuff About "Linux" in Google News is LLM Slop, Fake 'Articles'
It seems to be getting worse
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, February 04, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, February 04, 2025