Bonum Certa Men Certa

Patent Justice Deficit Disorder

Justice



Summary: Commentary about the perversion of patent systems and the worrying situation at the EPO, where patent justice is being replaced by sloppy examination (in hope of shifting all judgment to a UPC-type system which is not Constitutional)

THE questions of ethics in the patent system, often explored by this blogger in Patently-O (not Crouch), are definitely worth entertaining. The patent microcosm does not like to bring these up as that damages its reputation. The latest example:



You get sued and you’re thinking you’ll ultimately win big. Exceptional case. Fees shifted. And you do, and you get an award of $3 million in your favor. But, the patentee is basically a shell and so after a year of trying, you decide to go after its owners, allegedly its alter ego.


Patent shells are a subject we explore quite a lot. Quite a few large companies now operate through patent shells, sometimes patent trolls. When will this problem be tackled? Too many loopholes. We have been writing about this for over a decade.

People are led to believe that the patent system is as simple as an antiquated mythology: a classic inventor coming up with an idea, pursuing a patent, receiving protection from giants etc. The reality is quite different, however, as the lion's share of patents (overwhelming majority in fact) gets granted to giants which then use these patents against rivals (or to cross-license with other giants). As for that "classic inventor"? That's long gone. Nowadays those are mostly patent trolls; they either apply for some trivial patent (on a trivial idea) or buy a patent from a failing inventor/dying company, often in bulk. The sole purpose is thereafter extortion, not production.

Justice in today's system is elusive. It seems like those with deeper pockets will almost always win at the end. They can just endlessly appeal a decision... until their opponent runs out of money. The system has evolved along those lines (facilitating endless disputes which typically benefit the rich, irrespective of guilt/innocence).

The EPO goes along similar trajectories, with overstressed examiners doing all the job and technical judges (with examination experience) being pushed to the brink. Is there even much left for examiners to enjoy in life? They recently lost 3 more holidays (not for the first time) and even though the EPO's official account said that the Office would close until next year, it has just published some tweets; yes, on Christmas Day [1, 2]. These aren't scheduled posts but actual staff that's working on Christmas Day!

Meanwhile, over at IP Kat, various comments have surfaced which speak about the appeal boards (EPO judges). It's self-explanatory:

a published decision of the Enlarged Board!

I haven't come across any in the Official Journal in the last couple of years ... :-)


But instead the Enlarged Board declined to hear the case at all.

And how exactly were they supposed to "hear the case" when the President stated that he was not prepared to countenance the hearing of witnesses from the IU ... ???




But instead the Enlarged Board declined to hear the case at all.

And under threat of disciplinary proceedings if doing a fact finding and deciding on facts... After specific asking the AC, the chair of the AC did not give a guarantee to the independence of th EBA members for this case... And they had a case right before them indicating that the AC has no interest in protecting the BA members from disciplinary measure by the president.


...I was using "published" in the sense of made available to the public - not officially published by the EPO (unless you count a brief mention in the White Book).

I'm not sure if the EPC says what happens if the President disobeys an order (eg to publish a decision) from the Enlarged Board. I doubt that the founding fathers of the EPC ever contemplated that this might happen.


Well, any founding fathers (of the EPC) who are still alive would probably say nothing. The EPO is now facing an existential threat. One reader told us this morning that the "EPO is problem that is really dragging on and on without corrective actions from the EU. I'm not sure but it may look like the whole EPO has become unsalvageable and ought to be dismantled. It is rather redundant with the national offices anyway. Is there really and value added by even having an EPO?"

I don't share that sentiment, but this remark shows the sort of damage caused by Battistelli. People increasingly question the very existence of the EPO, which Europeans used to take pride in. There's a legitimacy and public consent crisis.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Techrights Does Not Compete With LLM Slop, It Exposes the Bastards, Plagiarists and Scammers Who Do That
People like Scam Altman, still facing a lawsuit from his own sister for sexual abuse against her
Slopwatch: Planet Ubuntu Became LLM Slop and Some People Fail to See the Immorality of Plagiarism
it lessens the incentive for people to publish real articles
Microsoft Layoffs Again in Bay Area
Microsoft relies on people's false belief that being "in LinkedIn" will get you a job; well, seems like even working inside LinkedIn really sucks and you lose the job
 
The "AI" (Slop) Bubble Already Popped, But It's Not an Overnight Collapse
where Microsoft put its money
No More Steven Astorino at IBM, Chatter About Weekly/Nonstop Layoffs at IBM
What happened? Good luck guessing.
Looking at Corruption in Europe, Going Beyond the EPO
Expect a new series to kick off very soon
Slopwatch: Security SPAM and LLM Slop for SEO and FUD Purposes, Perpetually Tarnishing the Perception of Linux and (Open)SSH Security
A lot of this Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD) comes from Microsoft and its LLMs
Links 30/05/2025: Google's LLM Slop Pushers Are Killing Journalism and Shira Perlmutter Fails to Stop Bribed Regime From Legalising Plagiarism (in "AI" Clothing)
Links for the day
Links 30/05/2025: Offline Arts and "Threshold of Patience"
Links for the day
Signing Off Serious Lies With a Statement of Truth is No Joking Matter
It's not hard to see what's happening here
Links 30/05/2025: LLM Slop Already Ingests and Vomits Its Own Garbage, Facebook Exec Admits Copyrights a Concern Too
Links for the day
Mass Layoffs at Microsoft Result in More Whistleblowers From Microsoft
Microsoft's predatory pricing is further
EPO Poll: 68% Dissatisfied With Quality of Slop (Wrongly Framed as "AI") for Patent Classification
Slop does not work, it's just falsely advertised with extra hype (funded by slop pushers that sponsor the major media)
Big Crowds Gather to Learn About Software Freedom From the Man Who Started GNU/Linux in 1983
"It was a great success"
Gemini Links 30/05/2025: Fighting Against the Bad News, and Slop is Dehumanisation Disguised as "Intelligence"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, May 29, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, May 29, 2025
Links 29/05/2025: Chinese Cracking Against EU Institutions (Prague), More Assaults on Media and Its Funding Sources
Links for the day
EPO Workers Caution That the Officials Are Still Illegally Trying to Replace Staff With Slop (to Lower Quality and Validity of European Patents)
Nobody in Europe voted for any of this
Links 29/05/2025: US Health Deficit and Malware Disguised as Slop Generator
Links for the day
Links 29/05/2025: Turtle Roadkill, Modern 'Tech' as a Sting
Links for the day
Thanks for All the Fish, Linux Format
people who once wrote for it (or for other magazines) comment on the importance of this news
People's Understanding of the History of GNU/Linux is Changing
RMS is not a radical, he's just clever enough to see and foresee what's going on
Microsofters Were Scheming to Take Over This Entire Web Site (in Their Own Words!)
Money gets spent censoring/deplatforming people who speak about real issues; no money gets spent actually tackling those underlying issues
Bicycles for the Minds and the Story Harrison Bergeron
"The goal of having people in charge of the tools they use and that the tools should amplify ability" has long been abandoned
Links 29/05/2025: YouTube Problem and Giant Privacy Hole in Microsoft OneDrive
Links for the day
[Video] Cory Doctorow Explains DMCA: DRM in the Browser (or Webapp) Will "Make It a Felony to Protect Your Privacy While You Use It."
Pycon US Keynote Speaker Cory Doctorow
United States Courts With Sworn Testimonies Are on Our Side, We'll Present the Same Here
Chronicling what happened is a moral imperative
Serial Sloppers Ruin and Lessen the Incentive to Cover "Linux"
The Serial Sloppers (SSs) ought to be named and shamed, but almost nobody does this
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, May 28, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, May 28, 2025
Links 28/05/2025: 'Emulation Layers' (Measurements and Linguistics), Libraries, and Discomfort
Links for the day
Links 28/05/2025: More Arrests for Bitcoin-Connected Torture and Prosecutions for Dieselgate-Linked Executives
Links for the day
Even Microsoft (MSN) Covers Richard Stallman's Public Talk in Milan 2 Days Ago
He spoke in Spanish earlier this month (Alicante)
Gemini Links 28/05/2025: Techo-authoritarianism With Slop Plagiarism and "No Online June" (Going Offline)
Links for the day
Links 28/05/2025: GitHub MCP Exploited and MathWorks Discovers Huge Windows TCO
Links for the day
Very High Attendance Level at Richard Stallman's Talk Shows People Can Relate to His Message
Smear campaigns have their limits
Gemini Links 28/05/2025: Celsius-Fahrenheit, Endless Scrolling/Infinite Scrolling, and Trapping LLM Slop Bots
Links for the day
Prison gate backdrop to baptism by Fr Sean O'Connell, St Paul's, Coburg
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
More Photos From This Week's Milan Talk by Richard Stallman
The posts are in Italian, not English
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, May 27, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, May 27, 2025