Bonum Certa Men Certa

The EPO Continues to Lie About Patent Quality Whilst Openly Promoting Software Patents, Even Outside Europe

Gazette's latest

EPO quality lies



Summary: EPO patent quality continues to sink while EPO management lies about it (the article above is new and not satirical) and software patents are openly being promoted/advocated

THERE'S NO room for humour when the EPO moves further to the right (patent extremists) while the USPTO, conversely, moves to the left. The EPO has become a rather radical organisation which not only treats workers in Medieval ways/standards but also grants monopolies similarly. It is almost as though a feudal system has reasserted control.



"The EPO has become a rather radical organisation which not only treats workers in Medieval ways/standards but also grants monopolies similarly."Compare the EPO to India and to China. The Chinese government has moved so far to the right (censoring almost everything) and lowered patent quality to the point where -- like the EPO -- quality of patents is no longer recognised and dissent is not tolerated. India, contrariwise perhaps, has rejected many patents. This new article (from earlier today) speaks of "confusion regarding software patents in the global IT hub," but there's no "confusion"; they've banned software patents in the country a long time ago. To quote the opening paragraph:

While the world eagerly watches the development of India’s software industry, the confusion regarding software patents in the global IT hub remains considerable. This is despite – or perhaps because of – the three attempts by the Indian Patent Office (IPO) to establish guidelines on computer-related inventions (CRIs), each of which has provoked questions, criticism and controversy. The IPO released its latest CRI examination guidelines on June 30 2017; this chapter looks into the evolution of the guidelines, from the first set to the third, as well as the effects that they have had.


These also earned India praised, but the article (sister site of IAM) says the policy "provoked questions, criticism and controversy." From who? Patent extremists, that's the key point. IAM attacked India's patent policy so many times last year; this year it's toning things down a bit (perhaps fearing criticism for such selfish lobbying).

"The Chinese government has moved so far to the right (censoring almost everything) and lowered patent quality to the point where -- like the EPO -- quality of patents is no longer recognised and dissent is not tolerated."This brings us to the EPO. Where does the EPO stand on all this? It used to favour high patent quality, but nowadays all it cares about are numbers of patents (or applications, albeit only when/if that number goes up). The EPO is, in effect, outsourcing the job of patent examination to judges/juries/courts. That would cost a fortune. The EPO passes all the burden to the European public/businesses. The UPC is effectively dead (nobody even talks about it anymore, except yesterday when EPO management together with Team UPC just kept lying about alleged value and prospects of it). The EPO has just passed along this promotion of its event that says: "The 2018 UP&UPC Conference will take place on 3rd July at @EPOorg, Munich" (that's just 3 days after Campinos arrives).

One can therefore expect Campinos to be embedded in Team UPC -- just like Battistelli -- and thus promote patent maximalism.

Earlier today the EPO promoted software patents in Europe yet again. As we noted earlier this week, the EPO goes to the United States, Microsoft's back yard in fact (Seattle), in order to promote such an agenda and hours ago it wrote: "How to obtain patents in computer-implemented inventions in biotechnology and healthcare at the EPO?"

It doesn't get any more shallow than this. Check out the one reply they got. The FFII's President wrote: "Alice or the EPC says the same, EPO should not grant them. But Europe does not have a Supreme Court, the EPO can do whatever it wants. Including going to watch World Cup football matches..."

"Where does the EPO stand on all this? It used to favour high patent quality, but nowadays all it cares about are numbers of patents (or applications, albeit only when/if that number goes up)."Again, zero accountability. Battistelli and Campinos will just get away with anything they want. No oversight has been added and nothing has been corrected. Nobody will enforce the rules and when a thousand examiners complain about deviation from the EPC nothing happens.

"What about the other fella," asked us one reader, alluding to Christophe Geiger. He'll soon work with Battistelli, having worked with Campinos. The "rumor has it," our reader added, that there's a "surprise post along with the Campinos classmate" (Geiger).

Here is his profile page and Wikipedia 'stub' that says "Christophe Geiger is a lecturer in intellectual property law, as well as current Director General of the Centre for International Intellectual Property Studies (CEIPI) at the University of Strasbourg."

Remember that Battistelli is not retiring but merely hibernating in CEIPI, having attacked jurists for 4 years if not longer. Recall what we wrote some months ago:



One pillar of the organisation that can keep software patents away is the Boards of Appeal, but having suffered many attacks from Battistelli, who in the Boards would be brave enough to do something on this matter? Watch what happened to Patrick Corcoran (from the Boards of Appeal) whilst or after he had rejected a software patent of an EPO partner.

"One pillar of the organisation that can keep software patents away is the Boards of Appeal, but having suffered many attacks from Battistelli, who in the Boards would be brave enough to do something on this matter?"Some hours ago the EPO wrote: "The Boards of Appeal invite users to participate in this written online consultation on the proposed revised Rules of Procedure of the Boards of Appeal."

As if Battistelli and Campinos care or listen to what the public has to say. If they cared, we'd see some sort of assurances to the Boards, but there have been none. And they're still effectively above the law.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Representing and Speaking for Animals
If I ever choose to take this matter to tribunal with animals-centric NGOs on my side, it'll get some press coverage for sure
Slopwatch: Fake Articles About "Linux", Slop Images in VentureBeat, Linux Foundation Spam Made With LLM Slop and Slop Images
The only relief or upside - if any exists - is that the pace of slop was down a bit this week
Richard Stallman (RMS) Talk in Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress Will be Remote
This past week RMS received lots of accolades online
Links 28/08/2025: Chatbots Distorting/Fabricating History and Also Driving Suicide
Links for the day
 
Links 29/08/2025: Arti 1.5.0, War on Public Health (CDC), and Slop 'Bros' Made to Pay for Their Mass Plagiarism
Links for the day
No, 4Chan is Not Fighting for You by Lawyering Up Against Ofcom (UK)
Don't mistake proto-fascists for people who "fight for you". They don't.
Downlplaying the Impact of "UEFI 9/11" is a Losing Strategy
we won't publish much whilst on holiday
In Many Places in the World Vista 11 "Market Share" is Going Down, Not Up
In some countries Windows is already down to third place or lower
More Microsoft-Connected Layoffs, at Least Third Time This Month! (Also Another Death on Campus)
Microsoft as a "gaming" company is where studios, projects, games, and even developers come to die
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 28, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, August 28, 2025
Gemini Links 29/08/2025: Poems, Games, and Java 25 Performance
Links for the day
Links 28/08/2025: Greenland 'Interferences' by US and Skinnerboxes to Get Banned in Korean Schools
Links for the day
The Register MS (Run by Microsoft Operatives): Free Software is Putin, Hence Evil and Dangerous
The current editor in chief is an American Microsofter, the previous one went to work for Google (US)
Gemini Links 28/08/2025: Back in Japan and Why "Hacker News" Sucks
Links for the day
A Much-Needed Wake-up Call to Users of Wordpress.com, Blogspot, Substack and All Those Other Outsourced (and Centralised) Platforms
There are several lessons in there
The UEFI 9/11 - Part II - Campaign of Censorship and Defamation Against Critics
In dictatorships, humour serves an important role. It's tragic.
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Resists Software Freedom, Even by Attacking Its Own
The OSI is compromised
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 27, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, August 27, 2025
Slopwatch: linuxsecurity.com, Slopfarms in Google News, and More
Some readers of ours end up sending us links that are from slopfarms, not realising those are slopfarms
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Katrina Memories and Google Versus Software Freedom
Links for the day
Links 27/08/2025: Police Against Media Freedom in the UK, Energy-Hungry Countries Targeted by China
Links for the day
Microsoft Windows Fell to All-Time Lows in Egypt This Summer, Vista 11 Adoption Decreases While GNU/Linux Increases
Vista 11 is going down rather than up
Links 27/08/2025: Microsoft Demoralises Staff With Slop Demands, Leaving Mastodon Explained
Links for the day
12 Hours Ago The Register MS Published a Fake (Paid-for) Article, But This One for a Change Did Not Promote a Ponzi Scheme
There are also Free software alternatives, but they don't pay The Register MS for "synthetic" so-called 'journalism'
More People Need to Call Out and Put a Stop to Serial Sloppers
Unless slopfarms are stopped, people will read and share Microsoft propaganda made by chatbots
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Headphones and Tartarus
Links for the day
Morale at Microsoft is Terrible (Proprietary Plagiarism Machines Have No Future, LLM Slop is a Bubble)
The slop sceptics/critics are going to have lots of "told you so" moments
GNOME "governance issues, staff reduction, etc." amidst Albanian whistleblowing and women trafficking
Notice the connection to Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) and GNOME
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 26, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, August 26, 2025