From the latest Gazette (referring to software patents as "CII" whilst alluding to "4IR")

Summary: The decline in patent quality at the EPO is becoming a liability to Europe, in effect passing tremendous costs to European businesses and the European public while the EPO's Chief Economist (another Frenchman with connections to Battistelli) does not seem to care

THE EPO is fast becoming worse than the USPTO when it comes to patent quality. It also targets software patents from the US now that over 50% of EP applications are software-related, by the EPO's own admission. Yesterday a US-based site published a gender-oriented piece that's the latest Battistelli puff piece (it's an ongoing and very expensive PR campaign). To quote:

European Patent Office President Benoit Battistelli praised Sans Takeuchi’s battery work for benefitting millions of patients – and said her advances rank her among history’s top American innovators.

European Inventor Award. Patent award/s. Even to Americans who are literal frauds whose "millions of patients" fell for a scam that EPO management made a European Inventor Award finalist.

It sure sounds as though the EPO grants software patents that are then already used for large-scale litigation campaigns. From yesterday's press release:

IDnow, Europe’s leading provider of online identity verification solutions for the financial services, mobility, telecommunications and many other sectors, has taken another step in protecting key elements of its innovative online identity platform as the European Patent Office in Munich found its amended patent EP 2 948 891 to be valid.

The patent, which was applied for in January 2014 and was granted by the EPO on May 18, 2016, was contested by the Deutsche Post and another competitor. With 2 minor amendments suggested by IDnow, the EPO maintained the patent.

[...]

The involved parties may appeal this decision, but this will not affect the parallel patent infringement proceedings where there will be a hearing in the Dusseldorf Higher Regional Court in June 2018 to decide whether another competitor of IDnow has violated this patent.

So they now serially go after a whole bunch of companies, over an "online identity platform" patent which is clearly a software patent. Remember that a recent study showed patent trolling in Europe soaring. Maybe Battistelli's Chief Economist deems/considers that to be a feature, not a bug. Battistelli's agenda is toxic and highly dangerous not just to the EPO but to everywhere in Europe. ⬆