Bonum Certa Men Certa

First Act of António Campinos: Pushing the Unconstitutional Unitary Patent (UPC)

“Meet the new boss same as the old boss...” (and IAM still pushes the same agenda, having been paid for it)

António Campinos for UPC
Source



Summary: One day after starting his job the new President of the EPO already lobbies -- even publicly -- for an antidemocratic and unconstitutional piece of proposed legislation designed to help patent trolls and law firms that want low patent quality

THE EPO has announced (warning: epo.org link) and reiterated that a new man started his job as head of Team Battistelli (all the same top-level management) while IPPro Patents did some more Battistelli puff pieces even 3 days after he had left.

"The latest Team UPC lies from Bristows have also in fact been boosted. Apparently, they are now paying to repost their lies, inserting these lies into Google News etc."Life goes on at the EPO and the new boss looks a lot like the old boss (just more like an 'orange president', but not Donald Trump).

According to this morning's tweets from Team UPC, e.g. [1, 2, 3], António Campinos is already pushing for an unconstitutional abomination known as UPC. Team UPC is happy ("Ready for the today UP&UPC conference at @EPOorg Munich", "António Campinos, Président of the European Patent Office, introducing the today UP&UPC at @EPOorg Munich" and "Campinos gives the opening remarks at the #UPC conference - the first major act of his presidency").

The latest Team UPC lies from Bristows have also in fact been boosted. Apparently, they are now paying to repost their lies, inserting these lies into Google News etc. Lexology has just reposted this arrogant lie to which we published a rebuttal and Lexology has also just published this piece from Mitscherlich PartmbB's Christian Rupp. It's about the odd criteria for patentability; they need to assess scope more than prior art for quick elimination (rejection), just like Section 101 in the US, but instead this is what we have:

It is well known to the patent practitioner that the smart choice of the closest prior art has a big impact on the assessment of the presence of an inventive step (or the lack thereof).

According to the practice of the Boards of Appeal, the prior art document is typically one which is mentioning the same or at least a comparable object to be solved as the claimed invention, and additionally then has also the most relevant technical features in common.

Especially, the aspect of “the same object to be solved as the claimed invention” can obviously lead to a very artificial prior art assessment, especially when applying the so-called problem-solution-approach developed by the EPO. The aspect “same object as the claimed invention” can result in an artificial choice of a prior art document, which may well have a comparable object to be solved as the claimed invention, but otherwise not a lot to do with the claimed invention. On the other hand, relevant documents which would not need a big structural modification to arrive at the invention are sometimes disregarded for lacking an indication of the same purpose or object to be solved.


With the UPC they hope to interject a lot of software patents, patents on life etc. into countries that explicitly ban these. They try to work around laws and constitutions. This is something that Campinos now puts his weight behind.

So again, as the old saying goes: “Meet the new boss same as the old boss...”

It seems like social aspects (meeting staff representatives, recognising SUEPO etc.) are a lot less urgent to him than UPC.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Last Week's EPO Strike Was the Biggest (Highest Participation Rate), Hours Ago General Assembly Discussed Next (Growing) Intensity of Strikes
Well done and well attended
 
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 23, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, March 23, 2026
Gemini Links 23/03/2026: "Mandatory" Bad Things and Dangers of Perfection Aspirations
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 20 Out of 200: All Roads Lead to Rome and to GAFAM Funding
Now about 10% into this series
Mass Layoffs at HashiCorp, IBM Hid Them
The media did not mention those layoffs
Microsoft Downgraded on Concerns (Lack of Growth) Amid Silent Layoffs in 2026
The press isn't functioning anymore
Links 23/03/2026: Gulf Water at Risk, Heatwave in Malaysia
Links for the day
Slop Means False, New Article by Cybershow
"We are living in a world that is rapidly divesting from reality."
Debianism election 2026 community poll created, everybody can vote
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 23/03/2026: "Shocking Peter Thiel Antichrist Lectures", Robert Mueller Remembered
Links for the day
The Scandal Bigger Than IBM/Red Hat Layoffs is the de Facto "Media Blackout" About Those Layoffs
So we have a media crisis, aside from the economic crises
Gemini Links 23/03/2026: Geminispace/Elpher Enhancement and the Cerberus Cinco
Links for the day
Fear is Not a Legitimate Factor
Smart people know that trying to prevent moral people from doing the "Right Thing" will backfire
Fuel Autonomy and What It Teaches Us About Software Autonomy (or Software Freedom)
Need we wait until a "software Pearl Harbor" or protect ourselves proactively by weaning ourselves off of GAFAMware?
Scheduled Maintenance This Coming Wednesday
Other than that, all is the same and we carry on as usual
Most Press Articles About IBM Are LLM Slop, Sometimes With Slop Images
IBM basically laid off almost 1,000 people last week [...] At the moment about 75% of the 'articles' we see about IBM (in recent days) are some kind of slop
Links 23/03/2026: Security Breaches, Energy Shortages, Another SRA Scandal, and Patents on Nature
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 22, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, March 22, 2026
Streisand Effect and Justice
This weekend this site has served over 8 million Web requests
Gemini Links 22/03/2026: "Woman of Tomorrow" and "First Steps in Geminispace"
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 19 Out of 200: They Were Ill-prepared for Tough Questions in Cross-Examination
Very ill-prepared for the deteriorating situation caused by their clients' past behaviour towards many people, including high-profile figures who offered to testify
The Media Sold Out to Slop Bros
If you wish for the hype to stop, then stop participating in it
EPO Strike a Week From Now, After That Strikes Can Become Permanent
A week from tomorrow there will be another strike
The Only Non-IBM Staff in Fedora Council/Leadership Attacks Booting Freedom (Just Like the Master Wants)
Last week IBM laid off almost 1,000 people in Confluent and the media didn't write anything about it, so don't expect anyone in what's left of the media to comment on Fedora's demise and silent layoffs at Red Hat
Just Like a Founder of XBox Said, Microsoft XBox is Collapsing, Management Continue to Jump Ship
Nowadays Microsoft tries to promote this idea that Windows is XBox and XBox is Windows
Links 22/03/2026: Slop Triggers Emergency at Meta, Energy Prices Rise Sharply
Links for the day
Links 22/03/2026: Microsoft 'Open' 'AI' in Legal Trouble (Plagiarism, Distortion, Misrepresentation); Facebook/Meta Kills Off "Horizon Worlds"
Links for the day
Racism Dressed Up as "Choice"
Racism is rampant at IBM
Probably an All-Time Record
Our investment in our own SSG is paying off
Your Site Should Implement Its Own Search (Before It's Too Late)
GAFAM was never trustworthy
Gemini Links 22/03/2026: LLM Slop Attacks USENET, Announcing Pig (New Game in Gemini Protocol)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 21, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, March 21, 2026