Bonum Certa Men Certa

CIPA and EPO, Two UPC Boosters, Get Together to Promote Software Patents in Spite of the EPC

Shredding the rule of law

A paper trail



Summary: The private sector of patent litigation paints itself as the victim (never mind the many victims of their often-frivolous lawsuits) while lobbying for irrational patents that serve nobody in science and technology; this is troublesome for a plethora of important factors and reasons

THE MANAGEMENT of the EPO has long attempted to paint itself as the victim (of "defamation" or a "smear campaign" or whatever). These are patently absurd inversions of narratives because it's the EPO that defames employees (sometimes calling them "Nazis") and smearing the staff union, SUEPO. It's all about perception and EPO managers spent an extraordinary amount of money (EPO budget of course!) on PR agencies, whose job was to lie to the public.



It wasn't too long ago that Josh from Patent Progress refuted some nonsensical chart much like the EPO's supposed 'results', where companies get ranked only by their patents (enumerated, aggregated).

"It's all about perception and EPO managers spent an extraordinary amount of money (EPO budget of course!) on PR agencies, whose job was to lie to the public.""The number of patents received by a company has little to do with its creativity," Josh said, "and yet we get this kind of nonsense all the time."

How many patent lawyers/attorneys seriously believe that patents and inventions are the same thing? This is not just pure nonsense but it is paid-for propaganda; there's an agenda here and it's often delivered/amplified by corporate media...

The "Cult of Patents" people (as we often refer to the likes who promote such charts) are writing entire articles about a Samsung patent as if a patent is a product [1, 2]. It's not. And from war on (particular) drugs we've apparently moved to patenting them, based on this new press release. Incredible. Truly incredible. It's all because of money; it's all about commercial interests, not safety or ethics or health...

"How many patent lawyers/attorneys seriously believe that patents and inventions are the same thing?"Are these drugs any good for treating depression? Well, hopefully...

According to CIPA, the real victims aren't those who get sued by patent holders, usually baselessly. The real victims are those who are responsible for these lawsuits. That's a lot like those articles about "bored" and "depressed" drone operators, who basically slaughter a lot of people using a joystick halfway across the world. Many articles have been composed for over half a decade about the "stress" and "fatigue" of these operators. We recently started seeing similar articles about NSA analysts, as if those who illegally and unconstitutionally infringe the privacy of millions are actually the victims worthy of public sympathy. Isn't that grotesque?

According to CIPA and the likes of it (see Ben Wodecki on Twitter), we need to be sorry for patent attorneys. Remember that CIPA is their front group in the UK. It's a highly nefarious front group that liaised with Battistelli some months ago. It's also the foremost lobbyist for UPC in the UK.

"According to CIPA, the real victims aren't those who get sued by patent holders, usually baselessly. The real victims are those who are responsible for these lawsuits."Are attorneys unhappy at their job? Then they need to change occupations. As patent maximalism may be coming to an end (at least in the US) the market will become more competitive and over-congested. It will be harder to attract 'business'; we already see some mergers and acquisitions that are symptoms of it.

"You just need to read 2 or 3 patent claims," Benjamin Henrion wrote, "and your brain start to hurt. No wonder if you have to write those claims the whole day [go] #mental..."

We remind readers that CIPA representatives basically 'infiltrated' IP Kat, whereupon EPO coverage virtually ground to a half. They're UPC boosters who seem to have no qualm about doing photo ops with Battistelli and software patents in Europe is an agenda they totally and wholeheartedly support. CIPA can be blamed for erostion of patent quality at the EPO. EPO staff should be upset at CIPA; they're not on the same side, they're almost opposites.

Mind what the EPO wrote in Twitter some hours ago: "We're holding a free-of-charge #ICT seminar in London on 28 Sep in co-operation with @TheCIPA. For more details, and to sign up, click here: http://bit.ly/ICTseminar18 pic.twitter.com/5ksdupirtC"

"EPO staff should be upset at CIPA; they're not on the same side, they're almost opposites."ICT is one of those buzzwords (or terms) they use for software patents. CIPA and EPO are again liaising in order to 'conspire' for software patents. Well, see the description in the cited page (warning: epo.org link): "The event will focus on patentability issues and the major aspects of filing and prosecuting ICT-related patent applications at the EPO. Three break-out workshops will be offered related to the drafting of European applications in the respective areas of Business Methods, examination of cloud computing at the EPO: claims for the Cloud as well as Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and Graphic User Interface (GUI). An EPO expert and a European patent attorney will chair each workshop which will cover information both on the legal framework and on the claim drafting aspects."

This is CIPA's agenda. Suffice to say, terms like "cloud" are just masks for software patents.

Then they come out with nonsense like this sob story, trying to garner some sympathy:

An IP Inclusive and Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) survey showed that 33 percent of patent professionals are uncomfortable, unhappy or very unhappy, with disturbing numbers confessing to thoughts of self-harm or suicide.

The ‘Report of IP Inclusive & CIPA survey for Mental Health Awareness Week 2018’ found that almost 70 percent of respondents admitted to having their mental health affected at work by high stress levels.

The report showed that 66.9 percent of the 180 respondents admitted to having been adversely affected at work by high stress levels, with over half suffering from anxiety.


CIPA (patent maximalists) should encourage them to seek employment with industries that create things, not doing patents and litigation. The latter isn't as fulfilling.

"We caution EPO staff not to view CIPA is an ally with shared concerns. CIPA's only concern seems to be that there aren't "enough" patents; it wants a lot more!"The above has since then been mentioned by circles close to EPO too (and retweeted by anonymous EPO staff). Maybe they feel like they can relate, but actually the CIPA types are very much 'enemies' of examiners; they propped up Battistelli, they reduce patent quality, and they lie to the public about UPC. And of course, like almost every day, the EPO has just promoted software patents again, dubbing them "AI" for hype/buzz. This is the sort of thing CIPA wants the EPO to do and actively participates in.

We caution EPO staff not to view CIPA is an ally with shared concerns. CIPA's only concern seems to be that there aren't "enough" patents; it wants a lot more! It's what makes examiners' lives a lot more miserable and emboldens Team Battistelli.

Recent Techrights' Posts

IBM's Press Release About Results Mentions "AI" 10 Times, "Quantum" 4 Times
Blah blah blah AI"
Things We Could Do More Than Half a Century Ago But Can No Longer Accomplish
Newer is not always better
Linux Foundation an Enemy of the Planet, Proponent of Pollution and Global Heating
"could the "polluters pay" model be extended to the computing environment and used to take on Microsoft and Microsofters?"
 
Gemini Links 23/07/2026: SharePoint Rants and “Junk DNA” in Commented-Out Code
Links for the day
Links 23/07/2026: RIP John C. Dvorak, Organisation Weaponised Against J.K. Rowling
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 22, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, July 22, 2026
Freexian & Debian: antitrust, unfair competition against joint authors and volunteers
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
IBM in the Red After Bad Results (Shares Down in After Hours)
Will the CEO step down, retire, of what else?
Gemini Links 22/07/2026: Fault Lines, the Dark Web and Beyond, and Why Substack is Awful
Links for the day
Insult and Injury: Getting Banned, Not Just Sacked, by Microsoft
A former insider spoke about this in public 5 hours ago
Links 22/07/2026: "Dumb Phones" Not Enough to Tackle Harmful Addition, "MPEG-4 Visual's Road to Being [Software] Patent-Free"
Links for the day
Top secret: Cults inquiry submission concealed from public
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
An Hour Ahead of Alleged 'Results' (Amid Investigation Into Fraud) IBM Falls Back to New Lows
Only cents away from a 52-week low
IBM Headed for Lowest "Value" in 2 Years
In a nutshell, Krishna "can't keep it up" and IBM is now investigated for fraud
Investigation Progressing
There is nothing "funny" about receiving mortal threats for merely reporting information in a civilised country
Anupa Ann Joseph & Debian defamation gang
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
State of the Invidious Project
Never forget how hostile Google can be towards freedom
Prioritising the Safety of Women is the Best Approach to Foster Diversity in Technical Communities
Debian was never "normative", but that does not mean Debian should have such low standards
IBM Will Report 'Results' Tonight (CET), It's Already Investigated for Securities Fraud
"Five of the biggest US tech giants are carrying $1.65 trillion in debt that does not show up on their balance sheets"
Hardware Has Gotten a Lot Worse, Not Just Far More Expensive
prices go up fast
Amid Claims of Microsoft Bing Layoffs It Seems Like Bing Cannot Even Hold on to Second Place
Yandex is sometimes bigger than Bing
Wikileaks Does Not Publish New Material Anymore, But Wikileaks Still Changes the World
Wikileaks has a legacy that will soon turn 20
Links 22/07/2026: Postal IRCs, PlayStation Kills Discs, Union Action Against Microsoft, "Judge Considers Tossing Databricks Patent Suit Under California anti-SLAPP Law"
Links for the day
Same 'Journalists' Who Published Fake News for IBM (Pump and Dump) Now Write Puff Pieces About the Stock Falling
the media is so compromised
They Called It "Social" and "Media", But It Turned Out to be Slop and Child Porn
Why do any sane people still use social control media?
Age of consent: DebConf26 registered sex offender in Argentina?
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: In the Pole Position Despite a Dismal Track Record
António Campinos is an old hand when it comes to such high-level institutional intrigue
Site a Bit Slower Due to Visitors' Load
We'll try to work out better speeds
Gemini Links 22/07/2026: Emacs, Astrology Clock, Arduino, and Rogallo v1.0.0
Links for the day
After Involvement by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) LibreTech and Quibble Gain More Participants
RMS expressed gratitude for people who worked on Quibble and improved LibreJS after many years of inactivity
The Lessons From the Assange Saga
This will not end well
Apple Will Increase Surveillance of Customers, Record Verbal Communications Under the Guise of "Hey Hi"
Apple now drinks that same Kool-Aid
Dave Winer, Blogging Pioneer, Sells Out, Spews Out LLM Slop to Readers
Another one bites the dust [...] Now it's a slopfarm of sorts
Not Everything Can be Automated
not a new thing
GNU/Linux OS in ComorOS
Now, as in recent years or the last year, the GNU/Linux "signal" is growing significantly
Microsoft Redefines "Layoffs" to Give Smaller Tallies
It's not just calling them "buyouts" or saying people are merely "leaving" or "retiring"
IBM is Not Done Destroying Red Hat, Wait Till October 1st 2026 (More Layoffs and Bluewashing)
It's not bluewashing 'til it's 100% done
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 21, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 21, 2026
"LF Sex", Nothing to Do With Linux
a lot of explaining to do this week
Gemini Links 21/07/2026: Nostalgia, Shogi, and New Gemlog System
Links for the day
Guyana: GNU/Linux Rises to New High, 7%
Guyana is part of the trend
Oman: GNU/Linux Up to 7%
It was 5% last year
The Solution is Never 'Free Hosting' in Proprietary GitHub (Microsoft), the Solution is Self-Hosting
Third parties never care about your projects as much as you (yourself) care about them
Only a Matter of Time Before IBM Drops to $199 or a Lot Lower Than That
How long can IBM overload empty shells?
From GAFAM's Perspective, Jeremy Bicha Did Nothing Wrong
All is OK as long as he does not criticise monopolists and billionaires
Bluesky Was Such an Utter Failure That After 18 Months Mozilla Goes Hug a Nazi Platform That Produces Child Porn
What compels Mozilla to come back there? The child pornography scandal? The adorable leader?
GNU/Linux at Grenada Measured at 14% This Month
GNU/Linux was stuck at 0% for a long time
In WordPress, Newer is Not Better (Maybe Better Off With No WordPress at All)
To Hell with bloat and feature churn
As Slop Bubble Implodes (Inevitable), the Dishonest, Corrupt, Compromised Media Tries to Blame "China" Again (Like it Did With "DeepSeek" in Past Years)
Here we go again. We've been there before. Same spin, this time not "DeepSeek" though.
Lots of Microsoft Just Loses Money, Not Earning Money
Due to profitability challenges it's hard to believe Microsoft will ever find a buyer for XBox
Red Hat (IBM) Has Long 'Reassigned' (Bluewashed) Red Hat Staff to Ruin Fedora, Now It Does the Same to GNOME
What next from IBM's Krishna?
Links 21/07/2026: Google Stagnating, Slop 'Apps' Are "Flooding Apple’s App Store"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/07/2026: OPNSense Upgrade Problems, Zilog Z80 at 50, and Lessons From Terminator
Links for the day
IBM Lawsuits Over Alleged Fraud Are Piling Up
We'll keep an eye on the lawsuits
Arianna Taite on Odds of Australian (Daniel Pocock) Winning Clacton By-Election
His detractors somehow try to twist or frame him (Pocock) as an impediment to women while the exact opposite is true
This Coming Weekend Marks 4 Years Since We Dumped Content Management Systems (CMSs) in Favour of Static Site Generators (SSGs)
the first page dated July 25
Slop's Latest Casualty: The Credibility of Linus Torvalds
If you care about millionaires and billionaires, follow Torvalds (he is already in that "club")
Techrights Will Become More Productive (More Output) Over Time
Big stories about to land
Touch Grass
Happiness involves what humans have evolved to appreciate, not what humans create to sedate the mind (like skinnerboxes)
The Cyber Show on Technology Having Become a Tool of Mass Psychosis, Not Enablement or Emancipation
Technology as mass psychosis
The Rumour Said That a Second Wave of Microsoft Layoffs Would Come This Week (Ahead of Fake 'Results'), Maybe Tomorrow
Let's wait and see how "MSM" unfold
To Wikipedia, "Notability" is Just an Excuse to Hail People Who Serve Billionaires While Marginalising or Defaming the Rest
Wikipedia is an advertising space
Our Series About Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and SLAPPs Will Resume Soon
Originally, in 2025, we gave ourselves 6 years (until 2031) to cover these issues, but we've seen since extended that to 10 years (until 2036) because of the amount of material we have
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: The EPO Transparency Gap
Despite the "European" tag in the organisation's name, the European Union has no jurisdiction over the European Patent Organisation
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 20, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, July 20, 2026
Links 20/07/2026: Lashes for Songs in Iran, Kurdish Language at Risk
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/07/2026: The Boss Baby (2017) and 2026 Old Computer Challenge Epilogue
Links for the day