THE QUALITY of patents granted by the European Patent Office (EPO) may have slipped to the same level as the USPTO if not lower. According to one major law firm, it's now easier to get software patents in Europe than in the US. Thanks, António Campinos and Battistelli!
"So it took this many years and many other patents remain to be dealt with; notice how much public effort/energy is required to squash just one single patent."The foremost patent families we oppose are software patents and patents on life/nature; there's no evidence that these contribute to innovation and there's ample evidence that these discourage development and cause deaths, respectively. So why are such European Patents being awarded (and sometimes rewarded for)? As we noted a few days ago, citing coverage from various sources except the EPO itself (the EPO's management prefers to dodge any admission of errors), patents on life/nature are being eliminated only after massive backlash and parliamentary intervention. It shouldn't be the case; the threshold of opposition should never be this high. Life Sciences Intellectual Property Review, a propaganda site for patents on life, belatedly (towards the end of the week) ended up saying something about rejection of Monsanto patents (only after many protests). "EPO revokes Bayer broccoli patent," said the headline, alluding to patents originally granted to Monsanto (before the takeover). To quote:
The European Patent Office (EPO) has revoked a Bayer-owned patent which covers a type of broccoli adapted to make their harvesting easier.
In late October, the office revoked European patent number 1,597,965. Originally granted in 2013 to agrochemical company Monsanto (which has since been acquired by Bayer), the patent covers broccoli plants that have an “exerted head”, making them easier to harvest.
The revocation follows an opposition filed in 2014 by a coalition of organisations.