THE scope of patents at the European Patent Office (EPO) is so broad that software patents are being granted in Europe and are also advertised in Europe. The Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and António Campinos have a lot in common. They disregard courts. All they care about is patent maximalism, causing condemnation from the technical world. Who do they work for? Who do they really serve? Certainly not their country and not even science/technology.

"Who do they work for? Who do they really serve? Certainly not their country and not even science/technology.""The EPO is introducing an improved and more efficient refund claim service," the EPO wrote yesterday. I responded by saying/asking: "Will EPO refund application and renewal fees when, inevitably, courts compel EPO to cease granting fake and bunk software patents (while rendering all existing ones de facto void and null)?"

Inevitably this will happen. It's only a matter of time. In a new article titled "How the EPO and USPTO Guidance Will Help Shape the Examination of Artificial Intelligence Inventions" (published yesterday) Watchtroll's Robert Tarcu makes it abundantly clear that these are just software patent rebranded to dodge the law, break/violate the caselaw. What's noteworthy is that they hardly even deny it anymore.

Consider this new tweet which links to this new page from the most vocal boosters of software patents in Europe. They keep calling software "AI" because the EPO has promoted this dodge/loophole in order to fake numbers while breaking the law (precedents, courts, EPC, and a Parliamentary directive). "March came with seven new decisions in the EUROPEAN #SOFTWAREPATENT knowledge base: https://www.bardehle.com/europeansoftwarepatents/european-software-patents-march-2019-updates/ …. Here's an overview of the new entries relating to #artificialintelligence #AI, computer simulations, and Internet search engines."

We mentioned two of these yesterday. They keep bringing up the usual buzzwords. The EPO has also just said: "Our conference on #blockchain was a great opportunity to openly exchange views on the different types of this technology and on future opportunities and challenges."

This whole event was the EPO trying to defend its practice of granting software patents against the rules. In fact, the EPO has already admitted that it knows it is granting such patents against the rules. It said these were software patents and it invited notorious patent trolls to this event. The managers at the EPO are consciously legitimising not "misunderstood people" but thugs who literally blackmailed thousands of businesses with perhaps a million employees. The EPO is, in that regard, a highly disturbing institution. It serves the interests of foreign patent trolls rather than Europe's interests. ⬆