Bonum Certa Men Certa

Corporate Media Will Never Cover the EPO's Violations of the Law With Respect to Patent Scope

EPO management is giving out patents it knows to be bunk, invalid

Special water
They would patent 'special' water and air too (if it wouldn't have caused backlash)



Summary: The greed-driven gold rush for patents has resulted in a large pool of European Patents that have no legitimacy and are nowadays associated with low legal certainty; the media isn't interested in covering such a monumental disaster that poses a threat to the whole of Europe

THE domain of patents rarely receives media coverage; it's certainly uncommon in Europe. There are some ads (for law firms) disguised as 'news', but lawyers and attorneys aren't journalists and their 'coverage' or 'columns' are just shameless self-promotion and lobbying. It's all about money.



"They continue to spam Scottish media, marketing European Patents under the guise of Brexit 'news'."Here's a new example from yesterday. HeraldScotland published this fake 'article' from "Graham Murnane [who] is a qualified UK and European Patent Attorney based in Murgitroyd’s Glasgow office."

So a Scottish patent law firm is at it again. They continue to spam Scottish media, marketing European Patents under the guise of Brexit 'news'. Remember last week's example from Marks & Clerk, which used another Scottish paper to insult Scotland and urge people to pursue patents at Marks & Clerk? It was far from the first time. They had done it before in Scottish media -- a fact that we documented in articles such as:

  1. Marks & Clerk is Still Pushing Patent Maximalism Agenda in Europe and Britain, Including UPC/UPCA/Unitary Patent (UP)
  2. Marks & Clerk Blames Battistelli's Victims, the Boards of Appeal, Whose Job Guarded Patent Quality
  3. Software Patents Are a Dying Breed, So Marks & Clerk and Other Legal Monoliths Promote the EPO's Buzzwords (Loopholes)
  4. UPC Puff Piece in the Scottish Media is Just an Advertisement by Marks & Clerk


The latest puff piece says this:

In these times of change in relation to many things European, one thing that won’t change is how businesses protect their innovations.

A lot of people are surprised when I tell them that the UK is, and will continue to be, part of the European Patent Office (EPO).

The EPO is not an EU institution, so whatever happens to our relationship with the EU, the UK will continue to be an EPO member state.


Well, duh. How is that even news? But how valid would the patents be in the UK? They aim for quantity now, not quality.

Yesterday the EPO wrote: "The Maltese and Moroccan #patent registers are now available via deep links from the European Patent Register."

As if there's much of value (in the patents sense) to be found there. The EPO just wants to add all countries to its group/syndication, much like NATO, rendering nobody safe from litigation with fake European Patents (or attacks from Russia in NATO's case).

"They aim for quantity now, not quality."When we speak of fake European Patents we mean European Patents that would not survive a court's scrutiny and must therefore not be granted in the first place. Even SUEPO (Staff Union of the European Patent Office) recently complained about these.

The EPO is again boasting about software patents and applications ("Europe has witnessed a marked upturn in blockchain patent filing since 2015, with more than two thirds of applications being filed at the EPO," the EPO wrote yesterday). European software patents called "blockchain" are not valid and that's what these are; they're just software patents, by the EPO's own admission. António Campinos promotes this nonsense in his "blog", so he too is personally culpable. Will all these patents fall in an avalanche some time soon? Maybe.

"Will all these patents fall in an avalanche some time soon? Maybe."A firm that mentioned it before (as we noted at the time regarding judges' lack of impartiality) had posted about it in its own site, perhaps realising just how realistic the prospect is (that software patents would all be invalidated). Haven't we learned from what happened a few weeks ago in the UK Supreme Court?

Mondaq has this fresh copy of an article by Gordon Harris and Paul Inman (Gowling WLG) on fake European Patents i.e. patents EPO granted only to be found invalid by British courts. In their own words:

On the other hand, Lord Hodge considered it well established that although not bound to do so, the courts in the UK "should normally follow the settled jurisprudence for the EPO (especially decisions of its Enlarged Board of Appeal) on the interpretation of the European Patent Convention in the interests of uniformity, especially when the question is one of principle".


Today's European Patents are very dubious and even EPO staff complains about these. SUEPO estimates that tens of thousands of fake European Patents are being granted every year (non-compliant w.r.t. EPC).

Recent Techrights' Posts

You Should Probably Self-Host Your E-mail and Never Use a Web Browser for Mail
Does anyone still believe Gmail is "free"?
StatCounter Shows the Market Share of Vista 11 is Decreasing in Ukraine This Year
Microsoft abandoning Vista 10 users would be a victory for Vladimir Putin
The "Gold" Rule: Taking Money for Reputation Laundering and Openwashing Under the "Linux" Banner
Seller of expensive toilet paper, Jim Zemlin
LLM Slop Says Slop is "coming for white-collar jobs. Microsoft’s layoffs are just the start"
Look what the Web has become
Reporting Facts About Violence Against Women Deserves Awards, Not Frivolous Lawsuits and Threats
What is Microsoft's stance on women's safety?
Linux.com as Spamfarm of the Linux Foundation, Partner of the Gates Foundation
They no longer publish articles
Slopwatch: The Typical Slopfarms and the 'Brian Fagioli Dilemma'
To the Web and to society (exposed to the Web) LLMs are a net negative
 
Trump Authority (CA) With a Trump NSA is All About Security, But Whose?
A "turnkey tyranny", as the NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake loved to call it
Confirming IBM Shutdowns and Layoffs Today
It's not over yet
Gemini Links 16/04/2025: The 2010s Are Calling and Why "Tools Will Not Liberate Us"
Links for the day
Links 16/04/2025: Cliff Lynch RIP, More Attacks on Science (NASA)
Links for the day
Google Promotes Fake Articles (LLM Slop) Instead of Originals, Relaying Microsoft's Linux FUD Emanating From Microsoft LLMs
Shame on Google for participating in the slopfest
In Some Countries the Largest OEMs Already Dump Microsoft Windows
Windows at 18.9%, Android 60.2%
Microsoft Down From 100% to 10% in Myanmar/Burma
only about 4% of Web requests in Myanmar/Burma come from Vista 11, soon to be the only "supported" version of Windows
When Fedora Said It Was Looking to Integrate "AI" It Meant Promoting Microsoft's Proprietary Spyware and GPL-Violating Slop
When they say "AI" they mean Microsoft
It Used to be IBM, Now It's Microsoft (Why You Need to Fire Microsofters or CIOs Working for Microsoft)
Typically the only effective solution is to identity and remove Microsofters from one's project/organisation (before they can bring more Microsofters in)
IBM Closes Offices and Labs in the United States to Open New Ones in India
It's not layoffs per se; they're substituting/swapping veteran employees for lesser-paid ones
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, April 15, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, April 15, 2025
Gemini Links 16/04/2025: IndieWeb Carnival, Tinylog RFC, "Focus, the Web and Gemini"
Links for the day
Links 15/04/2025: Touchable Volumetric Display and Resistance to American Spying Firms
Links for the day
Links 15/04/2025: Some People Cannot Read and Re-discovering of 'Web 1.0'
Links for the day
Links 15/04/2025: China Admits Targetting Critical Infrastructure Using CALEA Back Doors, NASCAR Cracked by Windows Usage
Links for the day
Why We Support Carole Cadwalladr (Even If We Don't Agree With Everything She Said)
I first became aware of Cadwalladr's work a long time ago
Microsoft's Serial Strangler Chose to Attack Techrights With SLAPP When Over 400 Victims of Mohamed Al Fayed Complained About Media's Role in Enabling Him
There is a strong element of "free press" here
A Coalition or a Coup of Sexism
In the Free software community it's hard to avoid this issue
statCounter Sees GNU/Linux at New High of 6% in Bosnia and Herzegovina
GNU/Linux is measured at all-time high
To Celebrate Git Turning 20 Linus Torvalds is 'Selling Out' to Microsoft and Proprietary Software Which Attacks Git (E.E.E.)
He makes it seem like he's endorsing his attackers
Gemini Protocol Milestone (3,000 Active Capsules)
and a total of nearly 4,500
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, April 14, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, April 14, 2025
Gemini Links 14/04/2025: Silver Pigs and more Foundation, Disliking Computers
Links for the day
Hundreds of Microsoft Layoffs (Net Headcount Decrease) in the United Kingdom
headcount decreased
Links 14/04/2025: Russian Attack on Sumy Shows No Intention of Peace, Virgin Australia Admits Overcharging People
Links for the day
The Dilemma of Web Browsers Lying About What They Are (in Order to Bypass Discriminatory Gateways Like Clownflare) Worsens Due to LLM Slop
LLM crawlers/scrapers have made sites more restrictive and hostile towards browsers that are potent but not "famous"
What Really Matters to Companies is Net Income or Profit (Bankruptcy is Possible Even With High Revenue)
We ought to stop talking about revenue without focusing on actual profit
Carole Cadwalladr Talks About How Big Business Tried to Silence Her (and Why You Might be Next)
Our story is very different from Cadwalladr's for many reasons
Companies Conspiring to Keep Salaries Down and Undermine Competition
People who do all the practical work are being paid less and made to work for much longer
Links 14/04/2025: Disinformation, Public Disdain for LLMs, and "Lessons on Tyranny"
Links for the day
LLM Slop and SEO SPAM Take Us Further Away From Facts (the Case of IBM Layoffs)
Some of these can impact Red Hat as well
Gemini Links 14/04/2025: Ween and Historic Ada Project Management
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, April 13, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, April 13, 2025
Influencers: Red Hat, Inc's IPO, 1999, post-mortem on the directed share offer to open source developer community
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock