The PR operations go unabated and stretch as far as Africa (and almost/partly a former colony of Portugal)

Summary: Independence of the press is nearly dead; moreover, the EPO's longstanding habit of bribing and manipulating the media is no longer limited or confined because the sole goal is silencing their critics (by censorship, 'googlebombing', legal threats, and retaliatory tactics)

SO THEN... it's Independence Day.

Independence cannot be overrated. But only if it's real, not merely perceived (or some words in paper, maybe a press release from a lying department). Independence is a simple concept; without it, there's a form of coercion or imperialism -- two terms Ethiopians no doubt can grok (because of their history). Then there's the EPO itself.

"Are the judges at the temporary location in Haar independent? Hell no!"Are the judges at the temporary location in Haar independent? Hell no! Some stuff may be "new", but nothing about independence, which for over a year (under the 'new' management) the EPO failed to restore. Nevertheless, Kilburn & Strode LLP (large law firm that's very close to the EPO) chose to write about "Boards of appeal new rules" (article just published by Gwilym Roberts and Jamie Atkins). It's behind a paywall.

Let us keep you up to date.

But only if you pay for access. And even then it's unlikely they'll say anything about the loss of independence. Law firms almost never talk about it because when the boards are afraid of the Office they're more likely to support patent maximalism. Obviously...

SUEPO has just belatedly cited "Lawyers urge EPO for quality as new plan branded propaganda" (some time yesterday in the afternoon). This article was mentioned in Techrights some days ago; we argued that judges, examiners, stakeholders (applicants, lawyers) and the public all accept that patent quality is declining. This, in turn, becomes a growing threat to Europe, but who's going to stop it? The EPO is accountable to nobody. The Office is controlling the Council and the appeal boards -- a complete reversal of what was intended by EPC authors. Moments ago the EPO wrote: "Our Boards of Appeal and key decisions conference is now fully booked..."

Some would argue that these decisions are null/void/invalid due to lack of independence. Caselaw 'fixed' by means of tacit intimidation?

"...judges, examiners, stakeholders (applicants, lawyers) and the public all accept that patent quality is declining. This, in turn, becomes a growing threat to Europe, but who's going to stop it? The EPO is accountable to nobody."Last night "The Convention watchdog" wrote this comment: "The provision of Art. 53a EPC is in no way special for the European patent System. It corresponds to Art. 4 quater of the Paris Convention and it is identical to Art. 27 (2) of the TRIPs Agreement. It is intended to cover situations in which inventions made in one country may be exploited only for export purposes." (More context in the page/thread)

The EPC does not matter to the EPO; there's a state of lawlessness which we last wrote about less than a day ago (EPC 'hacked'). Based on this new press release, there are more genetic patents being granted at the European Patent Office (EPO), Can we already ask questions like, "when is breathing going to be patented"?

"The EPC does not matter to the EPO; there's a state of lawlessness..."The media, which we still try to contact sometimes, still refuses to cover any of these issues. Its silence is a form of complicity. What does the media say about the EPO? It usually just copies what the EPO tells it to publish. It's appalling. It's not journalism and even weeks later we still see puff pieces about the media 'festival' of the EPO, naming António Campinos as though he's a science expert (Battistelli was a judge there, awarding a Frenchman for European software patents).

Again we say, where on Earth are investigative journalists as opposed to PR puppets and think tanks? If they don't actually analyse or fact-check anything, then they're merely English writers who can rephrase press releases that are sent their way. They're pawns of PR agencies if not PR agents themselves. It does more harm than good because they characterise themselves as "news". That's misleading.

"If they don't actually analyse or fact-check anything, then they're merely English writers who can rephrase press releases that are sent their way."Addis Standard, which covered 'Teffgate' some months ago, has instead just become this megaphone of the EPO. Was it paid by the EPO's PR firms? Is the EPO's budget playing the media of Ethiopia (what's left of it and in English) in order to bury a major patent scandal? Over the years we've shown several cases wherein the EPO passed money/gifts to large publishers. They don't call it a bribe because they disguise the exchange of favours. It's about this Ethiopian photo ops (published earlier this week) and it was further amplified by IPPro Magazine's Rebecca Delaney, who wrote about/perpetuated EPO PR, not refuting any of it (the article's titled is "EPO expands Australia PPH programme," but much of it is about the other press release of the EPO). This is very much similar to what JUVE did earlier this week, with an article that's about 80% just copy-pasting or parroting statements from Campinos and the EPO's press office/press release. What happened to JUVE? And here's some of the text from Delaney:

The European Patent Office (EPO) will extend its Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot programme with IP Australia to increase the speed and efficiency...

[...]

António Campinos, president of the EPO, commented: “I am very pleased to launch this wide-reaching cooperation programme with Ethiopia, one of Africa’s most dynamic economies.”

A borderline Portuguese colony with one patent in 10 years (at the EPO at least)! Calling it a "dynamic economies" is one of these jargons of management, like calling the EPO "agile" and poor nations "developing". Campinos is just flattering them after 'Teffgate' -- a scandal that caused the government of a very poor nation to spend a lot of money in court (to squash a fake European Patent on behalf of Ethiopian farmers).

What "EPO" is known to Ethiopians as would be the drug that's sometimes abused by long-distance runners, especially there. That's what "EPO" really means to most Ethiopians. Now when they look up things related to 'Teffgate' they'll find wonderful 'journalism' such as this:

He [Campinos] added: “The purpose of ensuring efficient and high-quality patent examination is ultimately to foster innovation and economic development, and support bilateral trade and investment between Ethiopia and Europe.”

So European journalism about the EPO has become more or less just a Campinos 'copypasta'. Wonderful. ⬆