Bonum Certa Men Certa

EPO is Trying to 'Force-Feed' Europe Some Fake Patents by Hijacking Courts



EPO parking lot
Source: Yesterday's tweet



Summary: Having granted a lot of dubious European Patents (to maintain constant growth despite a decreasing number of applications) the EPO seeks to subvert the court system; so far only the constitutions and the laws are being subverted -- to the point where these ambitions are collapsing in Europe's highest courts

THE U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is nowadays seeing a lot of its patents rejected by American courts at all levels, citing a bunch of sections that greatly limit the scope of patents.



The European Patent Office (EPO) is currently at the phase the USPTO was in a decade or so ago. It's just trying to grant more and more patents each year. António Campinos has similar demands to those of Battistelli (endless growth), so it necessarily means reduction in patent quality to the point of illegally granting patents (noncompliance with EPC). This is why we see patents on life, on plants, on seeds and even classic software patents, nowadays disguised as "IoT" or "4IR" or "AI" or whatever...

"This is why we see patents on life, on plants, on seeds and even classic software patents, nowadays disguised as "IoT" or "4IR" or "AI" or whatever..."This is what happens when a patent office is captured by nontechnical people, including lawyers, politicians and PR agents. There's no integrity whatsoever and now they try to do the same to the court system under the guise of a so-called 'unified' patent court dealing with so-called 'unitary' patents. As Benjamin Henrion put it a couple of days ago: "Capitalize on the Unitary Patent, when "specialized" means "captured"...".

Captured by the litigation zealots who profit from fighting, embargoes, extortion and so on.

It doesn't take a genius to see that it would greatly damage European businesses and cripple the EU economy.

"It doesn't take a genius to see that it would greatly damage European businesses and cripple the EU economy."Notice the calm if not silence surrounding this coup attempt; it wasn't successful. It just wasn't. But only because people fight back.

Yesterday we saw this article from AA Thornton's Rachel Havard promoted by lawyers' media and notice that it does not even comment on the UPC at all because she probably knows it's dead. How could she gloss over it unless she intentionally omits it?

A few days ago we saw the article "Brexit: How Do US And Overseas Investors Take Advantage?" reposted in lawyers' media (we debunked it earlier this month). When these people speak of businesses and investors they think primarily of litigation, not science. Something like the UPC would be a boon to them and 'open up' the litigation 'market'.

"Here we are edging towards the end of 2019 and comments in Kluwer Patent Blog don't exactly predict much progress.""Regardless of whether the UK leaves or remains in the EU, European patents will be unaffected," said the above article. "The European Patent Office is independent of membership of the EU."

Again, no comment at all regarding the UPC. Shades of CIPA. They address the wrong question.

Compare this to articles like this one from almost 3 years ago ("Unitary patent expected this year, despite Brexit").

How foolish do they look now? Here we are edging towards the end of 2019 and comments in Kluwer Patent Blog don't exactly predict much progress. It's all negative (all the comments). The following two comments (almost latest ones) mention the EPC -- not just Brexit -- as a concrete barrier. To quote:

Good thoughts from Concerned Observer. One thing though: who (other than the judges of the BVerfG) cares?

In particular, you write optimistically that a decision of the BVerfG will force the EPC Contracting States to “sit up and take notice”. Really? I don’t believe that for one second. They couldn’t care less.

In these populist times, they all have better things to do, pandering cravenly to voters who have been whipped up by irresponsible rabble-rousers who give them the message that it’s quite OK to ignore anything that an expert has to say on their area of speciality.

The depth of the hole we are in is evidenced by the irresponsible behaviour (and dereliction of their duty to educate and inform) of venerable public TV channels (including the BBC) that depend for maintenance of their funding stream on decisions by politicians.


And the reply:

Max, a BVerfG ruling that the EPC is incompatible with the Basic Law of Germany would surely catch the attention of even the most complacent politicians and civil servants. However, despite the manifest and numerous ways in which the EPC departs from the minimum standards demanded by Germany’s Basic Law, it is not clear whether the BVerfG will be comfortable with reaching the only logical conclusion – namely that Germany must either withdraw from the EPC or ensure that the EPC is amended in a manner that addresses its fundamental flaws. We shall just have to wait and see.


We shall explain in our next post that lack of independence for judges remains a serious problem. It's a lingering barrier that Campinos has done nothing to tackle.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Links 22/09/2025: Breaches, Windows TCO, and Arrests
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/09/2025: Rabbit Hole and DeGoogling Fairphone
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2025: Russian War Planes Invade NATO Airspace While Dihydroxyacetone Man Escalates Attack on Free Speech Because of Critics
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, September 21, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, September 21, 2025
Links 21/09/2025: "Hey Hi" (Hype) Under Fire, Fakes Identified; Tesla Burns Family
Links for the day
Google's Software is Malware and Malware in Mobile Devices
Originally posted by Rob Musial
Links 20/09/2025: Hegemony Coming to a Close, Luigi Mangione Ruled Not Terrorist
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/09/2025: "Charlie Kirk Was a Hateful Piece of Shit" and Slop Code Attempted by Microsofter
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, September 20, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, September 20, 2025
Gemini Links 20/09/2025: Snowy Photos and utism is a Spectrum
Links for the day
Microsoft-Sponsored Xenophobia and Nationalism
IBM is very similar in this regard
Vintage is Sometimes Better
Why can't we get back to "simple" if (or where) "simple" means better?
Climate Breakdown Means We'll be Publishing More, Not Less
Press freedom will be a common, recurring theme
Our 5-Year Geminispace Anniversary is Coming Up
I still remember when Gemini Protocol was quite new
It's Right to Point Out Violence From the Right
Violence is a recurring theme
Tentative Summary of Things to Publish in Project 2030
I'll still be in my forties by then
Web Browsers That "Do Hey Hi" (AI)
State-of-the-art plagiarism or "autocomplete on steroids" (not coined by us, nevertheless a nice description) don't have much/any prospect
Links 20/09/2025: Hardware Projects in View, Some Independent Publishers About Russia Prosper After Cheeto Cuts Funding
Links for the day
Gemini Links 20/09/2025: Options and TV Time Machine
Links for the day
Links 20/09/2025: Retrocomputer, Antique Phone Experience, and More
Links for the day
Links 20/09/2025: Internet Shutdowns, Media Censorship, and Climate Worries
Links for the day
About 700 New Gemini Capsules in 13 Months (or 54 Per Month)
4.8K would represent a 20% increase
Rust People: Drain the Swap, You're Holding It Wrong
Does Rust make sense?
Techrights the Name Turns 15
About 6 weeks from now we turn 19
Microsoft is Running Out of Time and Floating Fake Figures, Fake Projects, Fake Narratives, Fake Excuses
Also, a lot of Microsoft's "revenue" claims are circular financing (i.e. Microsoft buying from itself, which means Ponzi-like fraud)
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, linuxconfig.org, and Plagiarised Phoronix
Many articles out there are nowadays fake
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, September 19, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, September 19, 2025
Gemini Links 20/09/2025: Navigating the Pressures of Modern Life and SpellBinding Accidentally Wrote Another Gemini Server
Links for the day