Bonum Certa Men Certa

Yesterday in EPOPIC Andrei Iancu and António Campinos Shared a Salad of Ridiculous Buzzwords

Abstract patents being justified in the most laughable ways by clueless individuals technically unfit for the job (which they got owing to nepotism/connections)

Do we promote software patents? 'Course not! We call it 'IP and the next Industrial Revolution'



Summary: EPOPIC, this year's 'patent circus' of Romania, featured two actors who pretended to know what they're talking about, instead delivering a mime show with more buzzwords than substance

THE tradition of buzzwords and other nonsense is not new. It has gone on at the European Patent Office (EPO) for at least a decade. We used to joke about "as such" before Battistelli became President and nowadays we mock António Campinos for all sorts of ridiculous mumbo-jumbo (remember he's not a technical person!). Our favourite nowadays is "hey hi" (AI) and blockchains -- typically masks for software patents being granted in Europe although they're legally invalid* -- all in the name of pseudo-'novelty' (novelty in buzzwords and hype waves for the most part; great marketing!). We wrote about that as recently as the past weekend (so-called 'machine learning' as something not being reducible to maths/stats?).



"Experienced patent examiners certainly know that those aren't properties and they're not rights; neither technically nor legally."Anyway, when dealing with the EPO in the management sense -- especially nowadays -- remember you deal with people who got the job because of people they knew rather than what they knew. This is embarrassing for Europe and embarrassing for the whole discipline. As recently as yesterday the patent trolls' front groups (LES/LESI) were boosted by some account and then retweeted by EPO. Here's what they said: "The High-Growth Technology Business Conference revolves around the importance of engaging Intellectual Property in your business. on the 5th November we are conducting IP and business track workshops..."

"Intellectual Property..."

"IP..."

All that nonsense. Experienced patent examiners certainly know that those aren't properties and they're not rights; neither technically nor legally. But these are the propagandists the EPO nowadays associates with, framing patents as "IP". Honesty is no more. It's like copyright giants calling people who share "pirates" (equating the act of sharing with murder).

"It's like copyright giants calling people who share "pirates" (equating the act of sharing with murder)."Yesterday the EPO boosted U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Director Andrei Iancu with his 'novel' buzzwords for invalid software patents. In his own words, as per EPO: "Andrei Iancu, Director @USPTO: “AI, Self-driving vehicles, biotech, personalised medicine, 5G communications. There will be technologies we cannot even imagine yet. Our IP system must be robust and flexible enough to accommodate and enable these technologies.”

So what have we got here?

"IP..."

"AI..."

All that usual nonsense.

Then came "the next Industrial Revolution", as per this tweet: "Next on the #EPOPIC stage: Andrei Iancu, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property & Director of the @USPTO will talk about #IntellectualProperty and the next Industrial Revolution..."

"They share the same nonsensical buzzwords, as we've been pointing out for a number of months."Say what?

"Intellectual Property?"

"Industrial Revolution?"

Then came Campinos with "IP and the next Industrial Revolution". In the EPO's own words: "EPO President António Campinos: “I’m delighted that today Andrei Iancu is here, as Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property & Director of the @USPTO, to talk about the subject of ‘IP and the next Industrial Revolution’.”"

Notice the pattern. They share the same nonsensical buzzwords, as we've been pointing out for a number of months. Can anyone keep a straight face in this freak show? The EPO also used the hashtags #4IR #3Dprinting and #blockchain in here. To quote: "The EPO develops Patent Insight Reports in order to show the value of #patent information, but also to analyse future & emerging technologies #EPOPIC #4IR #3Dprinting #blockchain"

"Got to have "smart" there too. We're losing count of all these ridiculous acronyms/fluff (there's also "IoT", "cloud", "app" and "ICT")."They also spoke of: "enable technologies like #blockchain, #smarthome technologies..."

Got to have "smart" there too. We're losing count of all these ridiculous acronyms/fluff (there's also "IoT", "cloud", "app" and "ICT").

What ever happened to "CII"? Oh, look, as recently as yesterday Watchtroll's editor Eileen McDermott used the lie that is "CII". In her summary she spoke of "Federal Circuit holding that computer-implemented inventions that do not improve the basic functions of the computer..." (no link because we never link to Watchtroll anymore)

"Campinos has the audacity to speak of transparency? Because wrongly-granted patents can be opposed for a fee (for a limited timespan and no assurance of positive outcome)?"That "CII" nonsense has spread to the US, as did the "AI" hype. Campinos on "hey hi" in yesterday's tweets: "AI is impacting on the whole IP system, and even forcing us to question foundational concepts, such as the notion of ‘inventorship’, says the EPO President."

So if a computer can process an application or generate one, then you cannot do your work anymore? That capability has been around for like half a century! Why does this 'panic' become so 'trendy' all of a sudden? Oh my god! Computer algorithms... can do stuff!

"Anyone can oppose a European patent within a period of nine months," the EPO wrote, "from the mention of its grant. This kind of transparency can only help achieve converging views on quality & make our #patent system stronger, says EPO President António Campinos."

Campinos has the audacity to speak of transparency? Because wrongly-granted patents can be opposed for a fee (for a limited timespan and no assurance of positive outcome)?

This has nothing to do with transparency; just like "quality" at the EPO no longer means quality, instead it means speed (pendency).

Going back to Iancu, in the EPO's own words: "Andrei Iancu Director @USPTO: “ Our IP system creates a pro-competitive cycle. IP creates perceptual innovation at accelerating rates.”

"This has nothing to do with transparency; just like "quality" at the EPO no longer means quality, instead it means speed (pendency)."So says a man from the patent litigation industry, who got his job after he had worked for Donald Trump (nepotism likely). There's also this: "Society does not know progress without a robust patent system, says Andrei Iancu Director..."

So no progress before patents existed? Incredible statement! ______ * There's this new example of software patents being rejected in Europe and another new one in the US: (35 U.S.C. €§ 101 in Simio v Flexsim; more new examples are, as usual, in our Daily Links)

This summer, the District of Utah dismissed Simio’s lawsuit against Flexsim Software, finding that the asserted patent was not patent eligible under Section 101. Simio responded by asking the court to vacate its judgment or, alternatively, allow Simio leave to file an amended complaint based on the Federal Circuit’s Cellspin v. Fitbit decision. Simio argued that new factual allegations in its proposed amended complaint ought to prevent the court from dismissing the case. The court disagreed with Simio.

The court first noted that while it could allow Simio to amend its complaint, an amendment could not “transform the deficient patent claim from one drawn to an ineligible software system to one directed toward an eligible machine.”

The court then addressed Simio’s argument that, pursuant to the Federal Circuit’s recent Cellspin decision, factual allegations in the amended complaint preclude dismissal at the pleading stage. The court again disagreed. “The Federal Circuit made clear that its decision should not be interpreted to mean that any allegation about inventiveness, wholly divorced from the claims or the specification, defeats a motion to dismiss automatically ... Simio’s allegations of inventiveness are simply not plausible.”


Recent Techrights' Posts

Our Three Lawsuits Against Microsofters Are About to Become a Lot More Relevant to GNU/Linux
The Master will easily understand why Garrett has been attacking me since 2012
Slop Is Not Intelligence and It Does Not Enhance Productivity
Like voice dictation, which cannot tell the difference between "sheet" and "shit"
 
Links 23/07/2025: Slop Patents Tackled, Slop Copyright Misuses Tackled by Politicians
Links for the day
Links 23/07/2025: Retreating From Transparency on Jeffrey Epstein, We No Longer Have Press Freedom
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/07/2025: Piano and Food
Links for the day
New and Old
On Ageism in Tech
EPO Crimes Are Spreading to the British Court System
Society is now paying the price for failing to tackle crimes at the EPO
It's Time to Dump SharePoint and Here's What to Use Instead
Nextcloud, ownCloud, Bookstack, MediaWiki, and MediaGoblin
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 22, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 22, 2025
Brett Wilson LLP Has Gone Silent
Sometimes silence says more than nothing at all
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, Planet Ubuntu, and LinuxTechLab
some slopfarms show no remorse and they don't value their reputation at all
Links 23/07/2025: Book Bans, Storms, and Kangaroo Court for Patents Commits More Unlawful Acts of Overreach
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/07/2025: Thinkpad and Pinephone
Links for the day
Links 22/07/2025: "Blog Restart" and Microsoft Clobbered by “ToolShell"
Links for the day
Global Warming and Global GAFAM Energy-Wasting
Burn more money (borrowed, loans), then hope the waste will somehow translate into profit?
No Compliance With the European Patent Convention (EPC) at the European Patent Office (EPO)
It's about preventing competition against this autocracy
Blue-Collar Trolls vs White-Collar Trolls
Examples of white-collar trolls
Apple Vision Pro Failed So Badly That Its Sales Are About 2,000 Times Smaller Than iPhone Sales
What's left for Apple to offer other than hype?
To Millions of People "Year of the Linux Desktop" Was Some Time in the 1990s (Bootable GNU/Linux as a Complete Operating System is Over 33 in Age)
In some sense, "year of the Linux desktop" was 33 years ago
Make No Assumptions (or Demands) About the Screen Resolution Used by Other People
There are usability aspects, aside from accessibility aspects
Why Wayland (and XWayland) Won't Solve the Key Problem It Proclaims to be Tackling (the Same Is True for Rust)
The problem isn't Wayland per se but the false promises and efforts to force everybody to move to it whilst insulting or demonising everyone who won't play along
They Don't Tell Us that 'Digitalisation' (Now Sold as "Hey Hi") Just Means Customers Become Unpaid Staff and Are Made Accountable
People are being conditioned to associate technology with something undesirable, at times even unbearable
Diplomatic Immunity Should Not Exist for Anybody
The EPO in its current form gradually 'normalises' the end of European democracy
Brett Wilson LLP Stopped Sending Me Papers When I Showed It had Sent Me Over 5 Kilograms of Legal Papers
A week ago we lodged our third lawsuit
Microsoft Mass Layoffs and Shutdowns Became the New Normal at Microsoft
Microsoft mass layoffs became a topic of everyday media coverage since May
Amazon Web Services (AWS) Has Layoffs and Microsoft Gaming/Entertainment Division Has an Uncertain Future
it's good to see all those horrible things crashing and burning
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 21, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 21, 2025
FSF "Raised Almost $139,000 During This Summer Campaign"
"Thank you for making a stand against dystopia!"
Gemini Links 22/07/2025: VPS Exploited and Fear of View
Links for the day
LLM Bots vs Techrights
Slows things down a bit
New Publication Sheds Lights on Abuse of Workers at the European Patent Office (EPO)
Put in simple terms, they're killing the Office, harming remaining staff, try to hire rubber-stampers
Links 21/07/2025: Hardware, Health, and Imperialism
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/07/2025: "When Buying Isn't Owning" and "CMS Special Edition"
Links for the day
Links 21/07/2025: Indie Web and Toxic Politics
Links for the day
[Meme] Microsoft Lawyers Throwing Stones in Glass Houses
threatened me with bankruptcy
Google "AI Overview" is Not AI and Not Overview
do not be misled; what Google does isn't smart, it's just ripping off the sites it already crawled for as long as 27 years
Making the Case to Dump Microsoft and GAFAM for National and Digital Sovereignty
"Sovereignty is difficult"
The Tactics of the Opposition (Microsoft Lunduke): Associate With K00ks, Throw in Vaccines to Muddy the Water
Who stands to gain from this?
Europe's Second-Largest Institution (EPO) and Largest Patent Monopoly Office Needs More Transparency, Not Less Transparency
In the EPO, what good are elections when one candidate literally bribes all the voters?
How Not to Report News About Microsoft
This pattern of misreporting is so widespread that it's hard to believe it's not intentional
Computer Science is Under Attack, They Want Everyone to be a Consumer
If people can no longer acquire Computer Science education and real Computer Science experience, they will not know how to control their own digital destiny or emancipate the very same universities that now control the syllabus and instead of teaching Computer Science encourage the outsourcing of systems
The Best Tools Are the Simplest Tools
There's a hidden message here about the merits of sticking with X
Ofcom Online Safety Group Speaks of Protecting Women Online, Will Brett Wilson LLP Ever Listen?
They've essentially became like the Taliban's "burka police"
Social Control Media Relies on Advertisers, So It'll Always Be Hostile Towards Free Software
Sales, sales, sales
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 20, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 20, 2025
Fragmentation of Data
Life is too short to "hoard" data
In Defence of "Spinning Rust"
Just because something is "old" (or older) doesn't mean it ought to become extinct
Using Free Software to Prepare Legal Documents
LibreOffice is openly complaining about OOXML as an obstacle
Tech and Technology Are Not the Same Anymore
"Are you into tech, Sir?"
Our Articles About SLAPPs Receive Recognition and Interest
This week we shall continue writing about the 3 lawsuits we filed