Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Concept of Confidentiality May be Self-Defeating in the Context of Patents

If confidentiality or secrecy is the very thing patents were conceived to tackle/discourage...

Patents encourage publication but please keep it all a secret



Summary: If transparency through publication is the supposed motivation of patents, then why is the concept of confidentiality so strictly enforced (even when the EPO itself actively violates the confidentiality of applicants and other stakeholders)?

WHEN someone produces a physical invention it is possible to disassemble it and possibly reverse-engineer it thereafter. It doesn't matter if there is or isn't a patent, so in a sense that invention is disclosed as soon as it hits the market/s. The specifications underlying this invention just aren't formally disclosed. In the case of drugs (or chemicals) the production process may not be obvious to the recipient of a drug. However, the ingredients can be determined and sometimes the structural composition as well. In both cases we can see that patents as means of publicising an invention (unlike secrecy or even trade secrets) may be moot; and sure, sometimes patents allude to things that do not exist in the market (yet, if ever) and having some formal description may be valuable for reproduction (in the future or at present by peers/competitors). When it comes to software patents, it all boils down to code. If it is Free software, anyone can study and also copy that code. No point to patents on those...



The American courts, having already grappled with 35 U.S.C. €§ 101, more or less concluded that patents pertaining to nature and code aren't valid. Alice and Mayo may have put millions of US patents in their graves (or already-expired patents even deeper in the ground). For over 5 years SCOTUS has refused to revisit or reconsider the matter; as for the Federal Circuit (one level below SCOTUS), it rarely deviates from this well-cemented norm...

There are many misconceptions abound regarding patents and it's up to us, non-lawyers, to address and correct those falsehoods.

"The concept of confidentiality in this case is akin to "trade secrets" -- a sort of thoughtcrime, with laws enforceable by employers who seek to make the mere 'possession' of some knowledge a 'crime' (somewhat like NDAs)."Recently, the appeal boards in Munich (oh, sorry! Haar, but let's pretend it's part of Munich) dealt with the aspect of secrecy surrounding patent-pending research. This week UDL published an article about it. Sorry to disappoint you, UDL (promotional piece in Lexology, akin to a paid press release), but the European Patent Office (EPO) does not protect confidentiality and barely grasps that very concept. Under the watch of António Campinos it has happened repeatedly after being 'normalised' in the Battistelli era.

Here are some portions from the article:

The confidentiality of patient data is an essential consideration in any clinical trial — but stakeholders must also consider the confidentiality of the invention being trialled. If just one member of the public can access information about the invention before a European patent application is filed — whether this is through writing, oral disclosure or use — the invention may lack novelty.

This is so important due to the sheer number of stakeholders involved in a clinical trial, which can include sponsors, Contract Research Organisations (CROs), investigators and site personnel, healthcare personnel, regulatory agencies and participants.

[...]

While the Boards of Appeal of the EPO found in T598/12 that a trial participant isn’t a member of the public in the strict sense, a particularly contentious area of law is whether unused and unreturned trial drugs form a public disclosure.

A general principle of the European Patent Convention, following the Enlarged Board of Appeal’s Decision in G1/92, is that the chemical composition of a product is state of the art when the product as such is available to the public and can be analysed and reproduced by the skilled person, irrespective of whether or not particular reasons can be identified for analysing the product.

[...]

The Opposition Division followed T7/07 in agreeing that information given to patients cannot be regarded as prima facie confidential. Indeed, it might be considered unethical to bind trial patients by general explicit or implicit confidentiality obligations, as they should be able to discuss medication with their spouses and doctors. However, it was found that trial participants were under a legal obligation to use the tablets according to a stipulated schedule and return any non-administered drugs. In contrast to T7/07, loss of control over the return of the dispensed drugs hadn’t been established, as patients were legally prevented from disposing of the drugs and also from passing on information contained in them to third persons not bound by confidentiality. Any ‘breach’ therefore didn’t allow a conclusion to be made that the tablets were available to a member of the public.


The concept of confidentiality in this case is akin to "trade secrets" -- a sort of thoughtcrime, with laws enforceable by employers who seek to make the mere 'possession' of some knowledge a 'crime' (somewhat like NDAs). Do we really wish to steer patent law in such a direction? Isn't that rather antithetical?

Recent Techrights' Posts

Get Rid of Back Doors, Don't Obsess Over Bounties and Other Corporate PR Stunts (or Needless Reboot Rituals)
Security as a term has mostly lost its meaning due to repeated misuse for many years
Serial Sloppers Are Killing the Web (They Probably Don't Care, Either)
Slop is a disease on the Web
IBM's Debt Ballooned by 8.5 Billion Dollars in Just 3 Months!
Hallmark of a company in a state of disarray, trying to spend its way out of trouble
Big Trouble in GNOME
even GNOME people admit the CoC went wrong
New Article Explains How the GPL Came About and WordPress Having Copyleft Obligations
Having been involved in the WordPress development community since almost the beginning, I know why it chose the GPL and how it restricts abuse by Automattic
 
The Cost (to Linux) of LLM Slop
Slop 'artists' like Fagioli are far from harmless
Links 25/04/2025: Ubisoft Spyware, Hegseth Fails at Tech on Every Level
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/04/2025: Food Forest Update and Facebook Destroying the Net
Links for the day
Streaming Apps Are “Investor Fraud” That Kills the Planet
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Things Get Increasingly Nasty at Microsoft Ahead of the Fake Results and May's Mass Layoffs Wave
They try to get people to 'resign' so that they won't count as layoffs and the company's 'wellbeing' will seem better
Slopping the Trough: Disney Plus Loses Billions and the Decline of Physical Media in America
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 24, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, April 24, 2025
Links 24/04/2025: GAFAM Problems and No Peace (or Ceasefire) in Sight
Links for the day
Slopfarms on the Web Almost Always Generate Anti-Linux FUD When They Produce "Linux" Output
Welcome to the dying Web
Richard Stallman's Oxford Talk Has Just Ended, Here Are Some Photos
he might hop over to another European country
Gemini Links 24/04/2025: Birthday and Good Work of Academia in Esotericism
Links for the day
Links 24/04/2025: EU fines Apple and Facebook, Another Microsoft GitHub Security Blunder
Links for the day
IBM Gained Almost 6 Billion Dollars in "Goodwill" Value in Just 3 Months, According to IBM
Congrats to the management!
In Belarus, Yandex is Now Measured as 50 Times More 'Popular' (by Usage) Than Microsoft
Yandex continues to gain, whereas Bing cannot even register at 1%. Last month it was registered or measured at a measly 0.65%.
IBM Cannot Lie to Shareholders Anymore
"I would not be surprised if we see a layoff every quarter this year."
Dr Richard Stallman (RMS) Gives Talk in Oxford University in 4 Hours
If you live nearby, go there (it's free as in gratis)
Using a Law Firm's Licence to Exercise Politics Through Frivolous SLAPPs and Nastygrams (to Silence People, Remove Pages, Demand Fake or Forced 'Apologies')
Things must be getting really bad when lawyers act for raving antisemites
We're Working to Make Full-Site Search Available
This site has over 1,000 'wiki' pages, many thousands of documents, several thousands of videos, and about 50,000 blog posts or articles. We need to make them easier to find/navigate.
Links 24/04/2025: IBM Loses Many Contracts, Intel to Lay Off Over 20% (Not Counting Those Who Leave 'Voluntarily')
Links for the day
Richard Stallman Can Explain to Oxford Artificial Intelligence Society Why LLM Slop is Not Artificial Intelligence and Why It Hurts Society
another 'crop' of LLM slop that damages GNU/Linux and facts
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 23, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, April 23, 2025
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Promoting Microsoft and Proprietary Software Using Microsoft Operatives
Because nothing says "Open Source" like GPL violations facilitated by Microsoft
Another Site Bites the Dust: "Open Source For You" Becoming a Slopfarm (LLM Slop)
What a shame. Another dead site.
Links 23/04/2025: Crackdowns on Dissent, Palin Loses Libel Retrial Against New York Times
Links for the day
Links 23/04/2025: Hard Times and Digital Amnesia
Links for the day
The GNU/Linux Site Formerly Known as "linoxide.com" is Back... as an LLM Slopfarm!
Better for linoxide.com to go offline than to do this
Richard Stallman to Speak in Oxford University Exactly a Day From Now
outsourced to GAFAM
Links 23/04/2025: "Hiding Corruption" and "The Cost of Defunding Harvard"
Links for the day
Microsoft 'Studies' Again? Leon Musolff is Writing Papers With Microsoft.
Even if one can see/find a link to "the study" (in the Bezos-controlled publication), most people won't look any further and just take everything at face value.
Towards GNU World Domination
The FSF led by Geoffrey S. Knauth with his friend Richard Stallman in the FSF's Board [...] Let's encourage people to adopt GNU/Linux. There has never been a better time.
statCounter Helps Visualise Just How Deep in Trouble Microsoft is (Especially in Africa)
Microsoft sabotaged efforts to connect Africans and equip them with GNU/Linux laptops
The Register is Using Linux-Hostile Clickbait in Articles of Linux Proponents
Don't be a "whore" to advertisers, team El Reg
Microsoft Windows in Cyprus Lacking a Future
Most people access the Web there from mobile
Matrix Has a Severe Problem With Illegal Images
If Matrix cannot get the CP problem under control, many projects and people will dump Matrix
Never Try to Justify Strangulation of Women (Not in the US and Not in the UK)
Joint post by Mrs. Rianne Schestowitz and Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Links 23/04/2025: Tesla Profits Plunge 71%, Intel Ready to Lay Off 20% of Staff, Microsoft and IBM Layoffs
Links for the day
Microsoft's Most Profound Issue is That People Moved to 'Mobile' and "App Stores" (Microsoft's Presence There is Negligible)
Expect a wild ride for Microsoft this year
Google News is Amplifying FUD and Lies About Linux (and OpenSSH/SSH) by Promoting Slopfarms With Machine-Generated FUD and Slop Images
Google should know better
Gemini Links 23/04/2025: Librarians, Anubis, and Refactoring a Gemini Capsule
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, April 22, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, April 22, 2025