Bonum Certa Men Certa

Greenwashing and Peace-washing Patents We Can Never Coexist With (and the Law Forbids Anyway)

EPO, 10 July 1977; EPO in 2020



Summary: The increasingly-embarrassing (to Europe) EPO is far too busy openwashing its data, greenwashing its patents and whitewashing its abuses; in the meantime it continues granting far too many ruinous and often illegal patents, causing Europe a lot more harm than the general media cares to recognise (because the EPO also bribes/threatens it)

WE HAVE already published about half a dozen articles about greenwashing tactics of the European Patent Office (EPO), both in the Benoît Battistelli years and the António Campinos years. As far as we're aware and are able to see, the US patent system hardly does anything like it. We haven't seen the British (another English-speaking country) doing it. Same for Australia, Canada, South Africa and so on. It's almost a uniquely EPO thing...



"Heck, how many EPO managers came from the military? How many of them have killed people (but won't speak about it)?"A lot more can be said about the EPO's exploitation of disasters (earthquakes, terror attacks) as if they have anything whatsoever to do with patents. But let's face it, today's EPO is run by dishonest politicians and their mates, who are blindly loyal (and indebted) to them, as opposed to truly qualified managers with scientific background. Heck, how many EPO managers came from the military? How many of them have killed people (but won't speak about it)?

Don't laugh, this is serious stuff! These people sent yours truly threats!

Today's EPO is very happy to support patent trolls (extortion artists) and even bring the world's most notorious ones to EPO panels. Just like that!

A European Parliament question, as Benjamin Henrion has just noted, brought up issues "about Patent trolls here [and to quote] "they buy up patents with the aim of litigating against innovative companies, including SMEs, in order to obtain high settlement fees. This upward trend was particularly marked in ICT" (buzzword).

"ICT means software patents," Henrion added. He's correct. The thugs whom the EPO hired from the British Army call software patents "ICT"; they don't even have much (or any) experience in that discipline. They only know how to discipline (read: bully) people and threaten critics. They name-drop buzzwords like "ICT" in their shallow talks -- speeches that focus on "posh accent" over actual substance.

This is today's EPO. It has become a total embarrassment to Europe and its status in the world. It's also a threat to each and every software developer in Europe, Henrion and myself included.

Just before the weekend Henrion took note of this newly-uploaded (days ago) English presentation from LibrePlanet 2020 [PDF]. It mentions EPO guidelines and is summarised as follows: [via]

For many years, the existence of software patents, and the threat that certain entities would use them against free software, was an issue of significant concern to the free software community. Since then, there have been many court decisions that have altered the landscape of what may be patented, procedures allowing challenges to patents outside of the court system, industry initiatives to create "patent peace" around parts of the free software world, and changes in the behaviors of certain patent holders once thought to present the greatest threat to free software. This presentation will give an overview, designed for a non-legal audience, of the latest developments, and suggest where the future of patents and free software may be headed.


This whole "patent peace" part is IBM- and Microsoft-backed PR; there cannot be software patent peace and all they mean to say is that they'll carry on pursuing -- something also suing with -- abstract patents. And somehow we're supposed to tolerate all that and quit pushing for abolition of such patents. This is what LOT and OIN are all about (and for).

The "European Patent Office, Guidelines for Examination," as noted here, are very problematic. These guidelines are clearly illicit (November 2019 revisions made those yet worse) and they compel examiners to violate the EPC, leveraging buzzwords such as "HEY HI!" (AI) to undermine the law and let through fake patents such on patents on algorithms.

"Given enough free software, prior art is shallow," says the talk, but Henrion correctly notes that "developers cannot enjoy freedom of programming" if/when these patents prevail (even outside the court system).

As we noted several times this month, the EPO keeps marketing software patents with newer buzzwords and deliberate misnomers, designed to hide the fact they violate the EPC and therefore break the law. The EPO has just tweeted: "In 2019, #digitalcommunication became the new leading field for #patent applications at the EPO, while computer technology was the 2nd fastest-growing. What development trends are behind the surge? Who are the key players?"

For those who missed our prior articles, Campinos made it rather clear that these patents are on software. He spoke about it with IAM about a month ago. They've move from "ICT" to "digital" or "digitalisation" (sometimes "videogames" or just "games").

And if all that nonsense wasn't already bad enough, watch these two greenwashing tweets the EPO posted yesterday. One said: "The world currently faces tremendous challenges, but #innovation enables us to look forward to a prosperous, healthy and safe future for our planet. https://bit.ly/2KwNQws Celebrate #WorldIPDay with us on 26 April! Stay tuned!"

The second said: "We were honoured to make a pledge for a green future on the occasion of #WorldIPDay! Have a look at what we commit to achieve in the near future: https://worldipday.wipo.int/map/public?year=2020&id=63 …"

There's even a ridiculous stock photograph to accompany this shallow greenwash.

Notice how they are exploiting a pandemic to promote monopoly... "for our planet."

"If anything," I've told them, "this #WorldIPDay mindset poses a threat to this planet and human civilisation."

One could bring up patents on ventilators, medication and the ridiculousness of the term "IP" -- a propaganda term that ascribes to patents properties they legally and practically lack. Patents are not properly, they're a time-limited monopoly.

The EPO is greenwashing monopoly with this #WorldIPDay nonsense, celebrating for the monopolists with their law firms. No wonder the EPO can no longer attract any talent (if they look for any; hiring procedures nowadays seem to be based on connections and kickbacks rather than merit).

Recent Techrights' Posts

Layoffs as Happy Stories in the Corporate Media
It's based on a longstanding pattern
In Switzerland, GNU/Linux Reaches Record Highs, But What About the Corruption?
Pocock is a disappointed citizen of Switzerland
At BetaNews, "Most Commented Story" Is Not a Story But LLM Slop! (Readers Talking to Bots)
They make fake stories with provocative headlines and then boast that these get many comments
[Meme] Swiss Lawyers/Attorneys Who Fake Qualifications and Rob People
Switzerland mostly guards its reputation by censorship of media
Just How Slow Has the News Industry Become?
We're drowning in garbage from fake publishers
 
For "X" to Die the Media and Politicians Will Need to Quit (Then, Advertisers Will Lose Interest, Even for Political Ads)
Fewer people are still there anyway
Debian GNU/Linux and Free Software Developer Daniel Pocock in Irish Elections This Month (Dublin Bay South)
Polling day in 15 days
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, November 13, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, November 13, 2024
Bob Should Tell Alice About What GitHub (Which Linux Foundation Outsources Code to) Does to Entire Nations, Following Donald Trump's Policies
"What's next, preventing access to Linux from non-NATO countries? Putting NSA backdoors in the kernel?"
It Took The Guardian More Than 2 Years of Musk to Realise What Twitter Was and It Took Twitter 4 Years of a President Trump to Realise What Trump Was
Trump was deplatformed only a fortnight before Biden became president anyway
[Meme] Google 80%, Windows 2%
"I'm going to f---ing bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to f---ing kill Google."
Microsoft's Market Share Falls to 2% in Haiti
Throw in Android (now 80% of "the market") and Windows is down to 2%
Gemini Links 13/11/2024: Magic of Walking and Lest We Forget
Links for the day
Links 13/11/2024: USPTO Director Kathi Vidal ('Former' Microsoft Rep) Resigning, Censorship After Car Ramming Attack in China
Links for the day
Microsoft: Layoffs, Outsourcing, and R.T.O. as Cover for Mass Layoffs Without Severance Pay
Microsoft had mass layoffs pretty much every month this year
[Meme] The Addicted Lolicon Throwing Stones
"They've found my RMS attack site"
Jonathan Carter & Debian betrayed Joel Espy Klecker
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 13/11/2024: Red Tape War and Programming Experiences
Links for the day
Links 13/11/2024: "Make Your Laptop Last FOREVER" With GNU/Linux, 23andMe Mass Layoffs, Intel 'Resignations' Layoffs Loophole
Links for the day
More Than 3 Years After Vista 11's Release More Chinese Computer Users Still Use Vista 7 (Than "11")
it was "officially" released October 5, 2021
Things That Still Work OK (But We're Being Shamed for Using)
Using old stuff is nothing to be shamed of (or afraid to do)
Free Software is About Collaboration
WordPress limits it
Even the Managing Editor of BetaNews is Doing Slop and Spam
A Fish Rots From The Head Down
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, November 12, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, November 12, 2024
PERA Bill in US Senate Strives to Crush Caselaw, Making Patents on Mathematics and Algorithms 'Great Again'
Follow the money
BetaNews is Beta-Testing the Site as LLM Slop With Microsoft Propaganda Thrown In
Many of the people there are Microsoft boosters and they use slop as "filler" (for marketing)
Evolution of euthanasia & WIPO UDRP similarities exposed by W. Scott Blackmer
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 13/11/2024: Phasing Out 3G, Brian Kernighan Books, Tcl/Tk, Time to Ditch x86
Links for the day
Links 12/11/2024: A Lot of Censorship and SWNS at 50
Links for the day
BetaNews, Inc. Became a Spam Operation/Web Site, LLM Spew (Slop) for SEO Disguised as "Articles"
Published 5 minutes ago by Brian Fagioli...
Gemini Links 12/11/2024: Invidious Down and YouTube Addiction
Links for the day
Links 12/11/2024: Hey Hi (AI) Failures and COP29 Fakers
Links for the day
Latest Rumours of Red Hat Layoffs
Rumours or gossip is how almost everything starts
WordPress is for the 'Old Web'; the New Web Necessitates Static Pages
There are purely practical reasons to move away from WordPress and the likes of it
Biggest Debt Leap in Years, More Than Half a Trillion Dollars in Just One Month
We remind people (almost every year) that it's also "buynothingday"
Windows Falling to All-Time Lows and Microsoft Has Nothing to Replace It With
It's mostly Android (Linux) replacing Windows
Cybershow Has a New 81-Minute Episode on Digital Sovereignty and International Cyber-Relations
it is a high-quality show
Activism in the Digital Realm Can Never (and Must Never) Rely on GAFAM
This simply means that tech activists must completely abandon any hopes of finding allies in Google or IBM or whatever...
Golden Dawn(ald) and What GAFAM Means to Liberal Techies
In one single screenshot
IBM CEO Says Donald Trump as President-Elect is Good for IBM in New Interview With CNBC
most unprincipled CEO ever?
GNU/Linux Up to 6.1% in Finland (Almost 9% If One Counts ChromeOS Too)
Home of Linux (the kernel)
BetaNews Has Become a SPAM/Slop Factory, Brian Fagioli Publishes Fake 'Articles'
everything is now suspect in BetaNews
It's Morbid to Talk About Living People as If They're Dead
What happens to LLM slop when Brian Fagioli dies?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, November 11, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, November 11, 2024
Free Software and Love of Nature
It's not a coincidence that many Free software activists are also lovers of nature
Silicon Valley and GAFAM Were Never Liberal
spineless CEOs and founders aren't against Trump
Windows and 'The Desktop' Floundering
Microsoft should be extremely worried
WordPress is Bad for the Planet (Even If Many Still Use It)
the costs nobody wishes to talk about