What was supposed to be "Best of Europe" (scientists) has become a reckless printing house governed by a kind of "Mafia"

Summary: The EPO is serving the private businesses of former officials and its special partner Microsoft, to which many EPO services are nowadays being illegally outsourced (pandemic as an excuse for breaking the law with no hesitations or qualms)

ANY workers of the European Patent Office (EPO) who are still not angry at their management have clearly not been paying attention. The media certainly looks the other way (some journalists tell me that COVID-19 is their latest excuse for the 'blind eye' treatment) whilst EPO management robs the staff, robs Europe, plunders its own treasury for gambling purposes and then lies to everyone while violating just about every law in the book. It is truly astounding. We never knew Europe would tolerate such a thing! We still write a lot about the EPO because there are many scandals to keep abreast of. And almost nobody else covers these anymore. Blogs like IP Kat nowadays actively participate in the cover-up by publishing EPO puff pieces, promoting EPO lies, linking to EPO press releases and deleting comments that highlight EPO abuses. We don't even mention all the examples here anymore (too many of them). The 'Kat' logo is the same, but many things have changed. How astonishing a turnaround.

The EPO's own communications staff keeps working from 'templates' (varying or shuffling mostly the stock photography which accompanies tweets). It is posting short-sighted and poorly-planned tweets like this new one that says: "In this webinar we will present the emergence of #blockchain-related technologies in terms of #patenting activity."

"We still write a lot about the EPO because there are many scandals to keep abreast of. And almost nobody else covers these anymore."When "blockchain" is mentioned by EPO managers it is often about illegal software patents illegally being granted in Europe, by the EPO's very own admission (35 U.S.C. ۤ 101 is being bypassed using this same hype wave too). EPO staff is presented with a painful dilemma: break the law or lose your job. Examination guidelines presented by the USPTO a year ago and by the EPO half a year ago seek to compel examiners to allow software patents, even if courts (and the EPC) forbid these. Hours ago the EPO tweeted: "Inventions in #digitalcommunication - whether mobile networks or the internet - make it possible for us to stay connected, work efficiently and live safer and healthier lives. In 2019 the EPO saw a sharp rise in patent applications in this field (+20%)."

The supposed 'growth' comes from software patents and for those who missed it, EPO management (Philpott et al) nowadays disguises illegal patents on algorithms using "digi" something (including "digitalisation"). The people who decide on those things aren't even technical in that particular field. Philpott came from the Army, as did other EPO managers. It's more like a Mafia than a scientific (in nature) institution and many EPO insiders are well aware of it and speak about it among themselves/one another. We're familiar with much of the "Office gossip..."

"It's more like a Mafia than a scientific (in nature) institution and many EPO insiders are well aware of it and speak about it among themselves/one another."In any event, the EPO nowadays likes to associate with Trump's 'wunderkind' (child prodigy) who seeks to re-allow illegal patents to fake 'growth', just like at the EPO. Joined in their attack on patent quality, by deliberately ignoring courts and granting fake patents, the USPTO and EPO have just issued this joint statement [1, 2] (warning: the second one is an epo.org link, which means they can quite likely track clicks and who's clicking).

The EPO's and the USPTO's patent spinners have just posted an old photo of of António Campinos and Andrei Iancu (no masks or gloves); two patent maximalists who serve litigation firms at scientists' expense...

The EPO wrote: "Together with the @USPTO we stand united in supporting innovators and all those involved in pioneering research, who are essential for the recovery of our economies and societies in such challenging times."

Actually, the EPO awarded/glorified the very people whose frauds and whose patents are now being used against COVID-19 research. Pay attention to what happened about a month ago with patents of Theranos, after they had been passed to trolls. The EPO gave Theranos a superstar treatment, helping to increase the valuation of a massive fraud.

"Actually, the EPO awarded/glorified the very people whose frauds and whose patents are now being used against COVID-19 research."Then, retweeted by EPO folks was this USPTO tweet that said: “To support innovation during this crisis, the USPTO and the EPO stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the innovation community.” Read the joint message from the #USPTO and @EPOorg..."

They mean litigation 'community' (it's not a community), not "innovation community.”

These shallow lies fool nobody. Nobody serious anyway...

Hours ago the EPO again pretended to value SMEs. It's that same old sponsored 'study', mentioned repeatedly for a number of years to invert narratives/perceptions; The EPO harms SMEs and innovators. It serves monopolists and law firms that represent those. That's very easy to see based on the leaked documents; they almost spell it out loud!

Hours ago the EPO tweeted: "You can read the criteria by which proposals for our Academic Research Programme will be rated here..."

"Rated based on how good the so-called 'research' would be to the toxic agenda of an EPO coup by litigation fanatics," I responded to them. "This corrupts academia," I added.

"It's rewarding frauds that attack French COVID-19 researchers in the French-hosted festivals (exploited by the EPO's managers to falsely associate with real scientists); it also bribes media, it bribes scholars..."The EPO basically became a propaganda machine that intimidates journalists, threatens bloggers, bribes publishers (media) and even bribes academia. It was supposed to be a granting authority dealing with patents, but look what it has become. It's rewarding frauds that attack French COVID-19 researchers in the French-hosted festivals (exploited by the EPO's managers to falsely associate with real scientists); it also bribes media, it bribes scholars..

We have not written much on this subject, but the EPO is helping coronavirus in its long fight against Europe; those patents of Theranos, which we mentioned above, nowadays attack COVID-19 researchers in courts, even virtual ones. They cannot focus on their job because of it.

And those aren't even the biggest scandals. The bigger scandals right now are being hidden using a crisis. The scandals aren't being reported on, except by us (to the extent sources can help us).

"For updates on the measures we are taking at the Office in the current COVID-19 crisis," the EPO wrote earlier. They say nothing about the outsourcing to Microsoft -- an issue we'll come to in a moment. They just allude to remote services and all. "The EPO Academy provides free-of-charge distance learning courses taught by experts in intellectual property," says one new tweet, linking to a dubious page. The very top of this list is promotion of illegal software patents (which are being granted in Europe because of buzzwords).

More about the whole remote work 'thing' was published this week, but few people will notice it. That's inside a PDF.

"It seems very much apparent that the EPO is shamelessly pushing Microsoft's OOXML (proprietary format with vendor lock-in, security issues and so on) instead of vendor-neutral open standards.""The Official Journal 4/2020 is now available online," the EPO tweeted today. It does so once in a few months, but this latest one (warning: epo.org link) has a few gems in it. First of all, a shallow dive into the Web page alone (not the PDF).

It seems very much apparent that the EPO is shamelessly pushing Microsoft's OOXML (proprietary format with vendor lock-in, security issues and so on) instead of vendor-neutral open standards. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has done the same thing, looking to penalise those who are not paying Microsoft any money. Yes, it's like USPTO works for Microsoft [1, 2], forcing people to become Microsoft customers, passing around documents only other Microsoft customers can view 'properly' (even Microsoft refuses to follow or adhere to its own specifications!). To quote:

Definition of "DOCX" under Article 4 of the decision of the Vice-President Legal and International Affairs of the European Patent Office (Directorate-General 5) dated 21 April 2020 concerning the conditions for participating in the pilot project for Online Filing 2.0

DOCX means OOXML. Those who aren't becoming customers of Microsoft will 'miss out'...

It comes amid another scandal, one that involved an illegal (violation of EPC) outsourcing to Microsoft Skype. It's even there in the journal, again sans the foreign monopolist's name:

Decision of the President of the European Patent Office dated 1 April 2020 concerning oral proceedings by videoconference before examining divisions

Notice from the European Patent Office dated 1 April 2020 concerning oral proceedings and interviews to be held by videoconference

Decision of the President of the European Patent Office dated 14 April 2020 concerning the pilot project for oral proceedings by videoconference before opposition divisions

Notice from the European Patent Office dated 14 April 2020 concerning the pilot project for oral proceedings by videoconference before opposition divisions

And if that's not bad enough, we're seeing more CIEPI ads again, just like years ago [1, 2].

António Campinos is sending business to Benoît Battistelli, just like he's promoting Željko Topić's private business despite lack of qualifications. It's corrupt, but here they go again:

CEIPI seminars for the EQE pre-examination 2021 CEIPI – European qualifying examination 2021 ("main examination") CEIPI/epi - Basic training in European patent law

We could go on and on elaborating on why it's unethical as well as illegal, but the EPO's management recognises neither ethics nor law. The only law is, the management does whatever it wants. Behaviour such as this is typically expected from the Kremlin or the Communist Party of China; EPOnia is no better. ⬆