THE dignity of staff and the quality of European Patents is going down the drain. Down the drain it goes...
On Tuesday the EPO again promoted illegal practices, in effect outsourcing legal proceedings to the United States -- back doors notwithstanding (it's all under surveillance by parties that ought have no access). The EPO wrote (warning: epo.org link) that it "is announcing today further measures to improve access to justice in relation to opposition hearings held by videoconference (VICO), in light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic which imposes restrictions on travel and health risks for all in-person meetings. Today's report shows the considerable progress made so far in terms of the necessary legal framework, technical infrastructure and training support since the pilot project to conduct opposition hearings by VICO started in May 2020. In recent weeks the addition of Zoom as a technical platform has facilitated multi-party opposition hearings and interpretation. These advances have been broadly welcomed by the patent profession."
"Both SUEPO and the Central Staff Committee have repeatedly warned that the EPO compels examiners to allow loads of illegal/bogus/fake patents."Nuclear weapons advances have been broadly welcomed by the military profession.
"These advances have been broadly welcomed by the patent profession."
That's missing the point that EPO staff rejects it (cameras inside people's private spaces) and it is also not legal. Speaking of legality and illegality, the sole function of the Office isn't being done properly anymore. A lobby site of patents on life/nature vested interests (Life Sciences Intellectual Property Review) wrote about the EPO throwing out fake patents -- a topic which hitherto we've only mentioned in Daily Links (there have been quite a few mentions in blogs and comments, not full articles). "The European Patent Office (EPO) has released the long-awaited reasoning for its decision to uphold the revocation of a Broad Institute CRISPR/Cas9 patent," this one said (behind paywall).
Both SUEPO and the Central Staff Committee have repeatedly warned that the EPO compels examiners to allow loads of illegal/bogus/fake patents. They've been saying this for years, but the management of the EPO keeps muzzling them and commissioning 'studies' to claim the opposite. Heck, even stakeholders have publicly complained about this, rightly worrying that confidence in European Patents was eroding, thereby reducing interest in their 'services' (for short-term gains). We've already seen what happened in the United States after systematic lowering of the patent bar. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) inter partes reviews (IPRs) routinely squash US patents, to then be reaffirmed (decisions defended) by the Federal Circuit, citing decisions like Alice (SCOTUS) and 35 U.S.C. €§ 101/€§ 102/€§ 103. Under the regime of Donald Trump the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) carried on granting lots of these bogus patents and it remains to be seen how quickly Biden fires Iancu (Trump loyalist from land of Viktor Orbán) and who he will be replaced by. At the EPO they aren't getting rid of fascistic dictators; they just swapped one (Benoît Battistelli) with his friend, who openly promotes illegal patents like software patents. ⬆