Bonum Certa Men Certa

Response to the EPO's Response to Techrights About Microsoft 'Cloud' (Still Failing to Justify the GDPR Violations)

Video download link



Summary: In another 'damage-limiting' or face-saving exercise, as soon as we published details about the illegal Microsoft deal (outsourcing all key data to the US) EPO management issued a baffling and severely flawed statement to staff; the video above is an informal response to it

FOR those who don't know, Microsoft has given us a gift -- a timely worldwide (global) downtime that serves as a cautionary tale to outsourcers (a.k.a. "clown computing" experts and gurus).



"The long track record of lying makes line managers and top-level managers anything but credible."Recently there has been downtime in GitHub, LinkedIn, and now Azure...

Microsoft E-mail servers are down in unprecedented numbers and GitHub became a censorship machine looking to cover up a massive blunder. Microsoft itself got cracked not too long ago (its source code got copied across after Microsoft's internal operations had been hijacked) and no amount of lying or excuses could stick for very long. In fact, all this confidential data may have already been leaked. Azure too had a major data breach only weeks ago. The list goes on and on... so we're omitting links (reports about this are all over the place and very easy to find; some are as recent as hours ago and our Daily Links contain many). To give just one example, hours ago there was "Microsoft customers locked out of Teams, Office, Xbox, Dynamics – and Azure Active Directory breakdown blamed" in British press that's in Microsoft's pocket (which one can expect to parrot Microsoft's face-saving excuses).

But this post isn't about Microsoft losing control of just about everything... everything. It's a catastrophe for them. This post is about the EPO's (management) 'love letter to Techrights'.

"Latest statement," a source told us, seem to concern us directly. "The latest statement issued on the EPO Intranet about using Microsoft cloud services is [shared] for information. This statement was published internally on Friday (12 March) - no time-stamp given. Quite possible that it is a reaction to the Techrights posting on Friday... :-)"

We've examined it closely. Clearly a response to the series and a very weak response. Very weak. Unlike (I think) trying to bribe pay my friends. The problem they have at the management of the EPO is that their staff trusts Techrights, not their managers. The long track record of lying makes line managers and top-level managers anything but credible. As somebody put it yesterday in relation to the e-EQE blunder: "For those who are seasoned observers of the EPO, it is no surprise that their management would decide to issue a self-congratulatory statement that others might find difficult..."

The words discussed in the video above are available as a raw text file or as simplified HTML below:

Home > Organisation > DG 1 > The Vice-President > Announcements > 2021

12.03.2021

Follow-up information on the use of MS cloud services in DG 1



The VP 1 news item "Outlook Migration to the Cloud" of 04.02.2021 was based on the following main rationale:

Given Microsoft's obligation under US law to grant security and intelligence agencies access to data stored in its cloud, very sensitive data of the Organisation itself and data our applicants expect us to treat with special care need to be encrypted. This includes information classified as "EPO strictly confidential" (information unauthorised disclosure of which could compromise or cause severe damage to the EPO or could cause damage to an identifiable individual or his or her reputation), and additionally the highly sensitive data of unpublished patent applications and information relating to unpublished patent applications.

Considering the feedback received after publication of VP 1's item of 04.02.2021 and the results of further investigations with major stakeholders (BIT, DPO, Patent Law, Procedural Support, HR, PD Communication), the documents which are to be treated in the same way as "EPO strictly confidential" information for the purposes of the patent grant process, and so must not be sent by email without encryption, have been limited to:

i. application documents of unpublished applications (EP, PCT, national)

ii. search reports, search opinions, communications and decisions relating to unpublished applications

iii. search statements resulting in the disclosure of unpublished application documents (Guidelines B-III, 2.4; B-IV, 2.4)

Previous section (iv) has been deleted. The documents mentioned there, e.g. documents which are marked as non-public in DI+, can be sent without encryption. This also applies to draft (oppo) decisions, legal opinions and votums.

There have been requests for a comprehensive list of documents/information used in the patent grant process and its administration which can be shared using MS cloud services without encryption. Due to the endless possibilities of exchanging data using MS cloud services, this is unfortunately not possible.

However, if you are dealing with information which you consider to be highly sensitive or strictly confidential, you may, of course, apply the rationale set out above and encrypt it. Units dealing frequently with highly sensitive data (e.g. Investigation Unit, HR or Health & Safety) have their own encryption policies and will provide you with guidance on this on request.

Call for CKT Daytips

If you have ideas about ways to efficiently share data relating to unpublished patent applications either without using MS cloud tools or by clever encryption, please forward them to the CKT Daytip team.

Points to consider

In the meantime, please also consider the following points:

- It is recommended that you apply the rationale defined above to all MS cloud services and products and to Skype for Business.

- It is recommended that you share the text of an unpublished application (possibly annotated) by copying and pasting the link to DI+ into an email.

- For consultations during the search phase (e.g. on CII or CPC classes), it is possible to share the text of an unpublished application via screen-sharing in Skype or MS Teams but you should do this only if the session is not recorded or transcripted. Any chat session/whiteboard, however, is permanently stored and should not be used for sharing unpublished material.

- No encryption is necessary for any exchanges with applicants per email (i.e. proposal of amendments) as, by then, examination of the patent application has already progressed to the stage that it has been published.

- Scans of annotated unpublished patent documents made on network printers should go on to a USB-stick and not to an email address. Further instructions on USB scanning will be provided as soon as possible. Please delete the file on the stick immediately after transferring it to your laptop/PC.


The above was published on the EPO's Intranet, so the target audience was pretty much all staff, especially DG 1. Notice how many times they mention "encryption" (even if it's all fake encryption, Microsoft gets access to everything and so does the US Government) and the lack of justification based on the law. They know they walk on water or quicksand here...

Recent Techrights' Posts

EPO Workers Point Out that the EPO is Destroying the Planet Under the Guise of "Hey Hi" (It Also Grants Many Invalid Patents Illegally
On 12 March and 16 June 2025, staff representation met with the administration in the Local Occupational Health, Safety and Ergonomics Committee (LOHSEC) in Munich
How the European Union (EU) Fell Out of Love With Free/Libre Software
Lots of bribery
Certificate Authority Let's Encrypt Has Almost Gone Down to Zero, Nearly Totally Extinct in Geminispace, the Few Capsules Still Using It Are Spam/Dead/Stagnant
This represents another decrease for Let's Encrypt; the last decrease was last week
Trying to Silence Techrights Was a Huge Mistake
Peter Thiel attacked a publisher for asserting, correctly, that he was gay. Now everyone knows it.
 
Links 08/09/2025: Burger King Cracked, Cox v. Sony Analysed
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/09/2025: Socialist Computer Museum and GAFAM/ByteDance/TikTok-Dominated Net
Links for the day
Links 08/09/2025: Tim Crook Disappoints Apple Faithfuls and Zuckerberg Lies (Financial Fraud) for Cheeto King
Links for the day
Turn Off Microsoft's Restricted Boot ("Secure Boot")
We're still running a series on this issue
Social Control Media Sites Have Become Bot Farms (Not Limited to LLMs and Automation)
linkedin.com was nothing but trouble and losses for Microsoft
Deep in Debt With the Magnitude of Losses Quickly Growing, Microsoft "Open" "Hey Hi" Now Uses Broadcom for Vapourware, Pretending It'll Do OK Next Year
At some stage it'll collapse
You Can Tell Microsoft is in Trouble When Its Own Fans and Staff Blast it
"Microsoft sinks billions into chasing artificial intelligence fads to hype up its share price."
Multiple Undersea Cable Cuts and We're Still OK
Microsoft customers experience problems
Lawyers Who Think They Are Online Assassins Don't Deserve a Licence to Operate
they've become a laughing stock in their "sector"
Microsoft Windows Fell to 3.9% "Market Share" in Bahamas
Based on statCounter
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, September 07, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, September 07, 2025
Gemini Links 07/09/2025: Scanner, Slop, and Chadobear
Links for the day
The UEFI 9/11 is 3 Days Away
Nobody denies that bad things will happen
Google Versus Journalism
Google played a big role in the demise of news sites
Gemini Links 07/09/2025: Advertising, Decentralized Archival, and Outsourcing to Bezos
Links for the day
Not Much Left in News Cycles
To be very clear, this does not describe "Linux" anything; it's true in just about every facet of news, except the paid-for fake "journalism" about "hey hi" (sites getting paid explicitly to maintain or rekindle hype)
Throwing Away "Old" Computers (Mozilla and Other Climate Deniers)
Mozilla is not leftist
The UEFI 9/11 - Part VIII - Denial of Service and Selling Us WSL (Windows) Instead of "Risky" (Prone by Breakage by Microsoft) GNU/Linux
Restricted Boot (so-called 'SecureBoot') does not improve security. It is nothing but trouble. It's meant to trouble non-Windows users. In dual-boot setups, SecureBoot is a recipe for disaster because Microsoft keeps erasing or tampering with the boot sector, to paraphrase an associate
Slop is Extremely Rare in Geminispace, Slop Images Are Unheard Of (Despite Images Being Supported)
As long as Geminispace grows in terms of domains it's safe to predict the protocol will still be used in 2029 and hence Geminispace will turn 10
Links 07/09/2025: Robodebt Class Action, Fines, and Copyright Settlement
Links for the day
Links 07/09/2025: Yle Impersonated in Social Control Media, Boat-Attacking Orcas, Midjourney Sued Again
Links for the day
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, Linux Journal, and the Serial Slopper
Google won't tackle the issue because Google participates not only in relaying slop but also in generating lots of it
Links 07/09/2025: Google Fines in EU and "Your Internet Access Is at Risk"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/09/2025: Little Brother and Corporate Theatre
Links for the day
Links 07/09/2025: More Harms of Slop and Anthropic's Nightmare Scenario (Huge Legal Liabilities for Slop)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, September 06, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, September 06, 2025
Microsoft Sites Now Talking About September's Mass Layoffs at Microsoft
It's noteworthy that even Microsoft's MSN now covers the latest revelations about mass layoffs
Gemini Links 06/09/2025: SpellBinding Moving and "The Cloud" Ridiculed
Links for the day
Slopwatch: On "the Apology Industry", Chatbots (Punchbag for Customers), and Fake Articles About "Linux"
"news reporting priorities changed"
Links 06/09/2025: "Covid Incidence on the Rise" and Many Attacks on the Press Worldwide
Links for the day
The Register Bill
The Register MS - putting the "MS" in your centre of the universe
Analogies for "Memory Safety" in Rust
Don't worry, it's Rust! It can do anything!
Nobody Denies That SecureBoot Will Cause Problems After September 11
Not even Microsoft
Gemini Links 06/09/2025: Infinite Scrolling and Posting from Emacs
Links for the day
Links 06/09/2025: GitHub Meltdown Over Slop, "U.S. Jury Says Google Should Pay $425 Million in Privacy Lawsuit"
Links for the day
Despite Its Severe Financial Problems Gnome Foundation Inc Paid Rosanna Yuen Over 100,000 Dollars Last Year
maybe relocation should be considered
The "Left" and the Right"
It poisons everything
Mozilla and Rust Are Not Leftists
they're part of the mass consumerism machine
Disposable to Microsoft
There is an extensive set of people who got used by Microsoft, only to be thrown away a month later or a year later or a decade later
The UEFI 9/11 - Part VII - This Coming Week Many PCs Will Refuse to Boot "Linux" (Because of Microsoft's Expired Certificate)
The real solution is, disable "secure boot" or "SecureBoot" while it's still possible. [...] Just like submarine patents, a lot of this problem was "hibernating" for a while
The Thing Nobody in Red Hat Wants to Talk About Openly
There is a real sentiment or worry among Red Hatters, Europeans and Americans in particulars (because of higher salary expectations)
Slopwatch: Small Parade of Fake News About "Linux" and Scams Borrowing the Name (or Word) "Linux"
In practice, LLMs are a risk
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, September 05, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, September 05, 2025