12.15.16

Vote for Exile of the Boards of Appeal Shows That the Administrative Council of the EPO is Still Compromised and Complicit

Posted in Europe, Patents at 4:09 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

What good is the Administrative Council if Battistelli can tame/control it with EPO budget?

Reference: The Yes Men

Summary: The breakdown of results of the vote on exodus of appeals staff, which will probably be exiled to Haar in a few months

“Shameful voting,” one of our readers called it, with “21/7 in favour of Haar move…”

We could use some more information in case someone has it, like what each country argued (if anything). Here are the results of the vote to send the appeal boards away, with potential ramifications for EPO staff in Berlin (if there is something to the rumours):

“Yes” votes came from BE, DK, MC, PT, AL, BG, GR, ES, HR, IS, MK, RO, SM, CY, MT, LT, FI, LU, LV, SE, RS
“No” votes came from GB, IE, LI, CH, FR, ML, NO
Abstained from voting: CZ, EE, IT, PL, SI, DE, HU

We could say a lot more about why each county was likely to vote for or against, but it would be better to wait for some transcripts, minutes, or leaks. █

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Big Crack in Team Battistelli: EPO’s Vice-President Willy Minnoye is Leaving!

Posted in Europe, Patents at 3:47 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Internally known as Meany Minnoye

Summary: Willy Minnoye, whom many inside the EPO consider to be even more evil than Battistelli, is leaving

“I

s the place getting to hot for Willy Minnoye?”

That’s what one of our sources asked. We heard something to that effect before.

“From the AC,” our source “heard that VP1 is leaving the EPO “for personal reasons” by 1^st of July 2017 (before normal end of his mandate).”

Now is a good time to put together a list of past articles about Minnoye, to remind readers why this is wonderful news for EPO staff.

• EPO VP1 Willy Minnoye and His Bizarre Claims About Systematic Crackdown on the EPO Unions (More Than Half a Dozen People Targeted is Clearly Not a Coincidence)
• Leaked: EPO’s Vice-President Willie Minnoye Saying the Unsayable, Then Threatening Anyone Who Keeps Record (Evidence) of It
• Dutch Media’s Coverage of Protest at The Hague Leaves VP1 Minnoye a New Laughing Stock of the EPO’s Staff
• Caricature of the Day: Willy Minnoye (EPO) Above the Law
• Not Just Benoît Battistelli and Willy Minnoye (EPO): Željko Topić Too Thinks He is Above the Law, Avoids the Judges and Courts

If only several more members of Team Battistelli decided to leave, it would certainly be a step in the right direction and a new glimmer of hope for the EPO. █

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Team UPC Salivating Over Unitary Patent Fantasy Even Though It is Stuck in a Limbo

Posted in Deception, Europe, Patents at 10:26 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

UPC is dead, but those who spent years promoting it just don’t want to see it (or anyone else to see it)

Summary: The lobby for UPC continues to behave as though the UPC will be a reality “real soon now!” (maintaining an illusion of momentum) even though the reality is rather grim as Britain prepares to exit the EU

THE prevalence and frequency of lies emanating/coming from the EPO (Team Battistelli) and from Team UPC is verging the unimaginable^*. For those who still think that the UPC is just around the corner, read the following recent series of articles:

• The UPC Scam Part I: EPO-Bribed Media Outlets Lie to Brits (and to Europeans) About the UPC
• The UPC Scam Part II: The Patent Echo Chamber at Work, Prematurely Congratulating Itself in Its ‘News’ Sites
• The UPC Scam Part III: The “Patent Mafia”
• The UPC Scam Part IV: Bumps Along the Road for UPC, With or Without the UK and Brexit
• The UPC Scam Part V: Unitary Patent Regime a Fantasy of Patent Trolls
• The UPC Scam Part VI: The Real Story Which People Missed Due to Puff Pieces Seeded by Battistelli-Bribed Media is That UPC Technically Cannot Come to the UK
• The UPC Scam Part VII: A Fine Mess in the Making, as Nothing Can be Made of It Amid/After Brexit
• Memo “Deliberately Leaked to Cover up the UPC” With Its Many Associated Issues Amid Brexit
• Ignore the Bristows UPC Echo Chamber, the UPC is Not Happening
• Another New Book, This Time From Dr Luke McDonagh, Chronicles the Demise of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) Agreement

Unlike Battistelli, Team UPC, etc. we have no vested interest (let alone financial interest) besides the truth. A good analogy here would be the “WoMD” claims about Iraq. Some of these people know they are lying through their teeth (unless they actually believe their own lies), but there’s so much money at stake, so they cannot help themselves.

Germany, based on this one patent law firm, wants UPC and patent litigation to be managed around Germany, but with Brexit here in the UK the UPC is essentially in a deadlock. Here is what the firm said:

Yesterday the draft by the German Federal Government for the implementation of the UPC Agreement was published. In this draft the Federal Government gives some statements on the costs and expected case number. The German Federal Government will invest the one-time sum of €1 million for starting the Central Division in Munich and expects a further €450,000.00 of yearly operational costs. Starting the four Local Divisions is expected to cost about €2 million and additional yearly operational costs of €900,000.00.

An article by Robert Smyth and Todd B. Buck of Morgan Lewis also entertains the UPC right now, in spite of the obvious issues due to Brexit. There were also many comments about it in IP Kat this week and last week, clustered around the usual Bristows UPC propaganda that is so habitually posted in IP Kat these days (the site is used by Bristow for propaganda purposes because nobody reads news from Bristows’ own site). Brexit has effectively made the UPC impossible (for the UK at least, if not all of Europe), but the fantasy lives on and Bristows staff writes:

Yesterday, the UK’s deputy permanent representative to the EU, Shan Morgan, signed the Protocol on Privileges and Immunities of the Unified Patent Court. The Protocol is necessary for the UPC and its judges to carry out their activities. The UK was the final remaining compulsory signatory to the Protocol to sign. The others – France, Germany and Luxembourg – signed the Protocol on 29 June 2016 (soon after the referendum). The UK still needs to pass national legislation to implement the Protocol before it can ratify. This will be done by way of a statutory instrument (SI). The UK’s signature of the Protocol will be recorded on the Council’s website shortly.

Just some words on a Web site (again) won’t remove the obvious legal barriers, not to mention the public backlash that would ensue. Ordinary businesses do not want the UPC; parasitic firms like Bristows do. Bristows is clearly in the propaganda business, not just the patent business. This distortion of facts does the firm no favours. █
______
^* Speaking of EPO lies, see this new EPO tweet linking to an article with sentences like “there were roughly 250 patent applications per 100,000 people” and conflating it with innovation/invention. Only a fool or a liar like the EPO’s PR department would use number of patents (expensive for people in poorer countries) as a measure/yardstick for inventiveness.

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Shame on the German Media for the Media Blackout Surrounding EPO Protests in Munich (and Sometimes Berlin)

Posted in Europe, Patents at 9:49 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Where are the real journalists these days?

Summary: Remarks on the conspicuous lack of German media coverage (or even interest) in the face of large protests on German soil, which British media now covers a lot more often than German media

THINGS of historical significance (not to mention economic significance) are happening at the EPO, but for reasons we mentioned here before (or hypothesised about) the German media is nowhere to be seen (or rarely seen). The media is ignoring some potentially big stories while giving the EPO, which is largely based in Germany, far too many puff pieces (or no pieces at all, especially since the FTI Consulting contract got extended in Germany and threatening letters got sent by the EPO to writers).

The publicity stunt that was announced just a couple of days ahead of Administrative Council's meeting was suspicious to us and already we are seeing the yield, like this piece by the firm Boult Wade Tennant. It says:

The EPO has announced that cases will be stayed if they depend entirely on the question of whether products of essentially biological processes are patentable. Relevant cases will be those in which the subject-matter of the invention is a plant or animal obtained by an essentially biological process.

This, in our view, is both a distraction from the real news (common PR tactic) and also an attempt to paint the EPO as strict on patent quality/scope — a subject which was tabled for discussion at the Administrative Council’s meeting (still ongoing today).

Where is the German media? As far as we can tell, only rare mentions have been spotted, including one short article from Juve (mentioned here minutes ago). We are not aware of any articles regarding yesterday’s protest, except this one from WIPR and Kieren McCarthy’s new article which reuses photos that we published yesterday.

To quote WIPR:

Some staff members at the European Patent Office (EPO) held another demonstration yesterday with the support of several EU-based staff unions.

According to a statement from the Staff Union of the European Patent Office (SUEPO), the demonstration took place in Munich. A source close to SUEPO claimed that hundreds of people attended.

SUEPO added that the EPO’s Administrative Council met yesterday and is meeting today, December 15.

“Topics of discussion are likely to include the controversial removal of the EPO Boards of Appeal to Haar [near Munich] and the office’s reaction to judgment number 3785,” it said.

To quote The Register:

Staff at the European Patent Office (EPO) have pleaded with the organization’s Administrative Council for a third time to take action against its rampaging president.

In an open letter sent to the 36 country representatives that make up the council, a group that calls itself the EPO-FLIER team walk through the wave of criticism directed at Benoit Battistelli in recent weeks as he continues a campaign against staff that have resisted his reform efforts.

The letter was sent on the first day of the Admin Council’s last quarterly meeting of the year in Munich – a meeting that has also been marked by large staff protests outside the EPO headquarters.

“It is time for the Members of the AC to act,” reads the letter, “Mr Battistelli is causing immeasurable damage to the Office; he is now untenable.” It asks that he “be removed, or alternatively, to be suspended until the end of his term.”

As usual, the British media covers protests in Germany (EPO) more than the German media covers it. If that’s not rotten, what is? We have contacted German publishers for a while and we never ever received a response. It’s like they have some implicit/delicate internal policy to not touch the EPO because Germany benefits from it.

“Batistelli and his criminal crew has to be stopped NOW,” a person wrote this week, but if Germans don’t even know what’s wrong and there is no media outrage in Germany, how will they fight back? They don’t know what’s going on. Here is the full comment:

Read http://www.ilostaffunion.org/?p=2185 and http://ipso.de/page.php?c=3

Broad support and crowdfunding for our dismissed colleages is what we need. When all labour organisations participate it is a strong weapon. Batistelli and his criminal crew has to be stopped NOW. A neutral and independent investigation should start within the EPO as soon as possible.

There is also this new ode about the EPO:

A t last The Muppet Show returns to tread(on)the Boards
P arty time at Christmas,the office can affords
P erhaps this year Batters can desist from lighting a fag
L et the fire brigade have a night off from this running gag
A move to Haar just needs to be waved through
U nlikely that the revellers will block his newest coup
S o what use are these people? I can only ask
E PO is dysfunctional,they are not up to the task

Speaking of Germany, the EPO is currently promoting an event in Munich, Germany (how valuable to Germany’s economy!) and in response to their invitation I wrote: “Does that mean that those joining you will also be spied on with hidden cameras and keyloggers?”

These are serious offenses if not crimes by German law, but apparently accusing the EPO of crimes gets a person nothing but legal harassment, even in Germany (the letters they sent me previously bore the name of someone else with a German-sounding name). Perhaps this is why German media is so silent. Watch what the EPO's management did to Bavarian TV for daring to point out the growing death toll of Battistelli's horrible regime. █

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Confirmed: Judge Carl Josefsson Chosen by the Administrative Council for the Secretive Patent Organisation

Posted in Europe, Patents at 9:08 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

And we welcome more information from the grapevine…

Photo credit: Bird & Bird, 2015

Summary: In spite of a thick layer of secrecy surrounding this week’s meeting of the Administrative Council, information is starting to come out in small doses

YESTERDAY we wrote about Carl Josefsson becoming President of EPO Appeal Boards, based on rumours that reached our ears. Alexander Esslinger, citing Mathieu Klos of Juve, said this morning that “Carl Josefsson [was] appointed president of EPO Appeal Boards by Administrative Council” and here is the source in German (translations would be handy).

There is still silence from the German media (a serious subject we’ll revisit separately) and an unacceptable level of indifference/apathy towards the EPO’s abuses. Not much is being said about the EPO, so we rely heavily on leaks and hearsay. SUEPO has just posted some photos from yesterday’s protest (as did we). Where was the German media? Where were German politicians? █

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Great News From the United States: The Supremes May Finally Serve a Fatal Blow to Patent Trolls

Posted in America, Law, Patents at 8:46 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Litigation scope challenged in TC Heartland v Kraft Food Brands Group (after Alice tackled patent scope).

End of the road for the notorious patent mess that only law firms consistently profited from?

Summary: The US Supreme Court’s Justices may soon put an end to the business model or the modus operandi of patent trolls

AS WE NOTED earlier this week, the US is no longer a good environment in which to be a patent parasite. Watch what happened to Apple after the Supreme Court had intervened (yes, it’s still in the news!), not just to small parasites that are commonly known as patent trolls. It’s rather revealing and the numbers from a new paper of Lemley et al reaffirm the trend.

All those recent SCOTUS decisions with yet more decisions to come (e.g. Lexmark, which is also still in the news, courtesy of John C. Bacoch and William R. Boudreaux from Brinks Gilson & Lione and MIP’s Natalie Rahhal) serve to show that SCOTUS, in its current composition (Justices), is rather intolerant towards patent bullies.

The reforms in the US (regarding patents) seem to be working out and weeding out “Patent Trolls Central”, the Eastern District of Texas (EDTX). Here is how Patently-O has just put it: “Goodbye E.D.Texas as a Major Patent Venue”

The headline may be sensationalist and premature, but here is how Patently-O justifies it:

In a case with the potential to truly shake-up the current state of patent litigation, the Supreme Court has granted certiorari in the patent venue case TC Heartland v. Kraft Food (SCT Docket No. 16-341). An 8-0 reversal of the Federal Circuit is quite likely, although my headline is likely premature.

Michael Loney, writing from New York, has also just covered the subject:

Supreme CourtThe US Supreme Court has granted cert to TC Heartland v Kraft Food Brands Group. The court will review the Federal Circuit law that allows a high concentration of patent cases in one district.

We wrote about this case before and so has the EFF (many times). For the uninitiated, EDTX boasts courts that are intentionally tolerant of plaintiffs, software patents and trolls. That’s how they used to attract ‘business’ or ‘clients’ (parties being sued or suing) and that’s why many patent law firms are based (or relocated to) there. █

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12.14.16

Rumour: Carl Josefsson to Head EPO Boards of Appeal, Battistelli Unhappy

Posted in Europe, Patents, Rumour at 6:10 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Photo credit: Bird & Bird, 2015

Summary: Early information (or at least rumour) begins to trickle in as day one of the meeting of the Administrative Council of the EPO reaches its end

NOT much is known to us about the meeting of the Administrative Council of the EPO (information welcome), but we have learned that Carl Josefsson was elected as President of the BoA. We haven’t mentioned Carl Josefsson here before, but a source told us that he is “a senior Judge of Appeal, Svea Court of Appeal,” based on this page from the EPO’s Web site. “I guess that he is a part of the Wolfpack,” our source added. We also understand that this appointment was against the President’s wishes. He gave a talk earlier this year and he appears to be involved in the UPC fantasy [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].

“But everything is rumour,” our source emphasised. Josefsson is, as far as we know, Swedish. A fellow Swede, Catarina Holtz From the EPO Boards of Appeal (now retired), was a vocal critic of the EPO's management. █

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Institutional Corruption Like ‘Pay to Play’ Still Drives/Steers US Patent Law, Courtesy of Large Corporations and Their Lobbyists

Posted in America, IBM, Patents at 12:37 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Steering policy in exchange for money, having acquired contacts and connections

Source: David Kappos interview with Intellectual Property Magazine (2010), modified by us

Summary: IBM, David Kappos, Watchtroll and the rest of this software patents bunch as seen in the news and in forums this past week and half (policy-shaping echo chambers disguised as debates or “roundtables”)

THE FORMER Director of the USPTO, David Kappos, came from IBM, one of the biggest patent bullies out there and also a worldwide lobbyist for software patents. It’s therefore hardly surprising that after his career at the USPTO Kappos continues to promote all the worst aspects of a patent system. A lot of the current mess, including the very low success rate of patent lawsuits, can be attributed to this fool. How did he even get this job? Maybe some connections in high places and pressure on Obama or something…

“A lot of the current mess, including the very low success rate of patent lawsuits, can be attributed to this fool.”Three years ago we said that the USPTO's software patents "roundtable" was rigged and last week we saw a similarly-rigged USPTO "roundtable" where no software developers were even present. It hardly ever gets any more farcical than this.

A few days ago we wrote about other new lobbying events that try to compel Congress to change the law in favour of software patents, in accordance with patent maximalists' Christmas wish list. The so-called IPWatchdog conference (we call it “Watchtroll”) was truly a disgrace because again it’s a case of patent law firms speaking about — not for — inventors. These firms want to gain at inventors’ expense. Remember that Watchtroll is to patent news what Brietbart is to world news; its founder is a blowhard who habitually insults judges and smears PTAB with sexual connotations. Watchtroll tries to meddle in patent law by truly despicable strategies and for self gain, not for scholarly purposes or anything like that.

Patent maximalists like Kappos, as it turns out based on his new article at Watchdog, support this kind of horrible Watchtroll think tank. In Kappos’ own words:

Recent changes to the U.S. patent system — emanating from both Congress and the courts — have pushed U.S. investment money overseas. To China, to be exact.

In his closing remarks to a recent Inventing America and IPWatchdog conference on dangers to the innovation economy, former U.S. Patent and Trademark Office director David Kappos said that in 2015, patent filings in China exceeded those of the next 20 countries.

What’s noteworthy about this article is that here we have an IBM-funded former USPTO Director (now lobbyist for IBM) promoting software patents and then getting promoted by IBM’s patent chief, Manny Schecter. To quote the alarmist, “Kappos: investments moving overseas in response to state of U.S. #patent law” (untrue).

We wonder when IBM will realise that it’s a bad idea to pay a former USPTO official (who had worked for IBM beforehand) to be a software patents lobbyist. Institutional corruption is definitely what this is; that’s a textbook example of it. Now that he is out of his lucrative job he converts influence and connections into money, on behalf of billionaires. It’s a bit like revolving doors, except there is no direct affiliation (he operates via a proxy).

“If former officials are up for sale and they are meddling in the affairs of the Office, then it’s a classic case of “pay to play” and unless we call out the culprits they will continue uninterrupted.”As Benjamin Henrion put it, “this is propaganda at best.”

Well, Schecter and IBM ought to know this because they are the ones who paid for this propaganda. They are still paying Kappos.

“Kappos is a lobbyist who needs lessons in basic economy,” Henrion continued. “R&D done in China, good sold in the US” (indeed and moreover China is fast becoming a den of patent trolling).

The US patent system still suffers from a high level of corruption due to this man. If former officials are up for sale and they are meddling in the affairs of the Office, then it’s a classic case of “pay to play” and unless we call out the culprits they will continue uninterrupted. █

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