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11.27.15

When the EPO Liaised With Capone (Literally) to Silence Bloggers, Delete Articles

Posted in Europe, Patents at 9:07 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Like history’s most genocidal regimes, the EPO’s management started an aggressive information warfare campaign this autumn

Lord Bryce

Summary: A dissection of the EPO’s current media strategy, which involves not only funneling money into the media but also actively silencing opposing views

THE EPO is doing more malicious things than we have time to cover. As noted in the previous post, DDOS challenges aren’t helping (lost 2 hours this morning) and the EPO’s expensive distortion of the corporate media is well under way, with Battistelli sending to influential people articles from his greased up ‘media partners’, Les Échos for instance [1, 2, 3] (now Battistelli's mouthpiece, his master’s voice).

“The EPO is now using public money to sue or threaten to sue journalists, activists etc. via dubious tactics and dubious people with a name like “Capone” (yes, it’s a real name!).”One important observation that we wish to point out very quickly (I must rush and dash outdoors really urgently if not soon) is that the EPO bullies bloggers at the same time that it is greasing up the corporate media (look at the dates on the leaked letters and see they’re just weeks apart). The EPO is now using public money to sue or threaten to sue journalists, activists etc. via dubious tactics and dubious people with a name like “Capone” (yes, it’s a real name!).

The EPO is clearly fighting an information war (read the Wikipedia article on “information warfare”) right now, combined with psychological warfare that mostly takes its toll on staff representatives. It wants to deprive its opposition of a voice while literally buying its own voices. This is the hallmark of imperialistic behaviour that must not be tolerated but at the same time can be difficult to crush (those who can end it are subjected to constant brainwash which only a lot of money can buy).

“This is the hallmark of imperialistic behaviour that must not be tolerated but at the same time can be difficult to crush (those who can end it are subjected to constant brainwash which only a lot of money can buy).”Contrary to media reports, the EPO did not bully me over one single article. It did this repeatedly. I later received another threatening from the EPO, regarding yet another article. That’s an outrageous sign that the EPO’s goal was to systematically remove a lot of articles — if not all articles — which I ever wrote about the EPO. As per advice that I received, maybe at the end I’ll just take legal action and charge for illegal takedown attempts — takedown of stuff that is factually correct. Such action is in itself illegal. It’s akin to bogus DMCA takedown requests (censorship). But wait, does the EPO even care what’s legal? Remember that the EPO is effectively above the law. It exploits that. Even when losing cases in court the EPO refuses to obey the rulings.

Believe it or not, Mr. Capone (yes, real name!) was the person doing legal bullying for the EPO. They seem to have gotten a cheap and unprofessional ‘lawyer’ (grossly abusing the law, which he does not even seem to understand) because a serious lawyer would laugh them out the door, fearing that the legal firm itself can be sued for SLAPP and bullying.

“Remember that the EPO is effectively above the law. It exploits that.”No public word on this situation yet, but please understand that the EPO seemingly dumped their lawyers and moved to a more aggressive firm. It’s all about intimidation and as we revealed in our first post on the subject, this seems to be a widespread campaign. Do not assume that Techrights is the only site under attack. We know that it’s not because we spoke to another blogger, the person who built a site opposing the Unitary Patent. The EPO bullied him (trademark-trolling). Sometimes, especially nowadays, I fail to see how Europe is safer than China for journalists…

These people have no shame; they describe a false scenario or a misrepresentation of the law in an effort to compel for action based on misinformation. Similar tactics were reportedly used against staff representatives while their lawyers were absent. The EPO’s bullies sent me threatening letters just before midnight on a Friday night, probably for similar reasons (more on that in future articles). We are going to expand on that some other day and provide more proof of our allegations, for I’ve run out of time and I must leave. █

Blogger Who Wrote About the EPO’s Abuses Retires

Posted in Europe, Patents at 8:26 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Jeremy Phillips
Photo credit: IP Kat blog

Summary: Bloggers’ independent rebuttal capability against a media apparatus that is deep in the EPO’s pocket is greatly diminished as Jeremy Phillips suddenly retires

TODAY we had clear plans. We had a plan to share a lot more details about the EPO‘s campaign to chill bloggers, putting aside expensive distortion of the corporate media by the EPO. An unforeseen de facto DDOS attack, however, wasted 2 hours of my time this morning. Also discovered this morning was this bit of sad news about Jeremy from IP Kat. He is probably IP Kat‘s most prominent person and only days after the EPO’s bullying of bloggers becomes publicly known it also becomes publicly known that a blogger who occasionally covered EPO scandals (e.g. when the UK government issued ‘damage control’ statements regarding EPO) suddenly retires. We don’t think that IP Kat ever received threatening letters from the EPO (it did, like Gene Quinn, receive threatening letters from WIPO), but anyway, that may be the subject of another post, set aside for another day.

“He is probably IP Kat‘s most prominent person and only days after the EPO’s bullying of bloggers becomes publicly known it also becomes publicly known that a blogger who occasionally covered EPO scandals (e.g. when the UK government issued ‘damage control’ statements regarding EPO) suddenly retires.”This comment from IP Kat (by “Concerned Examiner”) last night mentioned a “Spanish press report on the events“. We hope that one of our Spanish-speaking readers can kindly provide an English translation for us to publish.

We are saddened to learn that one among relatively few bloggers who cover EPO scandals is retiring. As he put it in his departure message, “most of all I shall miss Merpel” (the other person who covers EPO scandals at IP Kat).

There are many comments being posted there, also from familiar accounts which typically write about the EPO. “Running this blog,” said one of them, “must be very energy-intensive and I’m sure it is wise to step away while you still have other projects to pursue.”

Well, much work remains to be done regarding EPO transparency (self-imposed or imposed by the European public). We are eager to continue a high pace of publication regarding the EPO. As an anonymous commenter said yesterday, “Europe is ripping itself and democracy apart. Hungary, now Poland too.

“…I too am afraid that the AC representatives do see no need, as their expertise regarding law is limited to patent matter, while their views are influenced by lobbyists in their home countries as well as within the EPO.”
      –Anonymous“The EPO is just another sign that people are now willing to inform themselves anymore, and democracy does not work when people simply follow masses…. And seeing what is happening all around, I too am afraid that the AC representatives do see no need, as their expertise regarding law is limited to patent matter, while their views are influenced by lobbyists in their home countries as well as within the EPO.”

“We will have to wait for the ILO administrative tribunal, but they cannot repair things, they can just say “what you did was illegal”, and offer nothing else. IF the governing body of ILO does not throw the EPO out, as the EPO is severely damaging the functionality of the ILO-AT….”

The latter part is a reference to a subject we covered here a month ago and Merpel did too. Please help us shed light on the truth inside the EPO by translating articles and sending us input. The EPO now spend nearly a million dollars (in a year!) just distorting the media. Don’t let them get away with "happy" propaganda that’s utterly false/fictional [1, 2]. █

Leaked: EPO Award of €880,000 “in Order to Address the Media Presence of the EPO” (Reputation Laundering)

Posted in Europe, Patents at 7:46 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Propaganda and media distortion, but at whose expense?

Summary: The European Patent Office, a public body, wastes extravagant amounts of money on public relations (for ‘damage control’, like FIFA’s) in an effort to undermine critics, not only among staff (internally) but also among the media (externally)

TODAY is Black Friday and there might be something black at the EPO (like black budget), whose documents, which show how public money is (mis)used, keep being leaked for us to publish. It took less than a day after our request.

Having already absorbed anti-corruption people (who were supposed to investigate the EPO) into its own ranks, the EPO now wants to devour the media too.

The following is self-explanatory really.

EPO media spendings page 1

EPO media spendings page 2

EPO media spendings page 3

The above 3 images can (and probably should) be shared widely.

The source of this material referred to our recent article and wished to highlight the following bits from the document. They may be of interest to those who are too lazy to read it. It confirms the allocation of €880,000 “in order to address the media presence of the EPO” and to quote the detailed breakdown:

13. Main Project with a duration of 1 year
with a campaign in Germany and the Netherlands : EUR 600K

14. Additional Project
with support for Dir. External communication: EUR 280K

According to the Summary on the title page, the beneficiary of the contract in this case was FTI Consulting:

In accordance with Art. 57 (b) FinRegs a report is provided on the award of 2 direct placements to FTI Consulting for EPO’s positioning campaign and support for Directorate External Communication.

We are going to write a lot more about it in the future. Please note that this was submitted by “President of the European Patent Office” (that’s Battistelli). It is an “award of urgently required direct placements,” which doesn’t sound so benign at all.

“In order to address the media presence of the EPO, a targeted positioning campaign has been launched,” says the document. When people in this field say “targeted positioning campaign” it implies something against the spirit of journalism.

“Proposals from 3 PR agencies were submitted,” says the document, “evaluated and decision taken.”

It is “new positioning campaign”. There’s that word again: positioning.

“Foreseen time-frame is 1 year.”

Almost a million dollars in just one year? Wow. “Main Project with a duration of 1 year,” the bottom part states.

Why do all this? The document says “reputational risk issue and crisis communication.” In simple terms? Reputation laundering.

Here is the full document as text:

CA/F 19/15
Orig.: en
Munich, 24.09.2015

SUBJECT: Report on award decisions owing to urgency pursuant to Article 57 b) of the FinRegs and Article 2.4.1 (2) of the Tender Guidelines

SUBMITTED BY: President of the European Patent Office

ADDRESSEES: Budget and Finance Committee (for information)

SUMMARY

In accordance with Art. 57 (b) FinRegs a report is provided on the award of 2 direct placements to FTI Consulting for EPO’s positioning campaign and support for Directorate External Communication

CA/F 19/15 e
LT 1659/15 – 152440001

I. STRATEGIC/OPERATIONAL

1. Operational.

II. RECOMMENDATION

2. To take note.

III. MAJORITY NEEDED

3. n/a

IV. CONTEXT

4. Under Article 57(b) of the FinRegs, a report is to be provided on the award of urgently required direct placements where it is not possible to await the outcome of the forms of invitation to tender and the award decision exceeds EUR 250K.

V. ARGUMENTS

5. In order to address the media presence of the EPO, a targeted positioning campaign has been launched.

6. Proposals from 3 PR agencies were submitted, evaluated and decision taken.

7. To maximise the effectiveness of communications, the new positioning campaign had to be prepared and implemented without delay.

8. Foreseen time-frame is 1 year.

9. To have one single strategy towards the media, the support of Directorate for External Communication must be provided by the same PR agency.

10. Support is required in the analysis for the current communication work, achievements and aspirations after 5 years of reforms and to pilot a project on reputational risk issue and crisis communication.

11. This need also to be implemented with the same time line as for the main project.

CA/F 19/15 e
LT 1659/15 – 152440001
1/2

VI. ALTERNATIVES

12. n/a

VII. FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

13. Main Project with a duration of 1 year
with a campaign in Germany and the Netherlands : EUR 600K

14. Additional Project
with support for Dir. External communication: EUR 280K

VIII. LEGAL BASIS

15. n/a

IX. DOCUMENTS CITED

16. n/a

X. RECOMMENDATION FOR PUBLICATION

17. n/a

CA/F 19/15 e
LT 1659/15 – 152440001
2/2

Journalists should probably be made aware of the EPO’s plot to distort the media. That’s some very high-budget campaign. █

Links 27/11/2015: KDE Plasma 5.5 Plans, Oracle Linux 7.2

Posted in News Roundup at 7:24 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

Free Software/Open Source

Leftovers

  • What I Learned from Blowing An Interview

    Likewise, blogging or writing books about software development is necessarily removed from software development. Patterns, architectures, idioms, and algorithms are potential value. It’s only by applying the ideas that we realize the value. The same goes for creating infrastructure like operating systems, text editors, programming languages, frameworks, and libraries.

  • How Deduplication Has Evolved to Handle the Deluge of Data

  • Hardware

    • More than a billion PCs are over three years old, and there’s little reason to replace them

      And right there is the problem facing the PC industry. You’re replacing a tool with another tool that does the same thing. Much like a light bulb or a hammer. It’s why we’re seeing a proliferation of “smart” devices – smart light bulbs, smart thermostats, smart smoke detectors, smart refrigerators – because without that new “smart” twist people just aren’t replacing their light bulbs, thermostats, smoke detectors, or refrigerators until the day they release the magic smoke and stop working.

  • Security

  • Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

    • A Winter’s Tale: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

      A Turkish jet shoots down a Russian jet. Parliament votes to send RAF jets into the mix. What could possibly go wrong?

      Unfortunately, things do go wrong. Cameron’s 70,000 “moderate rebels” prove either non-existent or crazed pro-Saudi Wahabbists. Mostly they are the very jihadists Russia is attacking, but we are supporting. In the fog of war, another Russian plane is downed. A Russian pilot downs a British jet. With politicians on all sides afloat on the sea of militarist rhetoric, within 24 hours it has spiralled hopelessly out of control.

    • Cameron Overreaches With “70,000” Claim Nobody Believes

      Cameron is in serious trouble at Westminster after overreaching himself by the claim that there are 70,000 “moderate rebels” willing to take up the ground war with Isis. Quite literally not one single MP believes him. There are those who believe the lie is justified. But even they know it is a lie.

      There is a very interesting parallel here with the claims over Iraqi WMD. The 70,000 figure has again been approved by the Joint Intelligence Committee, with a strong push from MI6. But exactly as with Iraqi WMD, there were strong objections from the less “political” Defence Intelligence, and caveats inserted.

  • Finance

    • China may invest $1 trillion overseas in next 5 years

      Continuing the carrot and stick approach to international trade, Premier Li Keqiang told poorer European nations that China would likely invest in their countries and import their products if they promised to buy Chinese products

  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

    • The Guardian’s Anti Corbyn Campaign Plumbs New Depths

      Yet astonishingly the Guardian ran three whole articles entirely about the McDonnell gaffe. You could read every single word of these three articles and not learn the basic information provided in each of the three Blue Tory papers above. The utterly disgraceful Jonathan Jones, John Crace and Tom Phillips all managed to produce articles which utterly omit what McDonnell actually said and why he said it, to contrive to give the impression that McDonnell was quoting Mao straight and with approval.

      [...]

      UPDATE: This is absolutely beyond parody. The Guardian have just published a FOURTH article on this subject, by Roy Greenslade, which still fails to say that McDonnell was referring to Osborne’s disposal of British assets to the Chinese state. Instead Greenslade cuts and pastes the most damning comments he can find in the Tory media. Not of course including any of the Tory media quotes given above which, unlike the Guardian, tell you what McDonnell was saying.

      When do you think the fifth Guardian article is coming?

  • Privacy

    • Teardown shows Nest Cam is “always-on” even when you think it’s off

      It turns out your home security camera may see more of your home than you thought it did. In a teardown of the Nest Cam, a team at ABI Research found that even when “off,” the camera draws nearly the same amount of power as when it’s fully powered on, meaning it’s functional and running even when the indicator light claims otherwise.

    • Tor Project appeals for help to carry on, expand anti-spying network

      The Tor anonymous browsing project has asked for donations to improve the network and invest in educational projects.

      The Tor Project is a non-profit scheme which runs Tor. Otherwise known as The Onion Router, the system allows users to enter areas of the Internet which remain unindexed by common search engines.

      The node-and-relay layout also skewers the original IP of the user, improving anonymity and thwarting surveillance efforts.

    • Glenn Greenwald: Why the CIA is smearing Edward Snowden after the Paris attacks

      Decent people see tragedy and barbarism when viewing a terrorism attack. American politicians and intelligence officials see something else: opportunity.

      Bodies were still lying in the streets of Paris when CIA operatives began exploiting the resulting fear and anger to advance long-standing political agendas. They and their congressional allies instantly attempted to heap blame for the atrocity not on Islamic State but on several preexisting adversaries: Internet encryption, Silicon Valley’s privacy policies and Edward Snowden.

      [...]

      The CIA’s blame-shifting game, aside from being self-serving, was deceitful in the extreme. To begin with, there still is no evidence that the perpetrators in Paris used the Internet to plot their attacks, let alone used encryption technology.

      CIA officials simply made that up. It is at least equally likely that the attackers formulated their plans in face-to-face meetings. The central premise of the CIA’s campaign — encryption enabled the attackers to evade our detection — is baseless.

11.26.15

Documents Needed: Contract or Information About EPO PR/Media Campaign to Mislead the World

Posted in Europe, Patents, Rumour at 1:44 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Is the EPO weaponising the media?

Murdoch and Cameron

Summary: Rumour that the EPO spends almost as much as a million US dollars “with some selected press agencies to refurbish the image of the EPO”

LIKE a lot of large organisations out there, the EPO wishes to guard its image and even hires accordingly. Since the EPO is a public body that receives subsidies from taxpayers, it is imperative that the public gets told how this money gets spent.

Months ago we pointed out that the EPO was preparing a propaganda campaign trying to cast/frame staff as "happy" even though everyone we hear from is unhappy and the ‘loyal’ committee is clearly not happy either [1, 2]. For all we know, even EPO management is unhappy right now, but that’s mostly because of the negative press it receives. Recently we have seen some character assassination articles prepared in coordination with EPO management, shamelessly (and with little concrete evidence) framing its opponents as armed Nazis. Later on people like Battistelli send this tripe to various people in high places, as private letters serve to demonstrate. The EPO’s management views this as an information war (as if it has done nothing wrong) and it now distorts the media, turning journalists into PR marionettes and weaponising newspapers with high circulation in Germany, Holland, and sometimes even France (where French EPO managers probably dread negative publicity).

“Recently we have seen some character assassination articles prepared in coordination with EPO management, shamelessly (and with little concrete evidence) framing its opponents as armed Nazis.”Last night we received comments with mere claims (not yet verified) from a regular commenter whose track record has been reasonably good (accurate). The comment says: “Inquire about a contract of over 800.000€ with some selected press agencies to refurbish the image of the EPO after the alllegedly [sic] “damaging campaign by few employees and mad bloggers”. Someone has seen the signed contract passing from desk to desk at the EPO (readers please provide confirmation or evidence). A further misuse of public money.”

A later comment said: “I do not know who was the beneficiary of the contract, only that its purpose was to restore the “damaged” reputation of the EPO by way of favourable press articles and media contributions (Les Echoes is just an example). For a favourable coverage, the simple resignation of BB [Battistelli] would suffice. This would be very cheap for the EPO. I was also told that the EPO might buy an armoured limousine for the safety of President who has already a number of body guards. If true, it would be another useless expenditure of public money.”

“Staff of the EPO has long been concerned about the EPO’s manipulation of the media in its favour.”We welcome any confirmatory evidence people can provide. Staff of the EPO has long been concerned about the EPO’s manipulation of the media in its favour. And at whose expense? The European public whose brightest engineers, biologists, programmers etc. are abused by the EPO?

As a side note, regarding our previous post about why Battistelli equates his opposition to Unitary Patent (UP) opposition, a reader wrote to tell us that the article “was mentioning TR, NO and CH, which did not participate in the UP, and thus helped justified the continued existence of the EPO in its present form.

“To be exhaustive, one should add to that non-EU, non UP, list: IS, AL, FY, SM and RS [Iceland, Albania, FYROM, San Marino and Serbia].

“Extremely few applications are filed from theses countries, and European patents are also seldom validated there.

“And each of these states possess one full vote on the EPO AC, even though these states count for nothing in the European IP system.”

We hope that someone can provide us with some documents to show abuse and waste of public funds, possibly to the tune of €800,000 (to be funneled to the media or given to people who meddle with the media), a la French ‘news’ paper Les Échos [1, 2, 3], which has become Battistelli's mouthpiece, not just a so-called ‘media partner’ (euphemism). █

“A desire to resist oppression is implanted in the nature of man.”

–Tacitus

Guest Post: The EPO, EPC, Unitary Patent and the Money Issue

Posted in Europe, Patents at 12:48 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

By unknown, who is intimately familiar with EPO matters

John Bull
1888 (in public domain): American cartoon of John Bull (England) as an Imperial Octopus with its arms (with hands) in – or contemplating being in – various regions.

Summary: Remarks on the Unitary Patent (UP) and the lesser-known aspects of the EPO and EPC, where the “real issue is money, about which very little is discussed in public…”

THE staff of the EPO generally longed for and supported the creation of a community patent, as thought that it would have meant a cure for many of the original sins of the EPC.

It was believed, or hoped, that the EPO could become in the process an organ of the European Union, which, despite all its flaws, would have most probably brought an improvement in the governance of the organisation and the lot of the staff.

“The staff of the EPO generally longed for and supported the creation of a community patent, as thought that it would have meant a cure for many of the original sins of the EPC.”Just look at the shabby display given every quarter by the dysfunctional EPOrg’s Administrative Council, dominated as it is by a self-serving clique that cows it into submission through arm twisting and client politics.

Becoming a part of the EU could have meant for staff improved conditions in matters such as taxes, pensions, union recognition and collective bargaining, legal protection, conflict resolution…

“To sum it up, the implementing regulations are rubber-stamped by minor bureaucrats dwelling way down the food chain, and not decided by national parliaments.”As for the citizens of Europe, it could have brought improvements in its control of patent law, as changing an EU Directive or Regulation is still vastly simpler than amending the European Patent Convention through a diplomatic conference, and involves some form of debate in the EU parliament.

Then there are also the EPC implementing regulations, into which many sections of the convention were transferred with the EPC 2000 revision. Like the saying goes, “the devil is in the details”, and such details are created by the EPO’s legal department under instructions of the President, and submitted for approval to the AC [see above...]. And then the AC is essentially composed of civil servants from National Patent Offices and/or National Departments for Trade and Industry.

To sum it up, the implementing regulations are rubber-stamped by minor bureaucrats dwelling way down the food chain, and not decided by national parliaments. These bureaucrats have at heart a Sir Humphrey like interest in preserving their little fiefs [e.g. the Croatian patent office], which should have been wound up long ago had there been a real will for a truly European patent.

“If those bloody foreigners can roam around your territory without needing your permission, why make more of a fuss when it comes to patents?”Among the roadblocks to a proper EU patent were inter alia languages: the EPO accepts applications in DE, EN, FR. The EU must function in 24 languages. I think that a compromise could have been found in which all languages could have been accommodated, as the number of applications stemming from Europe which are not in the three EPC official languages aren’t wholly unreasonable. TR, GR, and IT already translate their national applications before sending them on to the EPO for prior art searches and opinions on patentability.

Then there was the issue of EU membership. EPC members TR, CH, and NO do not [currently] belong to the grand design, but this didn’t have to be an insurmountable problem. These countries already accept that a foreign body, the EPO, decides on whether a patent has legal force over their territory. This organisation is already EU-dominated, and even then, the parliaments [or strongmen...] of TR+CH+NO have presently next to zilch influence in the running of the EPO.

“My feeling is that the real issue is money, about which very little is discussed in public…”Then there is the fact CH+NO are part of that other EU-invented club called “Schengen”. If those bloody foreigners can roam around your territory without needing your permission, why make more of a fuss when it comes to patents?

My feeling is that the real issue is money, about which very little is discussed in public…

“Something must yield to make work that Unitary Patent monstrosity they came up with, and that is the EPO’s staff.”Something must yield to make work that Unitary Patent monstrosity they came up with, and that is the EPO’s staff. For the language and membership issues, the EPO must remain this autonomous death start which has been hovering above the continent for 40 years. And Battleship Eponia’s “independence” is essential for making staff become what they call in French a “variable d’ajustement”, i.e., the fudge factor which will mop up all the inconsistencies in that unitary contraption.

“This could explain why Battistelli equates any sign of resistance against his iron will to be opposition to the UP.”This could explain why Battistelli equates any sign of resistance against his iron will to be opposition to the UP. Is that association even conscious? █

Saving the Integrity of the European Patent Office (EPO)

Posted in Europe, Patents at 12:19 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

The imperialist ambitions of a patent office result in growing neglect of local actors

French coup d'état
Management takeover by Team Battistelli similar to French coup d’état of 1851

Summary: Some timely perspective on what’s needed at the European Patent Office, which was detabilised by ‘virtue’ of making tyrants its official figureheads

THE main concern I have always had regarding the EPO was potential granting of software patents in Europe. I even wrote a letter to the Enlarged Board of Appeal about it (that was half a decade ago). As a software engineer surrounded by other software engineers I know that people who write software (computer programs) don’t want to bother with patents. They needn’t worry about who got a monopoly on which algorithm (copyright law is more than sufficient here). This worry is further accentuated when dealing with Free/Open Source software, where a lot of compartmentalised code gets imported/grafted (not licensed per se), and it is infeasible to start checking what line of code may infringe which patent. It would be lunacy to review hundreds of thousands of US patents before undertaking the simple task of writing a program. It would also put one at greater risk (higher damages due to willful infringement).

“It would be lunacy to review hundreds of thousands of US patents before undertaking the simple task of writing a program.”EPO management would have to lie (with a straight face even!) if it persisted in portraying its opposition as aiming to ‘destabilise’ the Office. There is a big difference between destabilisation and reform. There are many abuses taking place inside the EPO, putting aside our concern about software patents. The need to obey the law or the efforts to compel the EPO’s managers to obey European laws aren’t ‘destabilisation’ efforts. Imagine a political parable; dictatorships like to say that their opposition is ‘destabilising’ a nation, or trying to cause chaos. Any dictatorship that deems itself ‘benevolent’ (which dictatorship has ever believed otherwise about itself?) will always insist on crushing opposition. That’s why elections are imperative (with time limits for one single individual to run) and there is a clear separation between media and governance for instance — a separation which EPO evidently no longer respects.

“Contrary to misleading portrayals from Team Battistelli, EPO staff is not violent. The aggressor here is actually the management.”The EPO took many decades to acquire its reputation (quickly eroded by Team Battistelli, in just a few years), so efforts to fix the EPO are actually defensive and they are intended to rescue the EPO’s integrity. Sometimes from a temporary/localised destruction (e.g. of tyranny at the top) comes liberation. Sometimes it’s known as revolution, although the word revolution has negative connotations (with blood and violence).

Contrary to misleading portrayals from Team Battistelli, EPO staff is not violent. The aggressor here is actually the management.

“The EPO can learn from the failings of lesser successful patent systems — systems which the EPO’s current managers increasingly emulate.”EPO staff continues to receive a salary and it would in no way help this staff if it saw the EPO going away (pensions too may be at stake). What definitely would harm this staff — in the long term — is an EPO that suffers reputation erosion, due in part to poor patents (too broad or easily invalided in courts, e.g. using prior art which examiners overlooked). They would devalue EPO patents, which would no longer be able to justify their high and ever-rising cost. To shield the integrity of the EPO the management needs to:

  1. Stop harassing staff, as it makes recruitment of talented examiners a lot harder and leads to a loss of many skilled and experienced patent examiners
  2. Re-examine the scope of patents because in some domains (e.g. software) patents do more societal and professional harm than good
  3. Re-examine the pace of patenting because quality should come before quantity and too many patents merely saturate the market, diluting/reducing each patent’s worth
  4. Restore patent neutrality, meaning that large corporations should no longer receive preferential treatment

There are many more points to be made, but this is just a very partial list. Reform is needed and the current management — not the staff — is resistant to a reform. It’s funny just how the management reversed this whole situation, painting the examiners as Luddites. Who’s really the Luddite here? It’s Orwellian spin.

“It’s funny just how the management reversed this whole situation, painting the examiners as Luddites.”The EPO can learn from the failings of less successful patent systems — systems which the EPO’s current managers increasingly emulate. Publicly posing or liaising with Chinese patent officials, for instance, is no triumph but arguably an embarrassment for a number of reasons (beyond the scope of this post). TechDirt, which wrote about Techrights yesterday, has many articles on this subject. In fact, it wrote several such articles yesterday.

TechDirt now shows evidence of the strategy of accumulating a massive number of junk patents [1] (when about 92% of applications get patents granted at the end, what is the role of examination really?) to then attack rivals in the domestic market [2] in China (just like the USPTO and ITC enable). With UPC, widespread injunctions (a la ITC) would become possible and patent scope would likely expand, not just in the domain sense but also the geographical sense (making more parties liable and thus subjected to legal threats, if not outright actions).

Today’s EPO management is bad for science, bad for lawyers (especially in the long term), bad for examiners, and even bad for European businesses, which it discriminates against. Who is the EPO good for? Evidence serve to suggest that it serves multinational conglomerates. It’s like an imperial institution, complete with mass surveillance, witch-hunting, and mental torture (so-called ‘interrogation’ of perceived dissent which poses a threat to the empire). █

Related/contextual items from the news:

  1. Stupid Patent Of The Month: Infamous Prison Telco Patents Asking Third-Parties For Money

    There are two serious problems with this patent. First, the claims are directed to a mind-numbingly mundane business practice and should have been rejected as obvious. Obvious uses or combinations of existing technology are not patentable. Second, the claims are ineligible for patent protection under the Supreme Court’s 2014 decision in Alice v. CLS Bank—this is a recent Supreme Court decision that holds that an abstract idea (like contacting potential third-party payers) doesn’t become eligible for a patent simply because it is implemented using generic technology. That the system failed to register either of these defects shows deep dysfunction.

  2. Chinese Company Learns From The West: Builds Up Big Patent Portfolio, Uses It To Sue Apple In China

    For many years now, Western governments have been complaining about China’s supposed lack of respect for intellectual monopolies, and constantly pushing the country’s politicians to tighten the legal framework protecting them. To anyone not blinded by an unquestioning belief in the virtues of copyright and patent maximalism, it was pretty clear where this strategy would end. Indeed, over five years ago, Mike warned where this was leading: towards China repeatedly punishing foreign companies to protect domestic Chinese firms — in other words, leveraging patents as a tool for protectionism.

A Call for Bloggers and Journalists: Did EPO Intimidate and Threaten You Too? Please Speak Out.

Posted in Site News at 10:54 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

The EPO’s standards for media and communications similar to those of Myanmar

Flag of Myanmar

Summary: An effort to discover just how many people out there have been subjected to censorship and/or self-censorship by EPO aggression against the media

WHAT the EPO did to us [1, 2, 3] last month and earlier this month (for a number of weeks) is important because it can help inform other sites of what EPO has been up to and how to stand up to it. We already have evidence to show that Team Battistelli is using the “chilling effect” against politicians, lawyers, bloggers, journalists, and even government delegates. How far will these sociopaths go? The EPO is already aping Myanmar’s low standards for media and communications.

“For EPO staff (not managers) remedy may already be on the way, especially as more people become aware of these issues and English-speaking journalists finally write more about it.”In our first part of this multi-part series we showed our reasons for suspicion that EPO lawyers had lazily used a template and didn’t even change the name when they sent a threatening letter. This led us to the supposition that other sites were being threatened with action too. We don’t know which sites — if any — these were. This kind of evidence suggests that other such letters were sent to other publishers, demanding that they take down their articles about the EPO. We don’t know if such letters were maybe to SUEPO as well (takedown letters). We already know that SUEPO removed some links from its public site. EPO management put them under threat, hence FOSS Patents links and Heise links got removed (we wrote about this at the time, back in early autumn). Any information about what exactly happened back then would be greatly appreciated. There is a campaign of “chilling effect” against dissent and if nobody speaks out, as a French blogger did a few months ago, we wouldn’t know just how widespread this campaign is. Based on the letter we received, it is likely that the EPO went also after German blogger or journalist (someone called Mr. Schneider).

For EPO staff (not managers) remedy may already be on the way, especially as more people become aware of these issues and English-speaking journalists finally write more about it. More of them will weigh in more often throughout the rest of this year, based on information that we have. Reprieve won’t come from EPO collapse but from EPO managers accepting that they need to obey the law (or resign). █

“A single lie destroys a whole reputation of integrity.”

–Baltasar Gracian

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