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12.26.15

Loose Data ‘Protection’ and Likely Privacy Infringements at the EPO: Here’s Who Gets Employees’ Internal Data

Posted in Europe, Patents at 5:37 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

‘Public’ office, privately connected

Europatis form

Summary: Another look at Europatis, the company of a former EPO Vice-President (VP1), which is now accessing staff details at the EPO

This morning we wrote about the latest active venture of Jacques Michel, which we now know receives private information (internal data) from the EPO. Several people who used to work for the EPO still act as though they are inside the EPO, even though they run a private (for-profit) company. Talk about conflict of interests! They magically enough, owing to professional connections, get data about every member of staff at the EPO. This truly helps illustrative the hypocrisy of Team Battistelli.

Source for the numbers noted this morning: SOCIETE

“The main issue we have with Europatis right now is that it serves to show just how weak data protection is.”“That sounds like it’s just enough to provide a net income to feed one,” wrote one person to us, “or maybe two, people, but it’s hardly anything more of a mom-and-pop operation that occasionally rescues the freelancing retired examiner from terminal boredom. Not a big deal really, and this type of work is needed during both for the initial drafting of patent applications and for finding killer prior art for busting granted patents. They are not in competition with the EPO. Other groups such as professional patent researchers and registered IP counsels might have something to say, but that’s another issue.”

The main issue we have with Europatis right now is that it serves to show just how weak data protection is. The EPO already spies on staff with keyloggers and hidden cameras, so passing staff data in bulk (‘wholesale’ so to speak) probably shouldn’t be so shocking.

“As to the data protection,” wrote to us a reader, “people do keep in touch, and you generally know who is currently fetching his coat. In the present situation, that’s certainly a heck of a lot of people — and of coats.

“The EPO already spies on staff with keyloggers and hidden cameras, so passing staff data in bulk (‘wholesale’ so to speak) probably shouldn’t be so shocking.”“It’s probably like those insistent headhunters who always ask you whether you might know anyone else might be interested in that “super” job in Milwaukee or suburban Ulaanbaatar they unsuccessfully tried to hook you with. And you happily oblige by warmly recommending a colleague you’re not particularly fond of, hoping that both the headhunter and the colleague get the message.”

As we noted this morning, neither Europatis nor the data passage is the big deal; there is an even bigger story involving Jacques Michel. We are going to cover this story in the coming week, in conjunction with the “Insensitivity at the EPO’s Management” series. For those who want to know who’s behind the company with access to internal EPO data, here is a document from 2009 converted into text, followed by another. Nothing too personal there, just registration details. It’s only fair for EPO staff to know who’s gaining access to some of their personal details (such as E-mail), potentially for personal gain. █

0907399703

DATE DEPOT : 2009-08-31
NUMERO DE DEPOT : 73997
N° GESTION : 2009B16103
N° SIREN : 514485788
DENOMINATION : EUROPATIS
ADRESSE : 61 rue des Morillons 75015 PARIS
DATE D’ACTE : 2009/08/04
TYPE D’ACTE : DECISION DES ASSOCIES
NATURE DACTE : NOMINATION DE GERANT(S)

EUROPATIS

Société à responsabilité limitée au capital de 4 000 euros

61 rue des Morillons

75015 PARIS

Les soussignés :

M onsieur Jacques MICHEL
Né le 30 octobre 1937 à Reims (51)
De nationalité française
Dem eurant 61 rue des Morillons à Paris (75015)
Marié sous le régime de la communauté

Madame Geneviève ALIGON épouse MICHEL
Née le 23 novembre 1939 à Argenteuil (95)
De nationalité française
Demeurant 61 rue des Morillons à Paris (75015)
Mariée sous le régime de la communauté

M. Laurent MICHEL
Né le 24 décembre 1974 à Genève (Suisse)
De nationalité française
Demeurant 11 rue du Bois Fourgon à Villeconin (91580)
Marié sous le régime de séparation de biens

se sont réunis à l’issue de la signature des statuts de la société EUROPATIS, pour désigner
d’un commun accord le prem ier gérant de la société, conformément aux dispositions de
l’article 10 des statuts de ladite société.

A cet effet, il est convenu de ce qui suit :

NOMINATION P U GÉRANT
Les soussignés nomment en qualité de gérant de la société :
- Monsieur Jacques MICHEL, demeurant 61 rue des Morillons à PARIS (75015)
pour une durée illimitée.

Monsieur Jacques MICHEL n’entrera effectivement en fonction qu’à partir du jour où la
société aura été immatriculée au Registre du Commerce et des Sociétés.

Monsieur Jacques MICHEL déclare accepter les fonctions de gérant qui viennent de lui être
confiées. Il affirme n’exercer aucune autre fonction et n’être frappé d’aucune incapacité ou
interdiction susceptible de l’empêcher d’exercer ce mandat.

RÉMUNÉRATION DU GÉRANT
Le gérant ne percevra aucune rémunération. Il aura droit au remboursement de ses frais
dûment justifiés engagés dans l’intérêt de la société.

Fait à Paris, le 4 août 2009 en trois originaux, deux pour les dépôts légaux et un pour les
archives sociales.

M. Jacques MICHEL
M. Laurent MICHEL
Mme Geneviève ALIGON

0907399702

DATE DEPOT : 2009-08-31
NUMERO DE DEPOT: 73997
N° GESTION : 2009B16103
N° SIREN : 514485788
DENOMINATION : EUROPATIS
ADRESSE : 61 rue des Morillons 75015 PARIS
DATE D’ACTE : 2009/07/27
TYPE D’ACTE : ACTE
NATURE D’ACTE : ATTESTATION BANCAIRELISTE DES SOUSCRIPTEURS

Banque Transatlantique

CREATION DE S.A.R.L.
ATTESTATION DE BLOCAGE DU CAPITAL SOCIAL

La BANQUE TRANSATLANTIQUE sise 26 Avenue Franklin D. Roosevelt, 75008 PARIS déclare
et atteste avoir reçu la somme de EUR. 4.000,00.

Monsieur Jacques MICHEL, gérante de la SARL «EUROPATIS» actuellement en cours de formation
dont le siège social se situe 61 rue des Morillons 75015 PARIS, déclare, sous sa seule responsabilité,
que cette somme représente la totalité du capital souscrit et libéré immédiatement.

Associés : M . Jacques MICHEL pour 2.000 parts soit 2.000 € de capital versé,
Mme Geneviève MICHEL née ALIGON pour 100 parts soit 100 € de capital versé,
M. Laurent MICHEL 1.900 parts pour 1.900 € de capital versé.

Nombre de parts : 4.000
Montant versé : 4.000,00 €

En conséquence, conformément aux dispositions législatives en vigueur, la somme ci-dessus
demeurera bloquée en compte n° 30568/19918/000/23365501/59 jusqu’à production du certificat
d’immatriculation au Registre du Commerce et des Sociétés de la société actuellement en voie de
formation. A défaut de ce certificat, elle pourra être débloquée, conformément à l’article L223-8 du
Code de commerce :

- soit entre les mains du mandataire qui sera désigné par l’associé unique
- soit sur décision de justice passée en force de chose jugée

La présente attestation est établie en double exemplaire pour faire valoir ce que de droit.

Fait à Paris, le 27 juillet 2009

Le déposant
(“lu et approuvé”)
signature

Europatis: “Turnover of €211,800 and Zero Employees”

Posted in Europe, Patents at 8:50 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

The Michel family stakes

Jacques Michel document

Summary: The business of Jacques Michel (EPO Vice-President of Directorate General 1 from 1987 to 2003) put under closer scrutiny

Regarding our recent article about Europatis and the EPO, some readers had positive things to say, whereas some thought we had missed an even bigger story.

“You’re making a big deal of “Europatis”,” one person told us, “but that is in my opinion really something of a non-story. Jacques Michel’s career prior to his official retirement is without doubt considerably more interesting. Let us first have a quick look at Europatis.

“Geneviève Michel née Aligon was listed in the EPO directory… And that’s not counting his other occupations.”
      –Anonymous“Jacques Michel: He swims with the biggest of the sharks, and is rumored to have at least four rows of very sharp teeth that can tear your arm off in the bat of an eye. But despite the bone rattling noise from his closet, Jacques Michel is nevertheless a rather congenial fellow, and can genuinely claim to have built something in his lifetime — unlike the Battistelli clique to which he doesn’t belong, AFAIK.

“Word was that the company was founded in 2009 as a sort of plaything to keep his son busy. Its founding statutes show that Jacques Michel and his wife Geneviève Aligon respectively hold 50% and 2.5% of the shares. Laurent Michel, the son, got the balance, 47.5%.

“With his EPO pension, Jacques Michel shouldn’t be in any sort of financial need, especially if his wife should also be entitled to one. Geneviève Michel née Aligon was listed in the EPO directory… And that’s not counting his other occupations.

“Europatis is actually very small peanuts compared to other initiatives that Michel was involved in and derived a lot more money from prior to his EPO career.”“Europatis officially reported a turnover €211,800 and zero employees for 2014.”

Europatis is actually very small peanuts compared to other initiatives that Michel was involved in and derived a lot more money from prior to his EPO career. This, however, will be the subject of future articles. Guillaume Minnoye now occupies the position previously occupied by Michel.

Isn’t it funny that EPO management brags about the need for “independence” of boards, requires somewhat unreasonable cooling-off periods and gags departing staff when it’s so abundantly clear that there may be ‘revolving doors’ at the very top (way above the boards)? █

Witnessing the Patent Mess That the USPTO Created

Posted in America, Courtroom, Europe, Patents at 8:00 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Where patent trolls with software patents are the stars of the show…

Erich Spangenberg

Summary: A look at some recent court actions in the US, motivated by software patent grants

The power outage at the USPTO aside (“It will be interesting indeed to find out how this quite extraordinary state of affairs plays out after the holiday weekend,” IP Kat wrote), there were some other problems at the USPTO earlier this holiday (or just before it began). It’s something for the EPO to learn from (EPO staff as a whole, not management).

A ‘superstar’ patent troll, Spangenberg (shown above with troll cross-pollination), which we wrote about before [1, 2, 3], is said to have just attacked a company which produces Free software. It happened just shortly prior to an IPO and watch how many other companies were sued. To quote this report: “In the realm of patent assertion, there is one man who stands head and shoulders above the rest: Erich Spangenberg. Of the more than 1,600 companies he has sued for patent infringement in the past decade, the most recent is Atlassian.

“The likes of Spangenberg, wielding software patents, attack thousands of practicing companies.”“Not that you’d know it was Spangenberg doing the suing; the action comes from Spangenberg-controlled Pherah LLC, a company that doesn’t even have a website.”

Also published just days ago was this article titled “Patent Trolls Attacked My Business”. The likes of Spangenberg, wielding software patents, attack thousands of practicing companies.

“My small business was the victim of abusive patent litigation,” said the author of of the latter article, “and I want to share my story to promote awareness of this growing problem. Capstone Photography provides photography services at events across the country, like marathons, triathlons and 5K road races. We have been in business since 2005. Naturally, we have a website where athletes can find and view their photos. It’s not rocket science. The basic premise of our site relies on a simple lookup function that any high school programmer could describe and execute.”

“Some of these patents were granted by the EPO and later invalidated (after Apple had sued Samsung and others).”Not only software companies are affected. Watch how Apple, a branding giant, attacked Samsung (mostly a hardware company) just before Christmas. As Florian Müller put it: “While Apple is usually the net payer when it comes to patents (most recently vis-à-vis Ericsson), it has received $548 million from Samsung this month, though a reimbursement may be demanded later. Samsung might base a future reimbursement claim on its design patent-related appeal to the Supreme Court (if that one suceeds, which would not be a huge surprise) and/or on the fact that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has held the ’915 pinch-to-zoom API-related patent invalid (a decision Apple is appealing to the Federal Circuit) and/or the increasingly likely invalidation of the D’677 iPhone design patent.”

Some of these patents were granted by the EPO and later invalidated (after Apple had sued Samsung and others). What does that tell us about the direction the EPO is heading in? Europe already attracts some patent trolls with software patents. █

Insensitivity at the EPO’s Management – Part III: Death in the Family

Posted in Europe, Patents at 7:39 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

EPO Till Death Do Us Part?

GraveSummary: Revisiting the bizarre attitude of the EPO towards the dead and the denial of basic rights to the dead (or surviving spouses)

Several of our past articles about EPO suicides, which are estimated to have grown tenfold, alluded to pensions and compensation to the spouses, as these crucial funds are said to have been withheld. What we know about it has been mostly based on hearsay or newspapers mentioning rumours, but nonetheless, there may be an element of truth to these rumours.

We were once again reminded of these rumours because of articles which talk about the ‘unwanted’ units being quietly dissolved (redundancies, layoffs), contrary to what seems to be imposed by the EPC. Having read a lot of articles and some legal documents we are starting to better understand what motivated at least some of these suicides. One comment from a couple of days ago said (context being the boards): “The same way the investigations into the suicides were stopped: by not paying the pensions. That is, even though illegal, a mighty good weapon in view of the fact that it takes 14 years to gain your case.”

To quote an older remark, “the widow and her children would be left without money and without social security for 8 years.

“This wife was desperate by the dead of her husband. She couldn´t face additional money problems and she had to cooperate with the EPO.”

Don’t worry about the jobs of EPO management, where there are third world countries' standards for appointing or sacking people. Regarding Battistelli et al one commenter joked: “Jobs for the in-laws, second cousins, and hairdressers of his garde rapprochée” (man of the house).

“one of those EPO examiners” wrote:

If I’d change [job] now, my worries would be to find an employer willing to go confrontational if necessary.

The pensions can be sorted later, in my personal case.

In the case of the withheld allowances you mentioned (widowers, half-orphaned, …) it is a different story, but these would not be hampered by a cooling-off period anyway, as the former EPO employee, for whom this clause would have applied, did not take up a new job…

But in my new job, the national rules would apply, and then the administration of the EPO could only try to enforce the non-consented amendment of my working contract through national courts, which take such rulings only in extreme rare cases.

And in most member states, such non-consented amendments limiting personal freedom are not taken favourably by the courts. In Germany and the Netherlands, every single employee would have to agree to such an amendment if her/his working contract. Agreement of the staff representation would not be sufficient, mere consultation even less.

The EPO’s management has made it exceedingly easy to sack staff (even easier with the passage of some recent rules to help combat unions) and incredibly hard to resign without severe consequences. It’s not only hard to find a job once resigning (because of the so-called cooling-off period) but also increasingly hard to speak out. Some people apparently just choose to kill themselves. But even then they’re denied their basic rights (as do their spouses and/or children). How long can the European Union tolerate what the EPO is doing? █

Monday Talk at Chaos Computer Club (Germany) Makes the Case Against Software Patents

Posted in Europe, Patents at 7:06 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Chaos Computer ClubSummary: A lecture on the 28th of this month at Chaos Computer Club (CCC) to cover software and business method patents

AT its very core (since inception), Techrights is a site against software patents. There is a big patents lobby which extends from the US into Brussels and in recent days we saw that boosters of software patents are now trying to frame computer programs as machines (“as such”) in order to bypass Alice.

Those among our readers (some of whom asked me to present at CCC, which is far away), especially those who live in Germany, might wish to attend this talk on Monday. Iga Bałos, Józef Halbersztadt and Benjamin Henrion (known online as “zoobab”) will present. It is very much relevant to the EPO because, as we have shown here for years, there have been growing efforts to patent software in Europe. Lobbyists of that agenda often were front groups of large US corporations, which really speaks volumes.

In the field of software, not patents drive innovation but a free (liberal) exchange of code (and ideas) drives innovation. The same applies to some other fields and to quote this very recent article: “Does scientific research drive innovation? Not very often, argues Matt Ridley: Technological evolution has a momentum of its own, and it has little to do with the abstractions of the lab” (or paperwork pertaining to algorithms). █

Benoît Battistelli Fails to Get Majority of 38 Member States to Crush the Boards, Which Are Already Being Crushed Anyway (23 Vacant Judge Positions)

Posted in Europe, Patents at 6:23 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Benoît Battistelli is cooking up his own Watergate scandal

Nixon

Summary: A translation of the recent JUVE article, which explains just to what degree Battistelli’s EPO effectively shuts down boards, with or without consent from national delegates

SEVERAL days ago we foresaw someone coming forth with a translation of an article written in German about the EPO/Administrative Council standoff (it’s no longer as amicable as before).

“JUVE is a publication specialising in information on and for corporate law specialists,” told us one reader, offering a JUVE article translation. “The expression “Schöne Bescherung” in the title,” this reader said, is actually a pun which “could also be taken to figuratively mean “A fine mess” instead of “Merry Christmas”.

“A bit of the AC communiqué is cited in the Article in German translation. I translated it back in English, without attempting to see how it read like originally. I didn’t bother looking up the original.”

Here is the translation with bits highlighted:

23.12.2015

Merry Christmas: EPO President loses the support of the Administrative Council for his court reform

The reform which is supposed to provide more independence for the Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) is further delayed. According to several converging reports close to the Munich patent authority, the Administrative Council is pursuing a new reform proposition since last week. The office’s supervisory body would have also refused to approve the original reform plan put forward by Benoît Battistelli. The Administrative Council had been considered until now as the power base of the controversial EPO President.

Benoît Battistelli

“The Administrative Council had been considered until now as the power base of the controversial EPO President.”Battistelli proposed back in March a stricter separation of the Boards of Appeal from the Office. The Boards of Appeal, which is the name by which the authority’s own courts are known, review oppositions against the grant of European patents by the office. The courts are however subordinated to the Office. The reform became necessary as critics became louder regarding the close integration of the Boards in the office’s structure, and the resulting doubts cast on their independence.

Battistelli wants a structural separation between the Boards of Appeal and the Office by making these directly subordinated to the Administrative Council. They are to have their own president, who would take over essential administrative functions and disciplinary powers over the staff. He would also report to a newly created Board of Appeal Committee (BOAC). The president would however retain his influence over the court’s budget.

“The necessary majority of the 38 member states of the European Patent Organisation was not reached, according to circles close to the Boards of Appeal.”Battistelli was apparently unable to find acceptance for his proposal after one year of consultations and a user poll. JUVE learned that a vote took place at the ultimate 2015 meeting of the Administrative Council. The necessary majority of the 38 member states of the European Patent Organisation was not reached, according to circles close to the Boards of Appeal. The EPO did not reply to requests for confirmation made by JUVE. A press release of the Administrative Council published yesterday stated however: “The Council conducted an exchange of opinions on the planned structural reform of the EPO Boards of Appeals. It mandated its Praesidium with the drafting of guidelines, from which the President of the Office will derive concrete proposals. If possible, these will be submitted as a resolution for adoption at the March 2016 meeting.” The Administrative Council thus took away the control over the reform process away from Battistelli’s hands. JUVE learned from reliable sources that resistance in the Administrative Council was particularly strong from the German, Dutch and Swiss delegations.

“JUVE learned from reliable sources that resistance in the Administrative Council was particularly strong from the German, Dutch and Swiss delegations.”According to information available to JUVE, a new reform proposal was made, which aims for an even more independence. JUVE is however not in possession of the exact features of this proposal. Several reform attempts, including some put forward by the the Boards of Appeal themselves, strived in the past for a complete separation of the court using the German Federal Patents Court as a model.

Increasing pressure for the appointment of judges

There are also apparently developments in the question of the reappointment of the Members of the Boards of Appeal, as EPO-judges are officially called. The Administrative Council announced the reappointment of a member of the Enlarged Board of Appeal as well as of several members of Boards of Appeal. They are appointed for five year period. The process had come to a standstill in recent times. There are 23 vacant judge positions in the Boards, including 3 chairmen. The EPO President has the right to propose candidates for the filling of vacant posts. Critics reproached him repeatedly of retarding new appointments in order to trim the Boards of Appeal for more efficiency.

“There are 23 vacant judge positions in the Boards, including 3 chairmen.”According to information available to JUVE, the Administrative Council called on Battistelli to expedite new appointments. The EPO President declared in an interview with the US-magazine “Managing IP” his readiness to address this issue in the beginning of 2016. He added however that he saw now urgent necessity to make new appointments to Judge positions.

The question of the future location of the Boards of Appeal now appears to have become secondary. Berlin, Vienna and a different building in Munich had been discussed up to now. But in any case, a transfer to Vienna is considered by legal experts to be incompatible with the European Patent Convention, which limits seat locations for the EPO to Munich and The Hague. Vienna hosts only an information service of the Office. Berlin is considered as rather unpractical. Battistelli declared to “Managing IP” that it is more important for the Boards of Appeal to be located in premises other that the EPO building than in a different city in order for them to achieve the perception of their independence.

(Christina Schulze, Mathieu Klos)

It doesn’t seem to matter to Battistelli what the Administrative Council says; by failing to fill vacant positions he already does whatever he wants. No wonder one board judge dared to open his mouth and is alleged to have communicated with delegates (that’s his real ‘crime’). No wonder some among the delegates apparently chose to leak to us, seeing how Battistelli bullies delegates too.

Some believe that Battistelli isn’t interested in the boards’ independence; he’s just not interested in the boards at all and some say it’s because of the Unitary Patent. Incidentally, see this recent paper (letter) titled “Unitary Patent and the Pending Spanish Cases (C‑146/13; C-147/13): An Open Letter to the Judges of the European Union”. To quote the abstract (with our emphasis in bold): “This is a letter which is addressed to the judges of the European Union regarding the pending cases of [Spain v. Parliament and Council] that examine the validity of EU Regulation No 1257/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2012 implementing enhanced cooperation in the area of the creation of unitary patent protection and that of EU Regulation No 1260/2012 of 17 December 2012 implementing enhanced cooperation in the area of the creation of unitary patent protection with regard to the applicable translation arrangements. It analyses the opinion of Attorney General Bot and, in particular, it focuses on i) the absence of judicial review of the European Patent Office, around which the EU Regulations revolve; ii) the underlying aim for uniform patent law, as envisaged in Article 118 TFEU, on which the EU Regulations rest; iii) the autonomy and uniformity of European Union law, as affected by the European Patent Office and the European Unified Patent Court; iv) the human rights implications involved.”

Is there someone left who can actually overthrow the tyrant, Benoît Battistelli, along with the Battistelli agenda? He clearly believes that he is above the law and it’s not hard to who he is working for. █

Insensitivity at the EPO’s Management – Part II: Patent Office as a Cancer

Posted in Europe, Patents at 5:47 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Cancer letter

Summary: The EPO’s stance on cancer recalled, in light of an altercation from 2013 (patent application no. EP03017743.0, appeal number T0598/12-3.3.02)

THE management of the EPO has resorted to what we consider both unethical and potentially illegal tactics. Union busting has taken such a high priority that every trick out of the book has been harnessed, with help from external (contracted) firms.

During Christmas we were contacted by a person who is able to show us just how jaw-dropping the EPO’s management can be with regards (or disregard) to cancer. As a preparatory item, consider the following letter, which is nearly a couple of years old (emphasis with large fonts is ours):

Brussels, March 12th, 2014

M. Benoît Battistelli
President – European Patent Office
Erhardtstr. 27
80469 Munich
Germany

Dear M. Battistelli,

My name is Francesco De Lorenzo and I am the President of the European Cancer Patient Coalition – ECPC, which represents 345 cancer patient organizations in 47 countries.

ECPC regularly engages with its members, EU institutions and international health and cancer care stakeholders to protect and enhance cancer patients’ rights in Europe, making sure that the voice of European citizens, affected by cancer, is heard.

That is why we are addressing you to express our concerns regarding the recent decision from the European Patent Office (EPO), Patent application no. EP03017743.0, appeal number T0598/12-3.3.02 on whether a clinical trial invalidates the request for a new drug patent.

“That is why we are addressing you to express our concerns regarding the recent decision from the European Patent Office (EPO), Patent application no. EP03017743.0, appeal number T0598/12-3.3.02 on whether a clinical trial invalidates the request for a new drug patent.”We believe that EPO’s position on the matter should take in due consideration the effects it will have on the future treatment of cancer patients and their ability to dispose of new and innovative drugs. We are concerned, in fact, that EPO’s current interpretation of the matter may make clinical trials more difficult to carry out and hence undermine critical innovation in medicine.

Clinical trials are research studies conducted on patients to evaluate the safety and efficacy of medicines intended to improve their health and provide the necessary scientific data and information to develop new medicines. ECPC believes that patent policy should encourage innovation, particularly innovation arising from clinical trials. A clinical trial cannot and should not be construed as a patent defeating disclosure. Should this happen, there will eventually be serious implications for the development of life-saving medicines.

“We are concerned, in fact, that EPO’s current interpretation of the matter may make clinical trials more difficult to carry out and hence undermine critical innovation in medicine.”Patients are not only a fundamental partner in the development of new drugs, but they are also those who will finally benefit from the innovation process. In particular, we strongly believe that it is natural that a patient may discuss his/her participation or clinical experience with their physician and family members. It is clear that patients participating in clinical trials should not be considered as members of the public, but rather key collaborators and important and voluntary participants of the trial. However, given their particular situation and knowledge level, patients cannot be compared either to other clinical trials actors, such as researchers. Hence patients cannot share the same confidentiality responsibility as researchers: this would, in fact, represent an unfair burden over the patients’ shoulders, which does not match patients’ level of biomedical and scientific understanding of clinical trials nor the reason for which they participate in them.

“ECPC believes that patent policy should encourage innovation, particularly innovation arising from clinical trials. A clinical trial cannot and should not be construed as a patent defeating disclosure.”Aside from the pure legal perspective, it is to be expected that EPO decision on the 2013 case mentioned before, if implemented, will lead to reduced transparency and/or delay of implementation of new clinical trials, which are both to the detriment of patients’ interests. Reducing transparency will threaten the access to investigational drugs that clinical trials provide for patients. This access is of critical importance for cancer patients, particularly for those whose only treatment option may be a clinical trial.

Alternatively, delaying clinical trials until patent applications are filed, will add undue delay to the very time consuming process of developing a new medicine that could improve patients’ lives. Such patent policy also excludes any innovation that arises during a clinical trial.

“Aside from the pure legal perspective, it is to be expected that EPO decision on the 2013 case mentioned before, if implemented, will lead to reduced transparency and/or delay of implementation of new clinical trials, which are both to the detriment of patients’ interests.”In conclusion, we strongly believe that the invention or findings related to a clinical trial should not be considered as “made available to the public” only because patients participate actively to the aforementioned trial. The patients’ unique status, in between collaborators and beneficiaries, makes them a key and vulnerable stakeholder, whose necessities are to be protected. Therefore, we would be glad to engage with EPO and all other relevant stakeholders in order to re-discuss the legal status and responsibilities of patients enrolled in clinical trials.

ECPC also believes that research should be encouraged and that public policy should remove barriers to the conduct of clinical trials, while keeping very high security standards and ensuring ethical conduct.

We hope that you will re-examine the decision in question for the benefit of patients. We remain at your disposal to further discuss the issue.

Sincerely,

Prof. F. De Lorenzo

To see how this relates to the series as a whole stay tuned for future parts. It is clear that patent scope has gone awry at the EPO, for the sake of protectionism, greed, and profit. Remember this when the EPO make claims on “productivity” (however misleading these claims can be) and ponder what this really translates into. █

12.25.15

Links 25/12/2015: SolydXK Linux Christmas Release, Wine 1.9

Posted in News Roundup at 5:25 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

Free Software/Open Source

  • 49 Open Source Office Tools

    The good thing about open source office tools: you can use them to save major cost in office productivity. As you’ll see on the list below, some of these free office tools replace highly expensive commercial software. In some cases, a business could equip itself for thousands of dollars less.

    In many ways, the following list of open source office tools shows just how far open source has progressed in the last several years. And, always, if you have recommendations to add to this list, use the Comments section below. Happy downloading!

  • 5 things you should know about the plan to open source artificial intelligence

    Arguably, the open source movement — the idea that a group of technologists freely contributing their own work and commenting on the work of others, can create a final product that is comparable with anything that a commercial enterprise might create — has been one of the great innovation catalysts of the technology industry.

  • Web Browsers

    • Mozilla

      • Mozilla 2016 Outlook: Promising Despite Funding, Competitive Woes

        For Mozilla, 2015 has been a year of large challenges, with a shift in funding sources and increasing competitive pressures across the desktop and mobile markets. The biggest challenges for Mozilla, however, are likely yet to come in 2016.

      • Exclusive: Mozilla working on a tablet a stickTV, an intelligent keyboard and a router

        We mentioned earlier that Mozilla’s Firefox os isn’t dead. Mozilla has some great plans for firefox os. These internal documents obtained by Hypertext shows the future of Mozilla Firefox preparing detailed OS beyond smartphones and include Panasonic TVs & these documents detail the new plans of Mozilla.

      • Adding Community-Driven Wayland Support to Servo

        It’s been some time since the last Servo article on the OSG blog, but this has no relation to the speed at which the browser engine’s development has been progressing.

        In the last post, the Offscreen Rendering (OSR) integration status was explored, culminating in both some code snippets as well as videos of an embedded browser application. That post can be considered the foundation for the recently-tweeted screenshot of Servo running with Wayland support.

      • The next 12 months will change Firefox’s add-on landscape fundamentally

        A lot is going on at Mozilla, makers of the popular Firefox web browser. In the next 12 months, the organization plans to make fundamental changes to the Firefox web browser which affect core features of the browser including its add-on ecosystem.

      • Divergent News on FirefoxOS

        I said good-bye to my FirefoxOS phone because of Mozilla’s decision to stop the distribution of the devices.

      • Open letter to Mozilla: Bring back Persona

        It was on the news this mroing, Mozilla will stop developing FirefoxOS phones, and the top Hacker News comment really resonated with me. Sure, IoT is the future, and it would be great if we had more nifty stuff there (shameless IoT privacy plug), but these headlines make the bad taste that I’ve had in my mouth ever since Mozilla shuttered Persona stronger, and I can’t stay silent any more.

      • Temporary add-on loading coming to Firefox

        Andy McKay, Engineering Manager at Mozilla, announced yesterday on the official add-ons blog that Mozilla would implement temporary add-on loading in its Firefox web browser.

  • CMS

  • BSD

    • A BSD Wish List for 2016

      First things first: I know that the wide number of variants in the BSD family are primarily aimed at servers. That said, it’s clearly understandable that with the exception of PC-BSD and BSD variants like GhostBSD, desktop/laptop users are not the primary focus in the BSD constellation. I get that, and regardless I am still using it for about 80 percent of my overall computing needs, and still using it on a daily basis on my go-to daily laptop.

    • FreeBSD and Linux servers

      Linux server distributions get compared all the time. And in the end, the discussion typically ends up around CentOS (from RHEL) and Ubuntu (from Debian). Why is this? When Rackspace discusses Linux server options, many more distributions are mentioned: Gentoo, Arch, Fedora, etc. Let’s focus on Gentoo and Arch.

    • The Most Popular BSD Stories Of 2015

      While we primarily focus on Linux operating system news and releases, I do enjoy watching the *BSD space and covering their major events. This year has saw some great updates for DragonFlyBSD, FreeBSD, and friends. Here’s a look at the most popular BSD news on Phoronix for 2015.

    • Problems with Systemd and Why I like BSD Init by Randy Westlund

      For my part, I’m not a fan of systemd but I also don’t think it’s the end of the world. I watched a great interview with Lennart on the Linux Action Showabout why he implemented it, and he had some good reasons. To write a daemon for Linux, you need to maintain a different init script for each distro because they all put things in different places. And sysVinit isn’t the best with dependencies. Developing things for the Linux desktop is not as easy as it could be, due in large part to the fragmentation.

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

    • Intel PKU Instruction Support Lands In GCC

      Just a few days ago I was writing about LLVM working on PKU memory protection keys. It seems now GCC has support for Intel’s PKU instructions.

      PKU Memory Protection Keys are going to be a feature of future Intel CPUs as explained in the aforelinked article and with them come new PDPKRU and WRPKRU instructions. With this commit today to the mainline GNU Compiler Collection, it appears GCC has now support for these new PKU instructions.

    • What are the best plugins to increase productivity on Emacs

      Over a year ago now, I went looking for the best plugins to turn Vim into a full-fledged IDE. Interestingly, a lot of the comments on that post were about how Emacs already has most of these plugins built in, and was already a great IDE. Although I can only agree about Emacs’ incredible versatility, it is still not the ultimate editor when it comes out of the box. Thankfully, its vast plugin library is here to fix that. But among the plethora of options available to you, it is sometimes hard to know where to start. So for now, let me try to assemble a short list of the indispensable plugins to increase your productivity while using Emacs. Although I am heavily geared towards programming related productivity, most of these plugins would be useful to anyone for any usage.

    • The New GNU News Of 2015

  • Public Services/Government

    • Grenoble commits to free software

      Grenoble, France’s 16th largest city, is committed to the use of free software. This type of ICT solutions facilitaties the sharing of knowledge, empowers citizens and institutions and helps to cut costs, the city said in a statement. The city also sees free software as one of the tools to increase citizen participation.

    • Infrabel seeking support for range of open source solutions

      Infrabel, Belgium’s government-owned railway network management company, is requesting services and support for two enterprise Linux systems, Red Hat and Suse. Infrabel also seeks support many other open source solution, including network monitoring tools Logstash, Zabbix and Rsyslog, and Java applicatieserver Jboss (renamed WildFly).

    • Open source engine for Portugal’s online gazette

      Portugal’s online government gazette, Diário da República Eletrónico (DRE), runs on open source components, including enterprise content management system Liferay and Java application server Jboss (renamed WildFly). INCM, the country’s printing office and mint, is looking for IT services for these and other IT solutions. The two-year contract is estimated to be worth EUR 550,000.

    • Grenoble Set FREE

  • Programming

    • How GitHub is building a platform and supporting open source (podcast)

      We caught up with her recently to talk about how GitHub has evolved into a platform (and what it means to be a platform), how the company figures out which new features and products to build, and the role of open source software in stimulating innovation.

    • Perl 6 Is Ready For Release

      Perl 6 was unveiled back in October with plans to officially ship the Perl 6.0 for Christmas. Larry Wall and those involved in Perl 6 development have managed to deliver.

    • What’s new in Ruby 2.3?

      Ruby 2.3.0 will be released this Christmas, and the first preview release was made available a few weeks ago. I’ve been playing around with it and looking at what new features have been introduced.

    • Ruby 2.3 Released With New Language Features

      Ruby 2.3 features a frozen string literal pragma, a safe navigation operator, and more.

Leftovers

  • How to praise IT? Evangelize it

    For a lot of people within IT who’ve been at it for a while, it becomes very easy to continue doing your job and then at the end of a project move on to the next thing. Praise for success and hard work is a way to pause and assess what you’ve accomplished.

  • Science

    • Best of Opensource.com: Science

      This year has been another great one for open science. At Opensource.com we published several great stories about open science projects that are changing the way we research, collaborate, and solve problems.

  • Security

    • Thursday’s security updates
    • MMD-0047-2015 – SSHV: SSH bruter ELF botnet malware w/hidden process kernel module
    • Another “critical” “VPN” “vulnerability” and why Port Fail is bullshit

      The morning of November 26 brought me interesting news: guys from Perfect Privacy disclosed the Port Fail vulnerability, which can lead to an IP address leak for clients of VPN services with a “port forwarding” feature. I was indignant about their use of the word “vulnerability”. It’s not a vulnerability, just a routing feature: Traffic to VPN server always goes via ISP, outside of VPN tunnel. Pretty obvious thing, I thought, which should be known by any network administrator. Besides that, the note is technically correct, so nothing to worry about. But then the headlines came, and shit hit the fan.

    • Cracking Linux with the backspace key?

      The source of these reports is a mildly hype-ridden disclosure of a vulnerability in the GRUB2 bootloader by Hector Marco and Ismael Ripoll. It seems that hitting the backspace character at the GRUB2 username prompt enough times will trigger an integer underflow, allowing a bypass of GRUB2′s authentication stage. According to the authors, this vulnerability, exploitable for denial-of-service, information-disclosure, and code-execution attacks, “results in an incalculable number of affected devices.” It is indeed a serious vulnerability in some settings and it needs to be fixed. Unfortunately, some of the most severely affected systems may also be the hardest to patch. But language like the above leads reporters to write that any Linux system can be broken into using the backspace key, which stretches the truth somewhat.

  • Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

    • Yemen: 1 More Reason to Re-evaluate Toxic US-Saudi Alliance

      After almost a year of civil war, the conflicting forces in Yemen sat down on Dec. 15 in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss the prospect of finding a political solution to the conflict that has been raging since March 2015. While this is a necessary step towards ending the violence that has killed thousands, crippled infrastructure had led to a critical humanitarian crisis, so the peace talks should include a mechanism for rebuilding this impoverished nation. Saudi Arabia, which is responsible for most of the destruction with its relentless bombings, should be forced to pay for the terrible damage it has wrought. So should the United States.

    • When Terrorism becomes Counter-terrorism: The State Sponsors of Terrorism are “Going After the Terrorists”

      And now in an unusual about turn, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has configured a coalition of 34 mainly Muslim countries “to go after the Islamic state”. In a bitter irony, the key protagonists of this counterterrorism initiative endorsed by the “international community” are Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey, i.e. countries which have relentlessly supported “Islamic terrorism” from the very outset in close liaison with Washington. In the words of Hillary Clinton in her declassified Emails: “donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide.”

      Counter terrorism by the state sponsors of terrorism? A New Normal? The propaganda campaign appears to have reached an impasse.

  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife

    • It’s time for the private sector to buy in to the COP21

      THE 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) concluded on December 12 with the European Union and 195 countries agreeing on limiting greenhouse gas emissions to a point where the global temperature rise is capped at less than 2° C. The agreement has a strong basis in the principles of shared responsibility and transparency as well as collective oversight in the form of periodic assessments. This has finally brought the world’s governments (including those of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) together and has steered them in a clear direction for making a positive impact in the arena of climate change. But as vital as this development has been, government action cannot fix the problem alone. The private sector is a key participant in this endeavour: it is bigger, more agile, and more influential than any government, or even group of governments, could ever be.

    • To slow climate change, you have to start here

      The phrase “climate change” often summons images of exhaust-spewing trucks and coal plants blackening the skies.

      [...]

      But even people who’ll never visit the region should fear Indonesia’s flaming jungles. When the forest fires rage hardest, they can spew out more emissions per day than the entire US economy, according to the pro-conservation World Resources Institute.

      The fires briefly turned Indonesia — a largely impoverished, Muslim-majority archipelago — into the world’s worst polluter. During particularly smoky spells in September in October, Indonesia daily churned out more greenhouse gases than even China or the US.

      When Indonesia’s fires are tamed, the country is usually pegged as the sixth-worst offender, behind China, the United States, the European Union countries (which are counted as one bloc), India and Russia.

  • Privacy

    • Marc Andreessen: ‘In 20 years, every physical item will have a chip implanted in it’

      The hype around the Internet of Things has been rising steadily over the past five years. In tech analyst Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies report in 2015, the IoT is at the peak of “inflated expectations”, particularly for areas like the smart home, which involve controlling your lights, thermostat or TV using your mobile phone.

      But the era of sensors has only just dawned, according to renowned technology investor and internet pioneer Marc Andreessen. In 10 years, he predicts mobile phones themselves could disappear.

    • Australian government tells citizens to turn off two-factor authentication

      The Australian government has repeatedly called for citizens to turn off two-factor authentication (2FA) at its main digital government portal, myGov. The portal’s Twitter account has recently been updated several times with cute pictures encouraging holidaymakers to “turn off your myGov security codes” so that “you can spend more time doing the important things.”

      The portal is the place where Australian citizens can use and manage a number of governmental services, including health insurance, tax payments, and child support. In case of myGov, two-factor authentication is implemented by sending users text messages that contain one-time codes to complement their usual passwords.

    • NSA Helped British Spies Find Security Holes In Juniper Firewalls

      A TOP-SECRET document dated February 2011 reveals that British spy agency GCHQ, with the knowledge and apparent cooperation of the NSA, acquired the capability to covertly exploit security vulnerabilities in 13 different models of firewalls made by Juniper Networks, a leading provider of networking and Internet security gear.

      The six-page document, titled “Assessment of Intelligence Opportunity – Juniper,” raises questions about whether the intelligence agencies were responsible for or culpable in the creation of security holes disclosed by Juniper last week. While it does not establish a certain link between GCHQ, NSA, and the Juniper hacks, it does make clear that, like the unidentified parties behind those hacks, the agencies found ways to penetrate the “NetScreen” line of security products, which help companies create online firewalls and virtual private networks, or VPNs. It further indicates that, also like the hackers, GCHQ’s capabilities clustered around an operating system called “ScreenOS,” which powers only a subset of products sold by Juniper, including the NetScreen line. Juniper’s other products, which include high-volume Internet routers, run a different operating system called JUNOS.

    • User Data Portability and Privacy – Comment on Recent News

      Anyway, I am happy that KDE signed the User Data Manifesto 2.0 a few months ago. Why wait for official legislation when we can do the right thing right now?

    • Resuming GPG

      Quite possibly Moxie Marlinspike is right, but for non-casual communications this can still be useful.

    • State considered harmful – A proposal for a stateless laptop (new paper)

      Two months ago I have published a detailed survey of various security-related problems plaguing the Intel x86 platforms. While the picture painted in the paper was rather depressing, I also promised to release a 2nd paper discussing — what I believe to be — a reasonably simple and practical solution addressing most of the issues discussed in the 1st paper. Today I’m releasing this 2nd paper.

      I think it is the first technical paper I’ve written which is not backed by a working proof-of-concept. Incidentally, it might also be one of the most important ones I have authored or co-authored.

  • Civil Rights

    • Media Reform Committee Considers a Crackdown on Online Media Using Article 44

      A junta appointed media reform committee is considering a new measure to control online media that incites “social unrest.”

      Pol.Maj.Gen Pisit Pao-in, the former commander of the Technology Crime Suppression Division who now oversees the government’s ‘reform’ of online media, said on Dec. 24 that he would ask to use the power of Article 44 to crack down on online media, including content deemed to be affecting national security and/or defaming the monarchy.

      Article 44 of the interim constitution grants junta chairman Prayuth Chan-ocha a power to enact any laws or take action to protect “national interests” and “national security.”

      After the talk between the media reform committee and police today, Pisit said representatives from Google are scheduled to meet the committee for a discussion on Jan. 14 and again on Jan. 21. According to the officer, these meetings will be followed by further meetings with representatives from Facebook and the messaging app, LINE, at as yet unspecified dates.

  • Internet/Net Neutrality

    • Why No to Free Basics by Facebook!

      There are other successful models (this,this,this) for providing free Internet access to people, without giving a competitive advantage to Facebook. Free Basics is the worst of our options.

      Facebook doesn’t pay for Free Basics, telecom operators do. Where do they make money from? From users who pay. By encouraging people to choose Free Basics, Facebook reduces the propensity to bring down data costs for paid Internet access.

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Copyrights

      • Pirate Bay co-founder builds device that costs the music industry $10,000,000 a day

        Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde has created a device that he believes is costing the music industry $10 million a day, reports TorrentFreak.

        The ‘Kopimashin’, seen in the video below makes 100 copies of the Gnarls Barkley song ‘Crazy’ and sends them all to /dev/null – a technical term meaning the files are deleted as soon as they are saved.

      • Pirate Bay Founder Builds The Ultimate Piracy Machine

        Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde served his prison sentence last year but still owes the entertainment industries millions in damages. Some might think that he’s learned his lesson, but with a newly built copying machine he’s generating millions of extra ‘damages,’ which might be worth a mention in the Guinness Book of Records.

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