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02.17.16

A Short Visit to Pro-Patents (or Patent Maximalism) Sites of Patent Lawyers and Patent Predators

Posted in Patents at 9:16 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

When your income comes from (in)famous patent trolls

NPE 2015

Summary: Critique of the ‘content’ and angle from sites for (and by) patent maximalists, notably IAM ‘magazine’

THE EPO and EPO-funded media are not a source of information but they are often the target of criticism or ridicule. Now that the EPO promotes monopolies on plants (to increase the number of granted patents, irrespective of the overall impact on society) we wish to highlight CEVA et al with their pro-GMO (i.e. patent monopoly) agenda, as covered in IP Watch the other day [1]. This is a fantastic example of the harms of patent maximalism — something that EPO-funded sites sure love and even take pride in. Let’s look at IAM ‘magazine’, based on the past few days’ articles.

“It glorifies what the site profits from, but at whose expense?”“IP Hall of Fame” is a term like that’s being used by IAM right now. Like “Monopoly of fame” or “Protectionism of the year”, one has to be pretty brainwashed to really ‘dig’ into that. Then again, what can be expected from a site which targets ‘IP’ lawyers? It glorifies what the site profits from, but at whose expense?

According to this article, the patent troll of Ericsson still attacks Android OEMs (impacting Linux, by extension). To quote: “The IPKat has been aware for some time that the Patents Court, in the person of Mr Justice Birss, has been devoting considerable time to a series of cases concerning mobile phone technology (Unwired Planet v Huawei and Samsung).”

“BlackBerry, despite its embrace of Android, will quite likely troll other Android OEMs with patents.”According to IAM, BlackBerry is now acting somewhat like a troll, much as we foresaw and predicted. But IAM uses terms like “monetisation”, which are effectively euphemisms (how about “corporate foodchain” as a euphemism?). To quote: “When BlackBerry concluded a cross-licensing agreement with Cisco last June, with a provision for the Californian company to pay an on-going royalty, this blog stated that the deal could mark the start of the Canadian telecoms and wireless business becoming a major player in the patent monetisation space.”

BlackBerry, despite its embrace of Android, will quite likely troll other Android OEMs with patents. Microsoft, according to this IAM report, is hoarding LG patents that it can later use to extort (or tax) Android devices more than it already does. To quote IAM, “20 US assets covering mobile telecoms assigned to Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC; also 44 assets on 9th April.”

“…there is already patent trolling in China, but the opaque court system changes all the risk equations…”
      – James SalsmanThe euphemism “monetisation” again appeared in IAM around the same time, in relation to China’s SIPO. The lenient patent system in China (like USPTO in the US) could bring in the trolls; maybe that’s what what “monetisation” now means in IAM (if not NPE). As Jack Ellis put it, in order to sell the “monetisation” (trolls) agenda in China (shaming tactics): “Protectionist, biased, anti-foreigner: those are kinds of labels that are often attached to China’s IP enforcement system by rights holders from outside of the country.”

As James Salsman ‏put it when asked, “there is already patent trolling in China, but the opaque court system changes all the risk equations [...] I lived in Shanghai working at @EFLabs where patents prevented pronunciation intelligibility remediation software improvements” (the latter, with context, can be found here).

The bottom line is, the Web continues to be saturated with coverage about patent matters composed by people who profit from it. Some even receive money from patent offices. Therein exists a real, profound problem. Public interests are ignored at best and habitually trampled. It’s everyone’s ethical imperative to change that, or else very few people will hoard all the wealth and many productive human activities (such as sharing, trade, invention and manufacturing) will effectively be banned except when permitted by those few wealth hoarders. █

Related/contextual items from the news:

  1. FAO Symposium On Agricultural Biotech Raises Lobbying Concerns

    At issue, according to a joint press release (Via Campesina, Grain, and ETC Group), is the agenda, which they find unbalanced as it includes speakers from industry such as, the Biotechnology Industry Organization, CropLife International, and CEVA among others, which they say are promoting GMOs, while they found only one speaker openly critical of GMOs.

Lexmark Demonstrates Patents Against Public Interests and Against Competition

Posted in America, Patents at 8:37 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Ink
See original article

Summary: A review of press coverage regarding the Lexmark patent case, where gross overpricing of ink was defended by the Federal Circuit

THE news has been dominated, to some degree, by reports about the Federal Circuit doing a disservice to society (yet again).

As the EFF put it this week: “The Federal Circuit’s rule privileges patent owners over consumers, and helps ensure even less competition in the resale market. We hope the Supreme Court takes a hard look at this case, and restores consumers’ rights in products they purchase.”

“The Federal Circuit’s rule privileges patent owners over consumers, and helps ensure even less competition in the resale market.”
      –EFFWithout a doubt, many lawyers’ firms and lawyers’ sites are writing about it right now, e.g. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14].

Worth noting is the fact that legal sites wrote like 10 times more articles than general news sites (or technology sites) about this case, e.g. [1, 2]. A lot of people don’t ‘get’ patents; neither do journalists. They’d use silly phrases like “invent patents” or “make patents”. The propaganda worked on them.

“Here, the court held that this type of restriction is enforceable for Lexmark, but only because Lexmark’s product is covered by patent rights.”
      –Dennis CrouchHere is the best report we’ve found on this subject (so far). TechDirt, which has covered this subject for over a decade (going back to 2004 if not earlier), wrote: “if you fail to block competition with one kind, apparently you can try, try again with another kind — and eventually you’ll end up in the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, who will mess everything up and kill off the competition. Printer company Lexmark has been at war with alternative suppliers of ink for well over a decade. As you may be aware, printer ink is sold at a ridiculously high markup, such that one estimate (from over a decade ago) noted that in order to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool with printer ink, it would cost you $5.9 billion (yes, with a “b”) at the checkout counter of your local office-supply retailer. The printer makers have notably taken a “give away cheap crappy printers at a low cost, and make it up in seriously overpricing the ink” strategy to their businesses. This kind of thing works great until someone tries to step in and sell competing ink.”

Suffice to say, this case is about keeping the prices artificially high (higher by several orders of magnitude than the production cost). A response posted by Dennis Crouch said: “I was surprised at the en banc Federal Circuit’s decision in Lexmark to re-affirm Mallinckrodt — giving a seller power to block future resale and reuse of a patented product. My surprise is grounded in the longstanding tradition in American property law of promoting the free-flow of commerce by refusing to enforce servitudes that limit the alienation or use of goods. To be clear, courts have often enforced contracts between willing parties to this end, but those same courts have refused to allow restrictive covenants to cling to the good and bind any subsequent purchaser. Here, the court held that this type of restriction is enforceable for Lexmark, but only because Lexmark’s product is covered by patent rights.”

“Remember that CAFC is responsible for many other equally tactless decisions.”It was not the first time that Crouch’s blog covered this case in recent days (we mentioned this a few times in last week’s posts). Basically, Lexmark twists and bends the law for price-fixing/price hikes. Other companies, such as HP, would no doubt benefit from this, at the expense of the public. To quote Crouch’s blog: “The presumptions are of some importance for those operating on the ground. Here, the US court will presume that foreign sales of a product do not exhaust the US patent right. Thus, an importer must obtain a release/license of those rights to avoid liability (assuming a valid and otherwise infringed patent). Of course, that license right may be implied based upon providing notice of the importation intent. In addition, depending upon the location of sale, UCC 2-312 (or its foreign equivalent) may create a presumption of license depending upon the situation.”

When laws are being passed to protect the business models or large corporations at the expense of the public, are the laws at all legitimate? Should we not feel free to challenge them or better yet, engage in civil disobedience? Remember that CAFC is responsible for many other equally tactless decisions. It was also CAFC that got software patents started, not just in the US but in the whole world. In the past we showed evidence of institutional corruption inside CAFC. █

“A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”

–Oscar Wilde

Patent Lawyers and EPO Officials Are Parading the Unitary Patent (UPC) in, Despite Lack of Democratic Process

Posted in Europe, Patents at 8:03 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

The UPC is a Trojan horse of patent profiteers

Trojan horse

Summary: The Unitary Patent Court (UPC), the latest name of a decade-long effort to increase litigation, damages, injunctions, trolling etc. inside Europe, is being railroaded through the system like a Trojan horse, relying on public apathy (as the public does not know anything about its existence and the harsh reality)

THE UPC, which we wrote about 4 days ago, is a very big deal for the EPO‘s management. It even sponsored a pro-UPC propaganda event in the US, to take place just days from now with help from patent lawyers and patent lawyers' media. This isn’t democracy, it’s a coup d’état which merely serves to discredit European democracy.

Amerikat (Ward) from IP Kat continues her push for UPC as if it’s already a done deal (it’s not) and some “IP & Technology lawyer” promotes this UPC coup which European citizens never got to vote on. It’s not just women doing this, but it’s almost always patent lawyers, which is quite revealing, is it not? “ADR is also part of the new European #patent framework. Draft #UPC mediation rules now published,” the latter wrote.

Benjamin Henrion (FFII) responded by saying: “Rules cannot be written by an administrative committee.”

“…in the worst case, they will just copy/paste the rules and ask parliaments to rubberstamp.”
      –Benjamin Henrion (FFII)“Unitary Patent Court rules and laws cannot be made by an administrative committee,” he later added, “only by elected parliaments” (“don’t worry,” I said, “they can always just bribe some politicians to sign off the rules they pass to them for signing”).

A pro-patents account then jumped in to say: “It is supposed to be monitored by EU Council whose members are supposed to be monitored by elected parliaments, monitored by people.”

“When was the UPC ever monitored by people other than patent lawyers [and] other profiteers,” I responded, comparing them to foxes in the hen house. At this stage Henrion said “that’s stealing democracy. There are clear ECHR rulings on this.”

“Well, it’s not like the patent lawyers always honestly cared about law,” I responded, “they game it!” That’s what they do for a living, that is what people pay them a lot of money for.

As Henrion put it, “in the worst case, they will just copy/paste the rules and ask parliaments to rubberstamp.”

Then, “patentlyGerman” (his occupation isn’t hard to guess) said: “The Munich local div of the #UPC will be housed in a boring, but centrally located building” (patent lawyers and propagandists say “will”, not “would”, as if UPC is already unstoppable and inevitable).

“UPC is a Trojan horse that European citizens neither want nor need (at least those who even know it exists and understand what it’s for).”Thankfully, as some people come to realise, Spain is doing the right thing by rejecting the UPC, in spite of political blackmail.

Show us anyone other than patent lawyers (or the EPO) promoting the UPC and we shall award with a prize. All we have here is a coup d’état. UPC is a Trojan horse that European citizens neither want nor need (at least those who even know it exists and understand what it’s for).

UPC is a spit in the face of European democracy. It’s time for more sites (not sites of patent lawyers) to openly talk about it and properly inform the public. █

Links 17/2/2016: Vulkan 1.0, GNU C Library Vulnerability

Posted in News Roundup at 7:35 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • What’s in the Box? Interrogate Your Linux Machine’s Hardware

    I recently had a problem trying to install the NVIDIA driver for my machine. It seemed the latest driver had stopped supporting my graphics card, and after updating my kernel, I was out of a driver. The question, obviously, was “which card did I have?” But, I didn’t remember. If you have to name the chipset of your motherboard, specify the CPU in your box or get any other kind of hardware-related information, Linux provides several utilities to help you. In my case, I quickly could get the full ID of my graphics card, confirm that it really was getting a bit long in the tooth and decide that a newer one wasn’t such a bad idea.

  • Kernel Space

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments/WMs

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

    • GNOME Desktop/GTK

      • Endless and GNOME

        As you may have heard, Endless joined the GNOME Foundation Advisory Board last week. We appreciate all the kind words of welcome we have received and are looking forward to strengthening our ties with this community. This has been a coming for a bit, and I’m looking forward for us to contribute more over the coming year!

        [...]

        We can’t do this alone. We are looking for some great engineers to join our team. If this mission sounds great and you’re interested in working with us, let us know! We are looking for people who are passionate about bringing a great desktop to the rest of the world while developing some high-quality Free Software.

      • You Can Now Edit OpenStreetMap Info In GNOME Maps

        OpenStreetMap is a free, collaborative project to create an easily editable map of the world — the Wikipedia of maps, if you will.

        Version 3.20 of the desktop mapping tool will see other improvements too, including improved translation behaviour and support for custom geo-json map layers.

      • GNOME Maps 3.20 Now Available for Beta Testing with OpenStreetMap Editing

        The GNOME Project is about to come up with the first Beta build of the upcoming major release of the open source desktop environment for GNU/Linux operating systems, GNOME 3.20, so they’re updating most of the core apps and components.

  • Distributions

    • Four Linux Distributions For Chromebook Lovers

      Chromebooks have been generated quite some buzz in the last couple of years. The main advantage for Chromebooks is that these are inexpensive laptops with modest hardware and are good looking as well.

      Chromebooks are based on Google’s web-oriented Chrome OS. While Chrome OS itself is based on the Linux kernel, it is not really the same experience as full desktop Linux. There are ways to install Linux on Chromebook, but I am not going to talk about those today. Instead, I am going to list four Linux distributions which are either meant for Chromebooks or they imitate the looks of Chrome OS.

    • Lay down a beat with LMMS

      One thing that confuses some new Linux users is just how modular Linux can be, and on nearly every level. It turns out to be liberating in the end, but it can be overwhelming at first. That’s why it’s nice, sometimes, to come across a project that brings a bunch of modular technology and binds them together nice and neatly for users. In the world of digital audio workstations, the project that does this most profoundly is the Linux Multimedia Studio, better known as LMMS.

    • Reviews

      • Top 5 Best Security-Centric Linux Distributions Of 2016

        Staying anonymous on the Internet might not necessarily mean the same as surfing the web safely but rather keeping yourself safe from prying eyes that may otherwise take advantage of the vulnerability of your system thereby exposing you and your data for whomever might just be up for the grabbing – especially some hacker snooping around for sensitive data to hoard (particularly if you’re being targeted) and use for otherwise evil purposes that can have some serious effects on the violated individual.

    • New Releases

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandriva Family

      • PCLinuxOS: the walking dead

        If you thought that this review would continue with the usual sections like keyboard setup, list of applications, network drive connectivity and so on, I must disappoint you.

        My time with PCLinuxOS KDE 2014.12 finished at that point. I see no reason to test a distribution that is so narrow-minded that it cannot allow users outside of the US to use it out of the box, and that does not bother with updating their core ISO image. There are plenty of distributions that work much better than PCLinuxOS.

      • PCLOS Rebuttal, Live Long and Game, TDF@4

        The big story today in Linux news was the release of the long awaited Vulkan graphics API. The news was carried by just about everyone. Elsewhere, blogger DarkDuck said PCLinuxOS is “the walking dead” and a critical vulnerability in glibc has experts warning to upgrade immediately. SUSE announced SUSECon today and Charles-H. Schulz blogged about the “unusual” LibreOffice 5.1 release on this The Document Foundation’s fourth birthday.

    • Ballnux/SUSE

    • Red Hat Family

      • Rackspace Adds Hosted Red Hat OpenStack to Cloud Services

        Rackspace has added a new OpenStack-as-a-Service option in partnership with Red Hat (RHT), whose enterprise Linux distribution powers the new cloud platform.

        Rackspace announced the platform Thursday. It’s pitching it as a key step in the “company’s strategy to deliver the most reliable and easy-to-use OpenStack private and hybrid clouds in the world.”

      • Tech Stocks to Focus: Intuit Inc. (INTU), Red Hat Inc (RHT)
      • Red Hat Inc (RHT) Cut to “Hold” at TheStreet

        TheStreet lowered shares of Red Hat Inc (NYSE:RHT) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Thursday morning, Marketbeat reports.

      • What Analysts say about Red Hat Inc (NYSE:RHT)?

      • Fedora

        • Neville Cross: How do you Fedora?

          Neville Cross is a Nicaraguan hotel manager who has a passion for technology. He has an Amateur Radio license, and was doing stuff with packet radio (ax.25 protocol) in 2008. That made him look for help in the local Linux community. As he used Red Hat Linux for a while in 2000, it was natural for him to take a look at Fedora. Instead of getting help, he got involved in the local FOSS community, especially in the Fedora local group. At that moment, others Linux distributions had strong support from the international community, but Fedora did not. So he took on the challenge to close the gap. That is how Cross originally showed up in Fedora landscape many years ago.

    • Debian Family

      • FOSSASIA 2016, pgDay Asia 2016 and MiniDebConf Singapore

        The FOSSASIA 2016 conference is taking place next month, 18-20 March at the Science Centre Singapore. The FOSSASIA community has also offered to host a MiniDebConf Singapore 2016 and pgDay Asia 2016. With sufficient interest from volunteers and participants, these events could do a lot to raise the profile of free software in the region.

      • Open Source Maru OS Promises Debian Linux for Smartphones and Tablets

        The open source ecosystem for mobile devices has grown larger with the announcement of a new Linux-based operating system for smartphones in the form of Maru OS, which is now open source.

        Maru is a Debian-based operating system that lets you run a complete desktop environment from a smartphone. By connecting it to an external display, you get what looks like a traditional, full-blown Debian GNU/Linux system, while still having access to your Android phone.

      • Emmabuntüs 8 Debian Based Beta Released

        Emmabuntüs is a desktop GNU/Linux distribution based on Xubuntu 12.04 and 14.04 LTS (Long Term Support) made specifically for refurbished computers destined for humanitarian organisationsand to promote the discovery of GNU/Linux by beginners, as well as to extend the lifespan of hardware and to reduce over consumption & waste in electronics. Emmabuntus 8 Beta is the first distro based on Debian in the memory of Ian Murdock, the founder of the Debian Project.

      • Derivatives

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • FairPhone 2 with Ubuntu Touch Is Making Progress

            FairPhone 2 is just one of the phones that are betting on Ubuntu Touch community ports, and it looks like the project is coming along.

            The ability to port Ubuntu Touch for various devices has been promoted by Canonical ever since the start of the project, more than three years ago but little has come of it. The community tries to make this happen, but it’s not like making Android run on other devices. It’s a complex problem that usually revolves around device drivers.

            The main problem that developers face when trying to make Ubuntu Touch run on various devices is the lack of driver support. We’ve seen many popular phones running Ubuntu over the years, but most projects stop when having to implement GSM or Bluetooth support. For example, one of the first phones to get Ubuntu Touch was a Samsung Galaxy S3, but nothing came of it.

          • ZFS Will Be Baked Directly into Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and Supported by Canonical

            We are only a couple of months away from the next major release of the world’s most popular free operating system, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus), and some of its neat new features are yet to be revealed.

            Canonical’s Dustin Kirkland writes today about one of the awesome things that will be implemented by default in the upcoming Linux-based distribution, ZFS, the robust file system that everyone talks about these days, which Canonical will bake directly into Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.

          • Ubuntu Touch OTA-9.1 Hotfix Still in the Works, Dekko Might Come with OTA-10

            Łukasz Zemczak of Canonical informs us earlier about the latest work done by the Ubuntu Touch development team in preparation for the soon-to-be-released OTA software updates for Ubuntu-powered devices.

          • Canonical Patches Severe Glibc DNS Vulnerability in All Supported Ubuntu OSes

            If you’ve been reading the news lately, you may know that Google Security Team and Red Hat have disclosed a severe Glibc (GNU C Library) vulnerability, which could affect a huge number of devices and computers.

          • ConsenSys, BlockApps, Canonical partner to deliver biometric digital identity tools on Ubuntu phones

            ConsenSys and BlockApps announced they have partnered with Canonical to deliver Nimbus uPort biometric digital identity tools on Ubuntu mobile phones and tablets.

            Canonical is the commercial sponsor of the Ubuntu project and the leading provider of support services for Ubuntu deployments in the enterprise.

          • Canonical’s ZFS Plans Are Lining Up For Ubuntu 16.04

            Ubuntu developers have been working on ZFS support for Ubuntu 16.04 and all of that file-system support is getting squared away.

          • [Older] New Ubuntu tablet claimed to serve as PC too

  • Devices/Embedded

    • How to build a $200 smart drone with the Pi Zero

      Erle Robotics, which I mentioned in last week’s piece about the increasingly important role of Linux in robotics, supplies cheap components for DIY Raspberry Pi projects. I got in touch with the makers at Erle this week to come up with a great tutorial for our readers.

    • Add a battery pack to your Raspberry Pi

      Your Raspberry Pi’s mobility is usually restricted by the length of the power lead. Rather than limiting it to your desk or living room, however, you can use it for mobile projects as diverse as launching it into near-Earth orbit or monitoring and automating your garden.

      Of course, to do this you will need batteries, but adding battery power to your Raspberry Pi is simpler than you might have imagined. All that is required are six rechargeable AA batteries (or single-charge alkaline), a battery box with space for the batteries and a UBEC. The latter is a Universal Battery Elimination Circuit, a voltage regulator that will regulate the power supply and prevent damage to the Raspberry Pi, and can be bought for under £10.

    • Reference platform simplifies wearable security camera designs

      Intrinsyc announced a reference design for wearable law enforcement and security cameras, featuring a Snapdragon 410 SoC running Android and a 13-MP camera.

    • Online dev tool adds DIY baseboard for RPi Compute Module

      Gumstix has added a Raspberry Pi Compute Module baseboard design to its online DIY board dev tool, and is selling working units based on the design for $49.

      Back in November, Gumstix opened up its Geppetto online DIY design tool and quick-turn prototype manufacturing service to the development of carrier boards for third-party SBCs and COMs based on TI Sitara AM335x SoCs. Supported non-Gumstix processor boards initially included BeagleBoard.org’s BeagleBone Black single-board computer, as well as Critical Link’s MitySOM-335x, and DAVE’s Diva AM335x computer-on-modules.

    • Phones

      • Tizen

        • Tizen smartphone sold 3 million units in 2015

          Samsung’s strategy of making its initial Tizen smartphones fall under the budget category seems to be working out quite well, as a recent report from market research agency Strategy Analytics claims that Samsung sold over 3 million Tizen smartphones in 2015! While the numbers may look huge, Samsung’s very own android devices from the J series proved to be a problem for the sales of Tizen based Z3 and Z1 launched in India.

      • Android

Free Software/Open Source

Leftovers

02.16.16

How the European Patent Office (EPO) is Crushing Staff Unions and Why EPO Staff Has a Moral Duty to Protest

Posted in Europe, Patents at 6:33 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

EPO Three Stooges

Summary: The attacks on staff unions at the EPO are explained with broader context, highlighting the severe abuses which come from above, so to speak, from people who shamelessly disregard the rule of law

TECHRIGHTS has written a great deal about the EPO‘s management, more so as a result of its unprecedented crushing of well-educated (and at times opinionated) staff. Critical or sceptical thinking should be a job requirement at the EPO, but apparently not under Battistelli. People are reduced to obedient peons who work like machines and never fall ill. Standards or procedures typically applicable to examination are out the door, depending on the size of the applicant (or “client”/”customer”). This is just wrong.

Instead of going after truly dangerous people such as Željko Topić (see our latest report about him), the EPO’s managers, who hired this incredible liability, is stubbornly fighting more aggressively, convinced that it should only be going after — ever more relentlessly and at growing doses — those whom management believes can lead to a revolt and perhaps a mass exodus, mass resignation/dismissal at the management level, or European raids at the Office (some members there, Topić included, already face many criminal charges). The last thing Battistelli et al want right now is Europol or Interpol showing up at the gate (Munich).

“I still have some hope for tomorrow,” wrote one particular reader to us regarding the Board 28 meeting (tomorrow in Germany). SUEPO said that “The Board 28 is the ultra-secretive think-tank of the Administrative Council.”

“You probably know about the rumours,” added this reader, “that they are negotiating his [Battistelli's] departure; but the rumour is not confirmed.”

While we generally have a good understanding of what happened, how, when and so on (too early to take all of this public), we cannot ever sympathise with what Battistelli and his goons have been doing. It’s them who should be facing a trial/s (or face the music as the saying goes), not mere messengers (the voice of the staff) like SUEPO. Topić is himself already embroiled in legal battles, but Battistelli and his clique try pretty hard to hide this from the staff. They even actively mislead the staff regarding the status of Topić’s court battles.

Ahead of tomorrow’s protest in Munich let’s just remind readers or explain once again (with additional details) what has been going on at the EPO.

“Read about cleansing of staff representatives and union leaders at EPO,” urged one person in a message to us. We have a lot of this documented with an index of articles in the Wiki. They not only went after staff representatives and union leaders. They even went after a judge. His alleged ‘crime’ is that he anonymously (for his own safety) spoke about the behaviour of Željko Topić. People who cannot understand the importance of such an (alleged) act surely don’t know what Željko Topić has done. There’s a reason why people in Croatia hate Topić so much. They’re up in arm and they cannot quite grasp the EPO’s decision to recruit him. Maybe a language barrier prevented the H.R. folks from doing their homework.

“There’s a reason why people in Croatia hate Topić so much. They’re up in arm and they cannot quite grasp the EPO’s decision to recruit him.”“The EPO conducts secretive investigations against them [staff representatives],” told us a person, “in which they cannot bring a lawyer, do not know the charges in advance, lack the right to remain silent, and cannot even disclose that they are being investigated. During the investigations, they are bullied into confessions about themselves and others. If they are not cooperative, charges are trumped up against them, followed by mock trials in a disciplinary committee. EPO confiscates their personal belongings like cell phones and PCs, so that evidence can later be “found” on them, in the absence of the accused.”

Go ahead and hypothesise/theorise about what may be on a USB drive (or stick) of someone who wants to access the Web anonymously. Such drives swap/change hands (different people sharing the same media). They may, among other things, include anonymity software, and some people who desperately require such software may wish to disseminate material which the State deems hateful. All we are trying to say is, when you seize vast troves of data (like complete PCs) you can spend months constructing a false story about a person (or scapegoat). The same goes for mass surveillance in general and as Edward Snowden once put it (to paraphrase from memory), given enough data one can frame it (by omission or ambiguity) to support some imaginary story about one’s life. It wouldn’t be hard, in retrospect (with access to extensive piles of personal data), to smear a person or even justify a lethal drone strike against a person. This is one of the many known dangers (to a democratic society) that mass surveillance poses. Just look what the Stasi did in Germany.

“If they are not cooperative, charges are trumped up against them, followed by mock trials in a disciplinary committee. EPO confiscates their personal belongings like cell phones and PCs, so that evidence can later be “found” on them, in the absence of the accused.”
      –Anonymous“No wonder they get ill,” wrote a person to us, alluding to staff representatives. “Find below some staff representatives who got punished recently. This list is not complete.”

  • Annete K exposed human right breaches of EPO. She is a lawyer. As soon as she left the staff committee, and thus lost protection, she was expelled into early retirement against her will.
  • Also Aurélien P and Mikael L got suspended and downgraded as their mandate with the appeals committee ended. This happened after years of loyal service in the appeals committee.
  • Els H is SUEPO’s chairperson. She was first downgraded and then fired based on false charges. Against the advice of the disciplinary committee, her pension was cut by 20%, a pension for which she paid for 30 years.
  • Ion B is SUEPO’s former chair. In the same week, also he was fired based on false charges. The disciplinary committee explicitly advised against his dismissal. Ion B has 5 children. His colleagues now support him financially.
  • Still in the same week, Malika W got downgraded. Coincidence, huh?
  • Laurent P occupies leading positions for staff representation and SUEPO. After being pressurized and summoned by the investigative unit on 13 November 2015, he is on sick leave as certified by his doctor. The EPO refuses to pay his salary, and pressurizes him even while ill. His colleagues now support him financially.

“Other staff representatives are targeted,” we’ve learned, but we already knew that. We named some of them earlier today and we are aware of even more. It’s clearly a witch-hunt. The pattern cannot be mistaken for a “coincidence”. Willy Minnoye was lying on national television.

“This intimidation must stop,” the person told us, “and Battistelli should be told to leave.”

“Just for the record,” I responded, “I am aware of more people who have been targeted. This situation must be addressed as a matter of urgency to prevent more suicides and other irreparable damages.”

Speaking to another person we learned that Battistelli “is creating transparency” not by means of intentional transparency but rather by upsetting everyone and thus creating whistleblowers. By alienating everyone he himself made a lot more enemies. Even Directors now attend protests. The damage is irreversible for Battistelli. His days are probably numbered now. “It seems that you are becoming an expert even for EPO-internal matters,” this one person told us, but that’s probably because the EPO never figured out who we speak to (based on internal documents we saw). They’re clueless. In a sense, Minnoye’s nightmare is becoming a reality. Months ago Minnoye complained that documents had been leaking to blogs (he must have meant Techrights) and now it’s him who’s receiving a lot of unwanted attention. This is a sort of nonviolent blowback that they experience after viciously attacking their staff. They also targeted yours truly, as if suddenly the courts suit them.

By going to the protest tomorrow (or joining the imminent strike) staff will hit Battistelli, Topić, and Minnoye where it hurts. It helps demonstrate how terrible they are as managers, in spite of the high salaries. No doubt EPO management will continue to exercise what’s wrongly perceived as omnipotence, but without standing up to these machinations European society is assured to descend onto further oppressions. A German guy called Adolf once famously said, “demoralize the enemy from within by surprise, terror, sabotage, assassination.” The suicides epidemic isn’t assassination per se, but it serves a similar role, alongside union decapitation. █

“Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of democracy, as they undoubtedly are today…”

–Mahatma Gandhi quotes (Indian Philosopher, internationally esteemed for his doctrine of nonviolent protest, 1869-1948)

The European Patent Office (EPO) Openly Advocates Software Patents Despite the Rules

Posted in Europe, Patents at 1:33 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Patent maximalism under the Battistelli regime has become a cancer (and it negatively affects even cancer patients)

EPO for software patents

Summary: The EPO has reached a level of shamelessness so high that openly promoting monopolies on algorithms (software patents) is now generally regarded to be permissible and viewed as acceptable too

THE EPO is a hungry monster totally out of control. It serves large corporations and runs over anything which stands in its way. The EPO is probably the biggest embarrassment of the European Union, but the EPO is neither part of the European Union nor is it European. It often seems more like a conspiracy of large corporations and rich people, misleadingly disguised under the name “European” and a .org domain. The interests of European citizens just don’t matter at all and European SMEs barely count.

“The sheer arrogance of EPO managers seemingly lets them be all shameless about ignoring the rules and expanding patent scope to just about anything, in mindless pursuit of more patents (where quantity matters more than quality or collective economic value).”The EPO is promoting software patents again (the tweet above is only hours old). It doesn’t shock anyone among the campaigners against software patents because the EPO doesn’t mind the law (it blatantly admits this) and it does not follow the rules of the EPC, either.

“Don’t miss our workshop on patentable software in Europe on Wednesday 16 March at CeBIT,” wrote the above person in an official account (thus official statement), alluding to something which we covered here earlier this month.

What a nerve they have…

Over in the US, contrary to Europe, software patents are dying. Right now patent lawyers try to “Save Software Patents,” to use their own words (see today’s article titled “How Structural Claim Limitations Can Save Software Patents” — albeit it’s behind a paywall).

It’s no secret that Techrights was all along against software patents, but it was never in principle against the EPO until becoming aware of human rights abuses. The sheer arrogance of EPO managers seemingly lets them be all shameless about ignoring the rules and expanding patent scope to just about anything, in mindless pursuit of more patents (where quantity matters more than quality or collective economic value). █

Transcript of EPO Official Admitting on Television (Nieuwsuur Interview) That Courts Are of No Interest to Him

Posted in Site News at 1:05 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Courts are only of interest to the EPO’s management whenever it tries to intimidate and bully its critics

Willy Minnoye in interview

Summary: Permanent record of a report about the European Patent Office reaffirming its (perceived) status as effectively above the law

EARLIER today we made copies of videos about the EPO, having made copies of similar videos in the past (just in case). This site isn’t optimised for video streaming (in fact, streaming is very problematic to it), but it’s all about long-term preservation of reliable information. With EPO lawyers running amok (making threats), information tends to decay (i.e. get removed) over time. Any such deleltionism serves the oppressor with its legion of lawyers (who targeted me too at one point).

Videos (or multimedia in general) are hard to search, so we asked around for some help transcribing the video or sharing a translation. Here are the links to the subtitled videos, as promised here a while back:

Video with English subtitles: YouTube | Vimeo

Video with French subtitles: YouTube | Vimeo

Video with German subtitles: YouTube | Vimeo

Below we add a summary of the TV report and a transcript of the English subtitles (with comments). We start with the summary:

“How far does the immunity of the European Patent Office reach?”

Videos with subtitles in English, German and French are available for the Dutch TV report “NOS Nieuwsuur“ (NPO 2 TV, 28 January 2016, 22:00 h)

“Hoe ver gaat de immuniteit van het Europees Octrooibureau?”
NOS “Nieuwsuur” http://nos.nl/nieuwsuur
NPO 2 (TV) 28.01.2016 22:00 h

Summary of the NOS report

The President of the European Patent Office (EPO) is, according to EPO employees, a “tyrant”. The question is whether Dutch judges can protect the rights of EPO employees. Because the EPO has the status of an International Organisation, it enjoys diplomatic immunity. In 2015, a Dutch Appeal Court ruled that the internal judicial procedures are “substandard”, and that that the Organisation’s immunity does not cover violations of fundamental rights. But the EPO refuses to accept the Court’s verdict. The Dutch government tries to protect the immunity of the Office, and decided that the EPO is not obliged to carry out the verdict of the Dutch judge.

The worksphere in the EPO is described with terms like “terror rule”, “intimidation”, and “culture of fear”. Trade union representatives are being submitted to intimidating investigations, without the assistance of a lawyer. Two union representatives were dismissed after disciplinary measures which followed such investigations. At the same time, more union representatives are under investigation. According to EPO Vice president Guillaume Minnoye, this is pure coincidence.

There were massive demonstrations of EPO staff at the two biggest EPO branches in Munich (Germany) on 20 January, with between 1.100 and 1.300 protesters, and in The Hague (The Netherlands) on 28 January 2016, with 900 protesters.

The Supreme Court of the Netherlands (“Hoge Raad”) should take a final decision in the second half of 2016.

In an interview, EPO Vice president Guillaume Minnoye said that the EPO will not accept the verdict of the highest Judge of the Netherlands. The staff union’s lawyer is now considering to take the Dutch State to court for insufficiently protecting the rights of employees.

Here is the full English transcript:

Here is a transcript of the English translation (subtitles) of the NOS TV report:

NOS Presenter Mariëlle Tweebeeke:

The President of the European Patent Office in Rijswijk is, according to Patent Office employees, a “tyrant”. The question is whether Dutch judges can protect the rights of Patent Office employees. Because the Patent Office has the status of an International Organisation it enjoys diplomatic immunity, legal sanctity. The “Hoge Raad” [Supreme Court of the Netherlands] will deliberate on the case from tomorrow [29.01.2016].

NOS Commentator [the camera showing the EPO building in Rijswijk]:

This is the European Patent Office (EPO). This International Organisation was founded to protect the rights of inventors. Whether it protects the rights of its employees adequatly, is now the issue at stake in a unique legal battle.

NOS Interviewer Marijn Duintjer Tebbens [asking EPO Vice-President VP1 Guillaume Minnoye]:

“Terror rule, intimidation, culture of fear…”

EPO Vice-President VP1 Guillaume Minnoye:

Well, yes, these are, I believe, “expressions” used in the press,… Errr… the fact is however, that if one does the job as it should be done, none of all this is applicable.

Prof. Liesbeth Zegveld, legal representative of the EPO Staff Union:

The Law does not apply here. I have never experienced anything like this. The Law does not function here. There is no Law here.

FNV Trade Union Confederation Chairman Ton Heerts:

I believe Prime Minister Rutte and his cabinet should act, in order at least to bring on social dialogue.

NOS Commentator:

Last year [2015] the Court of The Hague ruled that the EPO violates Human Rights. The Office hinders the work of the Trade Union to such an extent that it violates the fundamental Human Rights of its approximately 2500 employees. The fact that the Court has ruled in this case is noteworthy, because as an International Organisation, the Office enjoys immunity. This means that it is actually not within the reach of a Dutch judge.

Prof. Liesbeth Zegveld, legal representative of the EPO Staff Union:

The Court has weighed the immunity and said: “You do not have immunity”, which means: “You must listen to us.” That´s what it means. “I am the Judge for this case.” This is what the Court’s verdict means.

NOS Commentator [to EPO Vice-President VP1 Guillaume Minnoye]:

The Court rules that the judicial procedures internal to the Office are “substandard”. The Office thinks nothing of it and refuses to accept the Courts verdict.

EPO Vice-President VP1 Guillaume Minnoye:

Our statutes conform to Human Rights, and we also comply with them.

NOS Interviewer:

And the Dutch Judge doesn´t think so?”

EPO Vice-President VP1 Guillaume Minnoye:

Yes, the Dutch Judge doesn´t think so, and we disagree with this.

NOS Commentator [the camera showing the former Dutch Minister of Justice, Ivo Opstelten]:

The Office is not alone in this. The Dutch State believes that the immunity of the Office should be protected. In the Security and Justice Ministry, the then minister Opstelten [who resigned on 09.03.2015. He had wrongly informed the Dutch Parliament about payments worth 2M € to a drug baron in 2001] decided that the Office is not under the obligation of carrying out the verdict of the Dutch judge.

Prof. Liesbeth Zegveld, legal representative of the EPO Staff Union:

I find this to be nearly an insult to our judicial power.

NOS Interviewer:

What do you want to do now?

Prof. Liesbeth Zegveld:

Now, the Court has ruled. And how can the Government now say: “We disagree with the Courts verdict”? The verdict is so well grounded, so clearly outlined.

NOS Interviewer:

But the Government has said that the Organisation enjoys immunity?

Prof. Liesbeth Zegveld:

Yes, but not in all cases. Not when no access to a tribunal is guaranteed. That´s a fundamental right: anybody can call upon a judge at any time.

NOS Commentator:

Management and trade union have been in conflict since Frenchman Benoît Battistelli has taken over the reins. Battistelli – here with [Dutch] Prime Minister Rutte at the laying of the foundation stone of the new Office building in Rijswijk – … is carrying out reforms which encounter strong resistance.

NOS Interviewer [to EPO VP1 Guillaume Minnoye]:

Is Mr. Battistelli the victim of a hate campaign originating from the trade union?

EPO Vice-President VP1 Guillaume Minnoye:

Yes, clearly. Battistelli received the mandate from the Administrative Council, and he is carrying it out. He is a strong man in that respect. And there are certain individuals who cannot respect that.

NOS Commentator:

The Trade Union – represented by Lawyer Liesbeth Zegveld – believes that the boss is going too far in tackling the Trade Union. And that he is misusing his immunity in that respect.

Prof. Liesbeth Zegveld:

The Trade Union representatives are being submitted to investigations, intimidating investigations, where they must answer accusations, the substance of which they are not informed in advance, without the assistance of a lawyer, and with far reaching consequences, possibly as far as dismissal, and that has already happened twice [2 dismissals].

Ion Brumme [one of the two staff representatives dismissed in January 2016; making a speech at a demo in Munich on 20 January 2016]:

“The majority of staff is ashamed to work for an organisation led by you, Mr. Battistelli!”

NOS Commentator:

Last week in Munich, the EPO head office, personnel showed massive support for two Union representatives who were dismissed with immediate effect. They supposedly intimidated colleagues.

One of them also had her pension reduced by 20% [the camera being on Elizabeth Hardon making a speech at the demo in Munich on 20 January 2016 (Elizabeth was dismissed in January and saw her acquired pension cut by 20%)]. The other, father of 5 children, asked for financial support from his colleagues [the camera being again on Ion Brumme, the other dismissed Trade Union representative].

Ion Brumme [making a speech on 20 January 2016 in front of protesters]:

“I know and I’ve seen that I am in good hands, that you won’t let me down. That you won’t let me land with my family under a bridge.”

NOS Interviewer [to EPO VP1 Guillaume Minnoye]:

Have they been fired because they were trade union representatives?

EPO VP1 Guillaume Minnoye:

No. Absolutely not. They have been fired because they undertook individual actions, very serious actions.

NOS Commentator [the camera showing protesters at a demo in The Hague on 28 January 2016]:

Today [28.01.2016] there is also a demonstration in The Hague. In the meantime, two union representatives have been reported sick at home here [at the EPO branch in Rijswijk, close to The Hague], because they were the object of an internal investigation.

NOS Interviewer [to EPO VP1 Guillaume Minnoye]:

They are also Union representatives. Is that also a coincidence?

EPO VP1 Guillaume Minnoye:

This is a coincidence. Yes. Individual actions were undertaken by these members of personnel which made an investigation necessary, whether all [the accusations] or none [of them] are grounded.

NOS Commentator:

35 international Organisations in our country enjoy immunity. In a letter to Premier Rutte, FNV [the biggest Dutch trade union confederation] expresses its concerns over the rights of the nearly 9000 people who work there.

FNV Trade Union Confederation Chairman Ton Heerts:

There is of course a certain level of immunity, but that does not mean that everything is allowed. And that you can live above the law when you lead an organisation on Dutch territory, where thousands of people work daily.

NOS Commentator:

It is now up to the “Hoge Raad” [Supreme Court of the Netherlands] to decide how far the immunity of the European Patent Office goes. The Dutch State stands on the side of the Patent Office. The Government is concerned about the situation at the office. It says however: “Concerning the question of whether an international organisation enjoys immunity or not, it is irrelevant whether the organisation is accused of Human Rights violations or other international law violations.”

Prof. Liesbeth Zegveld, legal representative of the EPO Staff Union:

Then I think, Human Rights are maybe not that important for the Dutch State, and economic interests have probably weighed more heavily in this matter. Because this Patent Office brings in a lot of money and jobs. So the scale probably tilted this way [more importance given to economic interests], but I find it to be a weird way [of the Dutch Government] of handling the matter.

NOS Interviewer [to EPO VP1 Guillaume Minnoye]:

What will happen if the “Hoge Raad” [Supreme Court of the Netherlands] ends up confirming the ruling of the court in The Hague that you cannot hide behind immunity?

EPO VP1 Guillaume Minnoye:

Ah…, yes…, well…, then, most probably, a consultation will take place between the President and the Administrative Council – well, the Administrative Council are the delegates of the member States – to see what should be done in that case. The result will most probably be that it [the verdict of the Supreme Court] will be ignored.

NOS Interviewer [to EPO VP1 Guillaume Minnoye]:

You will therefore not accept the verdict of the highest Judge of the Netherlands?

EPO VP1 Guillaume Minnoye:

Yes.

NOS Commentator:

Lawyer Zegveld is now considering to take the Dutch State to court for insufficiently protecting the rights of employees.

Stay tuned as ahead of tomorrow’s protest in Munich we wish to show and reveal yet more details about the EPO’s abuses. █

Caricature of the Day: Willy Minnoye (EPO) Above the Law

Posted in Europe, Humour, Patents at 12:23 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Some humour about the man who insists that the European Patent Office will simply refuse to obey orders from the highest court at The Hague

THE caricature below refers to the EPO‘s belief that the law does not apply to it (see context in this recent video).

Willy Minnoye caricature

More articles about the EPO are on their way tonight and tomorrow. █

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