10.20.16
Posted in Deception, Europe, Patents at 8:03 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Rewriting history (revisionism) regarding Battistelli and what was demanded amidst abusive behaviour from him
THE IP-CENTRIC MEDIA, even by a so-called “conspiracy of silence” as the late Pieter Hintjens once dubbed it, has become somewhat complicit with the EPO. It continues to stand by quietly and idly while the EPO is being destroyed and buys the media. Sometimes it even throws a bone to Battistelli or offers him a platform (for puff pieces and lies).
Quite frankly, we lost faith in much of the above media. Not even the local media in Munich is responsive anymore. It shuts its eyes, shuts its mouth, shuts its ears and pretends that EPO (or Eponia) does not exist in Munich and that nothing interesting or noteworthy happens there other than banal granting of patents. On IP Kat not covering EPO scandals (no lack of them!) anymore, one person wrote this yesterday: “Disappointing lack of EPO information here these days. Has Merpel been neutered? Or worse still had an accident with a diplomatic car. Let’s hope she’s happily chasing small furry creatures in Denmark and will be back soon.”
This alludes to this series of stories and this photo of a diplomatic car. Why are we the only site covering this and what does that say about European media?
The other day IP Watch (a decent site most of the time) issued a rare report about the EPO. It doesn’t write so much about the EPO anymore (more WIPO focus), but it used to write about the EPO more habitually. Readers should see the comment on this article, based on one item (from May). The article has been updated with damage control from Team Battistelli and it now says:
[Update:] Asked to confirm whether current disciplinary procedures have been suspended pending the December AC meeting, an EPO spokesman said later that the council “did not ask the President to take such a position.” Moreover, he emailed, the disciplinary committee is equally composed of management and staff representatives, and it decides independently on its recommendation, uninfluenced by any external authority. [end update]
Since it includes gender (“spokesman”), we are guessing it was Rainer. We have heard some unpleasant things about him from journalists and as we noted about a year ago, nowadays the EPO lies both to journalists and to staff (and to job applicants). These people simply cannot be trusted!
See the remainder of the article and the comment:
The statement of the EPO spokesman (see the above [Update]), is typical of EPO, and incorrect:
While it is true that the Council “did not ask the President to take such a position,” by the help of an official resolution during its October 2016 meeting, the Office is nevertheless walking a fine line:
Firstly, during the last Council meeting, several delegations, in particular CH, FR, UK and NL, insisted in clear words that no decision should be taken on running disciplinary procedures. Secondly, the position of the president is in contrast with the Administrative Council’s (AC) resolution of this March, which requested him, inter alia,
“to ensure that disciplinary sanctions and proceedings are not only fair but also seen to be so, and to consider the possibility of involvement of an external reviewer or of arbitration or mediation” and
“pending the outcome of this process and before further decisions in disciplinary cases are taken, to inform the AC in appropriate detail and make proposals that enhance confidence in fair and reasonable proceedings and sanctions”
The two requirements “that disciplinary sanctions and proceedings are not only fair but also seen to be so” and “pending the outcome of this process and before further decisions in disciplinary cases are taken” would clearly not be met if the president would take a decision on any disciplinary proceedings before revised regulations on investigative/disciplinary procedures have been approved by the AC. The requirement “to inform the AC in appropriate detail and make proposals that enhance confidence in fair and reasonable proceedings and sanctions” would not be met either since the proposals the president presented at the 149th AC meeting did not meet legal standards, such that the delegations forced him to withdraw them.
The first statement of the EPO spokesman that the Council “did not ask the President to take such a position,” is thus incorrect; the Council asked the President “to take such a position” in its March resolution.
The second statement in the email that “the disciplinary committee … decides independently on its recommendation,” is well-worded, but – irrespective of whether it is true – diverts the reader from the main subject; the Administrative Council’s resolution of this March.
By taking a decision on any disciplinary proceedings under the current regulations, the EPO president would be in breach of the March resolution. The Council would be obliged to dismiss him.
As we said back in May, Battistelli should have been sacked, but his pet chinchilla (Kongstad) continues to protect him no matter what, even hiding his contract and salary. What kind of oversight of this?!?! █
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10.19.16
Posted in Deception, Europe, Patents at 11:50 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Larger/full view
Summary: Results of the Staff Survey carried out by PwC (at the behest of Team Battistelli and the expense of EPO budget), in order to provide some propaganda for Battistelli’s expensive Social Conference
“In the Social Study,” say EPO insiders, “PricewaterhouseCoopers [PwC] carried out a staff survey in which 4,065 employees of the EPO participated. As their study presents the results of this survey filtered by the interpretation of PricewaterhouseCoopers, we compiled the actual statistics in the [above] diagram. This helps to give a neutral overview of the feelings of staff as presented in the survey.”
The EPO’s management reportedly excluded a lot of unhappy staff (although it’s based mostly on hearsay/rumours). We wrote about this before. Compare these results to a study commissioned by SUEPO rather than by this liar in chief, Battistelli, who just needed ammunition to justify cracking down on staff and the staff union. This so-called ‘Social Conference’ was just another one of his ludicrous lobbying events. He acts like a politician, which is basically what he is. █
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10.18.16
Posted in Deception, Free/Libre Software, Microsoft at 7:39 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Related to this:
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella: women, don’t ask for a raise
Summary: Another example of the large (industrial) scale of sexual discrimination at Microsoft — a company that tries to advertise itself as diverse or tolerant and stigmatise Free/Open Source software (FOSS) as intolerant and/or not diverse
SEXUAL orientation-related and sexual discrimination at at workplace are a common theme. Microsoft’s propaganda mills, however, tried to stigmatise FOSS as hostile to minorities, women, and whatever else isn’t white, straight, middle-aged men.
Microsoft has got quite some audacity though. Microsoft’s hostility towards women [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8] and hostility towards gay people (or homophobia) [1, 2] were covered here before. Even Microsoft’s new CEO came under fire for it. The latest example of Microsoft sexism is reaching the press now. To quote The Register (one among very few that covered it):
Microsoft will have to defend itself against a lawsuit alleging that its employee rating system was biased against women.
A US district court in Washington has tossed out [PDF] the Redmond giant’s motion to dismiss a complaint lobbed at it by three women engineers, who allege the system for evaluating engineering and technical positions unfairly penalized them.
At issue is the Windows giant’s “Connect” system, the evaluation method Microsoft used to replace the much maligned “stack ranking” process for evaluating employee performance.
The engineers allege that the review system relies on manager and peer input from a group that is overwhelmingly male and, as a result, the female employees they evaluated may have missed out on raises and promotions.
“Plaintiffs allege these performance evaluation methods are ‘invalid’ because they ‘set arbitrary cutoffs among performers with similar performance’ and are ‘not based on valid and reliable performance measures’,” the court’s ruling, dated October 14, reads.
As we noted several months ago, sexism at Microsoft is systemic and a year ago we noted that it's not really a FOSS issue, in spite of a stereotype created and spread by the likes of Microsoft. Hence the relevance to FOSS… █
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Posted in Deception, Europe, Patents at 6:27 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
WIPO and FIFA are small potatoes compared to the EPO…
Source (original): Rospatent
Summary: The latest hogwash from Team Battistelli (Pinocchio), the latest instance of software patents promotion by EPO Principal Director, and an old (decade-old) nugget of information from the Forum for Principal Directors
THE EPO has turned into an empire of lies, where the President has become virtually synonymous with Pinocchio, as we noted earlier today. The EPO not only lies a lot but also routinely breaks rules and laws (see this older tweet from October 7th, neglecting to say that the EPO does not obey the EPC, e.g. [1, 2]). Eponia has effectively detached itself from the Rule of Law.
Pinocchio wants the world to believe that nothing is amiss at the EPO. For the third time in less than a week the EPO is promoting this lie (for the self-deluding) that EPO staff is happy. “Our Social Conference enabled internal stakeholders to play an active role in the EPO’s future,” it said, but it wasn’t about stakeholders at all. In fact, the key stakeholders, like representatives of staff, were locked out. We’ll publish more details about that (best left for another day), having published some details earlier this month and last month. Here we have the latest puff piece in the “news” section of the EPO (warning: epo.org link). “A joint statement was signed by EPO Vice President Raimund Lutz and Brazilian Industry Minister Marcos Pereira,” it says, alluding to a deal with INPI (not the French one that ‘took over’ the EPO and perhaps stained it for good). “Under the PPH pilot,” says the news [sic], “patent applicants from Europe and from Brazil will be able to request accelerated patent prosecution at the EPO or at Brazil’s National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI), which is expected to speed up the process and reduce costs for companies on both sides of the Atlantic.”
“Pinocchio wants the world to believe that nothing is amiss at the EPO.”As is often the case with these deals, the countries in question hardly have all that much at stake in the EPO. Take Cambodia for example (with zero patents at the EPO). Brazil has a massive population and not so few patents, but how many at the EPO? Not that many (relative to EU member states)…
Hogwash and marketing is what Raimund Lutz travels for.
The EPO has an affinity for Italy right now (not much of a prolific patenter either, or so we’re told) and it lobbies its politicians for the UPC amid Brexit, as noted here twice last week. Now it organises events in Italy (yet another one) and a separate new announcement says that “Maria Rosa Carreras from @OEPM_es will speak about the Quality at Source project at EPOPIC,” citing this new page with abstracts of talks (warning: epo.org link).
Curiously enough, based on this page at least, Grant Philpott’s talk will cover software patents. He just cannot help himself, can he? We wrote about it more than a year ago. Philpott, who absolutely does not want people to know what he did for Microsoft (enough to send me threatening letters about it), is propping up software patents again. Is it him who wrote the abstract which reads “software pervades through all technologies [thus] a greater debate on the patentability of software” or maybe an assistant of his? Whatever it is, such statements are tasteless, especially taking the EPC into account.
“The EPO has an affinity for Italy right now (not much of a prolific patenter either, or so we’re told) and it lobbies its politicians for the UPC amid Brexit, as noted here twice last week.”Here is the full abstract, complete with the “Industry 4.0″ buzzword: “The 4th Industrial Revolution – or “Industry 4.0″ – is the revolution of connectivity and distributed intelligence. It is characterised by driving technologies such as The Cloud, Big Data and the Internet of Things, and by the presence of computer technologies in every aspect of our lives. The consequences for IP are potentially tremendous, and they challenge some of the fundamental concepts of the system, such as the definition of “industry” and “inventor”. There will be a greater overlap and interplay between the types of rights, and as software pervades through all technologies a greater debate on the patentability of software. Patent offices will have to react to these changes, adapting their approaches. There will also be an impact on patent information and new challenges for patent searchers as a result of Industry 4.0.”
As a reminder, software patents are not allowed in Europe. Why do these people keep stomping on the EPC and the rules? Do they believe they’re somehow above the law and nobody will notice when they sidestep it?
Speaking of Principal Directors, someone sent us information related to them. “Today’s add-on,” we were told, is a “disgusting slide from something coined “Forum for Principal Directors”, back in 2006. Old, but very appalling, I hate the words “fear, isolation and punishment” even when being part of question, or discussion.”
Here is the inappropriate slide:
Philpott certainly used “fear, isolation and punishment” against me when he had EPO lawyers send me threatening legal letters late on a Friday night. Perhaps that’s just in the EPO’s culture, deeply embedded in the minds of the recruited and promoted (elevated to “Principal Director”, a fancy job title, along the lines of ranks at the British Army that Philpott came from*). These long ‘hooks’ of Eponia’s aggressive behaviour mean that while it enjoys immunity or impunity it feels absolutely eager to intimidate even bloggers who are far away from Eponia and have nothing to do with Eponia (except they write about it pro bono). █
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* Certainly not thick-skinned for one who served any military as people have, in the past, asked for their names to be removed but did not send me threatening letters in an effort to take down entire articles.
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Posted in Deception, Europe, Patents at 1:27 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Also see: New Leaked Document Shows Board 28 Surprised Battistelli and Had a Long Unilateral Argument With Him Over Union-Busting (‘Disciplinary Cases’), Called It a “Crisis”
In the words of Board 28 (screenshot with filter)
Summary: Still in denial (or self-deluding for self indulgence), Battistelli writes about the EPO as though everything is rosy and people are happy
The latest lies from Battistelli are basically more of the same. His name inside the EPO has become virtually synonymous with Pinocchio and he continues to live in his fantasy world, surrounded by “yes men” who are equally brainwashed, self-deluding or simply afraid of the boss with his infamous tantrums. Here is the PR/communication people linking to the latest nonsense from Battistelli’s “blog” (warning: epo.org links may be spied on). We don’t want to repeat too many of his lies, but when he speaks of “first ever Social Conference in the history” of the EPO he basically means first time that very expensive lies and propaganda were needed. How much does it cost to distort the truth and why are Battistelli’s overseers allowing/tolerating this obvious case of waste and abuse (part of a broader pattern)?
We presume all of our readers already know what the “Social Conference” basically means. It’s a pack of lies that Battistelli bought from some private companies so that he can pretend to have an ‘independent’ assessment. “But for the event itself,” he says, “the true measure of success was the level of engagement by all. The number of requests to attend the conference far outstripped the number of places available and proceedings were followed online by thousands of our staff.”
Haha, that’s just rich!
“Whatever Battistelli does these days severely harms the reputation of the EPO; stakeholders are complaining.”We can imagine that some people chose to watch this horrifying parade of lies, maybe in order to ridicule it or watch how they were lied about. SUEPO was blocked from entering and no input was accepted. It’s like something out of the cookbook of North Korea’s regime. A week later these paid-for lies are being pushed/trotted out, right there in the EPO’s public Web site (while the actual documents are withheld internally). It’s total hogwash like WIPO’s hogwash just weeks ago.
Certainly, at this stage, Pinocchio Battistelli is just testing how long his nose can get before he’s unable to enter the door of his office, possibly having been belatedly dismissed by the Administrative Council. Whatever Battistelli does these days severely harms the reputation of the EPO; stakeholders are complaining.
We have become accustomed to these lies, which are getting more and more Orwellian (even absurd) over time and target not just the public but also staff and journalists (since last year). Does the JPO not know that Battistelli has all these skeletons in his closet? Why did it post this tweet (soon to be retweeted by the EPO) saying “JPO Commissioner Komiya had meeting with EPO’s President Battistelli and his colleagues”?
“No doubt a lot of money has been buried by Battistelli right there, if not just flushed down the toilet (or into the pockets of truly dodgy firms).”Battistelli (or Brexit) “will not be buried,” this new comment says, but “the Social Conference, on the other hand, never having breathed a single breath, so how would it ever get so far as to be buried?”
No doubt a lot of money has been buried by Battistelli right there, if not just flushed down the toilet (or into the pockets of truly dodgy firms). █
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10.16.16
Posted in Deception, Europe, Patents at 3:39 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
‘Buying’ or paying for the ‘truth’ (exactly the opposite) is the latest stunt or modus operandi from this chronic liar
Source (original): Rospatent
Summary: Having paid the media and attempted to scare/intimidate staff into silence (even among one another), Battistelli now pays some firms to lie for him and present the lies while staff representatives are blocked from entering the presentation
THE EPO is wasting money — at the command of Benoît Battistelli — on all sorts of controversial lobbying events (at times grooming fraudsters), PR agencies, private spy agencies, media “partners” (this means paid-for press coverage), and lots of horrible things that each in its own right should be a scandal. Battistelli is now faking 'facts' (for a fee), trying to make up an illusion of social harmony at the Office and then setting up a so-called ‘Social Conference’ by which to disseminate the lies [1, 2].
“Battistelli is an autocrat that nobody is permitted to criticise.”How does Battistelli get to keep his job?
Well, look who ‘oversees’ him. Battistelli is an autocrat that nobody is permitted to criticise.
The EPO Social Conference “is gone. It is done. It is time to bury it because it is smelling up our professional lives,” said this one new comment. To quote the full thing:
A Social Undertakers Conference says…
My dear Eponians talk about it, rehash it, rethink it, cross analyze it, debate it, respond to it, get paranoid about it, compete with it, complain about it, immortalize it, cry over it, kick it, defame it, stalk it, gossip about it, pray over it, put it down or dissect its motives before it continues to rot in our brains. It is dead. It is over. It is gone. It is done. It is time to bury it because it is smelling up our professional lives. Join me and bury it!
Repeating the lies yet again at the end of last week (second time), the EPO wrote: “Constructive discussion between staff and management about the future at the EPO Social Conference” (this links to the EPO’s Web site again, same page as before — a page that we already rebutted).
“Check the invoices from Battistelli. He paid a lot of money to keep the Dutch and German media under control.”Where was the staff which this so-called conference was about? Staff was outside protesting in front of the building in Munich at the time. So much for ‘social’ and a ‘conference’. It was more like a staff demonstration (photo below).
Where was the media at the time of the demonstration? Check the invoices from Battistelli. He paid a lot of money to keep the Dutch and German media under control. To be more precise and specific, he had the EPO pay a lot of money to cover up his own epic abuses. █
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Posted in Deception, Europe, Patents at 2:00 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Self-fulfilling prophecy methods continue to be flung at the press
Summary: Refusing to let the UPC stay in its grave, Team UPC keeps digging up and dishing out UPC misinformation, in front of an audience that need not be preached to as it’s already converted (effectively an echo chamber)
THE ‘baby’ of the President of the EPO has long been the UPC, even before it was known as “UPC” and even before he was President of the EPO. Based on an exchange between the EPO’s spokespeople and Dr. Glyn Moody, author of Rebel Code and an excellent journalist, the UPC has a lot to do with the current turmoil (so-called ‘reform’) at the Office. One must recognise the fact that the social unrest at the EPO and the UPC are almost inseparable.
“One must recognise the fact that the social unrest at the EPO and the UPC are almost inseparable.”Now that the UPC is virtually dead (if not just in the UK then worldwide) we keep seeing efforts by the EPO to replace London with somewhere like Milan. We mentioned this a few days ago and just before the week closed we saw duplicate tweets from the EPO (two on a single day), stressing the same point about an event in Italy.
First tweet: “EPO lawyers & European patent attorneys will be on hand in Italy at the next event tailored to PCT users’ needs: http://buzz.mw/b1ueq_f”
Second tweet: “EPO lawyers & European patent attorneys will be on hand in Italy at the next event tailored to PCT users’ needs: http://buzz.mw/b1uea_f”
“The Brexit vote was not a “speed bump” but a death knell.”We suspect, albeit it’s still somewhat speculative, that Battistelli is trying to grease up Italian politicians so as to make Milan the new London. He’s not alone as Team UPC, a conspiracy of truly nefarious entities, does the same thing and 3 days ago IP Watch gave a platform to the liars of Team UPC (behind a paywall). To quote the public portion (which is the only part we can see to debunk): “Britain’s vote to leave the European Union is just another “speed bump” along the path to a European unified patent and patent court, the head of the committee tasked with preparing the way for the new system said during a lively session at the 13 October London IP Summit. Others aren’t so sure, since Brexit has raised many complex questions, not least of which is whether there is the political will in the UK or EU to move ahead.”
The Brexit vote was not a “speed bump” but a death knell. We already wrote many dozens of articles about it (some of them very long) and one must remember that these UPC boosters have a track record of lying. They even advertised bogus UPC jobs that did not exist and will never exist. That’s how horrible these people are. They also stomp on democracy. █
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10.13.16
Posted in Deception, Europe, Law, Patents at 8:48 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Throwing everything that’s left (time and money) at the problem in order to throw democracy away and thwart the law
Summary: The lack of respect for the law, for democracy and for patent scope (quality control) at the European Patent Office has become incredibly difficult to ignore
SOFTWARE patents promotion at the EPO has gotten so bad that it was done twice in one single day. Their official and verified account said “This e-course teaches you all about the patentability of computer-implemented inventions at the EPO” and also said “We will be discussing practice & jurisprudence in software-related patents in Europe & India at this event” (as a reminder, software patents are verboten both in India and in Europe).
“The EPC and the European Parliament are against this, but evidently, under Battistelli in particular, patent scope is out of control and this kind of overt lobbying has become routine.”This was done again for the third time within 24 hours. The EPO openly promotes loopholes for patenting software. The nerve…
It’s a repeat of the above: “This e-course teaches you all about the patentability of computer-implemented inventions at the EPO…” (link to the EPO’s Web site).
Why does this matter? The EPC and the European Parliament are against this, but evidently, under Battistelli in particular, patent scope is out of control and this kind of overt lobbying has become routine. It’s almost becoming a banality. We wrote about this several times last month. The “EPO’s knowledge & expertise” is leaving in droves nowadays (we have reported massive, unprecedented brain drain over the years), yet here again the EPO brags about its “knowledge & expertise”. Who are they trying to kid? Preaching to the converted?
One main problem is, if UPC schemers got their way, a lot of the above would have become easier. Software patenting will be brought to Europe by the UPC, but only if Battistelli gets his way… it would not just be a disaster to software developers but to every single user of software. The consequences would be horrific and devastating. The US, where software patents are ubiquitously used by patents trolls, is a cautionary tale.
“Software patenting will be brought to Europe by the UPC, but only if Battistelli gets his way…”We hope that EPO staff understands why we have opposed the UPC (and its predecessors) all these years. Not much has changed except the name (now it’s “unitary” and “unified” rather than “EU” or “community”). Rebranding never changed the substance and politicians including Battistelli lied about it all along.
Here is a new article from a lawyers’ site. It’s titled “What Does Brexit Mean for the Planned Unitary Patent System in Europe?”
Here is what it says (behind a paywall unfortunately, so only the patent microcosm — those paying for subscription — would be able to read and/or scrutinise it):
The Unitary Patent System and Unified Patent Court had been predicted to come into force in 2017, and it promised to be the biggest change in European patent practice in almost 40 years. Has Brexit killed the whole thing?
In a nutshell, yes! UPC is going nowhere. Does that mean that British members of Team UPC will give up? Of course not. The Corbyn-led Labour party would have no interest in the UPC (see its position on TPP) and should bury the UPC, but watch how Bristows LLP spins that. Another example of selective quoting and misinterpretation or misrepresentations, quoting other members of Team UPC as ‘proof’ of widespread support for upcoming changes? Also see this new one from Bristows LLP (aka Bristows UPC, for marketing purposes). This firm has just published not one but two UPC propaganda pieces. Shame on Bristows for attacking both British and EU democracy. What does that say about Bristows?
Another LLP, this time Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, joined in this non-stop UPC propaganda (obviously from patent law firms that stand to gain from the UPC).
“The UPC would be bad for SMEs all across Europe, not just in Britain. Every European citizen should be out in the streets protesting against it, for the same reasons CETA/TPP/TTIP/TISA etc. are widely protested against.”They know a deadline is coming up and the UPC would likely die soon, if not officially in the UK then in the whole of Europe (unless it’s renamed again and repackaged with replacement/s for London). The UPC would be bad for SMEs all across Europe, not just in Britain. Every European citizen should be out in the streets protesting against it, for the same reasons CETA/TPP/TTIP/TISA etc. are widely protested against.
Milan has been mentioned as a likely replacement for London and watch this new tweet from the EPO: “Patent professionals in Italy are welcome at this event,” it says. Notice the interesting choice of venue. █
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