03.03.16
Posted in America, Asia, Patents at 9:49 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Unlikely to happen as long as the patent establishment (USPTO) generates revenue from software patents, at the expense of many other people
Summary: A little more coverage about India’s decision to maintain the embargo on software patents and what this can teach the US public about the US patent office
Software patents in India are a subject we’ve tracked for nearly a decade. Time after time we saw foreign companies such as IBM and Microsoft trying to shame India into making software patents legal.
“Last month,” says this new article. “the Indian Patents Office released the revised Guidelines for Computer Related Invention (CRI Guidelines), which has finally aligned the Patents Office fully with the Indian Patents Act. This is the third time that software patents have been beaten back in India: the first with the Amendments to the Patents Act in 2005, the next, smuggling it in through the Patents Manual issued by the Patents Office, and this time, through the original CRI Guideline issued in August last year. Each time, these attempts have been beaten back.”
“Time after time we saw foreign companies such as IBM and Microsoft trying to shame India into making software patents legal.”On the same day we found an article by Glyn Moody, titled “After Some Dangerous Wavering, Indian Patent Office Gives Definitive ‘No’ To Software Patents”. Dr. Moody notes: “As Techdirt has reported over the years, views on whether software should be patentable, and if so, to what extent, have ebbed and flowed. In the US, the Supreme Court’s decision in Alice v. CLS Bank seems to have established that most software isn’t patentable. In the EU, the fate of software patents is less clear. According to the European Patent Convention, patents are not available for computer programs “as such” — but that metaphysical “as such” rider has allowed thousands of software patents to be issued anyway. Muddying the waters further is the Unified Patent Court, which may or may not come into existence soon, with almost unchecked powers to reshape the patent landscape in Europe.”
An Indian innovator, Vivek Wadhwa, whom we mentioned here before because of his views on software patents [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6], wrote the following piece for the Washington Post (it’s about the USPTO), later to be reposted in Indian media (yesterday) and say:
Lemley and Feldman found that that patent litigation and licensing demands for existing patents only happen after the defendant has developed and implemented the technology, particularly when patent trolls are involved. And they cite several studies which show that patent trolls now account for the majority of patent lawsuits that are filed.
This means that other than through university technology transfer, hardly any innovation is being created by technology patents. Therefore, it may be best to abolish them, particularly software patents – which have long been clogging up the patent office.
Universities are very defensive about patents; they argue that they need these to protect their ideas and inventions. This may be true, but it leads to yet another question: should universities be profiting from license revenue obtained from research that was publicly funded? Regardless of the answer, for the larger cause of innovation, it is clear that patents are not fulfilling the purpose for which they were intended. The often-cited defense of patents, that patent rights encourage inventions that would not otherwise occur, is no longer grounded in reality.
The key part from Wadhwa says “it may be best to abolish them, particularly software patents – which have long been clogging up the patent office.” Amen to that. The USPTO has much to learn from India, not the other way around. But the USPTO has its own selfish interests. As this new article from WIPR has just put it: “USPTO: trademark and patent fees to hit $3.2bn”
Well, it costing the economy so much more, maybe $100bn in taxes and litigation fees. Who benefits from this? Surely not the population of the US. █
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Posted in America, IBM, Patents at 9:19 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Not your father’s IBM
Photo source (modified slightly): The 10 Most Powerful Women in Technology Today
Summary: IBM is becoming predatory as the business is sinking and all it has got left is a big pile of patents, including a lot of software patents that it now weaponises
WHEN the corporate media covers the problem with patents and suggests a reform it often alludes to “patent trolls” but not to large companies that are equally bad if not worse. They are in many ways the culprits, as it’s them and their people — like David Kappos in IBM’s case — who push hard for software patents (that patent trolls too are using).
The other day the EFF's Nazer showed how software patents in the US do so much damage for benefit of very few people, who are parasites. Nazer did not mention software patents explicitly and as usual he focused on “trolls”. As an article about it has just put it: “”Personalized content” is a phrase so vague that it could mean just about anything. That quality makes it just about perfect for use by a patent troll. This month, the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s patent lawyers have honed in on a patent describing a way of “presenting personalized content relating to offered products and services,” owned by Phoenix Licensing LLC, a patent-holding company controlled by Richard Libman, an Arizona man who’s sued more that 100 companies.” [...] Wordy language notwithstanding, the patents look like the type of “do it on a computer” claims that should get tossed out as “almost surely invalid” under the Alice v. CLS Bank Supreme Court precedent, EFF lawyer Daniel Nazer explains in his blog post. “Unsurprisingly, given that its patents are so vulnerable to challenge under the Alice standard, it has filed all of these lawsuits in the Eastern District of Texas.” That plaintiff-friendly court is less likely to invalidate patents under Alice.”
“The company is a patent aggressor and we cannot help but wonder how the Linux Foundation feels about IBM not only lobbying for software patents but also suing companies using these.”Since it’s about Alice, one immediately knows it involves abstract software patents. But it’s too expensive to deal with in a court of law. Even software patents which one knows for sure are not truly valid can be used as a weapon but not only by patent trolls but also by a patent monster like IBM, which always takes the lions’s share of patents at the USPTO. Well, IBM has just announced major layoffs; but worse — it’s becoming a patent aggressor more so than in the recent past. “IBM can sue any webshop with those 4 broad patents from the late nineties,” Benjamin Henrion wrote this morning. “IBM is suing Groupon with 4 software patents,” he added, “probably trivial ones,” pointing to two articles [1, 2]. IBM is not responding to a company that’s suing it first. To quote the first report: “IBM has sued online deals marketplace Groupon for infringing four of its patents, including two that emerged from Prodigy, the online service launched by IBM and partners ahead of the World Wide Web.”
The latter article says: “IBM is suing Groupon over alleged patent infringement, court documents revealed Wednesday. It’s the latest in a series of lawsuits the computing pioneer has filed against tech companies that it says rely on groundwork it laid.
“IBM filed a lawsuit in Delaware district court alleging that the Chicago-based online marketplace ignored repeated alerts stemming to 2011 that it was unfairly using IBM inventions.”
“It’s often said that patents are only trophies for vanity until a company is collapsing, whereupon it chooses to sue rivals or sell patents to aggressive entities, including trolls.”Remember that IBM is pushing India to grant patents on software. It’s the same thing it did in Europe and in New Zealand, so shame on IBM. It not only amasses software patents (while using OIN to pretend that it’s all fine and dandy) but also uses them for litigation, not just against large companies (like Sun) and not just using hardware patents. The face IBM does not want you to see is IBM without the “open” makeup (openwashing of everything including proprietary, grossly overpriced mainframes). The company is a patent aggressor and we cannot help but wonder how the Linux Foundation feels about IBM not only lobbying for software patents but also suing companies using these.
It’s often said that patents are only trophies for vanity until a company is collapsing, whereupon it chooses to sue rivals or sell patents to aggressive entities, including trolls. IBM proves that right. █
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Posted in Deception, Europe, Patents at 8:28 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
What’s not in the photo op says more than what’s in it
Source: Wikipedia on yellow unions
Summary: Why there are legitimate reasons to believe that FFPE-EPO is essentially being used as a yellow union, in order to help crush SUEPO and incite the media against SUEPO
THE EPO is having a propaganda day today. The rebuttals we wrote yesterday [1, 2] and so far today [1, 2] are just the tip of the iceberg. It would be interesting to know what role — if any — the Washington-based FTI Consulting plays in this propaganda. It does, after all, receive nearly 80,000 euros per month from the EPO for propaganda.
Merpel has published an article titled “EPO deal with trade union – not what it seems” in which she wrote:
In fact, as today’s announcement makes clear, the union that has signed the MoU is FFPE-EPO. What is the significance of this? Well, FFPE-EPO exists only in the Hague office of the EPO, and is believed to have about 70 members, whereas SUEPO has about 3400 (about half of the EPO staff, and increasing over recent years). While any union recognition is to be welcomed, the concern is that the EPO is trying to present this as showing that all is well, when in fact, with the overwhelmingly larger union, the disciplinary sanctions remain against the officials and there is no sign that a dialogue is possible at all. The social situation remains in a toxic state, and, under the current management, seems likely to stay that way.
The reports of the Board 28 meeting from last month suggested that perhaps the Administrative Council meeting this month on 16/17 March might be a turning point. Merpel still hopes that it will be, and that today’s announcement will not be used to suggest that the social and industrial issues within the EPO’s workforce area already being resolved.
Among the early comments we see:
Indeed the Union is a little unlikely. First it is only open to staff in The Hague (so isn’t an ‘EPO’ Union per se) and was originally set up for Dutch members of staff (they felt unfairly treated with regard to not being eligible for expat benefits so may also include other Hague staff not eligible for expat rights). Secondly, even Dutch colleagues are in the dark and the public pages of their website were last updated in 2008. If the committee hasn’t changed in more than 7 years then they must be popular. On the other hand they have no elected staff representatives despite the voting rules having been changed (unilaterally by BB) to prevent block voting of Suepo members. Their support seems minimal.
Next Tuesday there is an office-wide strike vote. Staff are not allowed to campaign for it and any communication is limited to 50 people (although nobody would dare to send even one – Emails with the word Suepo are blocked too). I guess next Tuesday we and the Administrative Council will see any fruits of this MoU.
One person asks: “Has anyone seen the MoU?”
We are going to publish it later. We received some leaked material.
“It seems only one of the faces is actually FFPE-EPO, all the rest are either EPO management or FFPE-European Council, which is a different branch of the FFPR organization.”
–AnonymousAnother person uses sarcasm with reversal and says: “It is indeed most pleasing to see that the status of the EPO has finally been recognised by the FFPE.”
“If you need a larger Photo to identify the miscreants,” wrote a person to us, there is one at the EPO’s Web site. [via this press release which targets the media]
This person added: “It seems only one of the faces is actually FFPE-EPO, all the rest are either EPO management or FFPE-European Council, which is a different branch of the FFPR organization.”
This in itself is interesting (if true). The image metadata (above) says: “EPO signs MoU with trade union FFPE-EPO (From left to right: EPO Vice-President DG5 Raimund Lutz; FFPE Vice-Chair Aldert De Haan, EPO Vice-President DG2 Alberto Casado; President FFPE European Council Simon Coates, EPO Vice-President DG4 Željko Topić; EPO President Benoît Battistelli, EPO Principal Director Human Resources Elodie Bergot, Federal President FFPE Council of Europe John Parsons, FFPE-EPO Chair Samuel van der Bijl, President FFPE European Commission Pierre-Philippe Bacri, EPO Vice-President DG1 Guillaume Minnoye.”
Only one person, Samuel van der Bijl, is from FFPE-EPO, so this is probably true.
One other new comment states:
The President recently dismissed two leading SUEPO officials. I wonder how much commitment is behind the FFPE-EPO signatures, considering these circumstances
And once again we see the EPO publish information which is incomplete, to say the least. The publication should include the relevant facts – see comment #1: about 70 members, only in The hague. The EPO should not be able to claim immunity for such publications.
SUEPO and interested third parties should be given the possibility to challenge this and other publications, as is the case for newspaper articles etc. The EPO itself is not shy to place such request, e.g. to Techrights.
We can’t help but wonder if Battistelli and those loyal to him deal with a union which they themselves created or at least groomed/propped up for their own selfish purposes. One person wrote to us and said: “Just wanted to share my thought that FFPE unions Actionszenen remind me a lot of AUB, a “Union” set up and funded by Siemens. Timing of The MoU is too much of a “coincidence”. Would really like to know what Team Battistelli have or promised them…”
Looking into the Siemens example (also in Germany), here’s what we have: “In his first public comments since the scandal broke in February, Mr Schelsky is quoted as saying: “I was supposed to build up an umbrella organisation with the money. And that is what I did . . . I was secretly employed as a lobbyist for Siemens. There was a clear order from the top of the company.”
‘Mr Schelsky’s comments further raise the pressure on Siemens and its management. Siemens is suspected of helping finance the AUB to build a counterweight to its main IG Metall union. The AUB affair is separate from a financially far bigger bribery investigation into several divisions of Siemens.
“Siemens is suspected of helping finance the AUB to build a counterweight to its main IG Metall union. The AUB affair is separate from a financially far bigger bribery investigation into several divisions of Siemens.”
–CorpWatch“Siemens declined to comment on Mr Schelsky’s claims but said it was co-operating with authorities in both cases to clear up the matter as quickly as possible. It has recently lost both its chief executive and chairman as a result of the scandals. Both deny any wrongdoing. Johannes Feldmayer, a management board member, is a suspect in the AUB affair and was briefly remanded in custody earlier this year. He is currently on leave from Siemens at his own request and his contract will not be renewed at the end of the year.”
Siemens is close to the EPO (the President and the EPO even pose for photos together — some of which we used here before!) and the EPO recently appointed to head of communications the person whom Siemens had allegedly hired from Transparency International to help address the bribery scandal purely by public perception (reputation laundering).
We are not suggesting that this is enough evidence with which to paint FFPE bogus/yellow union, but we just want to give readers food for thought. Organisations such as the EPO don’t have a reputation for ethics and as we showed here over the years (usually in relation to Microsoft), corrupt officials often end up calling bribes “financial assistance” or “marketing help” (euphemisms). This can sometimes happen in the case of pseudo-unions that are propped up while the other ones are viciously crushed using witchhunts, defamation, mental torture and so on. █
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Posted in Europe, Patents at 7:49 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
A few people who work for the EPO aren’t necessarily “staff union”
Summary: A quick overview of the EPO’s current PR strategy and some examples of misleading early coverage that it yields
A LOT of last night I spent writing to journalists about the latest lies from the EPO, which no doubt will try hard to mislead them today. We already know the modus operandi.
Today we are going to write a great deal of substantiative responses to the EPO. It’s not always enough to point out that the EPO is lying to journalists and warn about the EPO's spokespeople. The EPO, without a doubt, will try to distract the media from German TV coverage using two bits of propaganda which we already debunked in a hurry yesterday [1, 2]. Well, they speak about “results” (EPO link) and even pay for PRESS RELEASES about it. What a waste of money! Not to mention this secret contract with FTI Consulting…
“Well, they speak about “results” and even pay for PRESS RELEASES about it. What a waste of money!”“Filings & applications at the @EPOorg higher than ever in 2015,” EPO wrote in Twitter, but don’t ask them how they counted. Actually, the PR team would not even know…
Well, that’s just one of several patterns of propaganda. Another one we wrote about a short while ago (defaming and shooting of the messengers when it comes to their prominent critics) and the main one pertains to unions.
“EPO management signs recognition deal with trade union,” IAM wrote last night, “but not SUEPO – the principal one.”
That’s correct. By some estimates, SUEPO has more than 2 orders of magnitude more (if not 3 orders of magnitude more) members. Who does the EPO think it’s kidding?
As WIPR has just put it, after checking what FFPE-EPO really is:
The FFPE-EPO is a much smaller union compared to the Staff Union of the European Patent Office (SUEPO), which has yet to be recognised.
According to sources within the unions, the FFPE-EPO has around 70 members who all work in The Hague office, while SUEPO is estimated to have more than 3,000 members across all of the EPO’s offices.
We believe that it’s a lot less than 70 and we have publicly asked for leaks that prove it.
Remember when Siemens created fake unions after a MASSIVE bribery scandal? We are going to inform or remind readers of that in our next post.
“Remember when Siemens created fake unions after a MASSIVE bribery scandal?”We’re a little disappointed to see The Register being the first to swallow the bait and do an article about it (albeit tongue-in-cheek), noting: “Matters will now come to a head at a full meeting of the Administrative Council in Munich later this month, and the EPO executive team are clearly hoping to use the signing of an MoU with the FFPE-EPO to deflect criticism.”
“EPO signs deal with staff union it isn’t locked in death spiral with,” wrote The Register in Twitter.
As someone put it in IP Kat:
The Register published a later story with the memorable sub-headline “Olive branch may be more of a stunned snake”, suggesting that SUEPO may not be as keen to sign as they had previously reported. There’s now yet another story reporting (like the story here) that FFPE have signed.
A high-resolution picture of Bergot and other EPO tyrants (such as Battistelli and his right-hand bulldog) was included in this article.
The EPO is throwing in there the latest propaganda already; even into an article which deals with unions! To quote The Register‘s closing paragraph:
“The EPO has taken significant steps in the past few years to modernise its internal structures and increase efficiency, while further improving its patent quality,” it argues. “These cover such diverse areas as co-operation with the member states, the EPO’s IT infrastructure, and human resources policy. The 2015 annual results show that the reforms are paying off: the number of products (such as searches and examinations) delivered by EPO patent examiners grew by 14 per cent in 2015, to 365,000, and the EPO published more than 68,000 granted patents, an increase of nearly 6 per cent over 2014 and the highest number ever.”
“It’s just a distraction, akin to the talking points thrown at German television when asked to comment about human rights violations, abuses against staff, etc.”This is nonsense. Huge nonsense. It also has nothing whatsoever to do with the unions. It’s just a distraction, akin to the talking points thrown at German television when asked to comment about human rights violations, abuses against staff, etc.
There are two patterns of EPO propaganda today: “results” and “unions”. Good journalists will fact-check before repeating what the EPO asks them to repeat. Later today Techrights will publish a rebuttal to these several different arms of EPO propaganda — one about “results” (bogus) and another about FFPE (not the same thing). This post isn’t yet an in-depth rebuttal (which requires showing new material). Stay tuned for more… █
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Posted in Europe, Patents at 7:06 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Source: Godwin’s law
Summary: A look at some of the lowest possible levels of smears against those who put at risk an abusive management inside the European Patent Office (EPO) — abusive enough to cause staff to commit suicide
THE EPO has got a war inside of it. It’s a war between staff and the clique of Battistelli, which is most of the top-level management following a multi-year coup.
A new article by Katja Riedel (we need a translation) builds on top of yesterday's radio, television and newspaper coverage in Germany. A lot of people commented on last night’s TV programme, which I too watched (it can be streamed for the next few days at Bayerischer Rundfunk‘s Web site). As one new comment put it:
This evening on Bayerischer Rundfunk, Kontrovers news magazine, from about 11min 56secs in the programme
http://www.br.de/mediathek/video/sendungen/kontrovers/kontrovers112.html
An in depth report (in German) on the social problems at the EPO lasting 20 minutes. Too long to translate but it certainly appears difficult for the EPO to defend. The EPO provided statements but no interviews. The programme interlaced the statements with (necessarily anonymous) case studies. Even a doctor would not appear on camera in case it would let any patient be identified.
The programme will be available online for about 5 days from 02.03.16.
The TV programme and other coverage from Germany has helped reinforce the correlation between EPO suicides and Battistelli with his ‘Gestapo’, the I.U. 3/3 is an EPO propaganda day (more on that later), so we need to write a lot of rebuttals today. As one comment put it yesterday, an EPO worker “committed suicide after having been subjected to an investigation by the infamous Investigation Unit.” Here is the comment in full:
There was a very critical news story on the Bavarian television this evening on the social conflicts at the EPO:
http://www.br.de/nachrichten/europaeisches-patentamt-muenchen-vorwuerfe-100.html.
Most interestingly, the report starts with an interview of the brother of one staff member who committed suicide after having been subjected to an investigation by the infamous Investigation Unit.
No later than yesterday, in his public audition by members of the French Parliament Mr. Battistelli had justified the fact that no independent enquiry had been conducted in any of the recent suicides at the EPO with the argument that the families themselves had not claimed that there was any relationship whatsoever between the suicides and the EPO …
Battistelli is of course blaming his victims, even those whom he illegally suspended or dismissed. He not only can be seen comparing his opposition to "Nazis" but also to criminals. Oh, the hypocrisy. Battistelli needs to watch out and be careful what he says or else staff will sue him for defamation. Telling utter nonsense to French politicians isn’t acceptable and as this comment put it yesterday:
Curioser and curioser: so, criminal proceedings are open against staff representatives? On the basis of German law, I gather? I thought that German law (on human rights or data protection, for instance) was “inapplicable” in Eponia? Or is it applicable when it suits Benito Battistelli’s purposes?
One asks: “Could anyone cast some light here?”
Here is more information, for those who don’t understand French:
Dear Inspector Gadget, I think that you are confused or rather that BB’s babble may have confused you.
The latest allegation raised by BB in front of the French Parliamentary Committee implied or insinuated that the dismissed staff representatives had been somehow involved or implicated in the sending of messages with “Nazi symbols” to German members of staff.
As far as I could decipher BB’s babble, this does not mean that anyone is being accused of being a Nazi (in this particular case !) but rather that people have allegedly thrown “Nazi insults” at others.
According to BB such actions are in breach of German law and have resulted in the filing of a criminal complaint. It seems that national law is still respected by BB when it suits his purposes.
So far nobody has been able to obtain any information as to whether or not such a complaint actually exists and if so who is named in it as the accused.
It is quite possible that the EPO did indeed file a complaint against “persons unknown” but in the absence of tangible evidence leading to the identification of the perpetrator(s), the State Prosecutor would probably close the file.
And finally there’s this:
In this public declaration, made on 1 March 2016 in front of members of the French parliament, Mr Battistelli clearly justifies the dismissal of the SUEPO officials by accusing these of having uttered nazy insults against other EPO staff members, for which a criminal complaint has been filed.
This is too much for me.
As we are going to show later today (this afternoon), there is even worse propaganda right now. Battistelli is fighting for survival and bamboozling journalists with the PR team; this appears to be the latest media strategy, aided by massive budget. █
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03.02.16
Posted in Deception, Europe, Patents at 3:23 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
FFPE represents EPO workers like Daniel Domscheit-Berg (OpenLeaks) represents Wikileaks
Photo credit: Andreas Gaufer, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
Summary: The European Patent Office’s current management, which may soon get dismissed, is putting together a little show that gives the impression of peace with trade unions
HILARIOUS or outrageous it may be, depending on one’s mood. The latest publicity stunt from Team Battistelli (not the same as the EPO, which they merely exploit for their own agenda of power and money) is like something out of the propaganda books. Battistelli and his circle smile in their suits next to a bunch of what Soviets would call “useful idiots”; this isn’t ‘the’ union but a tiny group which claims to be one. FFPE is the Daniel Domscheit-Berg of the EPO’s staff. Only under intense pressure from colleagues it expressed solidarity with SUEPO, but those who look closely enough will see how Battistelli et al view and exploit FFPE [2, 2]. FFPE members cannot claim to be passive participants; they know too well how their complicity in this PR stunt would be used against SUEPO and by extension against EPO staff as a whole.
“FFPE members cannot claim to be passive participants; they know too well how their complicity in this PR stunt would be used against SUEPO and by extension against EPO staff as a whole.”Team Battistelli now truly leaves a misleading mess, ensuring that no external observer like a journalist can make sense of things. Battistelli is just trying to mislead media about unions, pretending there is peace. Tomorrow he will try "results", exploiting lack of critical skills and an inability to properly scrutinise the claims. What gives? How much is Battistelli willing to lie to the world in his desperate effort to save his job?
Pathetic. Truly pathetic. More so than Battistelli calling people whom he views as opposition "Nazis". One thing is clear now. Team Battistelli won’t give up with a fight (a dirty fight) that includes lying to journalists, lying to staff, fake letters of ‘support’ etc. Evil all the way. “As for the author of the pathetic letter in support of the President and his management style,” said one comment earlier today, “the information you received from your source is highly likely to be correct because the named PD was indeed assistant of Mr Minnoye prior to her appointment as PD (a well calculated step) and she is a typical product of the BB’s regime, always aligned with those in power. You know the classical kind of person: “lêche….”. This kind of person would do anything in order to please the boss.”
“Team Battistelli won’t give up with a fight (a dirty fight) that includes lying to journalists, lying to staff, fake letters of ‘support’ etc.”It’s not surprising that some people out there, especially people whom the EPO is now willing to recruit and also promote, play ball for the tyrants. They’re being groomed as a reward for their docility. “That IS hilarious,” wrote to us one person [1, 2]. “It’s so fake they even didn’t photoshop some union faces in that picture. As there should be in such “deals” [...] If you groom people for being leeches and backstabbers at your service, what do you think they’d do for you once you need them?”
“You can even see the strings,” another person remarked about the photo. For those willing to take the risk of clicking an epo.org link, here it is. The totally Orwellian nonsense contained just one tiny photo (11 people in full body size with just 264 pixels across, 172 top to bottom). Well, the photo is so tiny that I can hardly even recognise a handful, and those whom I can recognise I already know too well not to recognise even with just 10-20 RGB pixels making up their faces.
“FFPE has about 4 people in it…”
–AnonymousThis is what’s known as “Photo op”, which Wikipedia defines as “short for photograph opportunity (photo opportunity), is an arranged opportunity to take a photograph of a politician, a celebrity, or a notable event.”
Wikipedia correctly notes that this “term has acquired a negative connotation, referring to a carefully planned pseudo-event, often masqueraded as news. It is associated with politicians who perform tasks such as planting trees, picking up litter, and visiting senior citizens, often during election cycles, with the intent of photographers catching the events on film, generating positive publicity.”
One reader asked us earlier today: “Have you seen the EPO homepage???”
People are starting to notice, no doubt…
“FFPE has about 4 people in it,” told us this reader. “FFPE only exists in The Hague.”
“The longer Team Battistelli stays, the worse things will get for everyone, jeopardising everybody’s jobs.”Well, we heard estimates of ~20 members at most, but they don’t want to say (despite queries), so it’s quite likely less. They’re close enough to the Battistelli-led circle that they hang out with Bergot, based on comments we saw. It’s called ‘controlled opposition’ in some circles. The “good boy”, i.e. FFPE, unlike the naughty boy (SUEPO) is how it works. Classic!
How can anyone not see what Battistelli is hoping to achieve here? Propaganda galore.
Rebuttal to the latest Team Battistelli lies (regarding results) will be published here tomorrow. Team Battistelli is quickly burning any remnant of reputation that the EPO ever earned. They hate the EPO so much — unlike SUEPO (loving enough and caring to suggest improvements) — that they lie to everyone and think that this will somehow stick. The longer Team Battistelli stays, the worse things will get for everyone, jeopardising everybody’s jobs. The sooner Battistelli and his goons leave, the quicker the EPO will get back on its feet and restabilise. The EPO cannot coexist with Europe (or the EU) when it not only has a conflict with public interests but also with its own workers’ interests and European law. █
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Posted in Europe, Patents at 2:24 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
German Media Redux: The last thing the top-level management wants is transparency inside the European Patent Office, especially after relative calm in German media [1, 2]
Summary: There is finally quite a lot of German media coverage (radio, television, newspapers) about the truth inside the European Patent Office
TECHRIGHTS still has some work in progress when it comes to German media (more on that in the future). There’s also hope that someone will translate “Verwaltungsrat gegen Amtspräsident” for us. It’s getting a little out of date, but it turns out that it reached far and wide. “A new article by Thomas Magenheim-Hörmann was published on 29 February,” one reader told us yesterday. “The article appeared in the Münchner Merkur and various regional daily newspapers such as the Oberbayrisches Volksblatt.”
“V channels and newspapers may soon cover the EPO affairs a lot more than before, based on what we know and have heard.”German translations aren’t the main priority, however, nor is the pressure for German media to actually cover the developments at the EPO. TV channels and newspapers may soon cover the EPO affairs a lot more than before, based on what we know and have heard. Soon we will also have some videos to share.
Later tonight there will be a program on German television and now comes this preparatory article.
A lot of people are writing to us about it today (and even yesterday). “BR TV “Kontrovers”at 2100 tonight, German local time,” one person reminded us. Some people already sent some explanations and translations.
“Some people already sent some explanations and translations.”Regarding “Bavarian TV report tonight,” one reader told us, “in case you hadn’t already been made aware, there’s a documentary about the EPO on mainstream TV tonight (Bayerisches Fernsehen – it doesn’t get more mainstream than that). The programme will air tonight at 9pm local time.”
“Here’s the teaser. And here’s a translation of the teaser,” the reader added with the following preceding remark (we used a screenshot for fair use):
(not sure of the copyright on the photo. the credit is given as Photo: picture-alliance/dpa/Andreas Gebert on the BR website.)
When a dream job becomes a nightmare
A job at the European Patent Office is supposed to be highly lucrative; the pay is generous, and with minimal deductions. And yet, for some employees, the glass palace on the banks of the Isar is a golden cage. Kontrovers [documentary programme] takes a look behind the facade.
EPA in München | Bild: picture-alliance/dpa/Andreas Gebert
The European Patent Office exists to protect the rights of inventors. But many people are critical of its lack of protection for the rights of its own employees. Those responsible at the European Patent Office do not feel bound by fundamental principles of German employment law, such as the special status of employee representatives, pointing instead to its status a supranational organisation, above the German state. Is this really legitimate?
“For information,” added another reader, “German media reports about the EPO” are on their way, including the above from Bayrischer Rundfunk (BR). “This evening,” added this reader, “(2 March 2016 at 21:00 Central European Time) the Bavarian broadcaster Bayrischer Rundfunk will report in detail on the situation at the EPO in the current affairs program “BR Kontrovers”.”
“The program will hopefully be viewable online at the following link after transmission.”
“Some people already sent some explanations and translations.”TV programs in Dutch sure shifted/changed public opinion (we see this online). If Germany, where the population in considerably larger (bigger by more than an order of magnitude), the same thing can happen, there will be no turning back for Team Battistelli. Germany has a very strong position in EU political circles.
“A report was also broadcast today on Bavarian Radio,” our reader added, confirming what we later found out from Florian Müller (already mentioned this morning). “The text at the following link corresponds to the content of the audio broadcast” (we should note that this link is currently broken, so if anyone can find a working link, please let us know).
“A short 3 minute video clip from Bayrischer Rundfunk can be seen here,” added this reader (no point ripping it for local hosting if the full program will soon be made available even on television). “The video can be downloaded from this link,” our reader added, just in case someone wishes to keep a local copy for future reference. We will try to make sense of it all after the broadcasting. We’ll appreciate readers’ help with this. █
Update (21:51, same day): The TV program about the EPO (from less than two hours ago) is now online at this page. The EPO stuff starts at 11:56 (nearly 12 minutes from the start).
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Posted in Europe, Patents, Rumour at 6:54 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
The EPO scandals keep piling up
Reference: Golden parachute, defined as “an agreement between a company and an employee (usually upper executive) specifying that the employee will receive certain significant benefits if employment is terminated.” (like Microsoft’s Elop inside Nokia)
Photo credit: Money Crashers
Summary: More details (not just rumours) surface in the ongoing aftermath of the Battistelli regime, which is fighting to keep itself together
“Wow,” wrote Florian Müller this morning, “tonight (9 PM) even Bavarian state-owned TV will report on the EPO crisis.” He also said that “Bavarian state-owned radio (B5) just reporting on EPO labor dispute.”
We received several E-mails about it this morning (at least 3), as it has a profound impact on the legal community, not just EPO staff. We mentioned some of this before (prior E-mails we received about it) and today is an important day because German media coverage is starting to become a reality. It’s even on television and there are detailed programs on it, not just brief reports. To be frank, I am still pressuring some German publications behind the scenes, in order for them to do proper coverage of recent events; not sure if this will have an effect or not, but gradually we escalate the severity/tone and it appears to be working. We will say more about it in our next post.
“It’s even on television and there are detailed programs on it, not just brief reports.”Regarding Battistelli´s salary, told us one source, “I´ve said a long time ago that it´s supposed to be those 250-300k according to the scale (he acknowledged around 250k but I guess it´s a bit higher). The important part of his remuneration is the bonus, which was rumoured to be around 1.4-1.5 million. Together it would amount to the 1.8 million which multiplied by ten would give his alleged claim of 18 million for retiring.”
This is still the subject of an ongoing investigation here; we have a lot of data from many sources and we assure readers that once it becomes a confirmed fact (or leak) it’ll be a big scandal. Regarding the support letter (in support of Battistelli), our source told us: “Most of the directors refused to sign it. It was drafted by PD Roberta Romano-Goetsch at the instigation of VP Minnoye. I guess she couldn´t say no, having just been promoted. I hope it will surface one of these days.” █
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