02.11.16
Posted in Europe, Patents at 11:10 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
In spite of FTI Consulting’s (EPO-funded to the tune of almost $1,000,000 per year) pro-UPC propaganda
Summary: In the face of enormous pressure from non-technical Eurocrats like Battistelli, Spain remains strong and resists the Unitary Patent Court (UPC), which puts more power in the hands of an abusive body that grossly discriminates against Spaniards
MONTHS after we covered the Spanish scandals [1, 2, 3] which implicate an EPO Vice-President all we find in Spanish-speaking media is puff pieces about the EPO, generated after Battistelli had visited Latin America, shook some hands, signed some papers, then left back to his castle in Munich (a castle from which workers escape through the windows to their death, due to improper management, based on the staff union).
“Tell them more about how the EPO’s ‘gestapo’ treats a Spanish union leader, causing him to have nervous breakdowns and actively forbidding him from saying anything about what’s happening.”Another action (a protest in this case, not yet a strike) against the EPO’s management is going to take place less than a week from now. Details in SUEPO’s public site were published yesterday as follows: “On 17 February the so-called Board 28 (officially: “Board of the Administrative Council”) will have its second meeting of the year. The Board 28 is the ultra-secretive think-tank of the Administrative Council. SUEPO invites all staff to demonstrate in front of the Isar building, starting from 12.30h.
“With the demonstration we want to appeal to the members of the Board 28 to reflect on the reforms unilaterally imposed on staff by Mr Battistelli, almost all of which breach European legal and democratic norms, and in many cases violate fundamental rights.”
“Ask delegates who are at the Council to dig into the salary of Battistelli, which oddly enough remains a closely-guarded secret (his predecessor did disclose hers).”They seem to be targeting delegates which any of our readers in Europe (not just EPO staff) can contact. Tell them more about how the EPO’s ‘gestapo’ [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7] treats a Spanish union leader, causing him to have nervous breakdowns and actively forbidding him from saying anything about what’s happening. Ask delegates who are at the Council to dig into the salary of Battistelli, which oddly enough remains a closely-guarded secret (his predecessor did disclose hers).
One important development that we noticed yesterday is that Spain may be increasingly giving EPO management the finger, even at a national level. This is important because Spain is a big country. There are many patent applicants coming from Spain, not to mention patent examiners. Spain does not need the UPC regime. It openly opposed it even half a decade ago when it was referred to as EU Patent, not UPC (the name of the unwanted ‘reform’ keeps changing over time, maybe in an effort to dodge negative publicity). Things are fine as they are. Spain has the resources to manage a patent office and patent courts, so Spain has antagonised the UPC several times in the past. The EU/EPO tried blackmailing Spain into the UPC, but such moves are more likely to alienate, not accomplish anything. Spain did not change its position after such blackmail and based on this new interview with WIPR, Spain’s IPO head remains consistent and strong. To quote the article: “The director general of Spain’s Patent and Trademark Office has supported the government’s decision to opt out of the unitary patent and said that EU member states will be forced to reflect on the importance of the Spanish language and technology.
“One important development that we noticed yesterday is that Spain may be increasingly giving EPO management the finger, even at a national level.”“Speaking to WIPR, Patricia Garcia-Escudero said she stood by the government’s decision to not participate in the patent and the concurrent Unified Patent Court (UPC).
“Last year, the Court of Justice of the European Union ended Spain’s legal challenge to the UPC Agreement.
“The bone of contention was the exclusion of Spanish as an official language of the UPC, which Spain described as discriminatory. The official languages are English, French and German.
““Spanish is one of the most spoken languages in the world, and it is widely used on the internet. So we wanted them to consider Spanish as an official language of the UPC,” Garcia-Escudero said.”
“More countries should follow Spain’s lead and defend Europe from patent trolls, software patents, and massive foreign corporations that wish to sue a lot of European SMEs (in many countries) in one fell swoop.”For the Spanish people and for Spain’s IPO head this is the right thing to do given the mistreatment of Spain and Spanish people at the EPO (see in Spanish: "A La Oficina Europea de Patentes (OEP) no le gusta el Español, Así que PorQué los Espańoles la Toleran?"), not to mention the snubbing of the Spanish language — a subject that we repeatedly covered here before.
More countries should follow Spain’s lead and defend Europe from patent trolls, software patents, and massive foreign corporations that wish to sue a lot of European SMEs (in many countries) in one fell swoop. That’s what the UPC is practically for (ignore the EPO’s publicity stunts and misleading UPC marketing from patent lawyers who profit from patent feuds). █
“The day that the software sector forms a clear front against software patents, as pharma does for a unitary patent system… will be the day our cause comes close to winning.” —Pieter Hintjens (former FFII President), Fosdem07 Interview
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Posted in Europe, Patents at 10:30 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Tyrants find Cuba to be an easy ally, especially those who literally kill (in a carnage) their opposition
Castro and Indonesian President Sukarno in Havana, 1960 (recall the Indonesian Massacres or Indonesian Genocide)
Summary: Now that Spain is antagonising the EPO (and especially the UPC) the President of the EPO helps create some puff pieces in Spanish as he visits Cuba and neighbouring Spanish-speaking nations which are historically renowned for defunct governance and lawlessness (like the EPO itself)
“You made me read Rebel Youth & Gramma after so many years,” Eduardo told me this morning. “These Cubans don’t realize what are they’re getting into.”
Eduardo has helped us produce and publish plenty of translations of articles about the EPO and having originally come from South America, he’s unhappy to see what the EPO is doing to poor people, poor families, poor companies, and even Spanish people. The EPO works for big businesses, usually at the expense of everybody else.
“Man,” Eduardo added, “you made me read Juventud Rebelde & Gramma [after] so many years. These Cubans don’t realize what are they’re getting into when cozying up with EPO. We won’t agree on everything but those #!@@*, etc infiltrate into every corner of the world.”
“The EPO works for big businesses, usually at the expense of everybody else.”Battistelli has been going on all sorts of world tours recently, mostly in oppressive countries like China and some Latin American nations with hardly any patents but a lot of atrocities (human rights violations included). This is “so funny,” told us one of Battistelli’s employees the other day, “his trip to Latin America.”
“What on earth can we get from Cuba (or Cuba from us)? Cuban patents filed at the EPO in 2014: 7!”
Here is the “Gramma article regarding Pinocho’s visit to Cuba,” Eduardo told us, translating this original in Spanish.
“It seems that Cubans don’t realize what they’re are getting into,” he emphasised yet again.
EPO’s President Visit Cuba
The EPO’s president Mr. Benoit Battistelli, arrived yesterday to our country where he was received in the OCPI (Cuban Office of Intellectual Property)
Author: Orfilio Peláez | orfilio@granma.cu
January 22 2016 19:01:13
The EPO’s president Mr. Benoit Battistelli, arrived yesterday to our country where he was received in the OCPI (Cuban Office of Intellectual Property)
During your stay you will sign a memorandum of understanding with that of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, whose purpose is to promote bilateral cooperation in the field of industrial property.
He informed Granma Sandra Rodriguez, a specialist in communication OCPI, the senior manager will also hold a meeting with the president of the Chamber of Commerce of Cuba, and visit the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, at which he will give a lecture on European patent system.
The European Patent Office was created on October 5, 1973 and has offices in the cities of The Hague, Berlin, Munich and Vienna.
The above is more or less a puff piece. Here is the Rebel Youth article translated into English:
Patents Offices Will Subscribe Memorandum of Understanding
EPO’s President, Benoit Battistelli, will sign this coming Friday a Memorandum of Understanding with the Cuban Office of Intellectual Property to promote cooperation activities regarding intellectual property matters.
Juventud Rebelde
digital@juventudrebelde.cu
January 22 2016 13:24:44 CDT
EPO’s Presidente, Benoit Battistelli, will sign this coming Friday a Memorandum of Understanding with the Cuban Office of Intellectual Property (OCPI), reported ACN
The document’s subscription follow the purpose to promote cooperation activities regarding Intellectual (Industrial) Property between both institutions, reported to ACN OCPI specialits.
They added that the program of the visit to Havana by French Battistelli also includes a meeting with President of the Chamber of Commerce of Cuba.
In addition, a tour of areas of the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, where he will give a lecture on the European Patent System.
EPO came under the European Patent Convention, also known as Munich Patent Convention, signed on 5 October 1973.
EPO is based in The Hague, Berlin, Munich and Vienna, and even is receiving Office for applications in the Patent Cooperation Treaty administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
Battistelli has served as an official in European institutions, has the title of Professor Honoris Causa by the Renmin University, based in Beijing, PRC, and an Honorary Doctorate awarded by the Menendez Pelayo International University in Santander, Spain, among others distinctions.
WIPO granted in April its Gold Medal for Cuban medicine to Itolizumab [http://www.juventudrebelde.cu/cuba/2013-11-13/demuestran-eficacia-de-anticuerpo-monoclonal-en-el-tratamiento-de-la-psoriasis/], a humanized monoclonal antibody recognizing leukocyte antigen CD6 for the treatment of autoimmune diseases, particularly psoriasis, said the MSc Maria de los Angeles Sánchez Torres, director of OCPI.
This is a product of the Center for Molecular Immunology [http://www.juventudrebelde.cu/cuba/2016-01-16/ampliara-centro-de-inmunologia-molecular-de-cuba-sus-productos/], indicated for severe psoriasis, a chronic inflammatory skin disease that affects about 125 million people worldwide, he said.
Although there are countries that are engaged in scientific research in Latin America, proportionally Cuba, with 10, has the greatest number of gold medals has WIPO, a specialized agency of the UN, created in 1967, in Geneva (Switzerland) and with 187 member states at present.
We are still undecided or unsure if Cuba risks (or altogether jeopardises) its gradually-improving reputation by association/affiliation with Battistelli or maybe Battistelli’s reputation is so bad that being seen with Cuban officials will actually boost his image.
Notice, based on the above, that Battistelli also met the President of the Chamber of Commerce of Cuba. The EPO itself recently posted some puff pieces about this event/visit, which seemingly (we hypothetise) got orchestrated to, among other things, seed favourable coverage in the Spanish language. This is what EPO officials might as well have referred to as perception management — a typical term for such a strategy — or what was called EPO's positioning campaign in the media (quote). One might legitimately wonder if the EPO's PR team ‘helped’ (e.g. by ghostwriting) the above publications author the puff pieces.
Remember that Spain is a thorn on the EPO’s side and in order to generate some weak/garbage reporting in Spanish Battistelli need not necessarily visit Spain. Spanish language readers would bump into a lot of news from Latin America too.
“Remember that Spain is a thorn on the EPO’s side and in order to generate some weak/garbage reporting in Spanish Battistelli need not necessarily visit Spain.”Regarding patents from Cuba, told us a person, “of course the US would be their first choice, Cuba and Panama don´t count” (definitely not in the EPO, so perhaps Battistelli is hoping to change that).
Our next post will help demonstrate why the EPO is in dire need of favourable coverage in Spanish. The last thing the EPO wants right now is Spanish people becoming aware of the EPO’s very serious abuses — abuses that the EPO tries hard to keep quiet, even if by crushing human rights, unions, their lawyers, delegates, politicians, journalists and so on. It took quite a long time for people outside the German and Dutch circles to become aware what EPO management had been doing. A lot of Spanish people are still unaware because Spanish media hardly ever touches the subject. █
“I won’t perform in Cuba until there’s no more Castro and there’s a free Cuba. To me, Cuba’s the biggest prison in the world, and I would be very hypocritical were I to perform there.”
–Pitbull
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Posted in Europe, Patents at 9:20 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
English/Original
Publicado en Europe, Patents at 7:50 am por el Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Sumario: La Corte Unitaria de Patentes UPC, un sistema arregaldo esta siendo embestida por la gargant de Europa por la OEP. (Nos están metiendo la yuca). Sus grandes clientes (incluso extranjeros), con sus abogados de patentes para que todo el mundo los vea.
Hay un montón de serios abusos (por lo menos institucionales) rodeando la UPC, mucho como aquellos tratados de ´comercio´ con todos sus sobornos. La UPC debería por lo menos ser tan escándalosa como ACTA o la TPP, pero el público esta raramente enterado de su existencia, no hay opinión pública acerca de ella, y las fuerzas detrás de ella trabajan típicamente tras puertas cerradas (en eventos privados con carísimas entradas y no opinión crítica).
La UPC es manejada no por el público pero por el DESEO DE ALGUNOS PARTIDOS DE ESENCIALMENTE ENRIQUECERSE A COSTA DEL PÚBLICO. Es ROBO LEGALIZADO, o pase sistemático de riqueza. La OEP tiene sus propios cabildeadores en Bruselas así comos los aliados de la OEP como Microsoft, quien emplea sus propias connecciones cabilderas en la misma ciudad (para patentes de software en Europa – gol compartido con la OEP guiada por Battistelli). ¿Alguién sabe quién financia el grupo frontal cabildeador ¨Alianza para Estandares ´Justos´¨? Ellos no lo dicen, pero podemos adivinarlo.
Curiosamente suficiente ayer encontramos que la firma legal que la OEP contrato (i.e PAGO) para MATONEARME con cartas legales esta promoviendo la UPC ahora mismo. ¿Bueno otra coincidencia o alineación/intersección de intereses? MIP escribió que en su parcialmente visible articulo (detras de una caja registradora). ¨Fieldfisher se amplia en anticipación del lanzamiento de la UPC,¨ dice y todo lo que se por que Fieldfisher esta amenazando con cartas legales que me envió. Articulos que resaltan la coneccion entre MICROSOFT Y LA OEP es por lo que me amenazaron repedidamente.
Resulta que basado en el tweet de ayer del presidente de la la FFII, el ¨ministro alemán de justicia parece prepararse para la retificación de la UPC, patentes de software como una carta al post de #swpat #nodebate¨ (de verdad no debate público lo mismo que en el Reino Unido) -parece que se echaron de antemano a sus amos del otro lado del charco.
Firmas de patentes adoran la UPC porque significa MÁS Y (MÁS AMPLIOS) JUICIOS que significan mayor dinero para ellos. Resulta que basado en lo que recibimos ayer, hay un montón de nepotismo y cabildeo de por medio. El ministro de Justicia aleman también esta implicado. Para citar nuestra fuente:
Roy,
acerca de tu post de quien se beneficiará más con la patente unitaria y la UPC, pueda ser que quieras tener una mirada cercana a este articulo:
http://www.stjerna.de/index_en_htm_files/The_requirements_of_Article%20118_1_TFEU.pdf
Sus secciones I. y II. describen una remarcable connección entre el ministerio Aleman de Justicia y uno de los líderes alemanes proponentes de la UPC, Profesor Tillmann (http://www.hoganlovells.com/winfried-tilmann/), un preminente abogado aleman en Hogan Lovells, una de las firmas líderes en litigacion de patentes en Europa. Tillmann admitió que le fueron entregados documentos confidenciales de la corte por el ministerio de justicia para comentar publicamente a favor de la UPC.
El articulo también cita una carta envíada por su firma a un Comite de la Casa de los Comúnes en 2012, tratando de clarificar que el Sr Tillmann no estaba actuando a favor de Hogan Lovells, sino expresando sus ¨puntos de vista personales¨ -después que aparentemente impulsó su cabildeo por la patente unitaria y la UPC demasiádo. La carta fue mencionada en IPKat (http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2012/05/when-unity-creates-division-kat-patent.html), puede ser bajada (https://sites.google.com/site/ipkatreaders/unifiedpatentproposal/hoglove.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1). Es un cague de risa.
Sinceramente
Parece posible que la única razón que el público europen no se ha escándalizado todavía con la UPC es la clandestinidad alrededor de ella, la falta de entendimiento (la OEP gasta dinero en propaganda y enventos apoyándola), y la falta de participación del público.
Urgimos a todos los lectores dentro y fuera de Europa (y dentro o afuera de la EPO) a oponerse a esta injusticia. LAS PERSONAS DE lATINOAMÉRICA DEBEN ESTAR AL CORRIENTE DE ESTOS EVENTOS, TRATADOS COMERCIALES RELATIVOS A PATENTES DE SOFTWARE, COMO EL FIRMADO LA SEMANA PASADA EN cOLOMBIA, QUE SÓLO BENEFICIARÁN A LAS GRANDES CORPORACIONES MULTINACIONALES Y A LOS TROLLES DE PATENTES. La OEP gast un montón de dinero ENGAÑÁNDO AL PÚBLICO así que soplones son necesarios. Un lector nos dijo ayer: ¨gracias por su tenacidad en poner a la gerencia de la OEP responsable. No estoy de acuerdo en todo acerca de las patentes de software, pero definitivamente estoy de acuerdo con usted en el presente estado de la OEP.¨
Nunca dos personas pueden estar de acuerdo en todo, pero hay puntos comúnes. Es posible trabajar por la OEP (i.e como examinador) mientras que se reconocen los problemas que aquejan a la UPC. Animámos fuertement a nuestros lectores a enviarnos documentos, señaladores o cualquier otro material acerca de la UPC. La gerencia de la OEP está entendiblemente paranóica acerca de los críticos de la UPC (ven críticos de la UPC hasta en la sopa), como resaltamos varias veces en le pasado. █
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Posted in Europe, Patents at 9:09 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
English/Original
Publicado en Europe, Patents at 7:04 am por el Dr. Roy Schestowitz
By Foto-AG Gymnasium Melle, CC BY-SA 3.0
Sumario: Pregunta a la Comisión Europea de parte de la MEP Portuguesa Ana Gomes, publicado en el sitio del Parlamente Europeo.
Unos meses atrás, un lector nos informó que la Srta. Ana Maria Gomes resaltó la materia de los abusos de la OEP. Estos fueron mencionados frente a la Comisión Europea. Aquí esta lo que ella dijo y/o escribió al respecto (available en Inglés y Frances):
17 de Noviembre de 2015
E-014796-15
Pregunta para respuesta escrita a la Comisi
Rule 130
Ana Gomes (S&D)
Sujeto: Reestablecer derechos fundamentales en la Oficina Europea de Patentes
¿Ha preguntádo la Comisión a los Estados Miembros de la Oficina Europea de Patentes (OEP), y en particular a los 2 Estados Miembros donde la organización esta localizada, llamados los Países Bajos (La Hague) y Alemania (Munich), por una explicación de las continues violaciones de los fundamentales derechos de los empleados de la OEP?
Parecería que los Países Bajos están poniendo sus intereses económicos, i.e el hecho que la sede de la OEP esta localizada en su territorio por delante de los derechos de los empleados de la organización. La decisión del gobierno de los Países Bajos de apoyar a los empleados de la OEP en la apelación que trajo ante su Corte Suprema, simplemente confirma esto. ¿Qué punto de vista la Comisión tiene en esta materia?
Irrespectivaente de la decisión pasada por la Corte de Apelaciones de los Países Bajos, la OEP esta violando los derechos fundamentales de sus empleados, pero también principios básicos del gobierno de ley.
El argumente respecto a la immunidad de la OEP fue considerado y explícitamente rechazado por la Corte Suprema de Apelaciones de los Países Bajos. Al continuar invocando su immunidad, la OEP esta deliberadamente desobedeciendo una resolución de una corte de leyes.
¿Qué acción la Comisión planea tomar contra una organización internacional que deliveradamente se pone fuera de la ley internaciona y nacional y las viola?
Hay otras continuas acciones políticas que estamos enterados pero no publicando todavía (ya que podría interferir su progreso). La OEP esta en un problema grande. Battistelli esta asustado al pareces y tiene razón de estarlo. █
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