Bonum Certa Men Certa

Poisonous Patents at the European Patent Office (EPO)

How far should patent scope go?

Zinc colour



Summary: When colouring involves ingestible metals and questions about public interest in patenting arise, reminding the population that patents are not some limitless God-given right

THE "European Patent Office uphelds patent for zinc pyrithione in architectural paints," says this new press release-like article (there are earlier such articles), though the "EPO’s decision can be appealed. Subject to the outcome of an appeal the patent will remain in force until 3 February 2018." In light of recent debates about "poisonous priority" at Battistelli’s EPO, this might deserve closer scrutiny.



"One might joke that a patent on this would actively limit the practice, by giving just one company a monopoly on the practice."The patent from Switzerland can be accessed through the EPO's Web site (EP 0963291 B1). There are health issues associated with that. See the 2015 paper, "Time to Ban Lead in Industrial Paints and Coatings" (among others). Zinc is said to be less damaging than lead and zinc pyrithione is used in creams, shampoos, soaps, etc. Make no mistake, however, as not all zinc mixtures are created equal. The chemicals "can be mixed with other materials to make industrial items such as paint, dyes, and more. These combination substances can be particularly toxic" and lead to poisoning, similar to lead poisoning that Flint made so infamous over the past few years. "Lonza Group Ltd, a holding company under Swiss law, is fully committed to good corporate governance," it insists, but we still can't help but suspect that dissemination of zinc pyrithione into groundwater is in no way desirable. One might joke that a patent on this would actively limit the practice, by giving just one company a monopoly on the practice.

"The great danger right now is that if the UPC ever becomes a reality, even if outside the UK (left alone and out of it due to Brexit), patent scope will expand even further, attracting all sorts of unwanted lawsuits."Patent scope at the EPO was the original cause for our concern about the EPO. That was almost one decade ago (see earlier articles in this Wiki page), with greater concern regarding software patents (back when the USPTO was very lenient and various US courts overly soft on them). Our articles about software patents in Europe go back to 2007 and occasionally we complained about patents on life, too. These were patents that the public was up in arms about, partly because of health issues.

The great danger right now is that if the UPC ever becomes a reality, even if outside the UK (left alone and out of it due to Brexit), patent scope will expand even further, attracting all sorts of unwanted lawsuits. "The whole game is to ratify without a new discussion in [British] Parliament before the end of March," Henrion noted in IP Kat, which used to regularly promote the UPC. We expect many people to sign this petition next week.

We are very pro-EPO. We want to repair the EPO, as do opinionated EPO workers.

Recent Techrights' Posts

More Information About Public Talks That Richard Stallman Gave This Week in Europe
Two talks in Switzerland
SoylentNews Grows Up, Registers as a Business, Site Traffic Reportedly Grows
More people realise that social control media may in fact be a passing fad
 
Links 29/03/2024: Fentanylware (TikTok) Fines and UK High Court Makes It Seem OK to Assassinate People Wrongly (Falsely) Associated With "Russia"
Links for the day
Garden Season Starts Today
Outdoor time, officially...
Engadget is Still a Spamfarm, It's Just an Amazon Catalogue (SPAM/SEO), a Sea of Junk Disguised as "Articles" With Few 'Fillers' (Real Articles) in Between
Engadget writes for bots now, not for humans
Richard Stallman's Talks in Switzerland This Week
We need to put an end to 'cancer culture'; it's trying to kill people and it is even swatting people
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 28, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, March 28, 2024
[Meme] EPO's New Ways of Working (NWoW), a.k.a. You Don't Even Get a Desk at Work and Cannot be Near Known Colleagues
Seems more like union-busting (divide and rule)
Hiding Microsoft's Culpability in Security Breaches and Other Major Blunders (in the United Kingdom, This May Mean You Can't Get Food)
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is vast
Giving back to the community
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 28/03/2024: Sega, Nintendo, and Bell Layoffs
Links for the day
Open letter to the ACM regarding Codes of Conduct impersonating the Code of Ethics
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
With 9 Mentions of Azure In Its Latest Blog Post, Canonical is Again Promoting Microsoft and Intel Vendor Lock-in, Surveillance, Back Doors, Considerable Power Waste, and Defects That Cannot be Fixed
Microsoft did not even have to buy Canonical (for Canonical to act like it happened)
Links 28/03/2024: GAFAM Replacing Full-Time Workers With Interns Now
Links for the day
Consent & Debian's illegitimate constitution
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
The Time Our Server Host Died in a Car Accident
If Debian has internal problems, then they need to be illuminated and then tackled, at the very least in order to ensure we do not end up with "Deadian"
China's New 'IT' Rules Are a Massive Headache for Microsoft
On the issue of China we're neutral except when it comes to human rights issues
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 27, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 27, 2024
WeMakeFedora.org: harassment decision, victory for volunteers and Fedora Foundations
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 27/03/2024: Terrorism Grows in Africa, Unemployment in Finland Rose Sharply in a Year, Chinese Aggression Escalates
Links for the day
Links 27/03/2024: Ericsson and Tencent Layoffs
Links for the day
Amid Online Reports of XBox Sales Collapsing, Mass Layoffs in More Teams, and Windows Making Things Worse (Admission of Losses, Rumours About XBox Canceled as a Hardware Unit)...
Windows has loads of issues, also as a gaming platform
Links 27/03/2024: BBC Resorts to CG Cruft, Akamai Blocking Blunders in Piracy Shield
Links for the day
Android Approaches 90% of the Operating Systems Market in Chad (Windows Down From 99.5% 15 Years Ago to Just 2.5% Right Now)
Windows is down to about 2% on the Web-connected client side as measured by statCounter
Sainsbury's: Let Them Eat Yoghurts (and Microsoft Downtimes When They Need Proper Food)
a social control media 'scandal' this week
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 26, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
Windows/Client at Microsoft Falling Sharply (Well Over 10% Decline Every Quarter), So For His Next Trick the Ponzi in Chief Merges Units, Spices Everything Up With "AI"
Hiding the steep decline of Windows/Client at Microsoft?
Free technology in housing and construction
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
We Need Open Standards With Free Software Implementations, Not "Interoperability" Alone
Sadly we're confronting misguided managers and a bunch of clowns trying to herd us all - sometimes without consent - into "clown computing"
Microsoft's Collapse in the Web Server Space Continued This Month
Microsoft is the "2%", just like Windows in some countries