Bonum Certa Men Certa

EPO in 2017: Erroneously Grant a Lot of Patents in Bulk or Get Sacked

All about litigation (legal aggression), in the spirit of the UPC

Minnoye MAGA



Summary: Quality of patent examination is being abandoned at the EPO and those who disobey or refuse to play along are being fired (or asked to resign to avoid forced resignations which would stain their record)

THE EPO, by the admission of Board 28, is in crisis. Every EP (European Patent) ever granted is at risk now. How can the accused or the defendant be expected to assume that EPs are valid (also upon scrutiny by a court) when EPO leaks such as these show that patents are being granted after very shallow searches? The only winner here is the litigation business. It's a massive tax on innovation and a distraction from productive activities.



We are extremely concerned about what happens at the EPO and what this will inevitably cause to the European economy. The social conflict/fiasco at the EPO is a symptom if not a side effect of this. There is growing resistance to abandonment of quality and reputation; EPO management responds by attacking figureheads, essentially crushing the unions (and beyond) that represent the interests of EPO workers -- people to whom the integrity of the EPO also assures their job security (they are bound to be made redundant unless things are turned around).

"Social atmosphere for patent examiners at the European Patent Office," one reader explained to us, will go "from bad to worse soon..." (alluding to the imminent departure of Minnoye (VP1), who recently attacked truth-tellers). Here is an explanation of what is happening and is about to happen:

VP1 is two months away from retiring (thank God) but fact is that he lost control over DG1 years ago whilst pathetically following orders from above like the docile private he actually is. PD 43 is the one now controlling HR policies over 4500 examiners all by far better educated and more qualified than herself. Sources from within DG 4 reports that a non-public policy for DG1 exists that foresees a scenario 1 and a scenario 2.

Examiners falling under scenario 1 e.g. examiners having difficulties to cope with the pace of work, or refusing to produce low quality level of work (since they were professionally trained not to cut corners but to deliver solid patents) are now being told baldly by their superiors to resign or they will be fired.

Obviously many scientists, who are not the most outspoken profiles among EPO staff, are scared and do not even speak to their union or staff reps, choosing to resign since the psychological pressure is too painful for them.

Examiners falling under scenario 2 will be punished without any further discussion. The aim of PD 43 would be to fire every year at least 2 examiners per cluster (one in TH and one in MUC/BE), so that each examiner no matter where he/she works, hears and/or knows about one colleague having been dismissed.

Education for the masses so to speak.

>From the same source, PD 43 would plan to introduce a policy (this time it should become public) where in a soon future, EPO staff can be fired for lack of professional competency/efficiency or-the-like, in any case a very vague and utterly subjective wording, without having to remit the case to a disciplinary committee.

Indeed since PD 43 and her minions do not apply (much less understand) the current (simple) rules for disciplinary procedures, the best is to be able to circumventing them so that they do as they please without taking the risk to violating them.

The recently conveyed grotesque disciplinary boards during which several SUEPO officials were harshly (and very likely illegally) sanctioned should not be repeated in the future.

But all this being said, have not worry, the EPO is a great place to work for: according to PD 43 the EPO respects the rule of law, human rights, unions, staff reps, pregnant females, handicapped staff, coloured staff etc


We actually have a lot more stories to publish (regarding abuses of workers' rights), but if anyone else can elaborate on decline in patent quality, potentially with supporting evidence, we would greatly appreciate it. We can be reached anonymously.

The EPO's management is clearly driving into a wall here; the sooner it's removed, the better for everyone. Even EPO stakeholders' complaints are growing louder over time. With no EPO left, they too would suffer.

Recent Techrights' Posts

The Lawsuit by Clients of Brett Wilson LLP Against Brett Wilson LLP is Officially On, It is Progressing, The 'Experts' Pick Outside Law Firms (RPC and Mills & Reeve) to Spare Them From Litigants in Person
So it is probably quite potent
Slopwatch: Plagiarism and "Linux" Articles by Bots
Sites that do this won't survive; many of them rely on slop services (suppliers) that will cease to exist after the bubble bursts
 
Another Wave of Microsoft Layoffs, This Time During National Day Holiday
This time it's China again
10 Out of 10: RMS Attracts Massive Audience in Göteborg, Sweden (All Seats Occupied, Some People Standing)
a 55-second clip of his talk
Staying Happy in Times of Crackdowns on Civil Society
Optimism in this sort of "new reality" or "new normal" seems like something for the irrational person
"Nobel" Exploited Posthumously for "AI" Hype, Now They Do the Same With "Quantum"
ere have been many jokes about "Nobel" for peace (often granted to pro-war people) and a fake one for "Economics" (establishment propaganda)
Distinguished Lecture by Richard Stallman This Coming Monday in Rome
After "Free software, Crucial for Freedom in a Digital World"
Links 10/10/2025: Putin Admits Russia Downed Azerbaijan Airlines Jet, More New Heat Records
Links for the day
Noteworthy Claim That IBM is Firing a Lot of Lawyers This Week (RAs in the Legal Department)
A lot of what they do is patent 'trolling' or lawyering up against their own staff (e.g. HR disputes)
Links 10/10/2025: US Judge Bars Attacks by ICE On Journalists and Protesters; “We Took The Freedom of Speech Away” Says the President
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Serial Sloppers, Google News Gifting Slopfarms, and Fake News/Plagiarism About "Linux"
Google itself is a slop pusher these days
Qualcomm, the New Owner of Arduino, Blasted for Its Software Patents Tax on 'Smartphones'
A lot of Qualcomm's patents are on software. We wrote about this in prior years.
XBox Layoffs Rumours, Downtime, and Criticism From XBox Co-Founder
"everyone is ditching the xbox."
Links 10/10/2025: Honoring The Legacy Of Robert Murray-Smith, Many Articles on the Hey Hi (AI) Bubble
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: October Gothic and Reading Middle Earth Role Playing; C and Ada
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 09, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 09, 2025
Links 09/10/2025: Farewell to Jane Goodall, California Bans Algorithmic Price-Fixing
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Lost Wages and a Saga Of Continuing To Use Palm PDAs
Links for the day
Richard Stallman's Talk in Helsinki is Done. Tomorrow Göteborg.
There are scarce details in Finnish about Dr. Stallman's talk
New XBox Leaks Probably Serve to Confirm XBox's Collapse (Many More Layoffs)
It's very much consistent with what many other sites have reported lately
The Slop Song
The train wreck marches on
LLM Slop/Advanced Plagiarism Flooding the Zone With Capital That Does Not Exist
Many publishers out there still participate in this bubble instead of calling it what it is
Links 09/10/2025: Sacked Microsoft Workers Make "Sackbird", IBM Taps CockroachDB for PostgreSQL
Links for the day
"Happy Hacking Day" Richard Stallman Talk This Afternoon (From 14:00 to 16:00) at Haaga-Helia University in Pasila
Richard Stallman in Helsinki, Finland
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 08, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 08, 2025
Links 09/10/2025: Impact of Microsoft Layoffs, More Data Breaches
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Autumn Blues and C IRC Bot
Links for the day
Slopwatch Appreciated by Real Authors of GNU/Linux Articles
We do try to keep on top of those things
Upgraded R.R.R.R.R.R. Today
The Web of 2025 is full of garbage, not limited to slopfarms
Freedom From Proprietary Prisons
Forking always an option
IBM's Watson Died in 1956, Now Watson Dies Again
IBM is becoming just a reseller of GAFAM and other stuff
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, UbuntuPIT, and Google News
We've also just noticed more slop from UbuntuPIT
Microsoft Says That Constant Mass Layoffs Are Success, the Media Isn't Buying This Microsoft Narrative Anymore
If people in the media feel an obligation to repeat whatever lies Microsoft tells, what point will there be to the media?
Links 08/10/2025: "Mali Puts Free Speech on Trial" And Apple Enforces Dictatorship
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: ‘Death to Spotify’ and Law to Ban Loud Commercials on Streaming (Dis)Services
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: Real Innovation and Nina.chat is Dead
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: Y2K38 Bug is a Vulnerability, Chat Control in Europe a Threat
Links for the day
Microsoft Windows is No Longer an Operating System, It's Surveillance Project
Why is this even legal to preload on PCs outside the US?
How and Why Once-Legitimate Sites Turn Into Slopfarms
Many sites will go offline and many social control networks will shut down once they realise or even openly admit they spend money and time gardening a bunch of bots and slop
UbuntuPIT Became a Slopfarm and Gnoppix Tarnishes Its Own Brand With Slop
It fits all the characteristics of mildly-edited (if at all) slop
Slopwatch: Linux Journal and Other Slopfarms
GAFAM needs to go the way of the dodo
Gemini Links 08/10/2025: "Seek Seek Revolution" and Gradient Backgrounds
Links for the day
Qualcomm Arduino Takes Aim at Raspberry Pi
Qualcomm is a Microsoft partner
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 07, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, October 07, 2025
Stagnation of the Economy and What Free Software Can (or Could) Do For It
If your economic model is based on a pyramid of lies, it won't last very long
Social Control Media is Sinking
it would rightly seem like the era of centralised "social" sites (they're not social, they're about controlling the users) is ending, not overnight but gradually