09.07.18
Gemini version available ♊︎CIPA and EPO, Two UPC Boosters, Get Together to Promote Software Patents in Spite of the EPC
Shredding the rule of law
Summary: The private sector of patent litigation paints itself as the victim (never mind the many victims of their often-frivolous lawsuits) while lobbying for irrational patents that serve nobody in science and technology; this is troublesome for a plethora of important factors and reasons
THE MANAGEMENT of the EPO has long attempted to paint itself as the victim (of “defamation” or a “smear campaign” or whatever). These are patently absurd inversions of narratives because it’s the EPO that defames employees (sometimes calling them “Nazis”) and smearing the staff union, SUEPO. It’s all about perception and EPO managers spent an extraordinary amount of money (EPO budget of course!) on PR agencies, whose job was to lie to the public.
It wasn’t too long ago that Josh from Patent Progress refuted some nonsensical chart much like the EPO’s supposed ‘results’, where companies get ranked only by their patents (enumerated, aggregated).
“It’s all about perception and EPO managers spent an extraordinary amount of money (EPO budget of course!) on PR agencies, whose job was to lie to the public.”“The number of patents received by a company has little to do with its creativity,” Josh said, “and yet we get this kind of nonsense all the time.”
How many patent lawyers/attorneys seriously believe that patents and inventions are the same thing? This is not just pure nonsense but it is paid-for propaganda; there’s an agenda here and it’s often delivered/amplified by corporate media…
The “Cult of Patents” people (as we often refer to the likes who promote such charts) are writing entire articles about a Samsung patent as if a patent is a product [1, 2]. It’s not. And from war on (particular) drugs we’ve apparently moved to patenting them, based on this new press release. Incredible. Truly incredible. It’s all because of money; it’s all about commercial interests, not safety or ethics or health…
“How many patent lawyers/attorneys seriously believe that patents and inventions are the same thing?”Are these drugs any good for treating depression? Well, hopefully…
According to CIPA, the real victims aren’t those who get sued by patent holders, usually baselessly. The real victims are those who are responsible for these lawsuits. That’s a lot like those articles about “bored” and “depressed” drone operators, who basically slaughter a lot of people using a joystick halfway across the world. Many articles have been composed for over half a decade about the “stress” and “fatigue” of these operators. We recently started seeing similar articles about NSA analysts, as if those who illegally and unconstitutionally infringe the privacy of millions are actually the victims worthy of public sympathy. Isn’t that grotesque?
According to CIPA and the likes of it (see Ben Wodecki on Twitter), we need to be sorry for patent attorneys. Remember that CIPA is their front group in the UK. It’s a highly nefarious front group that liaised with Battistelli some months ago. It’s also the foremost lobbyist for UPC in the UK.
“According to CIPA, the real victims aren’t those who get sued by patent holders, usually baselessly. The real victims are those who are responsible for these lawsuits.”Are attorneys unhappy at their job? Then they need to change occupations. As patent maximalism may be coming to an end (at least in the US) the market will become more competitive and over-congested. It will be harder to attract ‘business’; we already see some mergers and acquisitions that are symptoms of it.
“You just need to read 2 or 3 patent claims,” Benjamin Henrion wrote, “and your brain start to hurt. No wonder if you have to write those claims the whole day [go] #mental…”
We remind readers that CIPA representatives basically ‘infiltrated’ IP Kat, whereupon EPO coverage virtually ground to a half. They’re UPC boosters who seem to have no qualm about doing photo ops with Battistelli and software patents in Europe is an agenda they totally and wholeheartedly support. CIPA can be blamed for erostion of patent quality at the EPO. EPO staff should be upset at CIPA; they’re not on the same side, they’re almost opposites.
Mind what the EPO wrote in Twitter some hours ago: “We’re holding a free-of-charge #ICT seminar in London on 28 Sep in co-operation with @TheCIPA. For more details, and to sign up, click here: http://bit.ly/ICTseminar18 pic.twitter.com/5ksdupirtC”
“EPO staff should be upset at CIPA; they’re not on the same side, they’re almost opposites.”ICT is one of those buzzwords (or terms) they use for software patents. CIPA and EPO are again liaising in order to ‘conspire’ for software patents. Well, see the description in the cited page (warning: epo.org link): “The event will focus on patentability issues and the major aspects of filing and prosecuting ICT-related patent applications at the EPO. Three break-out workshops will be offered related to the drafting of European applications in the respective areas of Business Methods, examination of cloud computing at the EPO: claims for the Cloud as well as Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and Graphic User Interface (GUI). An EPO expert and a European patent attorney will chair each workshop which will cover information both on the legal framework and on the claim drafting aspects.”
This is CIPA’s agenda. Suffice to say, terms like “cloud” are just masks for software patents.
Then they come out with nonsense like this sob story, trying to garner some sympathy:
An IP Inclusive and Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) survey showed that 33 percent of patent professionals are uncomfortable, unhappy or very unhappy, with disturbing numbers confessing to thoughts of self-harm or suicide.
The ‘Report of IP Inclusive & CIPA survey for Mental Health Awareness Week 2018’ found that almost 70 percent of respondents admitted to having their mental health affected at work by high stress levels.
The report showed that 66.9 percent of the 180 respondents admitted to having been adversely affected at work by high stress levels, with over half suffering from anxiety.
CIPA (patent maximalists) should encourage them to seek employment with industries that create things, not doing patents and litigation. The latter isn’t as fulfilling.
“We caution EPO staff not to view CIPA is an ally with shared concerns. CIPA’s only concern seems to be that there aren’t “enough” patents; it wants a lot more!”The above has since then been mentioned by circles close to EPO too (and retweeted by anonymous EPO staff). Maybe they feel like they can relate, but actually the CIPA types are very much ‘enemies’ of examiners; they propped up Battistelli, they reduce patent quality, and they lie to the public about UPC. And of course, like almost every day, the EPO has just promoted software patents again, dubbing them "AI" for hype/buzz. This is the sort of thing CIPA wants the EPO to do and actively participates in.
We caution EPO staff not to view CIPA is an ally with shared concerns. CIPA’s only concern seems to be that there aren’t “enough” patents; it wants a lot more! It’s what makes examiners’ lives a lot more miserable and emboldens Team Battistelli. █
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