Bonum Certa Men Certa

António Campinos Needs to Listen to Doctors Without Borders (MSF) et al to Salvage What's Left of Public Consent for the EPO

What would António's father have said, having campaigned against imperialism/colonialism in Angola (where poverty kills and denies access to medicines that are relatively cheap to manufacture)?

Health in Angola
Reference: Health in Angola



Summary: Groups including Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and Médecins du Monde (MdM) have attempted to explain to the EPO, with notoriously French-dominated leadership, that it's a mistake to work for Gilead at the expense of the public; but António Campinos is just another patent maximalist

PATENT offices are inherently scientific institutions (anything around examiners at these offices is merely a bureaucracy or a distraction), so nothing good can come out of an EPO and USPTO that are run by a banker and a lawyer, respectively. Prior to Frenchman António Campinos the Office was run by another Frenchman -- a politician who lacked experience in this domain until his mid fifties. The USPTO will occupy much of our time the rest of this weekend (its Director was actually born in Hungary), but this post will be about Mr. Campinos, whose family background is very much relevant to his career because his father was a prominent politician, a campaigner against Portuguese colonisation in Angola (we wrote about this in great length more than a year ago). We've twice before mentioned the decision regarding a controversial patent which would likely kill many people in Angola. It's a European Patent, which the Office under Campinos insists on upholding after Battistelli's Office granted it (the application itself can be traced back to the days another Frenchman, albeit an actual scientist, was the President).



Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) issued the following statement yesterday:

The European Patent Office on Thursday ruled against patient and provider groups in 17 countries that had challenged Gilead’s unmerited patent on the hepatitis C drug sofosbuvir. The decision, following a hearing today in Munich, will keep more affordable generic versions of the medicine out of reach for people across Europe and beyond.

This hearing follows a legal challenge filed by patient and treatment provider organizations from 17 European countries, including Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Médecins du Monde (MdM), and several other groups.

Gilead initially set the price for the oral drug sofosbuvir, which forms the backbone of most hepatitis C combination treatments, at $84,000 per 12-week treatment in the United States—a staggering $1,000 per pill. In countries where MSF is treating people with hepatitis C, including Myanmar, Cambodia, India, Pakistan, Mozambique, Uganda, and Kenya, sofosbuvir is currently being procured from generics manufacturers for less than $100 for the same treatment course. The exorbitant price of sofosbuvir and the way its price has led to rationing of this drug has stirred an intense debate on the pricing of patented medicines in Europe.


There's some more in there (mostly quotes). Médecins Sans Frontières is a former client of mine (at my employer, where we worked on backups for them) and if given a choice between the EPO and MSF, I'd always choose MSF because people there are mostly volunteers who try to make the world a better, healthier, safer place.

Jorge Campinos and groupWhere does Mr. Campinos stand on the matter? Is he becoming the antithesis of his father? It sure feels like it sometimes. The father (left) died a very long time ago (a car accident in Mozambique in 1993), so he's not around anymore and cannot guide his son, except 'in spirit'.

We kindly ask António to have a good think about the kind of EPO he wants to lead. Does he serve billionaires or does he serve medics whose aspiration is to save lives? Having served large and controversial banks in the past, we tend to believe that António gravitates towards the former, as did Battistelli. The other French President was a professor who had practised in the field of medicine; surely he would know the ramifications of granting the patent Gilead sought when he was in charge of the Office.

Jorge CampinosGoing back to the senior Campinos (on the right), we also ask António to rethink abstract patents. Is he willing to defy the EPC and European Parliament? Software patents advocacy by the EPO has only increased in frequency since António Campinos came (well over a hundred tweets; we cannot even mention them all or keep count anymore). In that regard, he is even worse than Battistelli. The EPO now liaises with lobbyists of software patents and then brags about it; the EPO has done that almost every day for about a week now! Here is the example from yesterday: "If you're a patent attorney, and particularly if you work in the field of ICT, then you might be interested in this free-of-charge event we're holding in London.."

"It's not only a spit in the face of people who crafted the EPC but also existing European politicians. The EPO not only exploits immunity; it actively boasts about it."Wow, "free-of-charge" lobbying. Makes one wonder who benefits...

It's no secret by now that Team UPC in the UK (the CIPA front group) is promoting software patents; this is an abomination and insult to the European institution. It's not only a spit in the face of people who crafted the EPC but also existing European politicians. The EPO not only exploits immunity; it actively boasts about it.

On Friday at around noon the Campinos-led Office not only bragged about working with/for CIPA but also a US group of patent zealots. It's called IPO and it aggressively lobbies for software patents in the US (i.e. against Section 101/Alice). Its seminar in Chicago, along with the EPO, was advertised yesterday by the EPO. The EPO has advertised it almost every day for a number of weeks and it has also promoted software patents under the guise of "AI" for about that long. Here is the example from yesterday: "Experts discussed how the EPO deals with the challenges of AI in patent applications at this recent conference..."

"António is an example of people who climb the 'career ladder' or get promoted merely for serving those in power. People like the billionaires behind Gilead, who some argue have blood on their hands."Well, "AI" is just another algorithm type/framing. I know this having worked in that domain for many years.

What we're sadly seeing here is yet more evidence that Campinos is at least as much of a patent maximalist as Battistelli was. Quality of patents isn't going to improve. Yesterday they promoted Inventor Award 2019 not just once but a couple of times [1, 2]. Will next year's ceremony also be held in France, where Campinos was born, where Campinos studied, and where his mother comes from? France was the venue of choice almost half the time (there are dozens of EU member states) and last year Battistelli shoved his hand in the cookie jar, pulling out millions of euros and sending these to the municipality where he now works. Corruption is an understatement. Corruption such as this is what Campinos is actively or at least passively covering up every single day he walks into the Office while failing to address it. His father would not have been proud. Even at EU-IPO his son António served only the greedy and self-serving. António is an example of people who climb the 'career ladder' or get promoted merely for serving those in power. People like the billionaires behind Gilead, who some argue have blood on their hands. Gilead profits like mad for denial of treatment or for very selective treatment that deliberately excludes the poor (to keep cures out of reach, fiscally). It's all about artificial scarcity and they know it.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Credit Suisse collapse obfuscated Parreaux, Thiébaud & Partners scandal
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
UK Media Under Threat: Cannot Report on Data Breach, Cannot Report on Microsoft Staff Strangling Women
The story of super injunction (in the British media this week, years late)
Under the Guise of "MIT Technology Review Insights" the Site MIT Technology Review Posts Corporate Spam as 'Articles'
Some of the articles aren't even articles but 'hit pieces' against Free software and some are paid advertisements
Brett Wilson LLP Has Track Record in Scam Coin Cases (e.g. Craig Wright and More), Now It Works for 'Crypto' Scam Purveyors
But wait, it gets worse
Will Brett Wilson LLP Handle Its Own Winding Up Petition or be Struck Off for Overt Abuse of Process?
Today we sue not only the first Microsofter
Ubuntu Becomes Microsoft GitHub, Based on Decision Made by British Army Officer
You're hopeless, Canonical
Sharing Code and Recipes
It helps explain the triviality of software freedom
How Many Women Has Microsoft's Alex Balabhadra Graveley Already Strangled and Where Does That End?
If you too are a victim of this man and wish to share information, contact us
 
Tech Used to be Fun. To Many of Us It's Still Fun.
You can just watch it from afar and make fun of it all
Links 17/07/2025: "Blog Identity Crisis" and Openwashing by Nvidia
Links for the day
Greffiers and the US Attorney of the Serial Strangler From Microsoft
The lawsuit can help expose extensive corruption in the American court system as well
The People Who Promoted systemd in Debian Also Promote Wayland
This is not politics
Victims of the Serial Strangler From Microsoft, Alex Balabhadra Graveley, Wanted to Sue Him But Lacked the Funds (He Attacked Their Finances)
Having spoken to victims of the Serial Strangler From Microsoft
Links 17/07/2025: Science, Hardware, and Censorship
Links for the day
Gemini Links 17/07/2025: Staying in the "Small Web" and Back on ICQ
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 16, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, July 16, 2025
Exclusive: corruption in Tribunals, Greffiers, from protection rackets to cat whisperers
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 16/07/2025: Chip Bans and Microsoft’s “Digital Escort” Program
Links for the day
Revolving Doors: One Day You're a Judge, the Next Day You're an Attorney Paying Public Officials and Working for Violent and Dangerous Microsoft Employees
how the US justice system works
Slopwatch: Noise, Plagiarism and Even Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt/Fear-mongering/Dramatisation
What are we meant to do to prevent a false association or misleading connotations? Game the LLMs? No. Boycott slopfarms.
Gemini Links 16/07/2025: BaseLibre Numerical System and Simple Web Browsing with TLS
Links for the day
Links 16/07/2025: Fascist Slop Takes "Intelligence" Clothing, New Criminal Case Against MElon
Links for the day
"We Might Save Somebody's Life"
I follow the example of my father
Why I am Suing the Serial Strangler From Microsoft, Alex Balabhadra Graveley, in the UK High Court This Week
Out of respect to the process and to the Court, I shall not share any pertinent details about the case
Links 16/07/2025: China’s Economy Grows Steadily, France Takes Action Regarding Harm to Children by GAFAM and Fentanylware (TikTok)
Links for the day
It is Not About Politics
Beware the people who try to make this about politics
Good Journalism Saves Lives
a shocking number of women die or get seriously hurt every day due to violence from a partner
Recognition of Women's Contributions to Free Software
Being passive is not an option when bad things are happening
Slopfarms Are Going to Perish Because Public Opinion is Changing
Many slopfarms will simply go offline
19 Years of Standing Up for Justice, Equality, and Truth
This week we shall take it up a notch
Gemini Links 16/07/2025: Tmux and OCC25 Working TLS
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 15, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 15, 2025
Links 15/07/2025: LLM Pollution and Pushback in Ukraine
Links for the day
Gemini Links 15/07/2025: xkcd, New Cert, and Alhena Gemlog
Links for the day
Links 15/07/2025: Press Freedom at Risk and New Facebook Blunders
Links for the day
Reboots Should Never be Necessary
"BUT WHAT ABOUT SECURITY!!"
There's Still Hope for the World Wide Web
Let's hope that the trajectory of the Web won't be leading us to over-reliance on Google, nor will it reward worthless slopfarms
Gemini Links 15/07/2025: Smolweb and Alhena 5.1.7
Links for the day
The Danes Want GNU/Linux
David Heinemeier Hansson recently moved to GNU/Linux
Cory Doctorow Explains Why Software Freedom Matters, Whereas "Open Source" Misses the Point and Helps Monopolies
It's a very long article
BillPR (EpsteinGate-Bribed NPR) is Turning Into a Partial Slopfarm that Promotes Slop
"I went on a date with a chatbot!"
Two Weeks Passed Since Latest Large Wave of Microsoft Layoffs, More Expected Next Month
Blaming the debt on "AI" is just self-serving storytelling
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 14, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 14, 2025
Gemini Links 15/07/2025: Gemini "Style Sheets" and Switching From Microsoft GitHub to Codeberg
Links for the day