Bonum Certa Men Certa

Today's EPO is Pursuing 'Troll Justice' (Bullying and Blackmail), Not Real Justice

Judges have also been demoted to 'yes men' of the President

Koch delay at ILO



Summary: The bullying tactics of the EPO and of patent trolls have so much in common; in the interim whatever remained of a legal system inside the EPO has been diminished or reduced to symbolism with a massive (and growing) backlog of over 10,000 cases and ILO-AT can take half a decade to examine staff grievances (sometimes more than half a decade, see screenshot above)

There's no justice at the European Patent Office (EPO); nowadays it is just a patent-granting 'machine' with an illusion of checks and balances (recall Carl Josefsson's worrying past). Battistelli and then Campinos openly promote software patents in Europe "as AI" or "as 4IR" or "as "IoT", unlike Brimelow with "as such" (whatever that even meant). Does anyone seriously think that Josefsson's people will put an end to it? They cannot, they're still controlled by Campinos, like Battistelli before him. Josefsson got the job partly from Battistelli and he too understands that they're incapable of/can't quite do the job, based on this new interview. There's already a backlog of over 10,000 cases and it'll get worse. From the interview:



he president of the EPO’s Boards of Appeal says he is not certain whether the boards’ revised rules of procedure will result in a “front-loading of requests” but has insisted that they should make proceedings more predictable.

Speaking to Managing IP, Carl Josefsson says the revised rules will reduce a party’s options to amend its case as appeal proceedings progress and make it more difficult to withhold submissions for tactical reasons.

However, he confirms the views of some regular users of the system that there will be an increased workload for first instance departments.

“Whether these [the rules] will, in the end, really lead to a ‘precautionary front-loading’ of numerous different lines of argument remains to be seen. After all, procedural economy is in the interests of the parties too,” Josefsson says.


As expected, the person who represents an attack on judges' independence (he himself is a symptom of the problem) downplays the issue at hand. Even if more people were employed by the board, that still would not resolve the principal issue, which is lack of independence (not capacity).

In the eyes of patent maximalists, this isn't a problem anymore. IP Kat used to write about this problem routinely, but key people have left; it became an amplifier of patent extremists at Watchtroll (most patent links this week are to that blog), so rhetorics of judge- and court-bashing are fine with them. It's just those 'perky' judges who keep turning patents down. How dare they? That interferes with rubber-stamping efforts by profit-motivated offices.

The EPO's management is more or less 'in the pockets' of the litigation 'industry'. They're a loose cannon. It's litigation, litigation, litigation...

"The EPO's management is more or less 'in the pockets' of the litigation 'industry'. They're a loose cannon."Every day for well over a week now, sometimes by amplifying EUIPO "tweets" and sometimes directly, the EPO promoted a new 'study' (actually not new but repetition of prior years). This so-called 'study' is a paid-for lie, part of the EPO's programme that bribes scholars to bolster patent trolls' lies. Here's the latest such "tweet": "IPR-intensive industries have become even more integral to GDP, employment and trade in Europe."

Those industries do a lot more than this "IPR" thing, which is a propaganda term anyway (patents are not rights and they're not property). The other EPO "tweets" aren't much better; retweeted by EPO PR people was the Research and Innovation Department of Enterprise Ireland, which said: "The High-Growth Business Conference invites a variety of speakers to discuss IP and the values of patenting. This includes Yann Ménière, Chief Economist at @EPOorg who is an IP expert..."

"...this isn't about startups but about trolls."He's not an "IP" expert and there's no such thing as "IP" (it's not property). Why does the Irish government associate with that disgraced bunch of Battistelli? Possibly because of this: "Join us in Dublin where Jürgen Graner, Founder & CEO, Globalator, will share his expertise in transactions powered by intellectual assets. If you are a #startup, don't miss this event..."

It doesn't say so in the tweet, but this isn't about startups but about trolls. It's an event in which the EPO is working for patent trolls (the litigation 'industry' has taken over what used to exist for science and technology). There are more LESI tweets, in effect promoting a front group of patent trolls. Over in Law360 there's now this new article about patent trolls that prey on the British market, partly enabled by the EPO's fake patents and the intentional lie known as "FRAND" (Law360 is always eager to repeat this propaganda term). To quote:

For four days beginning Oct. 21, the U.K. Supreme Court will hear arguments in the joined cases of Unwired Planet International Ltd. v. Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., Huawei Technologies v. Conversant Wireless Licensing SARL, and ZTE Corp. v. Conversant Wireless Licensing.[1] Among the questions presented is whether an English court — specifically, the Patents Court for England and Wales — is a proper forum for determining the terms of a global license for the use of fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory-committed standard-essential patents.[2]


We wrote about this case many times before. It serves as a timely warning about the real beneficiaries. Those are patent trolls. They don't actually make anything; they just sue and threaten to sue.

Recent Techrights' Posts

XBox is Rapidly Turned Into a Slopfarm by Microsoft
Slop isn't about efficiency and saving money
Reboots Should Never be Necessary
"BUT WHAT ABOUT SECURITY!!"
Microsoft's Halloween Documents and systemd, Wayland, Etc.
Maybe one day Wayland will be widespread. Or maybe not.
 
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
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
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
Coming Soon: Another OSI Scandal, This One Implicating Molly de Blanc
OSI has been fairly quiet lately
Outreachy & Debian pregnancy cluster, Meike Reichle evidence
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Again, "Lunduke is Actually Sending His Audience to Attack People"
Microsoft Lunduke is not trying to "protect" Linux
One of the Most Hilarious Things About the Microsoft SLAPPs
It's so ridiculous
Financial Support for the Free Software Foundation or the GNU Project
The FSF has extended until Friday its fund-raising campaign
Illegally Hiding (or Demanding Secrecy Around) Illegal Requests or Attempts at Extortion
unlawful communications like threats
Gemini Links 14/07/2025: BOFH Archive, Updating Old Palm PDAS, and Nginx vs Slop Bots
Links for the day
Ubuntu is Becoming GAFAM-Like
What does that say about Canonical and Ubuntu?
Slopfarms Which Take Real Articles About GNU/Linux and Turn Them Into Copycats Which Are False
Even before the LLM hype those were quite common
The Firm That Picks on Techrights is Accustomed to Working With Criminals
Techrights never did anything illegal. So why is it being picked on by people who work with criminals?
Microsoft Said the Mass Layoffs Were for "Investment" in "AI", But It's Also Laying Off the "AI" and "Copilot" Staff
Months ago we showed many so-called "AI" people were getting the boot and this time it's the same
DryDeadFish is Dead, Long Live DryDeadFish
We kept checking, hoping it can recover from some temporary technical issue
For Quite Some Time Already Microsoft Attracts Crackpots, Scams, and More
Occasionally we talk about the situation at IBM as there are many parallels
Links 14/07/2025: Chatbots Broken Again, McHire LLM Shows Limits of the Hype
Links for the day
Changing One's Name Won't Change One's Past
People who have earned a bad reputation are not magically "entitled" to reset
People Who Assault Women Are Not Victims of "Distress"
It seems like an American tradition. In a country with almost 50 presidents, not even one was a female.
Slashdot Media Turned Linux Journal Into a Slopfarm and Now Slashdot Actively Promotes Anti-Linux Slopfarms
Yes, "no-nonsense" apparently means actual nonsense
Adoption of Gemini Protocol Still Growing
Gemini Protocol is being obscured by the media - it doesn't help that Google 'hijacked' the word "Gemini" - but people still manage to find out about it, download a client, and use it
Links 14/07/2025: Arresting Photographers, Threats to Revoke US Citizenship Over Criticism
Links for the day
More EPO Leaks on the Way
We hope that Mr. Rowan will actually try to refute what we say and show, not merely point the finger at the messengers
Decommodification is a Corporate Strategy Against Communities
systemd is led by Microsoft and hosted by Microsoft
copyleft.org 'Hijacked' by the People Who Attack the Person Who Created Copyleft
So far there's nothing "tasteless" in copyleft.org, but that can change at any time in the future
Asking People to Take Down Articles and Videos Only Makes These More Popular and "Viral"
If you do something bad, one of the worst things you can possibly do it try to silence those who speak about it
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 13, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 13, 2025
Two-Thirds Towards FSF Goal, Richard Stallman to Give Talks in Europe
There are 67 left before reaching the target
Brett Wilson LLP "Takes it Personal" (Character Assassination, Not Professionalism). Everybody Can See That.
On behalf of violent men
Gemini Links 14/07/2025: Politicised Tech and "Leaving GitHub"
Links for the day
Pissing Contests and Pissing Off Everyone
people who came from Microsoft are trying to vex and divide the community
Microsoft Repeats the Mistakes Made by the EPO After We Exposed a Major Microsoft/EPO Scandal 10 Years Ago
That scandal was all over the media, not just in English
The Demise of LLMs
We've just checked BetaNews again. They've dropped all the slop and went back to human authors.
Gemini Links 13/07/2025: Sonpo Museum of Art and FCEUX
Links for the day
Links 13/07/2025: UnitedHealth's Censorship Campaign, Australia Wary of China
Links for the day
Firing Away With Nonsense
Or fighting fire with fire
Links 13/07/2025: Climate Crisis, GAFAM Poisoning the Water
Links for the day
Turns Out LLMs for Code Don't Save Time and Don't Improve Quality
Neither legal nor useful
The Microsofters Will Have an Obligation to Compensate Us
This story isn't just about Microsoft. It's also about corruption, there are many women victims, there is abject "abuse of process", and many more scandals to be illuminated in years to come.
Reproducing at the EPO Instead of Producing Monopolies for Foreign Monopolies With Their Price-Fixing Cartels
Does the EPO recognise the need of well-educated Europeans to bear kids?
Valnet Inc. Dominates Real (Not LLM Slop) GNU/Linux Coverage in 2025
And likely in prior years, too
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Fund Raiser Goes on
Later this month we'll expose another OSI scandal
EPO Staff Representatives Issue a Warning About Staff's Health and Inadequate Care
Even the EPO's own stakeholders (money sources) are openly protesting against what the EPO became
Links 13/07/2025: Partly Assorted News From Deutsche Welle and CBC
Links for the day
Gemini Links 13/07/2025: Board Games and Battle Styles
Gemini Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 12, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 12, 2025