Bonum Certa Men Certa

EPO Management Plays With -- and for -- the Wrong People

Family group



Summary: The EPO makes it abundantly clear that scientists, SMEs and Europeans don't mean a thing to it; it's all about lawyers, patent trolls and international monopolists looking to guard their monopolies

THE MANAGEMENT of the European Patent Office (EPO) and sometimes even the Council (Organisation) believe they do a great job. A great job for who? To whom are they being beneficial? Check who attends the meetings of today's Administrative Council and who these people are accountable to. They're patent maximalists, not scientists, so the likes of António Campinos and Battistelli make sense to them until scientists get so angry that they need to 'shuffle' the leadership again (only to be replaced with friends and family of the next President). Those angry scientists include patent examiners, who have plenty of other things to be angry about.



The 'normalisation' of software patents in Europe has done great damage to European technology (especially software) companies; just like the same in the US (until 35 U.S.C. €§ 101). But the EPO doesn't care because it's in the pocket of litigation giants, not small 'boutique' software houses across Europe.

"They paint themselves as the very opposite of what they are and who they serve."Just before the weekend this German software developer (and famed activist against software patents) wrote: "The trolls' lawyer, Adrian Speck, in #unwiredvhuawei just made a false claim about the legal situation in Germany: he said a defendant couldn't change mind and still accept #FRAND rates. Not true. SEP injunctions in Germany get stayed once a defendant accepts terms deemed FRAND."

We aren't covering this case, except in our Daily Links. At the start of the year we said we would not cover pertinent patent cases so as to save time. But the above is noteworthy because nowadays the trolls' lawyers see a rise in 'business' (there have been studies into it). It has been predictable and foreseeable all along that the EPO with its inherently illegal policy would do this; it gleefully attracts patent trolls from all over the world and then it wants to give them something like the UPC.

The above software developer shared this 'tweet' which said (it's part of a series): "He notes that at the moment, there is only one first instance patents judge who can try these type of cases [Birss]. "If ruling is upheld one can see this will become an attractive game that will completely overwhelm the English courts.""

"With something like UPC and [the] EPO connected to it," I responded, "judges would be chosen and kept for attracting litigation and trolls (money sources for them)..."

It's very worrying to see the vision EPO management has for Europe. It's not difficult to see whose biddings are prioritised. Looking through EPO 'tweets' is always a somewhat troubling experience; they never promote anything to do with science.

"The number of European patent applications relating to self-driving vehicles increased by 330% between 2011 and 2017," they wrote the other day. Notice how the only (sole) measure they have is number of patents or applications. Nothing else matters.

In this particular case they're giving new names, buzzwords and acronyms to old ideas (e.g. "SDV"), offering new patents and many monopolies that are illegal as per the EPC. It's done so as to fake 'growth' by essentially breaking the law. Like banks lending too much money (which they don't even have)...

Every day up until Friday (yesterday) the EPO was also repeating the joint EUIPO propaganda. Here are a couple more examples [1, 2] (two days before Friday), one of which said, as per the same old template: "Businesses that use intellectual property rights more intensively generate 45% of the EU's total GDP."

The EPO has been repeating this paid-for propaganda for a whole month now, pretty much every single day. Every day they repeat these lies because they try to give the impression that the more patents get granted, the merrier. Heck, why not grant one billion patents in 2020? Wouldn't that be the hallmark of "innovation"? And doesn't every business boil down to nothing other than patents? They had the audacity to mention "SME" some days ago and again yesterday (Friday). They paint themselves as the very opposite of what they are and who they serve.

Here's a new tweet that says: "Idle thought to my patent litigator friends, if [Section] 101 weren't on the table to obtain early dismissal of NPE suits, what would you change about patent litigation to give small companies the ability to escape NPE threats early / at low cost?"

"Patent litigators are no friends," I responded. "Whose friends are they? Ask yourself that question."

Watch this so-called 'report' from Texas. It's a patent propaganda outlet and it's always happy to celebrate new patents -- low-quality patents which the USPTO very well knows court would invalidate (if the wrongly-accused could afford the litigation).

On went the EPO with a lot of misleading statements. It's a torrent of lies and it later deleted this tweet which said: "How can you benefit from over 100 million patent documents from all over the world?"

"Reviewing such documents only makes you liable for more in damages," I responded, "which is why even legal professionals advise people to actively refrain from such an activity..."

We don't know why the EPO deleted this tweet; it never wrote anything similar to it later.

EPO workers who read such tweets should ask themselves, "whose interests are being served?"

Recent Techrights' Posts

What Matters More Than "Market Share"
The goal is freedom, not "market share"
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
 
Life Became Simpler When I Stopped Driving and I Don't Miss Driving When I See "Modern" Cars
Gee, wonder why car sales have plummeted...
Why I Believe Brett Wilson LLP and Its Microsoft Clients Are All Toast
So far our legal strategy has worked perfectly
EPO Jobs Are Very Toxic and Bad for One's Health
Health first, not monopolies
Response to Ryo Suwito Regarding the Four Freedoms
the point of life isn't to make more money
Microsoft's Morale Circling Down the Drain
Or gutter, toilet etc.
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.
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
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