07.13.22

[Meme] Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols Defending Crime Again

Posted in Deception, Microsoft at 8:34 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Microsoft, according to SJVN, “hasn’t been evil for about eight years now” in this piece that’s hours-old. Article full of lies, distortion, and revisionism (retirement is well overdue, get off the Linux Foundation money).

Summary: An unbelievably misleading article, full of errors, has been published by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols; he also helped shield Bill Gates (Jeffrey Epstein enabler) by defaming Richard Stallman in a site funded by Microsoft, IBM, and their front group ‘Linux’ Foundation

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[Meme] Legacy of UEFI ‘Secure’ Boot: BSD and GNU/Linux Users Now Have to ‘Jailbreak’ Their PCs (Desktops/Laptops, Just like Apple iPhones)

Posted in Deception, GNU/Linux, Microsoft at 8:25 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GAFAM ♥ computers the users (buyers) cannot control

Summary: Pentagon-sponsored garbage like UEFI ‘secure’ (exactly the opposite!) boot has vindicated us for what we’ve said repeatedly for a decade; it was all along about obstructing/punishing people who refuse to use Windows with NSA back doors

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There’s No F***ing Debate With “the F***ing President” (What António Campinos Calls Himself!)

Posted in Europe, Patents at 8:03 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

António Campinos keeps ‘f***ing with his staff’ (slang) without asking for consent

The CSC, SUEPO, and ILOAT have been calling out and specifying the illegal agenda

Summary: The EPO’s in-house criminal António Campinos (trying to ‘finish the job’ of Benoît Battistelli, a Corsican with quasi-Nazi family connections) is only pretending to speak to elected (actually elected, unlike himself) staff representatives; the substance of the issues is described in 3 long documents

The EPO‘s Central Staff Committee (CSC) has just circulated a bunch of long documents with images in-line.

The main document being circulated [PDF] is a “[r]eport on the GCC meeting of 5 July 2022: Fixed-term appointments & “Bringing Teams Together”,” and “[t]here were three documents on the official agenda.” That’s a lot of text. Just reading the thing properly can take hours, never mind discussing it.

“Once again, the “fucking president” (that’s what he is calling himself) is leaving far too little time for actual discussion.”“The President had scheduled one hour for the meeting,” the CSC notes, “although two of the documents on the agenda were clearly of very great importance:

- Circular 405: Extension & Conversion of fixed-term appointments (GCC/DOC 12/2022)
- “Bringing Teams Together” (GCC/DOC 13/2022)”

We’re talking about 28 pages of text here (the report anyway)! Just “one hour for the meeting”? What is this, comedy???

“Campinos is just a ‘tourist’ at the EPO, plundering the organisation and shielding prior plunderers.”“We sent a written and reasoned opinion to the President on both documents,” the CSC noted, adding its opinion on GCC/DOC 12/2022 [PDF] and on GCC/DOC 13/2022. [PDF]

Once again, the “fucking president” (that’s what he is calling himself) is leaving far too little time for actual discussion. He just wants to pretend there’s some dialogue and he’ll ignore all the input from people who actually know the EPO. Campinos is just a ‘tourist’ at the EPO, plundering the organisation and shielding prior plunderers.

Now that Campinos bought his second term he no longer feels the need to even pretend that he’s seriously engaging with staff. █

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Why the EPO Bubble Matters

Posted in Europe, Patents at 6:48 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Video download link | md5sum fefb99cd466d10e2c40c8af69607239d
EPO Quality and Compliance Down Sharply
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0

Summary: The EPO‘s numbers, which Benoît Battistelli arrogantly bragged about (granting more monopolies by disregarding the EPC), are falling sharply under António Campinos and they’re hoping that European software patents disguised as “4IR” or “Hey Hi” (AI, amongst other misused or misleading buzzwords) will somehow prevent the bubble from imploding; today they pretended — yet again (warning: epo.org link) — to cherish the EPC using their enlarged kangaroo court and they’re working to replace common courts with more kangaroo courts by breaking the law, violating constitutions, and corrupting international conventions

EARLIER today we started the series that we first introduced at the start of the week. The series concerns an “open secret” that EPO staff is well aware of. The EPO is running out of steam because of corrupt management, not in spite of it. It is being destroyed from the inside and in the process it takes down the European economy, curtails justice in Europe, harms the reputation of the EU, and destroys the lives of thousands of employees’ families. History might look back kindly at Jorge Campinos, whereas his son, who refers to himself as “the f***ing president”, will be remembered as little but a high-profile criminal who boasted about his crime while regulators stood by, clapping and bagging bribes from the criminal.

“Overview and some background information is included in the long video above, assuming the audience isn’t familiar or barely familiar with the EPO and with patent law.”In just a few years António the criminal is undoing a lifetime of his dad’s (Jorge) legacy. More details to come. “Organised crime” aptly describes what we’re witnessing here. It's outright plunder.

Overview and some background information is included in the long video above, assuming the audience isn’t familiar or barely familiar with the EPO and with patent law.

Expect at least a dozen parts and about a dozen videos to come about this crucial topic and still-ongoing crisis. █

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Links 13/07/2022: Debian 11.4.0 Tour and More

Posted in News Roundup at 6:40 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

^* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It’s like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.

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Obscene Lack of Justice at the European Patent Office (EPO)

Posted in Europe, Law, Patents at 5:37 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Video download link | md5sum 04611f31d4b2970d10ad33f4c9d7c68c
ILOAT Too Slow to Stop EPO Abuse
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0

Summary: Europe’s second-largest institution and biggest patent office, the European Patent Office (EPO), is intentionally breaking the law while relying on “institutionalised injustice” or a deficient pipeline of appeals (up to 10 years if not more to finish an assessment by an independent court) while no actual oversight exists

TODAY we published not one part but two parts of the series about ILOAT and the EPO‘s “institutionalised injustice”. We rushed it a bit (final part published a day earlier than planned) because we wished to proceed to another series, which is closely related. It demonstrates a state of crisis created by Benoît Battistelli and perpetuated by António Campinos for short-term “gains”. By granting tons of European software patents (illegal) they hope to prevent the bubble from bursting, but that will be the subject of the next video.

“The EPO cannot survive like this.”The reason these two series are connected is explained above, but the gist of the correlation is, in order to break the law without facing resistance from examiners the management needed to crush the staff and make an “example” of innocent people. Management by fear and an atmosphere or terror, they’ve wrongly assumed, would ‘pacify’ antagonistic staff. Instead, staff relationships have worsened, the quality of patents has plunged, and exacerbation in the recruitment is rather telling. The EPO cannot survive like this. █

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The EPO Bubble — Part I — An “Unprecedented Surge”

Posted in Europe at 4:10 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Series parts:

1. YOU ARE HERE ☞ An “Unprecedented Surge”

Back in March 2017 Benoît Battistelli proudly boasted to the JURI Committee of the European Parliament [PDF] that his reform measures at the EPO had secured an “unprecedented surge” in granted patents.

Summary: New 12-part series about the deflating “grant bubble” at the EPO

Back in March 2017, the Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) of the European Parliament held a session dedicated to discussing “the latest state of play on the Unitary Patent”.

“Despite the EPO management’s eagerness to publicise this “new high mark” in the Office’s history, not everybody was drinking the corporate Kool-Aid.”On that occasion, the then President of the (non-EU) European Patent Office Benoît Battistelli gave a presentation to the assembled MEPs during which he proudly boasted to his ill-informed and poorly briefed audience that his reform measures at the EPO had resulted in an “unprecedented surge” in granted patents.

This “achievement” was also trumpeted on the EPO’s official website (warning: epo.org link) where great pains were taken to emphasise that the increase in granted patents had been achieved without any compromise in respect of quality.

“The EPO granted approximately 95 900 patents in 2016, an increase of 40% over 2015, and the highest ever number. This increase was possible following a series of reforms improving quality processes and enhancing efficiency, which ensure high productivity without compromising on quality.”

Despite the EPO management’s eagerness to publicise this “new high mark” (warning: epo.org link) in the Office’s history, not everybody was drinking the corporate Kool-Aid.

Many observers were sceptical about the EPO’s extravagant claims that such a dramatic increase in output could be achieved without detrimental effects on the integrity of the “end-product”.

“Many observers were sceptical about the EPO’s extravagant claims that such a dramatic increase in output could be achieved without detrimental effects on the integrity of the “end-product”.”Although nobody dared to confront Battistelli openly in March 2017, by June 2018 some German Patent attorneys were starting to openly express concerns about a perceived decrease in the quality of patents issued by the EPO.

But, secure in the EPOnian ivory tower of immunity/impunity, Battistelli and his team contemptuously dismissed any criticism of their “achievements”.

By means of oppressive managerial methods pioneered at France Télécom, the Corsican despot and his successor António Campinos ensured that the number of grants continue to climb throughout 2017 (+10.1%), 2018 (+20.8%) and 2019 (+8.0%).

Between 2015 and 2019 the number of patents granted annually by the EPO effectively doubled.
Source: Haseltine Lake Kempner (hlk-ip.com)

The official statistics show that between 2015 and 2019 the number of patents granted annually by the EPO effectively doubled, rising from 68,401 in 2015 to a peak of 137,784 in 2019.

“The official statistics show that between 2015 and 2019 the number of patents granted annually by the EPO effectively doubled, rising from 68,401 in 2015 to a peak of 137,784 in 2019.”As we shall see in the next part, the number of grants started to drop in 2020 and the latest figures from 2021 suggest that the EPO’s “grant bubble” – initially engineered by Team Battistelli and subsequently maintained by Team Campinos – is in the process of deflating. █

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When EPO Does Not Control and Coerce the Judges — Part IV — No End in Sight for a System of “Institutionalised Injustice”?

Posted in Europe, Patents at 1:42 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Series parts:

1. When EPO Does Not Control and Coerce the Judges — Part I — ILOAT 134th Session: Two More Bittersweet Victories for EPO Staff
2. When EPO Does Not Control and Coerce the Judges — Part II — ILOAT Judgment No. 4550
3. When EPO Does Not Control and Coerce the Judges — Part III — ILOAT Judgment No. 4551
4. YOU ARE HERE ☞ No End in Sight for a System of “Institutionalised Injustice”?

What would Baron Montesquieu have made of the EPO’s dysfunctional legal system and its abject failure to protect the fundamental rights of staff, leaving them without any effective defence against the tyranny of managerial despots like Battistelli and Topić?

Summary: The EPO’s management continues to operate in violation of the law with impunity, knowing it can take a decade for any sort of independent ruling to be issued and even then nobody will be held accountable

At the ILOAT, the wheels of justice continue grinding slowly through the toxic legacy of the Benoît Battistelli era.

In doing so, they are gradually adding new material to an already impressive collection of cases exposing the appalling “legal no-man’s land” which existed at the organisation during that time.

“Instead of making a credible effort to recommend proper and equitable redress for the complainants, Mahoney and his kangaroo committee simply rubber-stamped the impugned measures.”Following the 134^th session, it has now been confirmed by means of two more judicial rulings that Battistelli and his minions were guilty of a series of further egregious breaches of the fundamental rights of EPO staff, in particular the right to freedom of association.

Due to the disgraceful inaction of Battistelli’s successor, António Campinos, and the chronic dysfunctionality of the EPO’s internal justice system, these breaches were permitted to persist for the best part of a decade before the victims could obtain a final judicial decision striking down the impugned measures.

Due to the disgraceful inaction of António Campinos (l.), and the chronic dysfunctionality of the EPO’s internal justice system, breaches of fundamental rights perpetrated by Battistelli and his minions, including Željko Topić (r.), were permitted to persist for the best part of a decade before the victims could obtain any kind of redress before the ILOAT.

It’s important to note that despite the manifestly unlawful and tyrannical character of the measures quashed by the ILOAT in Judgments nos. 4550 and 4551, these very same measures were previously given a clean bill of legal health by the EPO’s Internal Appeals Committee (IAC) under the stewardship of Sir Paul Mahoney, a former Judge at the European Court of Human Rights.

Sir Paul Mahoney, former Judge at the European Court of Human Rights, whose appeals committee was responsible for upholding a significant number of unlawful measures subsequently quashed by the ILOAT.

Instead of making a credible effort to recommend proper and equitable redress for the complainants, Mahoney and his kangaroo committee simply rubber-stamped the impugned measures.

The only discernible effect of the IAC’s contribution to the affair was to add a further layer of delay to the procedure thereby obstructing the wholly legitimate attempts of EPO staff to obtain justice in a timely manner.

In the case of Judgment No. 4550, Michael Lund had to wait over eight years to obtain a ruling at the ILOAT which established that the premature termination of his IAC appointment had been unlawful.

Likewise, in the case of Judgment 4551, Laurent Prunier and his co-litigants had to wait over nine years before the totalitarian censorship imposed by Battistelli and his “bulldog” Topić in June 2013 was finally declared unlawful. During this time, one of the three complainants passed away and the complaint was pursued on her behalf by a designated successor.

“The only discernible effect of the IAC’s contribution to the affair was to add a further layer of delay to the procedure thereby obstructing the wholly legitimate attempts of EPO staff to obtain justice in a timely manner.”By a curious twist of fate, Judgment No. 4550 has potentially far-reaching implications for the EPO’s notoriously dysfunctional internal justice system.

The findings of the Tribunal in this case imply that ever since 1 April 2014, the composition of the EPO’s IAC has been inherently irregular due to the unlawful restriction imposed on the CSC’s powers to nominate members by means of CA/D 2/14 (Battistelli’s so-called "Social Democracy").

In the words of the Tribunal, this unlawful restriction “substantially undermined, in various respects, the quality of the effective representation of staff on that body [i.e., the IAC]“.

The inescapable legal consequence of ILOAT Judgment no. 4550 is that every opinion issued by the EPO’s IAC since 1 April 2014 is fatally vitiated by the irregular composition of the body which issued it.

Under normal circumstances such a dysfunctional state of affairs in the governance of a public body would qualify as a major scandal. But this is the EPO we are talking about here so don’t hold your breath waiting for the "captured media" to report on it.

Notwithstanding the media silence, there can be little doubt that Judgments Nos. 4550 and 4551 represent significant interim legal victories for EPO staff.

However, at the same time it is abundantly clear that the quality of “justice” delivered by the ILOAT leaves a lot to be desired.

“Notwithstanding the media silence, there can be little doubt that Judgments Nos. 4550 and 4551 represent significant interim legal victories for EPO staff.”The derisory level of moral damages awarded by the Tribunal for what amount to serious breaches of the fundamental rights of staff means that such judgments cannot realistically be expected to have any deterrent effect on the EPO’s managerial and governing circles.

The Tribunal’s extraordinary leniency towards the EPO when it comes to imposing financial sanctions is difficult to justify.

This kind of unwarranted “kid-glove treatment” signals to the powers-that-be at the EPO that they need have no fear of any real consequences should they persist in their errant ways.

Ultimately, it is to be feared that the net effect will be to bolster the arrogance and complacency of Campinos and his minions during his second term of office.

After all, if Campinos feels inclined to continue trampling on the fundamental rights of EPO staff in the manner of his predecessor, he can do so in confidence that any alleged breaches will only be sanctioned by the ILOAT – if at all – long after he has departed.

“Ultimately, it is to be feared that the net effect will be to bolster the arrogance and complacency of Campinos and his minions during his second term of office.”And even then, the costs to the EPO will be negligible. Financial sanctions at the level of a several hundred Euros are quite literally “peanuts” to an organisation which boasts of an annual budget of € 2.4 billion. (warning: epo.org link)

Under these circumstances, it’s clear that the system of redress available to EPO staff fails to provide timely and effective protection of their fundamental rights and that, consequently, it is not fit for purpose.

Unfortunately, in the absence of any discernible political will to rectify this situation, it looks like EPO staff are stuck with their intolerable system of “institutionalised injustice” for the foreseeable future. █

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