"EU's reform agenda threatens to erase a decade of digital rights"
We've been covering the EPO - Europe's largest patent office - for 3 days in a row, having resumed the series on Saturday (as we had planned for over a week). A lot of the current EPO scandals relate to the EU via EUIPO, the home of Cocainegate.
A lot of the same scandals (outsourcing, SLAPPs, incompetence etc.) can be seen in both the EPO and EUIPO (whose leadership was imported into the EPO, with cross-pollination in bribes, too).
This is really sad for those of us who spent decades promoting and boosting/advocating the EU. A lot of EPO scandals - even the kangaroo courts - are inherently EU scandals. Foreign corporations have taken over the the public interest is being neglected.
They say* that "the price of freedom is eternal vigilance," a reader reminds us, "and unfortunately the shenanigans in the EC only drive that point home further" based on this new CCC talk:
If the price of freedom is eternal vigilance (and expensive lawyers), then we need to keep a close eye on the EPO and report on patent policy in Europe. Next month we have a lot to publish. █
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* Many quotes are misattributed or rephrased (based on inspiration/confusion/forgetfulness), then attributed to someone other than the originator, so the above-mentioned "freedom is eternal vigilance" quote is usually attributed to Thomas Jefferson, but not surely his own:
