Endowing/bribing the media not a wise policy

Summary: Poll shows that the European Patent Office (EPO) comes under fire for its media strategy which involves wasting taxpayers' money on fake/organic media coverage that glorifies the EPO

PROTESTS are said to have just taken place in Munich. EPO abuse was the cause. Although there are no reports (yet) about the gathering, not even about the scale or number of people in attendance, it is the principle that counts. Maybe the protesters too should ape their managers and hire 'media partners' such as Les Echos? Probably not. Only Benoît Battistelli would be desperate enough to do that.

We are meanwhile learning that patent lawyers in Europe, who are the target audience of this blog, don't have a positive opinion of the EPO. As a recap:

A few weeks ago, the IPKat asked whether the EPO ought to be organising and funding the European Inventor of the Year award. His concerns were twofold: the resources that are devoted to this event, and the fundamental question of whether the EPO ought to be seen to be ranking different inventions in terms of their merits.

As it turns out, "43% (296 votes) were also unsupportive of the EPO involvement: “It lies outside the powers and duties of the EPO.”"

As we explained before, this is misuse of public funds. The EPO wastes public money on paid placements ('articles') and 'media partners', hoping to bury or pro-actively suppress any potentially negative publicity (even when it is very much deserved).

"The IPKat wonders whether the EPO should now review its involvement with and funding of this event," says the above blog post, "in the light of these concerns which appear to be shared by much of the IP community (or of this blog’s readership, at least)?" ⬆