The EPO is acting like a troll now

By Gregory F. Maxwell; GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2

Summary: Software patents are, based on hard evidence, the armament of choice of patent trolls, but what happens when the patent office itself trolls the population?

WE SOMETIMES envy the freedom of speech in the United States, where criticising David Kappos is possible (he is a public figure after all) and where famous proponents of software patents are the subject of online ridicule.

As critics of the EPO ought to know by now, the EPO bullies its critics. Yes, it does. Not only its own staff. The EPO is trying hard to derail and mentally abuse its critics. Just look around and see who became quiet and inactive lately. The EPO It tries to silence them. It doesn't tolerate scepticism and definitely not criticism. It's just terrible, so there is plenty of work to be done. It's like a Chinese element has been allowed to operate at the very heart of Europe. There is control through terror, imposed by those in positions of power. This will be the subject of next month's coverage.

Some patent systems like the USPTO breed patent trolls, but in Europe it's the EPO doing the trolling itself (e.g. trademark-trolling). When "right to be forgotten"-type censorship doesn't work (censorship at the search engine level), there's complete site blocking and when all else fails there are even more horrible tricks. Europe's proud claim of free speech is somewhat of a sham, let aside net neutrality.

Speaking of trolls, watch this new report about patent trolls in the US:

Why one software CEO agreed to meet a patent troll—and then fought it to the end

When the business software company Pegasystems got sued in 2013 by a mysterious shell company called "YYZ LLC," Pegasystems' head of IP licensing, Ayaz Hameed, got ready to tell his boss that they had been hit by a patent troll.

Hameed looked at the two patents in the complaint (PDF), numbered 7,062,749 and 7,603,674, and read their examination histories. The patent focused on creating "monitoring messages" and storing them into a central database using what's called a "message broker."

Incidentally, now there are patent trolls in Europe as well. They are often the direct outcome of permitting software patents to be granted, as we have been arguing for years. Congratulations, EPO, for welcoming patent trolls into Europe.

Tomorrow we intend to publish an article about the Investigate Unit (internally known as "gestapo") and Control Risks Group, which overlaps the gestapo. There are some truly important articles on their way and they will help expose the EPO for what it really is: an organised crime-like 'gang' whose aspiration for total domination would never tolerate any resistance, especially not from the European public from which it purports to derive its power and unprecedented immunity. ⬆